EFL League One: Analysing Port Vale’s extraordinary season
The EFL season is almost at its conclusion, with some clubs celebrating promotion and others experiencing the bitter taste of relegation.
One club which has seen an unusual series of events is Port Vale - the Staffordshire club suffering relegation from League One whilst reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer and EFL follower AJ Becker takes a look at possible causes of their relegation, and proposes a blueprint for their future success.
League & Cup contrast
Vale were dealt an ace by being drawn at home in five consecutive rounds of this season’s FA Cup.
After a routine victory over non-league outfit Maldon & Tiptree, League Two sides Bristol Rovers and Fleetwood Town were subjected to 1-0 defeats at Vale Park.
A brace of deeply unlikely wins followed, as Bristol City of the Championship and Premier League Sunderland also found themselves on the receiving end of that scoreline, ensuring Vale reached the last eight of the cup for the first time since the 1950s!
Whilst this achievement will rightly live long in the memory of Valiants fans, it masked the team’s abysmal league season and arguably diverted focus from their ongoing relegation battle.
Indeed, if the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy are included, Vale won eleven cup matches in 2025/26 - a greater total than the nine league wins they attained.
Collecting just two points from their first six games, as well as failing to score throughout November, placed Vale in the relegation zone from the outset.
This must have damaged confidence, as the Potteries club spent the entire season chasing this gap and being unable to escape the division’s lowermost positions.
Managerial change made too late?
Not unpredictably, Darren Moore - who had overseen Vale’s promotion from League Two last season - was relieved of his duties in late December, with the Valiants ten points from safety.
Whilst his successor Jon Brady did not fare much better in terms of his points-per-game ratio (1.17 compared to Moore’s 0.68), there was limited time for him to implement tactical changes in a squad with minimal depth and whose morale was at a nadir, having not won in the league since September.
It might therefore be stated that had Brady taken over at an earlier stage, the season could have been salvaged; “mission: improbable” rather than “mission:impossible.”
Under-investment in squad
The departures of key strikers Lorent Tolaj (in August) and Devante Cole (in January) to higher-placed League One sides meant that an already impuissant attack became weaker still.
With the lack of a reliable striker and minimal goal threat across the squad, Vale have failed to find the net in half their league fixtures and in the entire EFL, only Sheffield Wednesday - almost certain to finish the season on a negative points total - have scored fewer.
As such, this builds a case for saying that a cohesive recruitment strategy, with considerably more outlay on players, ought to have been initiated by club chair Carol Shanahan and the directors.
Experienced forward players such as Andre Gray and Onel Hernández were acquired on free transfers, yet have not made any real impact in the goals department.
New Zealand striker Ben Waine made his own curious mark by scoring winning goals in three FA Cup ties, though his sum total in the league mystifyingly also stands at three.
Future blueprint: Revamping Vale Park
With a capacity of almost 17,000 and the appellation ‘Wembley of the North’, the potential of Port Vale’s ground is considerable.
The atmosphere Valiants fans can generate was particularly in evidence during their cup runs - the Sunderland FA Cup tie saw a turnout of 10,685 and a seated record of 16,326 gathered to see Vale take on Arsenal in the EFL Cup.
However, in a deeply anticlimactic season, only occasional league matches at Vale Park have generated a level of excitement; this may partly explain the comparatively low average home league attendance of 7,172.
Whilst the Shanahan family have bankrolled pitch renovations in recent times, there remains an absence of drainage and undersoil heating - despite the turf being susceptible to freezing temperatures owing to its altitude, and in spite of numerous pitch-related postponements this season.
It might be argued that addressing these issues - as well as the overall matchday experience - would help turn some of the ‘only go to big games’ crowd into Vale Park habitues.
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Future blueprint: Giving youth a chance
In Vale’s most successful epoch, the 1990s, local and homegrown players were prominent in a squad where the hungry young sat comfortably alongside the savvy experienced.
By the same token, style and steel was the carte du jour employed most frequently by the Burslem club’s longest-serving boss, John Rudge, during that time.
Although football has doubtless changed since then, there is no reason why that recipe cannot be a road map outlining the direction the club could take in the present day.
The emphasis should be on substance as much as style in Vale’s new-look squad, as League Two is a decidedly physical and unforgiving division.
In Brady, they have a manager who has already overseen a promotion campaign at that level, and in an area known for cultivating football talent, handing minutes to academy graduates could help build a sense of identity and belonging amongst a disillusioned fanbase.
Future blueprint: Investing across the board
Following on from the previous points, more money simply must be expended by Shanahan if the dying fire of Port Vale is to be reignited next season.
Supporters are understandably dissatisfied with what appears to have been a scattergun approach in the transfer window, with the club signing players almost at random and never forming anything amounting to an identity.
It should be noted that the previous three ownership regimes took Vale into administration and near-liquidation; it would be foolhardy to spend on such a grand scale as to risk the club’s future.
However, instead of wistfully looking back at great days of the past, the hierarchy would be well advised to replicate what marked the high points: a full stadium, cup runs, local boys given a first-team presence, ambitious plans, even a ‘siege mentality’.
Next season could find the Stoke side slowly emerging from their relegation gloom, or the downward spiral may continue unabated into 2026/27.
If the ideas above are taken on board, Vale may win promotion at the earliest attempt, and on return to League One can aspire to more than mere survival.
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