Marked for Benjamin Ashall-Cody
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Port Vale lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Port Vale and Middlesbrough have settled on $600.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market21 Jun 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Port Vale, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Port Vale have done the hard part with Bristol City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Ashall-Cody is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Kyle John falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Emre Tezgel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces7 Jun 2027
Port Vale sell a favourite for $510.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ruari Paton was one of the reasons people came, and $510.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market7 Jun 2027
Bruno Moreira hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Port Vale can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The chase for Emre Tezgel ended with $340.0K changing hands and Stoke City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market7 Jun 2027
Ruari Paton has left for Stevenage in a $510.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Port Vale asked and Watford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Jordan Gabriel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Jun 2027
George Byers and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ben Waine and Port Vale agree another 4 years.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad12 Apr 2027
59 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Port Vale may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match10 Apr 2027
0‑2 to Stevenage, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Apr 2027
George Byers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ben Amos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michael Moore after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
George Byers gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
Ruari Paton has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Port Vale they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Port Vale
George Byers and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Williams is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andre Gray, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
George Hall knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Hall trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Martin Sherif, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Port Vale would like this to lead.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Wigan Athletic next, and one man in the Port Vale dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market29 Mar 2027
The Rui Costa talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Port Vale know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oliver Fraser is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Dec 2026
Rui Costa scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Reading, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Dec 2026
George Byers in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Port Vale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benjamin Ashall-Cody commits to Port Vale for another 3 years.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Marko Maroši gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michael Moore after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Port Vale needed to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Porto is saying, and nobody at Port Vale is enjoying the guessing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Port Vale did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Jack Shorrock has come up in conversations Port Vale were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ipswich Town have kept their man, and Port Vale go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Port Vale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to PSV: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Wassim Bouziane is in the works
Port Vale have made the call to AZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Wrexham this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
WAFA come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Port Vale did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erik Sviatchenko and Port Vale agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Erik Sviatchenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Port Vale are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Port Vale have made the call to Casarano. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Ashall-Cody is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
George Hall knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and George Hall trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.