OTHER CLUB’S ENVIOUS OF VALE’S RECRUITMENT SO FAR
IT was difficult to watch Carol Shanahan speak about Port Vale without feeling sad that a very decent human being was made to feel so rubbish last season, writes Clive Youlton.
To the point where she questioned whether she and husband Kevin were the right people to run the club.
How refreshing it was once again to see her honesty.
And her passion for Vale was never far away from the surface regardless of whether she was touching on the subject of Darren Moore, the women’s team, the work in the community and the fanbase.
Here is a woman who was clearly upset with how she was treated, in particular on social media, towards the end of last season. She had every right to feel aggrieved. The part where she described one fan as ‘mean’ after they sneakily taped her speech in the Valiant Suite after a game and then posted it online, was pertinent.
She’s got a point. She wears her heart on her sleeve and only has Port Vale’s best interests at heart. The supporters are lucky they still have the Shanahan family looking after the club.
She accepts she has been naive in the past but she has undoubtedly hardened and it was telling to hear her say, “I won’t be naive any more.”
It’s good that she has come out and spoken of her experiences and having backed Moore to the hilt financially this summer, you can tell she is in an entirely different place with a different mindset.
She said she would get things right on the pitch again and here we are with her having backed Moore to the tune of around half a million pounds on three strikers alone. Nobody can say she hasn’t put her money where her mouth is.
She eloquently explained why the recruitment we’ve seen wasn’t done in January as the foundations weren’t there.
And I get her point about the “strategic” relegation.
She was quick to say it’s tongue in cheek and actually, she’s right. Would all these players have been brought in had Vale just survived in League One?
We shall never know. But it feels like a new beginning.
With players signed on three-year deals, not just so they are at Vale in the short term, but so the club have foundations on which to build.
What is certain is other clubs are the envy of some of the personnel Moore has brought in and rightly so.
Shanahan wanted it to be a ‘Darren Moore side’ and not the remnants of last season’s squad, with many of those players recruited by former director of football David Flitcroft.
Moore has sort of proved that there is not need for that job title at Vale.
Everything is in place for the club to move on and the season ticket sales show the supporters are enthused about the new campaign.
It’s great that Carol Shanahan feels, pictured right, she is back onside.
In that overused and rather irritating football parlance, long may that continue.