BOUNCE BACK? THERE’S FEARS WE COULD BE FOREST GREEN...
RELEGATION, as Hemingway said about bankruptcy, happens in two ways – gradually, then suddenly. The sudden part came for Port Vale at the final whistle at the Toughsheet (indeed) Stadium on Saturday.
The gradual process has been going on since at least January 2, 2023.
Thirteen wins in 67 matches since that victory in the rain at Forest Green Rovers a day earlier. It’s a staggeringly bad record.
If last season we were sleepwalking towards the drop, this campaign we have run headlong over it.
A year ago we survived thanks to the awfulness of other teams – this time an awful Vale have kept afloat Burton Albion, Cambridge and Shrewsbury.
This relegation follows a similar pattern to the previous two – poor recruitment compounded by poor managers.
So we’re heading back to Gillingham, Newport and Grimsby plus old foes Swindon and Walsall, while Mansfield, comprehensively beaten at Wembley two years ago, replace us.
All that effort, all that emotion in the play-offs feel, if not for nothing, then certainly tarnished.
Do we really have to do it all again? At least there’s a first visit to Wimbledon’s new ground.
Maybe football’s financial gravity has caught up with us, maybe we’re really a fourth division club aspiring to the third tier rather than a level higher.
From 1986 to 2008, Vale steered clear of the basement. Since then we’ve spent 10 out of 16 years down there with more now to come.
There’s a grim symmetry to Vale’s last two stays in League Two. Each took five years, four managers and a change of ownership to haul the club out of it while enduring some of the worst seasons in our history along the way.
Flash forward to 2028/29, three tech bros make the Shanahans an offer they can’t refuse, appoint Nathan Smith as our youngest-ever manager and bankrupt the club by luring 35-year-old Harry Kane back from Germany to win the only league title of his career.
Let’s not allow it to come to that. In my opinion, current manager Darren Moore has been underwhelming and uninspiring so far to say the least, but he’s not going anywhere and it’s right that we back him for the summer rebuild.
The club should be aiming to come straight back up, but fans won’t be getting excited about that just yet. Few sides manage it the first time.
Bristol Rovers are the only one in recent years. Of the four teams relegated last season, only MK Dons are in the top half of League Two. This is the one time I’ll wish them well – please get promoted so we don’t have to go there.
There are justified fears that, rather than be promoted, we could emulate
Forest Green and exit at the wrong end.
So many players under contract limits Moore’s room for manoeuvre in the transfer market and if we were able to fund the colossal turnaround necessary for promotion it would be fair to ask why it wasn’t done sooner?
Carol Shanahan’s statement on Saturday was welcome but it’s only a start. There’s much to be done to placate and encourage an angry and disillusioned fanbase.
No more three-word mantras or phrases that become instant hostages to fortune.
“Relegation is not in my vocabulary” will go down as the Vale’s “peace for our time”.
Deliver on the pitch – then let’s have a chat.