One Former Boss To Leave/Another To Follow?

Two former Vale managers who enjoyed contrasting fortunes in Burslem have been in the news this week. Legendary former Vale boss John Rudge is set to end his 14 year stay at Stoke City at the end of the season after the Potters announced an overhaul of their scouting network. Rudge has declared an interest to stay in football, so a potential return to the club he served with such distinction will remain an interesting, if unlikely, possibility.

Meanwhile, Jim Gannon, who will go down in the annals of Vale history for rather different reason owing to his disastrous, short stay in the Potteries, has also been in the news. Now back at Stockport County, the combustible Irishman has had a spectacular public fallout with Chairman Lord Snape. In response to criticism from Gannon at cuts to his playing budget, which have resulted in the Hatters struggling at the wrong end of the Conference table, Snape stated that he was 'fed up of watching part-time teams beat County`. Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the County chairman declared, "Changes are going to be made unless things improve. Jim Gannon`s pretty good at telling me how this club should be run. Well I`m going to tell him that I`m not impressed by the way the team is being run.

"If we lose a couple of our next games, we`re in a relegation battle with a much bigger budget than most of the teams down there with us, which quite frankly is not good enough."

One thing for certain is that things are rarely dull where Gannon is concerned…

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