Marked for Jack Cunningham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Jack Cunningham out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Port Vale will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borna Buljan 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Jacob Spencer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Apr 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
Luke James 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 dugout2 Apr 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Mitchell trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ed Thomas has moved up it.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
A promise honoured at Port Vale
Something was said to Juan Cekalovich and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2035
23 days out for Jack Cunningham after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Port Vale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match24 Mar 2035
No end in sight to Port Vale's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Port Vale has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Port Vale is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Emmanuel Airoboma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Alfie Brooks dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Match24 Mar 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Michal Vrána 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.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Jack Cunningham out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Port Vale will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Port Vale is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match17 Mar 2035
No end in sight to Port Vale's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Port Vale has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 7.42, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tom Graves and Port Vale agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Port Vale
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Buljan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Mar 2035
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.
Match17 Mar 2035
Late, late show earns Port Vale a point
Minute 89, against Cheltenham Town, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Jack Cunningham out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Port Vale will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Mar 2035
3 matches without a goal for Port Vale
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Borna Buljan 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.
Match10 Mar 2035
0‑2 to Colchester United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Port Vale is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Marc Helleparth was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2035
44 days out for Jack Cunningham after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Port Vale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Mar 2035
“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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borna Buljan, and the manager let it.
Match3 Mar 2035
0‑1 to Exeter City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Appearance number 100 for Ed Thomas
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Jacob Spencer
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jacob Spencer has come out of that comparison in the side, and Port Vale have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market5 Mar 2035
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
Uneasy
Match4 Nov 2034
10 matches without a win for Port Vale
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Port Vale are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Jack Cunningham damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad6 Nov 2034
105 days out for Marc Helleparth after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Port Vale will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match4 Nov 2034
Port Vale cannot find the net
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market6 Nov 2034
Kaïs Guignon 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Amadeus Sundgren and Port Vale agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match31 Oct 2034
0‑1 to Northampton Town, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Nov 2034
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Market6 Nov 2034
“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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Emmanuel Airoboma takes the honours
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Joe Davies
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2034
24 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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match28 Oct 2034
The wait goes on for Port Vale
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match28 Oct 2034
The goals have deserted Port Vale
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Port Vale can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Emmanuel Airoboma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Oct 2034
Swansea City will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Raymond Matlamela has pre-agreed a move to Port Vale, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad30 Oct 2034
25 games in 64 appearances where nobody scored at all. A keeper's career is counted in nothing happening, and none of this happened by accident.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
“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 dugout30 Oct 2034
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Oct 2034
31 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
A fracture rules Marc Helleparth out for 119 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Port Vale will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Oct 2034
The wait goes on for Port Vale
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match21 Oct 2034
Port Vale cannot find the net
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market23 Oct 2034
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.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Malachi Ogunleye has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Alfie Brooks and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Samuel Mitchell
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.