
With Port Vale’s fate ahead of next season decided, it seems that manager Rob Page is already plotting this summer’s transfer business in a bid to propel the club onto better things next season.
However, with Chairman Norman Smurthwaite having he may cut the wage bill by £800,000, roughly a third of this season’s budget, equating to a potential 40% pay cut for some players, Page has had to make tough decisions with his newly released retained list.
With little room for sentiment as Vale’s frailties were well and truly exposed in a 5-0 home thumping in their final game of the season against a Walsall side who were pipped to automatic promotion by Burton Albion.
To rub salt in the wound, the Valiants were on show in what will be next season’s home kit in an early unveiling; something that notably the club has done for the last three seasons in the final home fixture and subsequently lost on each occasion.
The size of the squad will inevitably have to be trimmed, with 33 players on the pay roll this year including loan players and five teenage first year professionals. The light at the end of the tunnel is however that having held talks with the chairman, Page had declared he felt “encouraged” regarding the budget he would have at his disposal.
With that being dictated by attendances, commercial income and season ticket sales, the manager also made a point of emailing Vale supporters with a rallying cry in recent weeks to get behind their club as he begins to sit key players down to negotiate their new deals. With the future up in the air regarding funds for next season, will it be progress or regression for Port Vale?
With a mere nine players under contract for next season, Page will have a big job on his hands negotiating contracts and also bringing in new players. He is potential transfer targets having opened contract talks with this campaign’s leading scorer, Ajay Leitch-Smith, and has been in talks regarding a new deal with Vale’s longest serving player, Louis Dodds.
One concerning potential departure is that of last season’s Player of the Year Michael O’Connor. The playmaking midfielder is settled with a young family in Lincoln and is . The commute to Vale Park for the past two seasons will inevitably have been a tough one for him and that will be in the forefront of the player’s mind as he ponders his future.
Other key personnel who are out of contract this summer include club captain Carl Dickinson, centre half Richard Duffy and promising young winger Enoch Andoh, who is currently side-lined with a knee injury having previously been from Tottenham Hotspur. All as expected were retained by Page in his wish-list and he is awaiting their response, but of course all is at the mercy of the budget as to how competitive the offers are that they have been given.
The saving grace is that amongst the nine players still under contract, Supporters’ Player of the Year Anthony Grant, midfielder Sam Foley and former Newcastle United goalkeeper Jak Alnwick will be guaranteed to be on the books next season, as well as forward JJ Hooper who deservedly won the PFA Fans’ Player of the Month for April and has found himself in amongst the goals near the end of the season with five in 28 appearances, four of those from the bench.
Meanwhile offloading players deemed surplus to requirements has also begun. The first to depart was French forward Achille Campion who despite being a regular feature in the reserves has been unable to force himself into the first team, with ten appearances and one goal over the past two campaigns.
Nine players in all have been released by the club, including academy graduates Lewis Bergin, Omar Haughton, Jonathon Kapend and Chekaine Steele, all of whom never made a first-team appearance and spent the majority of 2015/16 out on loan. Others heading for the exit door include Northern Ireland international defender Ryan McGivern, winger Colin Daniel and experienced former Derby County forward Theo Robinson.
The most notable farewell will be that of experienced goalkeeper Chris Neal, who made 137 appearances for the club after signing on a free transfer from Shrewsbury in 2012. Neal was the Vale Number One in the team that won promotion from League 2 in 2012/13 as was the case for the following two seasons. Unfortunately, he lost his place in the starting line-up after a pre-season injury in a warm-up fixture against Notts County, and was unable to win back the jersey thanks to the imperious form of Jak Alnwick, who was signed on the eve of the season.
A high-earner at the club, releasing him was understandably a decision Page made in the best interests of the club and the player himself, with Neal keen to be playing first-team football rather than sit on the bench as an understudy and pick up a wage. An experienced goalkeeper, Neal was a fans’ favourite at Vale Park and is sure to have several suitors vying for his signature, with fellow League One outfit Bury already ; where the shot-stopper spent a spell out on loan this season.
It certainly looks to be a case of quality over quantity in the mind of manager Rob Page this summer, and has called for patience from Vale fans since Premier League clubs may leave it late before deciding whether to loan out young players. A heavier reliability on loan players may well prove the case next season, for with squad reductions already underway they provide an affordable means of supplementing the squad to retain strength in depth.
However, the manager is under no illusions that he must keep the core of his current squad together and continue with his so far effective recruitment policy in order to build on what has been positive and encouraging progress this season. , “I think we have the nucleus now to go again in the summer and add a sprinkling of quality again and make additions to the squad that will help us go again next season. I wasn’t lying when I came out with this three-year plan. It is about keeping the nucleus of this team and squad together”.
Page already predicts a less hectic summer of transfer activity, dictated by the budget, but his recruitment staff and Chief Scout Dean Glover will be tested to the limit to find three to four players who will have the quality to improve the squad. Page commented “We had to do it the hard way last summer and it was hectic. From the day after the last game of the season, you are in and trying to nail down targets and recruit players.
“Thankfully it all went to plan and I was really happy with what we brought in. We want to make sure we do it the same way this time, but it takes the pressure off slightly that you haven’t got to bring 10 or 11 bodies in. Just a couple of additions to what we have got here might do us the world of good. If we can do business and add a couple of quality players to the squad to build on what we have done this year, then surely that has to be a sign for better things next year”.
But what type of player will Page be after in the transfer market? He has indicated that he is seeking out players with the right character as well as ability, singling out Louis Dodds in particular, who has now registered 201 league starts for the club. Page is also under pressure to recruit a goalscorer after a campaign where the club’s strikers only registered 25 goals between them, plus a further eight from Dodds who played in his favoured number ten role.
“We need to bring in the right type of player”, , “They must fit the bill of what we are doing and how we go about our business. That for me is the most important thing. I used Dodds as an example after the Crewe fixture. I thought he was outstanding and if I was a supporter paying good money to watch a side play, I’d appreciate that work rate”.
However besides speculating on who will be coming into the club, Page has also been forced to make difficult decisions in swinging the axe regarding his list of retained players.
, “This is the industry we are in. It is not personal, it is business, and I want what is best for the football club and if I am doing well for the club then I’m doing well for myself. I want a career in the game and you have to make decisions like this. They are not always nice decisions to make but it is for the good of the football club”.
The retained list itself has raised several eyebrows, particularly with Page opting to release several academy players at the end of their first professional deals with the exception of midfielder Billy Reeves, whilst hanging onto veterans Chris Birchall, capped by Trinidad and Tobago, and right back Adam Yates, both of whom made 28 appearances between them in all competitions in 2015/16.
Some fans, however, would argue that this is an example of astute decision-making by Page, both being effective and versatile squad players whilst simultaneously not being too much of a drain on the all-important budget. As local lads also, their influence in the dressing room and on team morale may well have contributed to Page’s final decision in keeping the duo on the books.
Meanwhile club captain Carl Dickinson was also quick to acknowledge that there will inevitably be changes this summer, but with plenty of optimism for the future if the Valiants can exert themselves in the summer transfer market.
The skipper : “Fair enough, there will be people who come and go. That is just the nature of football. But I think that if we can keep the main part of it together and add three or four quality players then I can only see the club pushing forward. But it is down to the chairman as to what he allows Page to do next season. The manager has brought in real quality players and I think that gets misjudged sometimes. If he is allowed to keep this team together then he can only take them forward”.
As Page begins contract talks with his retained players, dishes out his offers and sends them home to ponder their futures, with the long-mooted budget cuts there will surely be another summer of turmoil and uncertainty at Vale Park to an extent, yet some astute decisions by Rob Page, his recruitment staff and the chairman could see the Valiants fighting at the right end of the table in 2016/17.
With a campaign of near misses and key injuries behind them, there is reason for excitement over what could still be under Page if he can keep the core of his squad together and continue to improve it. This summer for Port Vale Football Club will, therefore, be a critical one and could just swing the pendulum as to whether the club progresses towards the Championship or regresses toward a relegation battle.
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