A fan's view of things Port Vale

At the moment Billy Knott is deservedly the player of the moment after recent performances, which highlights what a help the loan system can be. With a reduced budget next season no doubt we will have to rely on it more and more often.

Of course it can go wrong, like Florent Cuvelier getting injured in his first game, but the success of Knott and Jack Grimmer show that it can improve your team. The big clubs will often cover the wages as well which is even more of a bonus. Chelsea have loaned out more than 25 players this season and Spurs almost as many so it is just about hitting on the right one.

A topic which may sound controversial to some, but why don’t we loan any players from Stoke City? They loan plenty of players out to clubs at our level, and they could easily keep a check if they were just 5 miles away and not moving house. Okay, some fans may rather do without, but that is a bit short sighted in this day and age. If they did a job they would soon be cheered.

The last time we loaned a player from Stoke was John Lumsden back in March 1978, amazingly more than 36 years ago. I find that remarkable for clubs only 5 miles apart. Actually Stoke have loaned a player from us since then, goalkeeper Barry Siddall a mere 30 years ago. Surely the long gap can’t just be down to mutual hatred can it?

Phil Sherwin