Fradley, has been a Port Vale fan all his life and is currently president of The Valiants where he will now take up a new role as chairman.

Despite the club’s relegation to League Two, Fradley believes that his appointment was completed at the right time. 

He said: “I’m friends with Norman and I know him very well.

“We discuss a lot of things about the past and it doesn’t really matter when, it was a matter of when is the right time. 

“You could say that the right time is never but we made a decision of when we thought the right time was.

"We wanted to stay in League One but things went against us. Two injuries in 20 minutes didn’t help where one of them was pretty serious and it changed the whole balance of the team against Fleewtood.”

Despite being named as chairman, Fradley will still support Vale as a fan with manager, Michael Brown, taking control of who stays and who goes during the summer transfer window. 

“It’s difficult to say when the right time is but it’s not fair on the players not knowing where they will be going”, Fradley added. 

“I don’t know who is staying and going, Michael is making that decision. He’s the football expert and I’m the fan. I’ll be like all the other fans so it won’t be any different!

“It’s just what’s best for the club to steer us in the right direction as we try to get some stability in May, which, sometimes, you don’t get! 

“If we get that now, we can start to build up for the start of pre-season.”