Norman Smurthwaite

"I will never allow the experience of another Exeter in my ownership of the football club. I will never allow a manager to tell me that's football and I should accept it. That ain't going to happen at Port Vale, because if it does, Plan B will be around the corner." – Speaking in July 2016, Smurthwaite was still angry about the defeat to Exeter City seven months previously. ^[26]

Smurthwaite was rumoured to have planned to sack Page live on BT Sport if the club lost an FA Cup First Round replay to Maidenhead United, though he dismissed the rumour as untrue. ^[27] There was controversy However, following the club's defeat to mid-table League Two side Exeter City in the Second Round on 6 December 2015, after which Smurthwaite stated he felt "humiliated, ashamed and embarrassed" and said that plans to sign a striker in the January transfer window would be scrapped. ^{[28] [29]} The following day he officially put the club up for sale. ^[30] He set an asking price of £4.25 million, stating "I have never lost money on a transaction in my adult life and I am not starting now". ^[31] He continued to reveal that he had been physically assaulted by three Vale supporters in April 2014, though Staffordshire Police could find no record of Smurthwaite's complaint. ^[32] He also admitted that he had been planning on buying Torquay United before being told by the Football League that he would not be allowed to own two clubs. ^[33] He was also criticised by Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion organisation, after admitting that he had denied Hasselbaink the opportunity of being Port Vale manager due to his concern that a black manager would be abused by some supporters. ^[34] Some of the club's biggest name players rejected new contract offers and left Port Vale after Northampton Town paid compensation to Port Vale to sign Page as manager in May 2016; Smurthwaite claimed that he purposely set a low wage budget to drive Page and the players out of the club, thereby leaving room in the 2016–17 budget for a new manager to sign his own players. ^[35]

Smurthwaite renewed his dispute with The Sentinel by banning the newspaper from attending the club's press conference where the successor to Page was named. ^[36] Upon appointing Portuguese manager Bruno Ribeiro, the club's first manager from outside Britain, Smurthwaite stated that: "It has been a long, extensive process but I'm absolutely certain we have the right man for the job." ^[37] Smurthwaite then improved the club's budget to allow over ten new, mostly foreign, signings, and stated that he expected Vale to be challenging for the top six and warned his staff that he would enact "plan B" if the club were not in the top six by Christmas. ^[26] With Vale occupying 17th-place at Christmas, Smurthwaite declared that 'Plan B' had been triggered, meaning the signing of "seasoned, higher grade" players, whilst he admitted he felt "a little bit hoodwinked" as Ribeiro's friends in the game (José Mourinho, Aitor Karanka, and Carlos Carvalhal) had provided him with glowing references but had thus far failed to lend any of their players to the Vale. ^{[38] [39]} Ribeiro resigned as manager of Port Vale on 26 December, hours after witnessing his side lose 1–0 at home to Walsall; Smurthwaite put Michael Brown in temporary charge. ^[40] He also installed Colin Garlick as the club's CEO, and in January stated that "I'm only really involved now when it comes to prising open the sweetie jar for the money". ^[41] Two months later, Smurthwaite used the OneValeFan fansite to ask supporters to vote whether he should sell the club to one of two hedge funds that he said had met his asking price for the club. ^[42] He later issued a statement to apologize for his decision to appoint Ribeiro and expressed regret with his own attempts to communicate with fans and "keyboard warriors" over social media. ^[43] Brown remained as caretaker manager for the rest of the season, but was unable to save the club from relegation back into League Two. ^[44] Smurthwaite issued a statement on 2 May apologising for relegation, and stated that he would be stepping down as chairman and would no longer attend games as he looked to sell the club. ^[45] Three days later he received a bid of £1.25 million for the club, matching his original purchase price in 2012. ^[46] A rival consortium also offered the same figure, but Smurthwaite rejected both offers. ^[47]

With Port Vale lying bottom of the English Football League, Smurthwaite sacked Brown on 16 September and claimed that he had been against giving Brown the job permanently in the summer but left the decision to Chief Executive Colin Garlick. ^[48] Smurthwaite appointed Neil Aspin as the club's new manager on 4 October, and also brought in John Rudge in an advisory role. ^[49] Aspin steered the club away from relegation by the end of the 2017–18 season. In June 2018 Smurthwaite revealed that he had rejected another offer to buy the club from an unnamed bidder. ^[50]

He bought the Liberty Way stadium off Nuneaton Town in July 2018 after the club entered financial difficulties. ^[51] He returned formally to the role of Port Vale chairman the following month. ^[52] He was hospitalised after being struck by a car whilst walking outside Vale Park on 25 January 2019. ^[53] Aspin resigned five days later following a run of poor results. ^[54] On 31 January 2019, Smurthwaite blamed "logistical challenges" for the deal to bring back former top-scorer Marc Richards breaking down; the club instead signed four youngsters despite having no manager. ^{[55] [56]} As the transfer window was closing, the Port Vale Supporters' Club unanimously gave a vote of no confidence in Smurthwaite and elected to begin formal protests against his ownership. ^[57] During this time the club was serving players unsold pies from matchdays in order to save money. ^[58] Smurthwaite went on to issue a statement to condemn "disgraceful abuse" he had received and to urge supporters to not to use "inappropriate language" during protests and to consider the effect of protests on the club and the players; he stated that he was only involved in "major" decisions at the club and left day-to-day decisions to CEO Colin Garlick. ^[59] He went on to name John Askey as the club's new manager on 4 February. ^[60] On 1 March, Synectics Solutions owners Carol and Kevin Shanahan revealed that Smurthwaite had rejected their improved offer of £3.5 million for the club. ^[61] When the couple told Smurthwaite they were planning to go public about their offer he texted them to say "sorry not interested. now please get back to your day job and continue the sterling work in the community." ^[62] He went on to claim that fans protests against him had cost the club a £500,000 stadium sponsorship deal, that he had never received a "formal offer" for the club and that he would put the club into administration if no new owner were in place by 5 May. ^[63] The sale of both the club and the ground to the Shanahans was confirmed on 7 May, ending Smurthwaite's seven-year reign. ^[64]

Later life

Smurthwaite was reported to have made a bid for National League club Notts County in June 2019, but denied having done so. ^{[65] [66]} Two months later he was reported to have launched an unsuccessful bid to purchase crisis-hit club Bury. ^[67] He sold Liberty Way stadium in 2019. ^[68] He enquired for a move for Wigan Athletic, a club in administration, in September 2020, but pulled out after judging it to be too big of a risk and seeing a negative reaction from fans. ^[69]

References

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Norman Smurthwaite
Born	Norman Smurthwaite (1960-08-08) 8 August 1960 (age 63) Coventry, England
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Businessman; property developer
Spouse	Lorraine [1]
Chairman of Port Vale
In office 2013–2017