Paul and Norman address the press at Vale park
The new Port Vale owners, Paul Wildes and Norman Smurthwaite were introduced to the press this morning and the each spoke of their vision to take the club forwards.
Administrator Bob Young introduced the two of them, and made a point of thanking Stoke City Council for all of their help during the eight months during which the club was in administration.
He also thanks the Supporters Club, and in particular Gary Benson, Martin Tideswell and Pete Williams, who was unable to attend due to ill health.
Paul Wildes was the first of the new owners to address and he invited question from the floor and gave all of the right answers.
He said: “We are very excited about the future. There are a lot of things we have already started to put in place and a lot of plans we have started to go over in the last few weeks.
“We are looking forward to steering the ship away from the rocks that it has been facing for the last few years and away to a brighter future.
“I am very excited to be here and would like to thank the supporters for their commitment, because it is very easy when you look at a business acquisition, you look at its customers and how loyal those customers are and I think the answer to that was, extremely loyal in very, very difficult circumstances.
“I think that equally applies to the staff that work within the club, the players who were asked to enter into contracts who were asked to enter into agreements which were not the agreements they originally signed up to.
“There is a very exciting future ahead, a future that both myself and Norman are looking forward to being part of.
“The club is on a very good place on the field today and I will be working with Micky (Adams) over the next forty eight hours to add players to his squad that he wants to bring in.”
Norman spoke of their desire to get the fans to return to Vale Park and how they hope to make it a more pleasurable experience for the fans.
He said: “There are lots of things that we will put right that should make the experience of people coming here better.
“If there is a fan who knows another fan who, for whatever reason, has chosen not to come here, I want that person to convince him or her to come back.
“That gives us a chance then to give them the match day experience and demonstrate what we are here to do.
“Once we are able to demonstrate that, that person who comes back will be able to speak to somebody else then they will come back.
“I want those people coming back because when they come back every pound that this club generates will go back into the club.
“We are custodians of this business. There will come a point in the future when we will be leaving this club and I assure you that when we leave this club, they will be in a much better place than when we came.”