Port Vale: Glover deserves his chance, says chairman Bratt
The announcement of Glover as manager was greeted less by a fanfare than a resounding raspberry from supporters, at least if popular internet forums are representative.
However, Bratt says that is unfair on the 44-year-old Glover. He says the new boss deserves to be judged on his own merits rather than results when he was briefly caretaker manager or assistant to Martin Foyle and then Lee Sinnott.
Bratt said: "The perception is that he has been associated with failures.
"Been associated with' is true, but 'been responsible for' isn't.
"Martin Foyle was always his own man and picked his own teams, as did Lee.
"They both had the final say. It may well be that Dean Glover didn't have any say, so his influence wasn't there.
"He had a run of eight games as caretaker manager last season. It didn't come off for him, but then it didn't for Martin Foyle or Lee Sinnott either.
"Whichever way you look at it, he deserves a chance."
Glover's chances have been greatly improved by the fact the nine-man board are united behind him.
The unanimous vote to give Glover the job shows a determination to avoid the problems which followed Sinnott's appointment on a 5-4 split in preference to Glover last November.
Glover stayed on as Sinnott's assistant, but admits the split on the board eventually affected their working relationship.
Bratt believes trouble in the boardroom inevitably affected performances on the pitch.
He said: "Unless everyone is pulling in the same direction it always makes it very difficult.
"But the board are now pulling in the same direction and I think we will go forward stronger now.
"It is very important. We don't want the same scenario that has happened in the past.
"If everyone gets behind him, it gives him a far better chance of succeeding."
The importance of getting this appointment right....and then backing the manager to the hilt is obvious from the league table.
The Valiants are fifth from bottom of the division, on a run of six defeats, and looked clueless in their flattering 2-1 home defeat to Notts County on Saturday.
Bratt makes no bones about the severity of the team's plight, even though the point deductions suffered by Luton (-30), Bournemouth (-17) and Rotherham (-17) act as a safety net between Vale and the Blue Square Premier.
Bratt added: "We are not performing on the pitch, which is where we have to perform.
"We are in freefall and we have to try to bring stability back now. The club has been unstable for the last 10 or 12 months with the split on the board and everything else that has gone on.
"We have to unite everyone together and I think and hope we can now."
Bratt, however, is far from complacent about the possibility of the club falling out of the Football League for the first time since they came back in during the 1919-1920 season.
The chairman says he is concerned about Vale's position near the drop zone, even though they remain 15 points clear of second-from bottom team Bournemouth.
He said: "Of course I am. Look at Rotherham. They are on plus points now and, the way we are going, it won't take them long to go past us. Another two games and they would be past us. That is a very worrying situation which we have to address."
Bratt says there is nothing left in the pot for Glover to improve the squad, but is hopeful cash can be found.
He says Vale are talking to local potential investors, although no deal is imminent.
In the meantime, the spotlight will be on the directors to find ways of backing their moral support for Glover with hard cash.
Bratt said: "We do realise that we have to try to bring players in.
"It is patently obvious that the players we have got aren't performing at the present time.
"Hopefully we can get an investor in or money from other sources. That's what we need because finances are very tight at the moment."
However, Bratt has assured supporters the club is not close to a return to administration.
The chairman and the Valiant 2001 consortium rescued the club from administration five years ago and have made avoiding a return their top priority ever since.
Bratt accepts the board will be accused of going for the cheap option by not looking outside the club for a new manager.
However, he is adamant such decisions are not a sign that the club is financially on the brink.
He said: "We are not at all. I am saying we have no money to splash, but that is a different thing altogether.
"Incoming managers would expect anything between £70,000 and £200,000 a year in salaries.
"A successful Premier League manager once said you don't know who you have and how they perform until they are in the job. That's right. You could put someone in who is tried and tested and they could fail dismally for you.
"Or you could put someone in who is an unknown and they could do the job. You just don't know."
CRUCIAL SUPPORT: Chairman Bill Bratt is calling on fans to rally behind new manager Dean Glover as he attempts to turn things around at Vale Park.
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