Bratt: Constantine should stay

Vale Chairman Bill Bratt has told ‘The Sentinel’ that he would be prepared to let Leon Constantine leave the club for free in the summer – in return for thirty goals this season.

Bratt is quoted in ‘The Sentinel’ as saying: ‘leon is a Port Vale player and we hope he can continue as he has in the first half of the season.’

‘If he can get thirty goals, no-one will be more pleased than me. If he then goes on a Bosman in the summer at least he would have achieved that for the club.’

Bratt is getting himself a little upset with some of the ‘silly’ offers that have been made for Constantine and another (unnamed) player.

‘Football is not a game where anyone does you favours. If they can pinch your best players for next to nothing, then clubs will try that. People do try it on and I don’t blame them. If we could get people in for nothing we would – thats just the way it is in football.’

‘We have had phone calls offering silly money for a couple of players, but we can’t give our players away.’

‘We need Leon to try and get us up this season.’

If Leon does reach thirty goals this season he will be the first Vale player to do that since the ’86/’87 season when Vale legend Andy Jones hit 37.


One player who has left Vale is young striker Louis Briscoe. Briscoe has, in the eyes of Manager Martin Foyle, been unable to progress during the past twelve months. Foyle has said that the club will help Louis to find another club.