Flitcroft heads up new Vale era
DAVID Flitcroft says recruiting a manager is his priority after he was unveiled as Port Vale’s director of football.
The former Barnsley, Bury, Mansfield and Swindon manager takes up the role after the Vale’s owners decided to change the managerial structure rather than bring in a direct replacement for John Askey.
Flitcroft will be in overall charge of all football matters, from recruitment to long-term planning and he will also bring in a first-team manager.
Finding the right person is top of his list.
He said: “The absolute priority, and it has been anyway for probably two or three days now, is to really focus in on that manager.
“We know what the characteristics are and we know when he comes in what we need him to do.
“It is making sure he understands our vision and he understands the values because he will lead the team.
“So it’s really important that search is the only thing I concentrate on at the minute and we are really prioritising that. But on a broader scheme, recruitment is vital at any business, but certainly a football club.”
The 47-year-old says it was important he was brought in before the new manager.
That way their working relationship can be clear before the manager is appointed.
He says it’s important to make clear he is here to support the next manager and is not a threat to him.
He said: “The big thing for me with the manager is he knows from Day One how I am going to support him, how this club will support him, what the football is going to look like.
“If he is not comfortable with that then we don’t do it. He has got to be comfortable with the structure, with working towards this structure because it is probably different in League Two.
“I think most managers going into the Championship now accept that there’s a director of football and they accept that’s the way it is. They have probably worked under that.
“It is important we get that right person who understands what we are trying to do.
“We will see it clearly if they don’t understand the vision. I got it straight away. If there is some uncertainty, we don’t do it.”
Vale would like Danny Pugh, who has been interim manager since John Askey departed on January 4, to stay as part of the coaching staff.
Owner Carol Shanahan said Flitcroft will oversee all football at the club.
She explained: “He will immediately begin supporting interim manager Danny Pugh with first-team affairs whilst taking responsibility for the appointment of the new manager. “Dave brings with him a wealth of experience in football, business and management, having spent more than 30 years in the game as a player, coach and manager. He was the manager at Barnsley, Bury, Swindon and Mansfield and clocked up more than 300 games and had an average win percentage of more than 40 per cent.
“Dave guided Barnsley to Championship safety in 2012/13, led Bury to promotion to League One in 2013/14 and led Swindon to seventh place in League Two before joining promotion rivals Mansfield Town who he took to the play-offs in 2019.
“During his time in management he has a proven track record of developing young players.
“Dave will be responsible for all aspects of football operations from the development of training facilities, and the enhancement of coaching, backroom support and analysis, to player recruitment and development.”
PETER Crouch and his Stoke City team-mates’ nickname for Charlie
Adam remained such a secret that even Adam didn’t know who they were talking about.
Crouch, the former
Stoke and England striker, revealed on his hit podcast that one of his old teammates at a former club had the nickname Parched because of his tendency to sidle over during any training drinks breaks to get in a manager’s ear.
The identity remained a guessing game for the rest of the series, with Adam himself not having an answer when he was quizzed.
Adam said in an interview for Skybet’s Studs Up podcast: “I was at Reading at the time and the groundsman came up to me and asked who Parched was, saying people are saying it was me. I was like, ‘Nah, it’s not me.’
“But I played golf one day with my mate and they were taking bets in the bookies on who it was. So my mate said to me, ‘You’re even money!’
“So I’ve text Crouchy and I’ve said, ‘Listen Big Man, be honest with me, what’s this Parched all about?’ “I got this big long text back and he said, ‘Well big man, you know what it’s like... You know when we were all having a drink and you were over talking to the manager? The name Parched just came out of nowhere and we stuck with it behind your back.’ “I buzzed off it, I was loving it.
“He was like, ‘Let’s get you on the podcast and we’ll reveal it’s you,’ and I said, ‘Brilliant, let’s do it, get on it.’ Somebody then sent me a mug with Parched on it and I was having a cup of tea out of that. It was great fun.”
The identity remained a guessing game over the course of several months before the big reveal. Jermaine Jenas and Jon Walters ruled themselves out and Crouch confirmed it was not Joe Allen, James Milner, Glenn Whelan nor Steve Sidwell.
Plenty more names were thrown at Crouch, including Jonathan Woodgate, Jermain Defoe, Stephen Ireland, Dean Whitehead, Jamie Carragher, Matty Etherington, Michael Dawson, Glen Johnson, Steve Finnan, Jack
Butland, Gareth Barry, Robert Prosinecki, Tom Huddlestone, Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy and Ryan Shawcross.
“There’s a couple of instances (where a player will constantly talk to a manager),” Crouch had said to start it all up. “There’s one player that will remain nameless - I’m not saying the club, when I say remain nameless they try to get it out me - we decided to call him Parched.
“When we were doing pre-season training it was intense, really intense, and after you’ve done your running or training everyone would go over for a drink, knackered, and drink loads of water. It was roasting hot, you’d done a load of work.
“We’d look over and Parched would be sitting with the coaching staff. He’s not had a drink.
Every drinks break we’ve had he’d be around the manager, chatting to him about tactics or just getting him on side.
“So the nickname Parched really suited him. Everyone knows it. I think Parched knows who Parched is. You could trust him. He was a great lad, a top man and the only real reason he got away with it was because he was a good lad and everyone liked him.”
Trevor Williamson.
Neil Butterworth.
SCOTT Ellis has sent in a selection of photographs of riders in action at Staffordshire Moorlands Motorcycle Club trials in recent years.
The venues featured include Tittersworth Farm, Blackshaw Farm, Manor Farm, Hawks Nest and Buttyfold Farm.
Because of the pandemic, the trials haven’t been staged for almost a year, but hopefully they will return at some point in 2021.
FORMER England international Ryan Sidebottom is returning to Leek Cricket Club this summer.
The left-arm seamer has been inked in to play in a Past XI v Present XI fixture at their Highfield headquarters.
The idea for the game was first mooted last summer, but the coronavirus pandemic put paid to any hopes of staging the fixture in 2020.
However, it has now been confirmed that the encounter will take place on Sunday, August 8 (1pm).
A host of former players have put their name forward to be included in the Past XI side - and Sidebottom has thrown his hat in to the ring to be involved.
He featured in one match for Leek as a sub pro in the 2009 season as he guided the Moorlanders to a twowicket victory at home against Leycett in a North Staffs and South Cheshire League Premier A contest.
Sidebottom took 6-31 to skittle Leycett for 102 and then made a match-winning 69 to lead them to the points.
That was one of just three league wins for Leek that summer as themselves and Leycett were relegated from the top flight.
But Leek were soon bouncing back from that disappointment and returned to the Premier Division and cemented their status.
Leek tweeted: “We’re incredibly excited to announce that the Past vs Present game will take place on Sunday, August 8. To make things better, we cannot wait to welcome @ Ryansidebottom back to the club who will play in the game.”
Sidebottom might not be heading to the nets just yet, but he replied: “Thank you. Excited to come back to the club.”
Sidebottom, aged 43, enjoyed a superb career in the professional ranks.
He represented Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, taking 762 wickets and winning five County Championship titles along the way.
The Huddersfield-born swing king also figured in 22 Test matches for England, taking 79 wickets.
On the 2007/08 tour of New Zealand, he took the 37th hat-trick in Test history when he dismissed Stephen Fleming, Mathew Sinclair and Jacob Oram in successive deliveries - having earlier been on a hat-trick in the hosts’ first innings.
He also took 7-47 in the first innings of the third Test, which broke the record for the best figures by an England bowler in New Zealand.
In 2010, Sidebottom was part of Paul Collingwood’s England side which won the Twenty20 World Cup against Australia in the West Indies.
Sidebottom took the wickets of Shane Watson and Brad Haddin on his way to figures of 2-26 from his four overs as England cruised to a seven-wicket victory, with three overs to spare, in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Since his retirement from playing, Sidebottom has worked as a bowling consultant at Surrey and also appeared on the television series Dancing on Ice.
Leek will be hoping that the Past XI v Present XI fixture will be a highlight in a successful summer for the club.
They are looking to build on their impressive form last summer which saw them finish in fourth place in the NSSCL Premier Division.
Only 11 matches were played because of the pandemic, but Leek showed positive signs for the future in their first season under the captaincy of the returning Alex Mellor.