The Port Vale Herald
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Port Vale
Pelle Mattsson 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Jayden Stockley moves on
Barnsley pay $220.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Yang Min-Hyeok 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Door shut on Mamadou Doumbia
Port Vale asked and Middlesbrough said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market2 Aug 2027
Eyes on Nicholas Williams again
The phone has started ringing about Nicholas Williams again, and this time the name on the line is Accrington Stanley. Port Vale are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
This league is too small for Pelle Mattsson
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Port Vale will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 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 targets2 Aug 2027
A loan move for Charlie Setford is in the works
Port Vale have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Sam Hart 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.
In brief
- The dugout Liam Gordon asks for a word with the manager
- Market Pelle Mattsson arrives on loan
- Market Rui Costa linked with a move away