Time for Valiants to take stock as loan stars prove to be big hit
THE headline could have been ‘Port Vale in international break shock’. Thanks to loanees Ollie Arblaster, Alfie Devine and Josh Thomas, the Valiants were without a game on Saturday, September 9 when they were due to face Burton Albion.
The irony was that all three weren’t Vale players and would all leave in January.
In fact, Arblaster was to end the season playing in the Premier League at Sheffield United and captaining the team at Old Trafford.
For Vale fans, having the likes of Arblaster and Devine in their side was like owning a Citroen Berlingo and being allowed to swap it for a top-of-the-range Aston Martin for four months, only to have it taken away again while being told to get back in the people carrier.
While the call-ups were a sure sign that Vale were doing something right in attracting such talent, in the cold light of day, the enforced lay-off killed momentum.
It had been a rollercoaster start to his managerial career for boss Andy Crosby and he was happy to reflect on the previous few weeks during the break.
The 7-0 Barnsley defeat on the opening day had sparked unrest among supporters, some of whom were hurling abuse Crosby’s way at Oakwell after just his first game in permanent charge.
It is remarkable how that situation was turned around by the Oxford United game when those same supporters were all chanting his name and he was being lauded by all concerned at the club.
But he revealed how keeping his emotions under control while making sure he fronted up to the situation was how he managed to move forward from what must have been a traumatic couple of days.
To be fair to him, Crosby did handle himself well. He must have been hurting so much inside but, being the professional he is, was determined not to show it.
Looking back at that time and the remarkable transformation since, he said: “It was a big test of myself and how I reacted to that and what I transmitted then to the rest of the group.
“If I was to have shown any sign of panic and over-emotion, that would have transmitted to everyone else. And with such a
new group, that could have meant they looked at me and felt, ‘oh, I’m not sure about this’. I tried to take the emotion away from it and look at the game in its own context, and the goals in particular in their own context. And when I came in on that Monday morning I wrote things in my book about what I thought I needed to do. We went over the game like we do every single game. The good and the bad and things we needed to learn from.
“I had conversations with individual players. The response [since] is down to the whole club. It was one game, it was a disappointing result obviously, but the response from the whole club has been really good.”
The likes of Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur, Crystal Palace and Swansea City all entrusted their players to Port Vale and Arblaster and Devine in particular benefited.
The fact a League One club had a game postponed because of callups to their players during the international break spoke volumes for the calibre of club Vale had become.
“We have looked at the loan market slightly differently,” said Crosby. “We have tried to bring in a different quality but also a different type of person. I don’t think we were as successful as we could have been with that last year and these three guys are different. So we have got some really good young loan players but again they have to look at the seniors and see what we are demanding and they will then follow that lead.”
Asked whether it was straightforward to influence clubs to send players Vale’s way he added: “Probably not at the start because there was no evidence as to what our team was going to look like. It was conversation and zooms, and presenting to people and trying to explain to people what inside the club looks like and then try to influence and try to tell them what the football will look like. They might have looked at our first game of the season [that 7-0 at Barnsley] and thought, ‘what are you on about?’
“But the longer that goes and the longer their parent clubs see the exposure they are getting and the learning they are going to get, that will hopefully have a knockon effect for future windows as well when teams at that level look at the players we’ve had.”
Crosby reckoned his spell as assistant manager and then caretaker manager of the Northern Ireland Under-21s taught him how to deal with younger players.
He said he believed everybody in the working environment should be treated the same, whether they are a young or senior player or staff member.
Giving youth a chance was high on Crosby’s agenda and he said: “I think it’s a reflection of where the academy currently is. A couple of players have left the academy structure and gone on to other clubs. And that’s a reflection of the reward for what the coaches are doing, what the club is doing and also the player.”
Crosby came out with his usual offering before the Northampton match on September 16. “We have looked at Northampton and what they want to do with and without the ball,” he suggested. “We will try and nullify them when they have the ball and try and expose them when they haven’t got it.”
Trying to expose other’s weaknesses would continue to be a problem throughout the season while other teams didn’t have a problem in finding Vale’s soft underbelly.
Fixture congestion was becoming an issue for Vale but Crosby welcomed it because it meant his team were being successful in cup competitions.
He added: “With the Burton game being moved because of international football, the goalposts are changing, in reality. In League One there were only two fixtures that went ahead at the weekend. It shows you the quality in League One.”
That quality proved too much for Vale as it turned out as such a promising start would soon turn sour.