52 THE SENTINEL Wednesday March 7, 2012 SEN-eO1-S2 [P]

Kemp hopesTorres failsto find hisgoal touch

STOKE City assistantmanager Dave Kemp hastempted fate ahead of thePo t t e r s ’ trip to Chelsea onSaturday by confessing hefeels sorry for £50m flopFernando Torres.

The Spanish striker will gointo the game without a goalin his last 16 Premier Leagueoutings for the Blues.

And Kemp, who joined bossTony Pulis to watch Torresand Co in last night’s FA Cupfifth-round replay atBirmingham City, said: “Ofcourse you feel sorry forsomeone like that, but not sosorry that I want him to dowell against us. I hope he hasa stinker.

“People go on about his badform with Chelsea, but youhave to remember he wasn’thaving a good time atLiverpool for a long timebefore that.

“I think everybody wassurprised he moved for thatamount of money when hejoined Chelsea for £50m lastyear, but he is a talentedplayer... so his form couldchange in a heartbeat.”

Kemp, a striker himselfduring his playing days,added: “Thankfully, I neverwent quite that long without agoal. But when I wasn’tscoring, I just kept puttingmyself in a position where Iw a s n’t frightened to miss.

“And if I did miss a chance,I just took the attitude thatanother would come along ina minute.

“But Torres is obviously inthe full glare at a big club, sowho knows what he’s reallygoing through?”

Stoke go to Stamford Bridgeboosted by back-to-back homewins and clean sheets againstSwansea and Norwich.■ Moult’s return: Page 47

City Council leader Pervez says it’s time to get behind Port Vale

RALLYING CALLPORT VALEby Alex Campbell

STOKE CITYby Martin Spinks

sports.editor@thesentinel.co.uk

sponsored by Davis apologisesfor Alex display

Pages 48 & 49

HIT AND MISS:Chelsea strikerFernandoTorres has beenhaving a leantime in front ofgoal sincejoining fromLiverpool.

FANS turned out to supporttheir stricken club last nightafter Stoke-on-Trent CityCouncil applied to the HighCourt to put Port Vale intoa d m i n i s t r at i o n .

Just a few hours after thehearing in Birmingham, 5,197supporters watched the Vali-ants beat local rivals BurtonAlbion 3-0 at Vale Park.

Among the spectators wasthe leader of the Labour-runcity council, Mohammed Per-vez, pictured below, whowarned that the future of theclub was still far from certain.

He said: “The stark choicewe faced was liquidation oradministration. Liquidationwould have meant the imme-diate end to Port Vale FC and130 years of history.

“Throughout this process wehave always kept our focus onprotecting the public pursewhile trying to safeguard thefuture of Port Vale.

“We need to make it clearwe ’ve opened a window ofopportunity, but we will stillneed to find an investor who isable offer a viable and sustain-able future for the club.

“Without this, liquidationcould well be on the tableag ain.

“The administrator will talkto potential investors and theywill make a recommendation.

“The council does have aveto and depending on whatoptions are brought forwardwill determine whether we usethat power.

“The club is in a time of needand I would ask fans, local com-munities and businesses in thecity to rally round.”

Vale are believed tohave debts of up to£4m, including the£1.8m balance of a£2.25m city councilloan and an unpaidtax bill of up to£140,000 for whichthey face a winding-uppetition from HMRevenue andC u s t o m s.

The High Court heard a citycouncil application to appointBob Young, Steve Currie andGerald Krasner of BegbiesTraynor as joint administrat-ors from Friday.

The authority has agreed topay £500,000 to cover the club’srunning costs, including play-ers’ wages, for the next threem o n t h s.

It will also pay for the cost ofadministration, understood tobe around £100,000.

But administration will givethe city council, Vale’s biggestcreditor, a much better chanceof being repaid its £1.8m.

Young, who was also jointadministrator when Vale werein a similar situation in 2002,said: “Our first priority is tolook at every aspect of the oper-ation in order to stabilise thebusiness and allow the club toremain trading until at leastthe end of the season.

“This can only be done byreducing all outgoings untilthey are covered by the incomegenerated by the club.

“Once stabilising the busi-ness has been completed, wewill be looking to initiate con-versations with potential buy-ers, and hope this process willdeliver an offer that can beconsidered by the creditors ofthe company.

“During the course of ourduties, we will establish theunderlying reasons for the fail-ure of the business, and willinvestigate any matters thatare brought to our attention.”

The application means allincome generated, includ-ing gate receipts from lastnight’s game, will go towardthe club’s survival.

However, once adminis-tration is confirmed the club

will suffer a 10-point Foot-ball League penalty,

effectively endingtheir promo-tion hopes.

Va l e ’s remaining boardmembers – Mike Lloyd, PerryDeakin and Glenn Oliver – willalso relinquish control of thecl u b.

The city council, which is inthe midst of making cuts of£24m in its 2012/13 budget, ispressing for a clause in anydeal to sell the club whichwould require the new owners

to pay back the bailout fundsimmediately and in full.

It is also considering legalguarantees to ensure Vale Parkis not sold off or used for any-thing other than football byany new owners.

It is understood it will explorethe possibility of a lease whichwould transfer the ground tocouncil ownership should

attempts be made to use it foranything other than football.

Suppor ters’ Club chairmanPete Williams said last night:“We thank the city council fortheir help. We will support theadministrators by requestingour members get through thegates and do as much fund-raising as possible to getthrough this difficult time.”

Pole-vaulter Lewis on the up as challenges beckon – Page 44

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LIGHT RELIEF: Louis Dodds, right, is congratulated by Tom Pope after scoring the second goal in PortVale’s 3-0 win over Burton last night. Match report: Pages 50 & 51. Picture: Shaun Smith

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