The current plight of football in the Potteries is a microcosm of the state of the game throughout most of the Nationwide League. A lack of money is at the heart of the industry's worst ever crisis and it is no different at Stoke City and Port Vale.
The Potters are in freefall back towards the Second Division, from whence they came just six months ago, and Vale are mid-table in that division but, in a situation where it should have everyone singing from the same song-sheet, the last thing either club wants is an individual rocking the boat, to mix metaphors.
To be fair to Vale owner and chairman, Bill Bell, he seems to have changed his stance from one of immovable object to adaptable force. Mr Bell has owned some 80 per cent of the shares in his football club since Adam were a lad and has, over the years, resisted attempts by several groups to boot him out, mainly because he wanted an exorbitant return on the shares he got for peanuts.
Money has been so tight at Vale Park that the main stand has taken longer to complete than the pyramids and the knock-on effect has been a reduction in money for players, transfer fees and wages, available to manager Brian Horton.
That situation now seems to have changed and Bill Bell has offered to sell his shares to a consortium, Valiant 2001 (things move slowly in The Potteries) at £10 per share meaning a value of £800,000 has been set by Mr Bell. Unfortunately, the situation is not as clear as it may appear because Mr Bell has stated that the money received would clear club debts and, therefore, in donating his shares to the club, Valiant 2001 would be getting a debt-free club for £800,000.
However 'debts' seems to be the crucial word because Mr Bell seems to differentiate between 'immediate' debts and 'present' debts.
On the one hand it seems a good deal that would enable a group of die-hard Vale fans to get their hands on a club they love and, supposedly, plough some much-needed revenue into the coffers. On the other hand, no consortium is going to hand over its hard-earned cash to take on a hidden mountain of debt.
It remains to be seen where this one is going but at least Bill Bell, faults and all, a real supporter, seems to be trying to do his best for the club by relinquishing control, which is something many have been trying to get him to do, but we shall see.
Not so the case just across the six towns at the Britannia Stadium where another chairman is doing his best to not only rock a sinking ship but toss overboard the very people who can keep the vessel afloat.Gunnar Thor Gislason, you may recall, was the chairman who added 'winning promotion' to the criteria for sacking a manager when he disposed of Gudjon Thordarson, less than a week after the manager had taken Stoke into the First Division on a shoestring.
Then, the Icelandic consortium which owns Stoke negotiated a loan, at the start of the current season, based on expected crowds in excess of 22,000. OOOPS!!!! The team struggled and gates were around 10,000 below what was needed to break-even but the biggest 'o.g' came recently when Mr Gislason verbally attacked the Stoke fans for not dipping into their pockets to pay for the sculpture dedicated to Stoke's favourite son, Sir Stanley Matthews.
The locals, not unnaturally, were a little upset that the club, which isn't performing on the field, not even under a new manager, and has raised prices to watch a struggling side (and also charges a fiver to park cars on match days!) was having a go at the supporters who are being bled financially to support a consortium that few in the Potteries want in control of the club.
One local media pundit encapsulated the feelings of the supporters when he said 'you can't have the chairman of the club biting the hand that feeds'.
Add to that that, the Icelanders are resisting attempts by REAL Stoke supporters, among them director Phil Rawlins, to buy back the club. Phil Rawlins is the local businessman who has, thus far, put around ONE MILLION POUNDS of his own money into Stoke City and has the best interests of the club at heart and would certainly make a better job of running Stoke City.
Rivalry between the two clubs is legendary and their fans have been part of the heated debate that is raging through the area concerning the possibility of one club being formed from the two and at least having a merged club instead of risking the disappearance of both.
An amalgamation is the last thing a supporter of either club wants but one solution that has not been mooted is to have ground sharing. Two clubs and one stadium is far preferable to two stadiums and no clubs.
Whatever the future is, for Stoke and Vale, as well as the game as an industry, what the clubs do need is everyone pulling in the same direction, otherwise moving around in circles and getting nowhere will be the end result.
