by Anthony Munday
PORT Vale fans were closing in on the 5,000 season ticket target needed to trigger vastly reduced prices as Friday’s deadline approached.
It promised to be a close call and I really hope they pulled it off to provide everyone involved with the club a massive boost.
Manager Lee Sinnott will be desperate to get as many supporters as possible on board next season and he is already well on the way to rebuilding his team.
Sinnott and his coaching staff had clearly done much leg work before the end of last term as Middlesbrough striker Steve Thompson and utility players Anthony Griffith and Rob Taylor, from Doncaster and Nuneaton respectively, arrived in double quick time.
Wycombe defender Sam Stockley followed soon afterwards and Sinnott also believed he had bagged Brentford’s Craig Pead, only for him to a renege on a pre-contract agreement.
Another midfielder and probably two more defenders are now needed to complete what will inevitably be a much trimmer squad on what we all know will be a smaller budget.
The loss of the ultra-consistent George Pilkington, who is still considering his options, and last season’s player of the year Paul Harsley, who has decamped to Chesterfield, are clearly disappointing.
But no-one could really argue with the release of Dave Mulligan, Joe Cardle, Robin Hulbert, Adam Eckersley or the paid-off Craig Rocastle.
I was a touch surprised to see Jason Talbot also shown the door, leaving Vale without a recognised left-back, but Sinnott has had to make some tough decisions ahead of a campaign during which he will either sink or swim.
The vast majority of the blame for relegation was heaped on Martin Foyle, and rightly so after he blotted his previous good work with some abysmal signings, but Sinnott knows and accepts he will be judged from day one of the new season.
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