There’s some breaking news in Stoke, I can assure you of that.
Just days after we lost 2-1 to Harrogate in the FA Cup First rounds, just hours after we stank the place out at Morpeth and lost 1-0, Port Vale Football Club want me to take over.
Blimey.
It’s a no-brainer, even though this is their predicament.
I am sure we can make up six or seven points pretty sharply. Mind you, I have to think that.
This is how I will be leaving Stafford Town.
Oh, and…
Three promotions, one FA Vase and two FA Cup First Round appearances – thank you and good night Stafford Town, I think we’ve been very good for each other.
I’m off to Staffordshire’s third-ranked club. This post will probably be quite jumbled up as I jump around a bit.
I decided that for the first three games to do nothing else than decide how I’d like us to try and play (inspired by Chicao and his journey taking Uniao 1919 to Champions League qualification over a decade).
This situation is too tricky to get too funky with any variety of strikerless approach and, as I have alluded to in recent posts, I am ready for a slightly different tactical style.
In that opening week, we had three matches – two home League One matches vs Peterboro and Shrewsbury and a home EFL Trophy game against Burnley U21. A good opportunity to (hopefully) get the fans onside early – or, alternatively, lose them before we’ve even got started.
I trusted the incumbent assistant, John Schofield, with team selection for all three games as I don’t know the players at all (yet).
And, it’s been an encouraging start.
We were 1-0 vs Peteboro but turned it around to salvage a point. We cruised past Burnley U21 and then we were really very, very good against Shrewsbury.
Some immediate ground is, therefore, made up.
The immediate gut feeling is that there is enough in the squad to stay up without having to do much in January – which is good, as I am very out of touch with doing actual transfers that cost actual money.
So that sweeping statement above led me into the next section – a proper review of the squad balance etc.
Connor Ripley is the captain and has a year left on his contract – not sure if £3.8k a week is about right yet.
Graeme Evans is a Welsh U19 option – he can be the #2 for now as we have nobody else in the U18.
For the RWB slot, I am happy again to be honest – Mitch Clark and Alex Healy-Byrne are good enough for the level and not on crazy wages.
On the left, Conor Grant has been exceptional so far and with Clark being capable on that side too + Keith Cassidy and Luke Daly I think we have enough cover.
It’s at CB I have concerns.
I genuinely hadn’t spotted we only have three. That said, with two WCB in place, I think I can get away with a FB in there if desperate. Heler is nowhere near the standard and is going out on loan.
Luis Brown is one that we might have to consider trying to cash in on (more about that later).
In the two DM slots, we play a RPM to the left and a simple DM/S to the right. We’ve started with Macadam playing in his least preferred position there and he’s done OK. Adam Johnson started the Shrewsbury game as the RPM and was poor – Cassidy came on in there and wasn’t much better. There is an argument to bring Conor Grant central.
In the AM slots, Berry and Cuthbertson have immediately impressed me. Again, we are lacking a bit of depth there but I expect Molyneux could do a job and Kevin Cole could potentially be better in there rather than as the 9.
We do have options in attack. Cam Roberts did score in the EFL Trophy. Kevin Cole has started twice as the 9 but is unconvincing yet – he has got 4 this season though. Ramello Mitchell seems very average and not value for money. We might swap Cole and Cuthbertson maybe – but then CC has scored twice from the AM position so…
I still think we’ll have enough here without doing anything drastic, though.
With these fixtures, we will know a lot more by Jan 1st.
Derby and Wrexham, as it stands, are the two matches that I would think getting something out of is very hard. Everything else in my mind is between a point or three.
This concerns me, a lot.
Don’t forget, I’ve just left Stafford Town with half a million in the bank.
In fairness to the club, they are not overspending their FM wage budget (£47k committed, £72k). It’s more likely that the wage budget FM dishes out is wrong – so that will need to be addressed, most likely in the summer (if I last that long).
This doesn’t help – and I have thought this inside clubs in general for years.
That’s £10,750 a week. That’s £542k per year. We only bring in £250k per year on sponsorships, £2.7m on season tickets, maybe £2m at a push on the gate, £500k on match day stuff, the same again on corporate. TV money is maybe £500k. Not a lot comes in when you consider the expenses are mental – £2.5m on player wages means the season ticket cash disappears. Staff is covered by the matchday revenues. The gate money is swallowed up by tax, ground maintenance and matchday expenses.
Some serious cutting back needs to be made if I start to feel stable in this job.
In fact, screw it – I hate spending money where it doesn’t need to be spent.
I have to stay with David Flitcroft as the DoF as I agreed to that ahead of the contract being signed – but the rest of the scouts can go. The physios can go too, until I see evidence that at the pro level, I am going to have more squad injuries than when we were part-timers. Coaching-wise, the analyst has gone too leaving me, Schofe and Mike Stowell as the coaches.
This is the group that will take the club forward in the short term.
Let’s do this!
