Club News

Transcript | Supporters Forum [29th October]

30th October 2026

Below is the full transcript from the Supporters Forum, which was held on Thursday 29th October 2026. The meeting was chaired and hosted by Mark Porter (Port Vale Supporters Club), with Matt Hancock, Jon Brady and Micky Moore on the panel.

Questions were asked by supporters and Mark Porter.

STARTS

Matt Hancock

Good evening, everyone. Nice, to see everyone, and apologies, and I'll touch on it, as we get through this. Apologies that we've rearranged, obviously, tonight, but we've got a full room, and as Mark says, completely open to any questions that anyone's got within the room this evening. So completely, you know, the floor will be yours really soon. What I wanted to do just before we get going is just to address, three or four things that I think are important to before we get going. First of all is obviously the main concern, which is the start, and the start which hasn't been good enough.

Us sitting, where we are in the league and the results and the goals, you know, quite frankly aren't where any of us thought or wanted or thought we'd be at this point of the season, and that is something that none of us are taking, lightly. Obviously, there's been an improvement recently, particularly at home, so the home record does give us something to build on.

We've got the games in hand, et cetera, but all that obviously, ultimately at the moment means nothing because we are where we are in the league, and we've got to… we have got to address that. the inconvenience caused with the forum being moved, so I'm sure you… well, you're obviously now aware that there was plenty of discussions going on and I'll explain in a little while when those discussions started, but the discussions going on around you know, decisions that we were making, around you know, conversations around manager's position, around recruitment, around where, you know, where we were at.

And at the time of the you know, the forum then, those conversations were pretty well advanced, and it was a decision that we made to make sure that when we have this sort of for we are able to answer stuff properly. Those that have spoken to me, know me, have been you know, have been around the forums, but also match days and different things, non-match days, everywhere, I'm always, happy to talk, happy to be challenged, happy to be questioned, and that hasn't changed. So that will continue to be something that we do, but we wanted to properly explain the changes and where we're at hence why the date was moved, but I completely appreciate it frustrated a number of people as well.

In terms of summer recruitment and accountability, obviously I'm sure there's going be questions for Jon and for myself, around some of that but I just wanted to clarify a couple of bits. First of all, we believe, well, we know, but we haven't got the facts, but we know we've got a competitive League Two budget. So, and that's based off, our previous years in League Two.

So again, this is not us, pretending that you know, we're not happy with the position that we're in and the club, Carol, the you know, the board, you know, the Shanahans ultimately are not resourcing the club from a competitive budget point of view the same as what they've done in previous years. you've seen the investment into the pitch and the training pitch, but ultimately that hasn't, it hasn't meant that we've got a less competitive playing budget in League Two ultimately. So I just wanted to be really open and honest with that because I know there's been you know, questions around that ultimately.

And we all take accountability for you know, the position that we're in the league table now, and we have to all look at and we've done that done a lot of soul-searching over what that needs to look like moving forward and the structure which we've started to change. The sporting director, and you'll… I'm not going take much of Micky's, conversation, but that… the decision around the sporting director, the conversation started, in January, believe it or believe it not with the… when we dismissed Darren Moore, and the conversation at that point was how do we structure the football club from a football point of view?

And it was a board decision at that point that the sporting director, as much as it's something that we're going continue to look at and continue to think about, it wasn't the right time, with a new manager coming in to put the sporting director in. So we decided, not to at that point. We recruited, a manager that has won a lot of games at this level, got promotions at this level, has got real credibility, within football for the way that he's set up teams, over a period of time and everything else. And we felt that Jon coming in and overseeing and us as a club continue- continuing to be manager-led at that point was the way that we wanted to go.

As you'd expect, there's continuing conversations both at board but also within- inside the sort of operational work of the club, and that centered then around recruitment. The decision around Lee Daffin, so from a recruitment point of view, Lee's contract was ending in September. There was lots of conversations, in the close season around what we wanted recruitment to look like moving forward, and that was with or without Lee, so… but ultimately, it, you know, a senior recruitment body within the football club. And again, some of those sporting director or director of football, conversations were had at that point.

And then, and this is being really honest, the start of the season that we had so the you know, the poor start that we've had has fast-forwarded some of the conversation that we were thinking we'd probably be looking at the back end of this year going into early next year around the full football structure. And we brought that forward again, so that… So the board decided that sporting director was the right way to go now. What we… And there was the discussion. What we didn't, feel was the right, decision at that point was to you know, make a decision on the manager.

We felt that if we made that decision on the manager at that point, that was almost… So we felt we might be in a repeated cycle of what we've done with Darren Moore and previous, and we felt like we needed to get somebody in that could come and really, get into the wider football operation. So we'd interviewed and we'd spoken to a number of people. That had started to happen from January, but really started, you know, initial conversations and things, but really got going once we made the decision. Micky, and I'm sure you've… you're all well aware of Micky's background and the good bits, the bad bits, and everything else in between which I'm sure you'll get into later on in the evening.

But we felt with Micky's experience, the he's… the way he is as a person, he's direct, he'll… he wants to make change, and his understanding of what we want as a football club, him to come in and bring oversight. And that's oversight of recruitment, that's oversight of player development, that's oversight of facilities, of medical, of all of our football operation, ultimately takes that away from the manager and takes that away from Jon. Because one thing, and I think we've… or I feel we've started to see that in the last month, what we need the manager to do is focus on football, on the football team, on the results, the here and now, and tactics, performance, and players basically.

And Jon, now, you know, having that focus on the day-to-day and not having to be involved in conversations around you know, the younger players within the academy and you know, our facilities or what we're doing around some of our football strategy and all of that kind of stuff, takes that away. And that's something that we believe is going give us the best chance of winning more football games. But then also, and again, I know Micky will go into this when he gets his questions a little bit later, start to get, a real angle on where we're going as a football club long term, 'cause we've had questions, and I know there's been a lot of questions over ambition at the football club, and what is the plan?

And again, quite frankly, the plan has been over the last few years from a football point of view, it's either be… it's either been get promoted or don't get relegated. And I think that from a season-to-season point of view is how we've kind of lived. And I'm not here saying that's been right at all, 'cause actually it's been… it's actually been counterproductive for everybody because we've had or we've made, and this is again taking accountability for we've made some emotional decisions. We've made some decisions that are based on quite short-term thinking. And as a club, we need to get away from that. So over the next, you know, three years, next time we get into League One, we know we need to have the plan to stay in League One.

So of course, the ambition is to be back in League One. when that happens, how that happens, we need, and that's going be a huge part of what Micky's doing right now, is to have a plan to make us a successful football club that can, you know, that can stay, in League One. And however long that takes us to get there, I think that's something that we're now looking at a little more long term.

So in terms of the last couple of bits, so… And what I'm also not saying here is that you know, the appointment of a sporting director fixes everything or anything. That isn't what I'm saying. And I know the proof, as always, is in actions as opposed to words. What I'm… hopefully, what you're seeing is that we're… we have made decisions, we will make decisions, and we know we've got stuff wrong. So I'm not again, sitting up here pretending that we haven't. And what we're trying to do is communicate that in a better way.

Which leads me on really to the last couple of bits, which was I know there's a number of supporters, I'm sure there's a number of you in here that are feeling disconnected from either the club or the communication from the club or what you see on the pitch, whatever that may be. And that is so far away from what, you know, the reason why Carol and Kevin bought the football club in the first place was to have the connection, was to bring the joy back to the football club and the local area. And it's something that I personally take, hugely personally when you hear and you feel the disconnect. I know there's been chat and challenge around the communication from the club, and I accept that.

We're looking at how we review that how we continue to update people. One thing I'm definitely not going say we're ever going do is a running commentary on a manager's position or any person's position, 'cause I don't think it's fair and it's something that just won't happen. So a game-by-game, you know, sort of running commentary, not… isn't going be there. But can we put out more, comms at certain times? We ended up, or I ended up doing a an update, which I felt was an update for update's sake, a few weeks ago, which I'd rather at times, you know, not say anything until we have something to say. But I think I appreciate people want to hear from the football club.

We spoke to the supporter advisory board, loosely or informally at the game on Tuesday night, Manchester City. And we've got a lot of work to do because the supporter advisory board, we're going review and really start to get that to be a supporter-driven group, not a club-driven group. And that's really important then that we have to action stuff and listen to stuff, properly. So the communication where I accept, but there's also hopefully the understanding that when we're talking about people's jobs, roles, things that are happening live within the club, it's difficult to keep everyone up-to-date at all times.

And the final bit before I hand on is just that you know, criticism, and difficult questions comes, literally comes with the territory, and you sort of know that when you sign up for the job. And I know Jon knows that Micky, other… I'm sure there's plenty of you in leadership positions in here, so you know, criticism and that comes with the job. What I did just want to, before we get into the questions, say that some of the personal abuse and some of the personal stuff, and this is me, I'm not speaking on behalf of anyone else, this is me, I have I've found tough because, being told that you've got to go take different routes home and being told that you know, watch where you… Just be careful, don't go to the same place regularly.

And we're getting phone calls into the club and direct messages in which, ultimately is just, in my opinion, a you know, an absolute disgrace. And yeah, I just think some of that I'm, I am going call that out because I just think it's not on. And that's my opinion. Fine, and tonight, I know I'm happy to take every question that will come from the floor. And again, those that know me know I will. But I just wanted to mention the personal bit and the understanding of that, 'cause I think it's so easy online, to be nasty and to be horrible and not to be constructive. So that's that. Yeah, so we're here to listen. We'll explain. We'll hopefully get into it now.

Mark Porter

My first question is to you, Matt.

You didn't know this one was coming, did you?

No.

QUESTION (BBC RADIO STOKE)

So, we've got BBC Radio Stoke over there. the other week, Jon Walters from Radio St-, went on Radio Stoke for an hour to talk about what was going on there and gave an update on Stoke and all the things he was doing. Will you go on Radio Stoke for an hour and give the fans that aren't here tonight an update from you, as you've done tonight, and talk with Phil on Radio Stoke?

No problem giving club updates, club interviews, those sorts of things. Absolutely no problem at all. So yeah, I think when… I think just where I'm at now is club stuff, absolutely. When we get into the football, obviously there's, responsibility in the conversation. So, in terms of a Jon Walters, that's our Micky Moore, is what I'd say. from a club point of view and overall accountability and responsibility, of course I'll front all those questions up and always happy to talk to Phil. So, yeah.

QUESTION (JAYDEN STOCKLEY)

Brilliant. Thank you. Now the other one is I've got two questions for Jon with a couple of follow-ups. The first one is I'm going get the elephant out the room. So, the first… 'Cause I didn't want the night to be all about this. The first question for you is what were you thinking to get rid of Jayden Stockley at the start of the season?

Jon Brady

Obviously, as a manager, you profile your players, you look at the profile and the way you want to play. We profiled the players to play in a certain shape. in the off season, we tried to recruit for that. We tried to recruit for a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3. And I wanted a team to press really hard and get after teams. And on the physical profile, it was simple as that Jayden on the front line for me had different physical aspects to his game. And for that reason, I just said to him, in the off season when we did our recruitment, "Your minutes might be limited." And we talked through things, and obviously there was an offer of him to go to AFC Wimbledon, and obviously the rest is history, really.

In hindsight, do you regret that now?

Look, you make decisions, you got to commit to them. He's done very well. I'll hold my hands up; he's done brilliant at AFC Wimbledon. They play, a totally different way. We've changed shape now, and we've gone back to a 3-5-2. And I'd be a bit stupid here to say, I don't regret it in terms of going back to the shape now, because he is a good player, he is a good goal scorer. But at the time, you got to weigh everything up, and I really went forward and committed a certain way.

Brilliant. Thank you. My next question, and I don't really want to go into people personally, 'cause I, you know, I think it's great to really have some opinions tonight. And I'm… I need some questions, by the way. I don't want to give them all myself tonight, so if you've got a question, let me know. After a not a really successful loan spell last year-, with Mo Faal, what was you thinking about bringing him back in the summer? What was your thought process regarding that?

So, when you look into it, and you look back at Jayden, he was available for 50% of the games last year and scored two goals last year. And I had a look at a young player, Mo, and I… When I was at Northampton, I tried to get him, but Wrexham come in came in and bought him. in my two games that I had him here, against Fleetwood, he came on for 35 minutes, and then away at Bolton- He started the game and played very well. And in the market, when you're looking for number nines, that are frees or loans, he came up very well on what we looked at in our stats, et cetera. And yeah, so I made an opinion on that. And I'm… I believed in myself. Well, I believed in myself as a coach that I could make a difference. And obviously, it's such a variable that players do get injured. And it was so innocuous how he did get injured and you know, you don't plan that. And yeah, it's frustrating.

Thank you. Right, where are we going go with the first question?

QUESTION (ST JOHN’S AMBULANCE)

You’ve said in your preamble that the club's about community. Everybody wants to do things for the community. My question's regarding the removal of the St. John's Ambulance. Obviously, they've been here for many years. They're a voluntary organisation with local people volunteering, know everybody in the crowd. They're people that want to be here. They've been replaced by UK Medics, which is a rent-a-hire-based organisation that's owned by the club doctor. Surely, is that not a completely wrong thing to do? I mean, you're isolating the community from coming. 'Cause I know… my daughter used to volunteer for the St. John's. She didn't like football. She came and volunteered for St. John's for two years, and all of a sudden, I'm now buying her a season ticket because she can't volunteer for them anymore. Which I suppose is good for the club, but not so good for me. But it seems like such a wonderful community organization, getting young people, adults, young children into first aid, and then to volunteer to help with first aid at the football matches, that's now been taken over by a rent-a-hire-based organization. How is… H-how can a company that pays its staff be better for the football club than a volunteer organization?

Yes, it… First of all, St. St. John's do a wonderful job across loads of different communities. And we've met… I've personally met with the president and the chairman to keep the relationship going. So, we're going be doing… And Will's in the room somewhere anyway. There's loads of opportunities for community activation, loads of volunteering opportunities. St. John's are involved in loads of different things around the community, or will be and you can speak to the president, 'cause we've had… I've had the conversation with him. So it's not that there's been a disconnect or a… we've not completely disengaged from St. John's.

Ultimately, as a club, we review our operations every single season. part of that review was first aid and medical in its entirety. And it was felt the quality of the service for every… for the supporters, financially, so it has been part of financial decision as well, for again, being, honest. And just the general, communication and the bringing together of our match day team, it's been a decision that's been made by our staff.

WAYNE JONES (PORT VALE FC SAFETY OFFICER)

Just to dispel what you've just said, the club doctor has got nothing at all to do with UK Medics. There's a difference between the club doctor and the crowd doctor on a match day. So we have a crowd doctor who basically oversees and manages the response to any medical incidents inside the ground on a match day. The club doctor, he works for UK Medics, and there's probably about eight or nine of them collectively in a group, because they cover here, they cover Burton Albion, they cover Stoke City, and some other groups as well. The club doctor, is employed by the club, has nothing to do with UK Medics.

QUESTION (RECRUITMENT)

This is a question for both of you, really. Back in the blueprint in the summer, season tickets were sold on the back of it, mainly. Where did recruitment so… become so wrong and so badly wrong? Where did you get the recruitment so badly wrong? Because we heard from Jon on that video about, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, and we're back to square one where we are again now. We started with players out of position at Oldham away, and that wasn't what I signed… what we signed up for as season ticket holders, right, in the summer, to see players playing out of position. So where did recruitment go so badly wrong in the summer, Jon?

So, a lot of teams that played with wide men found it very difficult to get the wide men they wanted. obviously, throughout preseason, it doesn't work perfect in recruitment because there's a process you try and go through. You have a look at a certain amount of players, you whittle that down. And for whatever reason, we couldn't get those wide men in that we were after. We brought Onel back. And then what I tried to do, which seemed to work in preseason, I'll hold my hands up, I tried to play, Jahiem a little higher, more as a hybrid, winger. And we played George Hall wide. In preseason, it's probably one of my best ever preseasons I've had as a manager, and we were quite effective.

We beat Tamworth five-nil, we beat Wigan away three-one, we beat Blackpool one-nil, we beat Mercia one-nil, and we played some really good football. But obviously, the more I delved into it as we moved forward, the stats statistically weren't good enough for us offensively in those wide areas. And obviously, you've still got, when you've got a little bit of August, but we tried and tried, and I could… Yeah, look, we missed out on players.

QUESTION (WINGERS)

Was there any wingers in the building? Be you know, had wingers come into the building and gone out because the deal wasn't right, or?

Well, we like you do, you speak to players, but in terms of… There's so many reasons why a deal doesn't work, and probably Micky will tell you that there's so many reasons. It could be location, it could be you know, the club's not right for them. There could be so many reasons why recruitment doesn't work, but we honestly tried and tried. And then you speak to… I speak to managers in League One who are good friends, and with huge resources, some of them, and just could not get some of the…… Recruitment's not always perfect, and they just couldn't get what they wanted as well in certain positions, and had to change their shape pretty quickly to get results as well.

QUESTION (SHOULD MONEY BE SPENT ON PLAYERS NOT TRAINING PITCH)

Hello there. my question, I think Jon's already mentioned it, they had to look on the loan and free transfer market for a striker. Now, we've just spent 600 grand on the training pitch. Do you feel that should have gone on a striker, or are you more than happy with the training pitch?

Okay. So it's a good question. So, obviously, the club sets a budget.

SUPPORTER

Not to buy player…

Well, we… In theory, I think we did in terms of the keeper. There was a undisclosed fee on that.

Okay? I'm not here to go through the finances of a football club…

SUPPORTER

Can Matt answer it?

Yeah, in terms of as I said at the start, the budget that the club's got is a competitive League Two budget. How we spend-

SUPPORTER

[inaudible] striker

Yeah, well, how we spend that budget is down to you know, the team. So we can buy players, we can loan players, we can… but obviously, taking the money out of the budget for signing a forward at 600 grand takes 600 grand off, the money that you're able to spend within your budget. So no, it's an overall total that you've got.

SUPPORTER

The training pitch, could’ve waited a season

Well, the training… Yeah, well, that's a the… My opinion, and if… And it is my opinion, the training pitch and the main pitch are going be really good investments for the football club-

SUPPORTER

In NonLeague?

… over the next few years. Now-

SUPPORTER

In NonLeague?

Well, that should… This is the opinion, isn't it? Like, that's your opinion. And of course, you know, I'm not looking at the table as we sit. No one's comfortable, and I'm not pretending anyone is comfortable. But you know, with the resource and financial resource, with everything else that goes with it, we shouldn't be second bottom in League Two. That's the fact. And there is support to make sure that's in place, so-

SUPPORTER

There’s no strikers in the bargain bucket, there isn’t any, stop looking.

Right. We're moving now next question. We've got loads of hands up. Right, your question.

QUESTION (STRIKERS)

Sorry, goes on a little bit from that. The last two times we've been promoted, we signed forwards who were proven. We signed, Jamie Proctor, James Wilson. We signed Jayden Stockley, Tolaj scored a hatful of goals in League Below. We had to pay money for most of them, and now we've just gone and got loans who are gambles, and they should be your third, fourth choice forwards normally, but we're using them as first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth choice centre forwards. Wouldn't we be better spending all that money on four good forwards instead of six bang average, who have done nothing in… [audience clapping] Most of them have done nothing in the last two, three years. They might have done well three, four years ago. We've gambled way too much, and you're gambling with our league status.

So, as a manager, when you get your budget, you have to weigh that up, okay? You weigh everything up. And obviously, from last season, a fair percentage of the budget was taken up, okay? So then, I had 18 players left. I had to make sure that with what we had left, I had to see if I could… And we've got… Right now, we've got quite a good budget, but I had to manipulate some money free to then use that and move one or two players on… . To bring players into the building and freshen the group up. Because of last year, the group, needed freshening. And we… What was available with what we had I went and utilized it, or we went and utilized it the best we could.

QUESTION (WHY SHOULD SUPPORTERS HAVE FAITH)

Sorry, this is quite a long one. Matt, this is for you. We're losing millions of pounds a year. We're in a worse position now than when we took over. We seem to lurch from manager to director of football, from striker to striker. You come up with a lot of nice words all of you know, listen to us. Why should we have faith that you're going fix it this time? Because people are really sceptical, and I'm not sure that you realize yet.

Yeah, I think first of all, league table, I've said it a million times, league table doesn't lie. But in terms of we're in a worse position, as a club, Yeah, but I'm, but I mean, but this is my answer. So the team, as the team lies at the moment, yes, but as a football club, I think we're in a really strong position as a club.

SUPPORTER

We're second from bottom.

Yeah, no, I'm not… I can't dispute that I'm not. But what I'm saying is there is… we've got, the support from you as Vale fans has been… It's higher than it's, you know, it's been in years. So that so there's seven, you know, 7,000, 8,000 coming every week. There's so much happening, in and around the club. There's strength around infrastructure and what we believe we're building. The team and where we are currently in the league table, I, completely accept that isn't good enough, and we need to… And that's where you know, it play, it plays out in the way that it plays out publicly, but there's so much work going on to try and ensure that we are going build something that puts the football at the center of it.

There's the football that has to be the most important part. And I've, you know, and I've… I heard on something the other week about, it was… I can't remember what it was on but we are or a lot of fans are feeling… Well, not a lot of fans, but fans are feeling we're a community club that does some football, and we have to. We've got to change that narrative, which is it has to… We are first and foremost, we're a football club that has a football team that… And we need to have a structure and resource and resilience around the first team football, first of all, 'cause that then allows the business of the side of the club and the community side of the club to grow. So, yeah, we're putting things in place. We've put things in place.

We're driving as much as we can off the pitch to really support the finance and the resource that we can give on the pitch. Examples, and I know it's not the here and now, but the pitch, the training pitch, the support around the structure of the first team, everything's been put in place to give the team the best chance of winning games. Ultimately, it's not winning games at the moment, or it hasn't been. It's, you know, it's won, five out of the last nine and whatever else. But prior to that we haven't been winning games. So we've got… We know that has to be number one, but I… And that's why I do, you know, I do feel strongly about it. The club isn't broken. The club isn't broken.

SUPPORTER

Well, I didn't say that. I never said the club was broken.

Yeah. No, I know you didn't, but-

SUPPORTER

I asked about the performance on the pitch.

Yeah, and I-

SUPPORTER

Are you offering a tangible disguise of fact that we're second from bottom?

I'm not disguising anything about… We're second bottom in the league. I've acknowledged… My first bit was results on… We should not be second bottom in the league.

Look, I got to say something on that as well. Look, where we are is not good enough for this football club, and I'll hold my hands up to that right? I realized I tried to play a certain way, and a way I wanted to play, like quite attacking, four-three-three, four-two-three-one. I realized quite early, but I had to persist, 'cause we had quite a good preseason. The players really enjoyed the way we played, but the results weren't coming, and I had to change something. Since we've changed it, in the last nine games, we've got five wins, two draws, two losses.

SUPPORTER

Three goals…

Definitely. It's got to be it's got to be better. I totally agree with you. We've got one of the best defensive records in the league. But we have to be better all round, and I hold my hands up. But we're, we've started to improve. And like I say, we went to one of the in my opinion, on Saturday, one of the teams that have got the best home records. they haven't lost in 28 at home, I think it is. And we went toe-to-toe with them, I felt, in the first half, and we conceded a really poor goal where one player doesn't pick up their marker. We got a couple of chances we should put away, and then we concede another goal. But before that we've been improving, I feel. And I don't know if you feel that but I feel we've been improving, and the results are starting to pick up. And on Saturday, we're going for the win, obviously.

Thank you.

And sorry, the final thing I'll say on this, on the points table, we're nine points from third place. We've got two games in hand.

[INAUDIBLE FROM ROOM]

Okay. But hold on we've started to improve. Okay? So I'm trying to look at the positives, and my… I'm trying to say that my glass is half full. And as a manager, I've got to bring the energy every day. I've really tried to turn this around and tried to improve it. The players have. They've really committed to the shape we've changed to and they're working extremely hard. Now, ultimately, if they don't improve much longer, I know it's down to me, and the club will have to make a decision. And I understand that, 'cause I don't want this football club in this position, and I'll take full responsibility.

Thank you. Right, your question.

QUESTION (Difference between Director of Football and Sporting Director)

Right, Matt, this is for you. A few years ago, we had a director of football, Flitcroft. He obviously didn't work out, and now you've hired a sporting director. What's the difference between a director of football and a sporting director, seeing as we're a football club, not a sports club?

The sport… Well, titles are titles, ultimately. In terms of accountability and responsibility, the sporting director, so Micky's role, is around everything around the performance of the team, so the medical, sports science, the training, the coaching, the technical staff, the youth development. It's about the role overseeing and being responsible for everything that ultimately touches a ball. That's Micky's role. In terms of Da-, Dave Flitcroft before, different title, virtually the same remit. So, the remit hasn't changed.

What, where we believe we're at as a club is that we're now, we're in a position where we feel we've got a lot of the… And I know some will laugh, some will snigger, but we've got a lot of the learning of what's happened over the last three, four years. I've, you know, I've certainly learned more in the last two and a half years than I've learned in the previous 20, and that is that we can't play around with the football. And I'm not saying anything's happened, previously to say that's been something that the club hasn't taken seriously. But one thing that's gone on and on is having, the right person, the right structure to actually make the football front and centre.

And that's what the sporting director's role is there to do, is to make sure that decisions are made, quickly, the scrutiny on all of the football operations that are impacting the first team. And ultimately, as well, though, it's not just about the Saturday to Tuesday. It's also about what does Port Vale look like in one, two, three, four, five years? And that is why we feel, the sporting director role is we're now ready for it.

QUESTION (SUMMER REVIEW)

I want to ask about the comprehensive summer review that took place, the reason being is one, I'd like to understand the rationale as to why we waited until the summer to do it, rather than potentially doing it when we knew we were going be in League Two, and we could have got people and processes in place. And secondly, what did it actually achieve? Because it seems outwardly, and correct me if I'm wrong, but two months into the season, we've ripped it up, got rid of the senior head of recruitment, so appointed a sporting director. So, I'd just like to understand some of the rationale behind that please.

Yeah, no problem. So in terms of the summer review or the end-of-season review, you're right, that didn't… we communicated publicly at a point in time, but the conversations obviously happened way before that and they were happening with Jon as we were going through, the back end of last season. So, what we were going, look like next season, whether we were in League Oneor League Two, were already happening in terms of recruitment, in terms of who was going lead that. I said at the start, there was conversations about Lee's role and the… and a senior role in recruitment. And yeah, look, the start of the season that we’ve had has changed minds,I'd be lying to say that you know, this has all been this was the plan from the summer onwards. The plan from the summer was that we were going to be led by a senior person, in the football club who would oversee recruitment, but not have the full remit of the sporting director, alongside the manager, and the manager to you know, lead that. But the senior, so Lee's role to own it and to own the negotiation, the contract discussions, and the budget. And we felt that was going, you know, sign off governance, finance, be sitting with me inside the football club. We felt that was going be the way that we'd lean into this season and start moving forward. Was it always the plan to stay like that? No.

QUESTION (DIRECT FOOTBALL)

Okay. Now, my second question is for yourself, Jon. You mentioned that the player profiling from the summer- And part of the reason why, obviously, Stockley's no longer with us is we were profiling 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, and for some reason, that hasn't happened, be it a shortfall in recruitment or a shortfall in budget, perhaps, having to manipulate it, and we just couldn't get the players in that we wanted. There's a lot of moving parts, I understand. What I'd like to know is what is our style of play in the here and now that we've changed it, and are we perhaps guilty of not being direct enough, certainly in the final third?

What do you mean by direct enough in the final third?

SUPPORTER

I notice that we play a lot of patient build-up, which I do not have a problem with and I don't think anyone in this room has a problem with as long as it has an end product.

We however, see a lot of the time, and Saturday was a prime example of it, there's nothing in the game. Teams cause us problems simply by getting balls into the box and causing chaos. We don't do that.

So, you're exactly right, and we've had a word about that. that's not the way we want it to be. And obviously, if you saw on Tuesday night, I know it's against Man City, but we scored four headers. there were a lot of balls in the box from crosses, arrivals, disrupting, their back line, and I'm totally with you on that. We've talked to the players in the positions that deliver the balls, and we've talked about them, that the averages haven't been good enough on terms of the quantity of crosses, the quality of cross, the areas they cross to. So, I totally agree with you on that and we're trying to address that.

SUPPORTER

Can we expect an improvement on Saturday, then, in that regard?

I would certainly hope so.

Evening, Martin and Jon. I've noticed with a lot of football now, there's a lot, a heavy, feeling on s-statistics. On your press match conference, they heard about statistics, a Charlie bustle. Last season, we were defensively one of the better teams in League One. Going forward, we were 24th out of 24 teams. This season, I think we're sixth out of 24 teams defensively. We're 24th out of 24 teams. So, fast-forward to the summer, I think there's a quote of the Valiant Substack that says, in terms of the transfer market for a striker, Jon, you said that basically, the free market just wasn't good enough. The players out there weren't good enough. In order to get a good quality signing this summer, we'd have to go out and spend some money.

Now, that may have been misconstrued by myself, but that suggested we were going to go out and buy a striker, which we've done before. Now, what changed on that? And I have a feeling you're probably going say, as I've said, which is quite right, the market is very fluid, there's a lot of changing parts. But when obviously the statistics suggest that is the main area of the football pitch that has been the detriment to this football club over the last two seasons, why did you decide to spend a bit more money on the goalkeeper, which we know Grimsby Town's manager come out and said, "We blew them out of the water for Jackson Smith." Gillingham's manager said, "We blew them out the water for Kyle Dempsey." So, big money has been spent.

Why wasn't it spent a little bit more heavily on strikers? And in and if it is case that the strikers coming in have decided to go elsewhere, I know you've said there's a lot of different scenarios that have meant that strikers don't come to Port Vale, but what is the main antagonist for players not coming to Port Vale Football Club?

We didn't buy, Kyle Dempsey, by the way. He came on a free, just to let you know that.

SUPPORTER

Wages, Jon, I think.

Okay, that's someone's opinion on that. And with yeah, Jackson was a fee, but i'm sure we didn't blow them out of the water, or anyone out of the water for that. And in terms of strikers, we had to look We looked at the free market and the loan market at the time, and that's as simple as that. We had to work within our budget, and that's as simple as what we did.

Question

One of the things you just said about Jayden Stockley, apologies, was that you said he was going struggle for minutes, and that's what you told him. And I understand that because of his age, and he didn't fit the demographic that you wanted him to fit. But if I'm right, within the week after Jayden leaving, Tyreece Simpson came in. Now, Tyreece Simpson, when he came in, 'cause I saw him at his first training session, was at least a stone overweight. And I had a conversation with Mark here, 'cause Mark said, "What we looking like?" And I said, "Look, Tyree Simpson looks like he's dragging a car." And that's my honest assessment, watching him try to run. He had a cameo appearance of about 19 minutes in one of your games, and I don't think he'd even got rid of the wing mirrors. We're in a scenario where you said we needed goals. I'll ask this direct question to you now. With the players that you brought in, could you see 75 goals in that team?

I absolutely… What you're asking now.. No.

SUPPORTER

Okay. So how are you going to get out of this division without scoring 75 goals? Because you can't get out of this division without 75 goals.

So when Micky got a promotion years ago, with Cheltenham, their top striker… What was it? eight. He got eight. And obviously, we brought Kyle, I kept Ben.

SUPPORTER

You brought Kyle in but played him in front of the back four.

Yeah, but that was through injuries I had to play him there because George Byers… Look, honestly, the context to the way we have to work, the way we have to recruit at times, you can't tell the whole world how we exactly do it. Okay? But we have a plan within that we do, and we have to work within a budget. And how we work, and how we've worked is try to be aligned with everything we do. Right? But what was available out there in terms of goals and looking at number nines in the market we were looking at… You ask most managers out there at the time, because we… A lot of the teams still had and in this division, still had a lot of strikers within their armoury that they wouldn't let go.

SUPPORTER

I get that but everybody in this room is in the same opinion. We don't care about other teams. Port Vale means more to us than either of you. I apologise, but it does. And we see the recruitment of centre forwards, and they're not Football League centre forwards as a group.

You've got five players you've come in.

Tyreece Simpson's gone. We all know why he's gone. You probably had a fall-out because he wants to play and you think he's not fit enough. He's not fit enough, let's face it.

Mo Faal, that was unfair bringing Mo Faal in. Mo Faal was disliked by this supporter base last season. You knew that in the meeting here in February, and you said, "Well, if I'd had me chance, I'd have kept Mo Faal, but he's injured and he won't play till April."

And you were right, he didn't play till April. You brought him back. He hadn't got a chance. He'd got to score half a dozen goals in the first four or five games to get a chance with the supporter base. It was unfair on the lad. It's still going be unfair now. I saw him, like, on Tuesday night and spoke to him. He's a lovely kid, but he ain't going do it here

Why is it unfair on him if he's got ability?

Supporters who asked question

Look at the videos of the first half of last season. He was appalling.

But I told you the reason why he wasn't performing in the first half of the season, because he went away with Wrexham, and I told you, he went away with Wrexham, he played 15 minutes on a six-week tour, came back so unfit and started with you guys. I know what he was like when he was fit. And he started this season okay, and what killed him was the penalty miss against Wolves. And then his confidence started to go down because every time he got on the ball, he… The fan base moaned, and then I knew we were on the back foot with him. And I hold my hands up.

SUPPORTER

But you were on the back foot with him when you brought him in. Do you not see that?

So when you have a look at what was available, it was one of the best ones. And I understand your point.

SUPPORTER

If you understand my point, you understand the frustrations of the supporter base-

When he comes in, I was trying to defend him. You put supporter against supporter in them stands. Right? I was trying to defend the lad, give him a chance. So was the Ale and the Vale podcast. Give the lad a chance when he's here.

In football, I can't help that he got injured as well.

Right, I think we should stop Mo Faal now. We can't take it up all night, and it's not fair on him to be all on him. Okay?

QUESTION (INCOMING MONEY)

There's been quite a few questions tonight around paying for players, wages, the budget, how competitive it is. Quite a few questions around Lorent Tolaj money, Baylee Dipepa money going back a year or so ago, Quarter Final FA Cup money. Does any of this actually impact our playing budget this year, or does that money spend elsewhere around the club?

In terms of all of that it all falls into the wider club budget. So ultimate… And you'll be well aware, the State of the Game report come out, well, you might not be. The State of the Game report come out last couple of weeks. Football finance is awful. We've got unbelievable owners that are putting in best part of five million pounds into this football club year on year, which, isn't changing. The support, obviously, of the Shanahans is there. But the money from Lorent, Baylee Dipepa etc. just falls part of the overall running of Port Vale Football Club. It helps inform playing budget, of course it does, but it hasn't changed the deficit we're running at the moment, which means that Carol and Kevin ultimately are putting in a very similar… And you know, you've… Those that have looked at the accounts and stuff, you'll see they're putting in you know, a very similar amount of money each year to make sure that we're trying to improve infrastructure for the long term whilst keeping a competitive budget for the here and now.

SUPPORTER

So what happens if we don't sell a stellar player for over a million pound, or we don't have a great cup run, or we don't have shirt sales and a big sponsor? What if that suddenly doesn't happen for a year?

The drop to from League One to League Two, revenue reduces significantly for one, and we have to naturally, this conversation straight away. So again, just, I just want to clear the budget stuff up. as you know, a League One budget against a League Two budget is obviously different.

So, you know, and I'm not going sit here and pretend that we've got a League One budget. We've got a competitive League Two budget, but everything ends up being relative to the league that you're in and the revenue that we get from not just, tickets, store, sponsorship, commercial, but from the EFL and the Premier League and the payments that we get. So, and it's hugely reduced.

We have to look at our running costs, whether we're in League One and League Two, and reduce things accordingly. We don't budget for exceptional items such as you know, the things that you just mentioned. So when those things come in we have a decision to make, ultimately, that lands with the board, so with Carol, around actually, are we going invest that money in back into the club to support the first team, to support, the you know, the pitch, the whatever else you want to say? Or is it going help, reduce some of the Shanahan spend? And you know, Carol and Kevin have never once, wanted, you know, to reduce what they're putting into the to this football club.

So anything that we're generating back in we're able to commit to either the playing budget or you know, spend around the football club. And that's… but they are exceptional items. We don't… In this year's budget, we haven't got any, you know, the cup runs, the signing of players, the you know, those things. If they happen, we have then the same decision to make. How do we spend that money?

QUESTION (DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOME AND AWAY FORM)

Jon, a positive home form is… Phil's been on about this today. Home form, exemplary, fantastic. One goal conceded, brilliant home form. Away form, nowhere near good enough. I know you've said to Phil, obviously, if you've got the answer to that then we'd obviously take it, that we'd be winning more away games. But have you got any idea why we're having these silly eight, 10 minutes away from home that are costing us massively in terms of points?

Again, obviously, I'll probably repeat what I said to Phil today, in my interview.

If you don't pick your runner up for set pieces, it's going cost you. If you don’t defend properly in moments, it's going cost you.

And you know, even away at Gillingham, the other night, the first goal, that we conceded, the penalty we gave away was so sloppy. It was just such a poor moment. And they're brief moments because what we're doing when we're not giving the opposition loads of shots on our goal, but the… on the other end, because we're not relieving pressure and not putting the ball in the back of the net, that's… It costs us dearly, doesn't it? Because obviously, like you say, if we scored one or two goals, it relieves the pressure. And that's the problem at the moment. And when you haven't scored and you get to about the 80th minute and the constant is for us, we're finding it hard to score goals, then you can imagine the defence, you can under- understandably is on edge because they want that pressure relieved. So look, the other night, on Tuesday night, the way we scored the goals and how we scored the goals, let's hope we… Well, let's make sure we put that into action on Saturday.

Question (Ben Garrity and Connor Hall)

Hi, Jon. my question is regards the injuries to Ben Garrity and Connor Hall, and I'm dreading the answer, to be honest.

With Ben, currently, it might be a few more weeks. With Connor, hopefully it's positive for the weekend.

SUPPORTER

What about Waine?

Ben, Came back from international duty, and it when he came back with a bit of a niggle, but he was told it was okay. We assessed it, wasn't quite sure. He trained on the Thursday, Friday, and then, came on the Saturday, and he kept complaining about this injury. We went and got it scanned, and we realized that it needs a bit of rest.

MICKY MOORE JOINS PANEL

We hope you've got some questions. First of all, Micky, welcome to Port Vale. This is your first fans forum.

Micky Moore

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Have you enjoyed yourself here so far?

Yeah. I think it's 24 days since I've been here, so yeah. It's been good. Yeah, I've enjoyed it.

Good. Have you tried oatcakes yet?

Yes. I've been fortunate enough to try my very first one, and it was lovely.

Just give us a bit about what you've seen since you've come to Port Vale and what you think you can do to make a difference here for us in Burslem. And I'll go with that.

Okay. So, obviously, you have a perception. I've been here lots of times, obviously scouting players or just watching games, so you have a perception of what the football club is like, but you never know what it's like till you're actually inside it. And I appreciate everything that has been said tonight and where you are at this moment in time. We're in a precarious position, and you care and you're passionate about your football club in terms of where the team is at.

But when I look at…

When I spoke to the football club about coming in and doing this role, there's so many good things about the football club. It's really good. And I appreciate this is… You're going through turbulence at the moment. This is what this is. It's not going be long term, so… And it's easy for me to sit up here and say that, 'cause you're going say, "Well, where's the evidence? And it needs to turn." And I appreciate that. But this football club has a lot of good things, and all the things that I've inquired about and done my research on it's that and a lot more. I've been in this stadium when you were getting promoted, and as fans, you were unbelievable. Like, you know, you are the 12th man. I know it's a cliché, but I've watched games here where the football hasn't been great, and you've got over the line with either a last-minute goal or a late goal 'cause you've been you've stood behind… you've really got behind your team. So, yes, there's lots of things that we've got to do, but I've been really impressed with how the football club's run, everything behind the scenes. It's everything that I thought it was and a lot more.

QUESTION (BUDGET)

Matt and Jon alluded to the competitive League Two budget. How much of that has been

taken up by our previous manager's selections in League One contracts has that taken up quite a lot of our budget?

Okay. So, from getting relegated from League One to League Two, 80% of that of this year's budget was taken up on players that are still here. So, Jon was working on a roughly 20% of the budget to bring in players to strengthen. So, obviously, when you got relegated, you had a lot of players that were on two-year contracts. and at the moment, so next year, we've got nine under contract. And so, between the loans and players out of contract… Now, some of the ones that are out of contract, they've got options on but you're talking 15, 16 players next year between loans and permanents that are out of contract.

QUESTION (FOOTBALL STRUCTURE)

What's our structure for players coming in now? Obviously, you've joined the club. Martin Foyle's recently joined the club. we've lost recruitment people in the club. So, how does a player join Port Vale from start to finish for you?

Okay. So, I think Martin joined in July. Tommy Johnson's been here for the last five, six years. So, how we will look forward now over the next three months before we get to January, or two months to January, is we will have a look at the areas where we feel, as a recruitment team, we'll look at where we think we need to strengthen. Okay? And it's pretty obvious where we need to strengthen. So, it don't take rocket science. But that's the easy bit. So, identifying where we need to strengthen is not difficult. Finding someone to come in the January window, and you're all bright, intelligent people to know that the January window is the hardest window. Okay? So that's going be difficult, but we are going have to make change. So yes, so what we've got to try and do, the summer window is always better 'cause you got a longer period and you… Players are out of contract, you can go and buy players, all the things that you've spoken about.

In the January window, that's difficult. So, the plan will be have a look where we're at in terms of the squad, where we think we need to strengthen, which, if you're right here right now, you'd look in the forward areas to see, like, can we improve that? And then what we'll do then is we'll go and identify those players. I'll then take them to Jon and have a conversation with Jon and say, "Listen, Jon, these are the recruitments targets." So, me and him will sit down and go, "Which ones do we want?" He'll go, "I want this one, I want that one." And then it's my job to get the deal done.

Question (BUDGET)

Just said that 80% of the budget was taken up this year. Is that… Was that… Did I hear that correctly?

Yeah, that's correct.

SUPPORTER

Was Jon Brady working on this one on time? He had his battle in the summer. Did he really not have a chance? Is he the victim of previous failings?

IK don't think Jon would want to be classed as a victim, but I appreciate the question.

So what you do, is when you want to put a squad together, what you want to try and do is have as much opportunity… So one of the questions was asked (earlier), and I understand it, "Why didn't you go and buy a player?" If 80% of the budget is taken up, you've only got a certain amount left. And we've got a very competitive budget. Without any shadow of a doubt, our budget is good. So, for whatever reason, and I wasn't here, in terms of you know, there might not have been someone available to buy because the volume of money of what you're looking for might not have been left. But has Jon been hamstrung with what was what is carried over? You'd have to say yes, 'cause it's 80% of the budget.

So in answer to the question, it is yes, because, like, he's got 80%.

QUESTION (SCOUTING)

What's the scouting network kind of set up like? Is it just Foily and Tommy Jonson watching players? Do we go data-based first and then go watch them? Do we watch them and then look at data?

Do we have other scouts from other areas of the country where we can kind of ring and say, "Can you watch him for me and send me reports?" Like, how's it set up?

Okay. Yeah. So we've obviously got Tommy Jonson, Martin, and Sam. Sam is like our recruitment analyst, so a lot is done on data. Going forward, a lot of it, me and Sam will work daily in terms of what we're looking for from a… What we what do we want for a Port Vale player? We'll then put that into a filtering process to see what players come out on top and what players fit that profile. And then between Tommy, Martin, and myself, we'll go and watch them, and we'll do reports on them, and then it will go in. We have meetings every week. We look at the players that we're looking at. They'll do a lot… They'll do video work as well as live scouting. But between the three of us and Sam, there's enough in there to you know, to get eyes on them. And then what we'll do then is we'll… As we get closer to the time, we'll give it to the to Jon and the first team staff to go, "Listen, go and have a look at them and tell me what you think."

QUESTION (STYLE OF PLAY)

I wanted to ask about the long-term vision for how Port Vale are going to play. So, I understand that the first priority will be get us out of the precarious position that we're in. However, what is the blueprint for Port Vale playing-wise going to be going forward? What will be the non-negotiables for you and the management team around you?

Yeah. Right here, right now, my focus has been on to get around Jon, have a look at you know, things differently to what was done before, and I'll just highlight some certain things.

And it's not about style or substance right here today. So I'm not going say, you know… I'm saying to Jon, "Listen, we've got to play this way, or we've got to play that way." I want us to play winning football. I want us to win games of football, whether that is, Pep Guardiola or Jürgen Klopp. I don't care which one it is just win games of football. So going forward, what I'd like… I think for us, for Port Vale Football Club, I think we're more Klopp than we are Pep.

I think we are front-footed, go and press teams, go and get balls forward. Can we get balls into the box? Can we get actions?

I don't think we're, going be passing four, five, 600 passes, pretty football, and look really good. I don't think the league dictates that. I think the league dictates… My experiences in the league is can you go and get at teams? Can you be aggressive? Can you play on the front foot? Can you get some pace and athleticism in the team? Can you get balls into the box? Can we get some oohs and aahs? Can we get some goalmouth actions? But I'm not saying that's going turn around today, tomorrow, next week, next month, but that's where we've got to get to.

QUESTION (BUDGET IN JANUARY)

Hi, Micky. just like I asked you, that this 20%, I mean, I'm not saying you're lying, but I can't believe it. But how can we sign players with a budget like that when we know, presumably, the clubs what come down with us have got the same as what we have less, 'cause they've got relegated, and you've got teams like York who have got money. There's a few out there got money. And you say we've got a competitive budget, and Jon went out and got his players, whatever. We know we're struggling for a striker up front. From what you've said, there's no chance for any money in January.

Okay. First of all, I didn't say there was no money in January. What I've said is that the question that asked, like, was 80% of the budget taken up? Yes, it was. So it could still be a competitive budget. 80% of that budget was taken up on 17, 18 players.

And by the way, these are good players, like, this is a in my opinion, this is a good squad.

Where I think at the moment, in terms of the forward areas, we just, we're just not scoring goals, and we need to create more. But in the last four… I can only judge on the last four league games I've been in. I've only been here for four league games. We've won two, drawn one, and lost one. We picked up seven points. If we were to continue on that trend, we'd make the playoffs.

So, what I'm saying to you is we know in the forward areas, at the moment, we've got eight players in the forward areas.

That's what we've got. Now, Mo is injured, Ben Waine's injured, and Tyreece has gone out on loan. So we still got five players that can play in that position.

So there might be some movement that we do there. Some of them might come into form.

There's lots of things between now and then that can dictate how January looks.

And in terms of, I can only give you, and I can only tell you what I know. Like I say, when you add up the what the budget is the top line, you add up what was already committed, and that's what was left.

And then Jon used that to his best ability, that 20% on the amount of players he brought in.

SUPPORTER

So there's none left then?

So yeah, at this moment in time, we've used up the budget, but that doesn't mean there's no money available, 'cause we can… there's still things that we can do in January.

If we want to we can send all the loans back. I'm not saying we're going to but that will free up money. I've put Tyreece out on loan to Southend. That's freed up money.

So there's, there is ways that you can free money up. If we find a centre forward that we want to go and buy, then that's for me to go and have a conversation with the board to go, "We've identified a centre forward. This is what it's going cost. If we can do it, will you support us?"

QUESTION (WHAT HAVE WE GOT TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN JANUARY)

Evening, Micky. So obviously, given that obviously we do know that the January transfer window is shorter and hence a lot harder to get the negotiations in that you want, how are we going to give Jon the best possible chance of getting the targets that you want? So what have we got to do differently in January that we could have possibly… That we wouldn't do in the summer, or we would do in the summer?

Again, I wasn't here in the summer, so I don't know what the strategy was or what was available or not available. So it'd be really difficult for me to say, "They didn't do that right," or, "They did that right." It would be really unfair. All I can do is go, we know it's a difficult window. We know it's a very short window, and there's lots of variables.

So, you know, where we are in the league, so if we're in the same position we are now, it might be difficult. But in two months' time, we could be in a far greater position, and your attraction to players is a lot different. There's so many variables once you get to January. But we have got… We can, and we do have the scope to generate money and to go and get players in. So that will be no problem. There won't be an issue financially, or we won't miss out on players financially. We've got to get the ones that we want, and then are they available, and do they want to come?

So there's lots of variables in a very short space of time, but that's the job. I've got to try and give Jon the best opportunity to bring some players in. I think someone mentioned it earlier, like, where are we going get 75 goals from? You've never scored 75 goals in a season.

You've never s… You got promoted on 65 and 67.

So, I appreciate that at the moment, we've got six.

And I appreciate that's got to be better.

When you signed Lorent, have a look how many goals he scored in the first half of the season compared to the second half of the season. He was at Brighton, went on loan to Cambridge, went on loan to Salford, didn't do very well, went to Aldershot, did well, and Darren took a chance on him. Darren, by his own admission, played him out of position. Okay? Realised he made a mistake, put him in a position, and then started scoring goals.

You know, Ben Waine comes back from injury. Tyreece Simpson might go to Southend and score loads of goals now.

And there was a comment made earlier that he was unfit. Fair comment. But if he goes to Southend now and starts scoring loads of goals, why wouldn't we bring him back?

I’m not saying this is going happen, but if he goes to Southend between now and Christmas and scores eight to 10 goals, I'm sure you'd all be going, "Well, why don't you bring him back? Why don't you give him a chance? 'Cause he's scoring goals and he's our player." Let's see if he can do it. He might score one goal and not score another goal.

SUPPORTER

Why didn't we give him a chance now?

Because, A he's not fit, like you say.

SUPPORTER

He's played for Southend, so he is fit.

He come off the bench.

SUPPORTER

We've had him for three months.

Yeah.

SUPPORTER

He’s not fit in three months?

Okay. I can't change yesterday. I can only affect tomorrow. So I've, we've… I've sent him out on loan.

SUPPORTER

How much money have we wasted on Tyreece? How much money we've wasted and then sent him out on loan? We've had him, we've paid his wages for months

Okay. He hasn't been here four months. He only come in the end of in-

SUPPORTER

June. He went to he went Spain.

DIFFERENT SUPPORTER

…..on trial.

SUPPORTER

We're paying wages in Spain.

No, we didn't pay his wages then. But in terms of the question that was asked, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. So would you rather him stay here and we… and keep paying him and not playing him, or would you go, send him out on loan, see if he can get fit, see if he scores some goals, and then call him back?

So whichever way you look at it, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. You've got to try something different.

QUESTION (INCREASED BUDGET?)

We've spoke a lot about budgets and there's not much left or wasn't. At what point do we say, "We've messed up here. We need to spend a bit more of this. We need a bigger budget." Because I've just done a bit of maths very quickly. Fourteen players take up 80% of our budget. We signed 13 players in the summer on 20% of our budget. So then 13 players are obviously nowhere near the others being paid. So you get what you pay for don't you? So at what point do we say, "Actually, you know what? We need to spend some extra money and actually get some players who are on the same wages as the other ones"?

Yeah. So I appreciate in terms of layman's, you're 100% correct. But what you need to do is it's not what you spend, what's left, it's how you spend it and can you be smart with it. So that's what hopefully now I've got to do. I've got to come in and go, hypothetically, I might… Let's just say we let three, four, five, six, seven players go and we only bring in three. But we might have to go for quality over quantity, and there might be a sacrifice there. But at this moment in time, I'm not saying that we're going… I'm going let anyone go because, like I say, I've been here six games, I think now, four in the league and two in the cup. Do you get what I mean? So, I'm still assessing the club. I'm still assessing the players.

I'm still seeing how they're doing because I've still… Because unless I send more out on loan, they're here till January. So I might as well have a good look at them before we start making those decisions. But you're right in what you're saying is it might have to be X, Y, Z. We might only bring one player in. Let's just say we you know, we send three or four back, or we sent… we got rid of some players and they you know, they moved on and I only brought one player in. Long as it's quality over quantity, that's what we might have to do.

SUPPORTER

That's what we said we were going do in the summer. And we said we wanted a squad of 22, 23 players, so we're on 28, I think, at the moment. So something's gone off somewhere, yeah?

I appreciate what you're saying, but going forward, you know… And I've had this conversation with Jon. I think the squad is bloated. I think it is got a large number, and it will be something that we will look at going forward. I'll confidently say here now, we won't have what you would call seniors. So please, we won't have a 28-man squad. We might have 28 players with some of the academy kids, yes. But in terms of seniors, no. We won't have that many.

QUESTION (TYPE OF PLAYER COMING IN)

What we seem to be signing at the minute, or for the last 12 months, players totally unfit what's come into the club. Can we have a guarantee off you that players what come to the club will be fit and ready to go? Because the players we're having at the minute, I mean, you've only just got Luke O'Nien. We've paid three, four months wages there. He hasn't kicked a ball for us really, has he? And we haven't done it with just one player. It's loads. They're all, "He's not fit." We need some better players in.

Yeah, I can't answer what went on over the last couple of years with previous managers in terms of signing players that were unfit, because, like, the one example you're using at the moment is Simpson. So, and I've accepted that like, yes, you know, Tyreece, and I had a good conversation with Tyreece.

He probably wasn't where he would want to be in terms of fitness and everything else. That's why he was it was agreed he'd go out on loan. But going forward, we're not going sign players, I'm not going sign players that go, "I tell you what, he's got an unbelievable… He's always injured and I'm going sign him." That's a great bit of business. You're not going do that. So, but the same… So if you look at Ryan Croasdale, he's been here for a number of years. Would you say he's injury prone?

Okay, so half the room's saying yes and half the room's saying no. So it's somewhere in the middle. So he's injured at the moment, but if you look at his history, he's played a lot of games. Do you get what I mean? So we're… I guarantee you, we will sign a player that's had an injury. It's impossible not to.All professional footballers will have had an injury. At what level of injury, I don't know, but they'll have an injury because they're professional footballers.

What you're trying to get is robust players. And in an ideal world, you try and find the next Nathan Smith, you try and find the next Adam Yates, you try and find the next James Gibbons. You produce your own players because what we want is try and get some of our own through.

QUESTION (PLAN TO MAKE THE CLUB SELF SUFFICIENT)

Obviously a lot's been made about the budget and how it's been spent, but just kind of bringing something else that's really sort of stuck out to me, tonight into that equation. And it was a figure that Matt said about the Shanahan family investing five million every year, and we're also running a deficit, finances of football saying. What is the plan to actually get this club more self-sufficient and kind of where do you sort of fit into that and how do you envision that playing out? Is it even possible in modern football to run a self-sufficient football club?

Yeah, I think it's difficult to run self-sufficiently, but it's how much minimal loss you can actually do. I've been very fortunate that I worked at a football club where we actually made money. We were one of the very few. And that was on a very short period. But the demands… If you want to be really competitive, you have to have a competitive budget, so you have to go, okay, the… Like, there's no guarantee that we're going sell players. I think one of the questions was, "What happens if we don't sell, or what happens if we don't get a cup run?" You know, the player sales or the cup run has enabled the club to do a lot of good things around the club.

It's enabled us to do the pitch and the training ground, which is also important, because they are important factors. And I appreciate you want money spent on centre forwards and or other players, and I get that as well. But you have to get the balance. Everything needs to be balanced. So can we start producing and developing our own? Because that will help. That's a big thing for us. Can we… There's no guarantee you're going buy a Lorent every year and sell him for that figure. That's, that doesn't happen every year. We'd like it to but it's speaking to the board and saying, "Okay, what are you comfortable in losing, and what are you comfortable putting in?" Now, Matt spoke earlier about it.

In the last five, six years, your journey as supporters has been playoffs, relegation, playoffs, relegation. There is no in between. I can't remember the last… You as supporters, you tell me the last time you had an in between where you weren't going for that or doing that. You're talking five, six, seven years. So there has to be a little bit of like, okay, we have to put some foundations in because, like, at the moment, it's all on quicksand. It's either look down. Like, where's the foundations? What are we building? What are we developing? What are we growing? That's what we need to try and do. And ultimately, what is our ultimate game? The ultimate game is can we get promoted and can we stay there?

And can we be a League One football club? And then once you establish as a League One football club, can we then try and… Because by the time that happens, I think League One and League Two will do what the Championship are doing, which is top eight. Because this year, top eight in the Championship. Okay? I think that will filter down into League One and League Two. So, can we establish our… Can we get promoted and can we establish ourselves? And then we look and go, "Okay, can we gatecrash the playoffs like a Lincoln?" I think this football club has the potential to do that. Now, right here, right now, you'll look at me and go, "Have you actually seen the league table? We're second bottom in League Two." And you're… Yeah, I get that.

And it might be blue-sky thinking, but why don't we start, you know, putting all the foundations in so when we do get promoted, we stay there and we grow and develop? And then you might have a conversation with me in five, six years' time and going, "Okay, we're sitting 12th or 15th in League One," and you're starting moaning at me. I'll be like, "That's a great problem to have."

QUESTION (DID PLAYERS WANT TO LEAVE?)

Did players want to leave? Because like 80% of the budget, if they're taking that much money, did players want to leave because of some did we’d have more flexibility to actually sign a striker because it's like we've gone into the season without bullets in the gun. It's crazy.

Yeah. So, you know, not knowing the full story, but you know, presuming that we pay… As a football club, we pay well. We pay good salary. So, someone's got to take them on and also pay that salary.

And that might not have been available. No player's going walk away from their contract and go, "I'm going walk away because you don't want me." And I'm not saying that we didn't want any players because I wasn't here, but players are only going go if they've got the same contract for longer or the same value of money that they can get. Otherwise, they're just going stay where they are.

But like I said earlier, I genuinely believe that this squad is really good. This squad is better than the squad that I won the league with, without any shadow of a doubt. This squad is better.

QUESTION (LEAGUE POSITION)

But we keep hearing this, you know, we're Championship ready, we're back to the blueprint, all these other things, and we've got a fantastic squad. Why are we bottom, second bottom of the League Two then? Why are we bottom?

Okay, so the reason I think we're second bottom is and I've had these conversations with Jon, is two things. One, we're not creating enough, and the ones we do create, we don't score enough. And I know it's very simplistic, and I'm telling you something that you already know, but that is the headlines.

Defensively, we're good. Off the ball, we are good, because the stats prove that. Now, what we do need to do is be better in terms of getting into the final third. We need to be better at getting crosses into the box, and we need to create more chances. So, I think since I've been here, I like the Grimsby performance. I think we create chances against Grimsby.

And I know we only scored one goal, but I don't think anyone would go, "We didn't create chances." Now, what you might say is, "Why have we only done it for one game?" And we want to see that every game. Fair question. But I think that's what we need to do, and that's what, like, you know, I know Jon's working hard at it. I'm working with Jon on it to see what we can do and how we can go about it. But that is the difference. The difference is somebody who can score a goal. And that… And you know, especially League Two and League One, they are the big difference makers. So, can we find someone? Somebody might step up over the next six, eight, 10 weeks. They might do, and we got to hope they will do. Can we keep… Can we create chances?

Can someone put the ball in the back of the net?

SUPPORTER

Did Matt say, and I've heard this, I don't know how many times now, "We're learning lessons." Well, the guy over there said, "We were lowest scorers in League One, get relegated, lowest scorers in League Two." We're not learning lessons. We're not learning. We're doing the same things and getting… You said, you know, the-

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.

Yeah. And I think what you've always got is as a rule of thumb in League Two, is playoffs or promotion.

That's what you'd be getting. But you're right in what you're saying is what we need to do is

we find another Lorent, and we send him on. It's important that we get a replacement. And we need to find forwards, which are difficult because everyone's looking for forwards.

And we could sign a forward who's got a proven track record at that time, and he might not score here. We might find someone who hasn't got a proven track record and you go, "Oh my God, why have you signed him? He's never scored goals." And he goes and scores goals.

So, it's getting that what player fits into your style? What player fits into how we're going play? Because it is different, but that is the challenge. We need to find someone who's going score goals, without any shadow of a doubt. We need to create and we need to score.

QUESTION (JANUARY)

Have you had any idea who you're looking at for January?

Yeah, so in terms of as we sit here now, it's all right us identifying players who we want, but that could change 'cause there's a long way to go. A they might be available now. So, I won't name names. We identified a player in League One who's been available. He's got into the team and scored three goals in the last five or six games.

Now he's not available. We're like, "Oh, okay, back to the drawing board." Do you get what I mean? So, you can do your stats, look through League One and see who's been playing. But do you know what I mean? He was available. That could change. It's like us now. Someone could phone me up and go, "Is he available?" And I might go, "Yeah, he's available." But come December, he might not be.

So, what we've got to do is make sure that we're on top of things, we're highlighting players, we've done reports on players. We know who we're going go for and what we want and what we like. And if that one don't come off… And what we've got to try and do, and what we will do, is I won't bring players in just for the sake of bringing players in. I'd rather stick with what we've got. And you might not want to hear that but I'll… we've got to bring players in that are better than what we've got and are going make an impact. 'Cause my observations is we sign players just for the sake of signing players.

That's not going help us. They have to come in and make a difference, whatever that difference is.

ENDS