Opinion: head of recruitment still in post and still silent after three transfer window failings

1 vote Rob Fielding says it's odd that the head of recruitment Lee Darnborough is staying silent and seemingly looks unaccountable after three miserable transfer windows for the club. Rob Fielding writes… So who is to blame for Port Vale being bottom of League Two? Is it the players? The manager? The owners? The recruitment team? Perhaps all of them… However, while players, owners and manager have all been subject to much criticism, there is the strange case of head of recruitment Lee Darnborough to consider. He's someone who has staying in the background, giving no interviews that I know of – yet he's arguably played the key role in Port Vale's transfer activity since 2025. It's worrying that important position has not had its targets and responsibilities spelt out and appears to not be accountable. Darnborough left Stoke City after heavy criticism of his work in the January 2025 transfer window. During that window the Potters managed to bring in just two loan players. But has his record at Vale Park been any better? Let's take a look… Summer 2025 Darnborough arrived to support Darren Moore in June 2025 but it's worth remembering that the club's summer recruitment was heavily criticised and played a key role in the club being relegated. Vale started the season with three first-choice keepers, seven players competing for left wingback and yet only three recognised centre-halves. It was a summer that saw club stalwart Nathan Smith depart and the likes of Jordan Shipley and Mo Faal brought in. It was also a window that saw Rico Richards brought in on a permanent deal and then promptly loaned out. January 2026 It could be argued that as Darnborough only joined in June, he may not have been responsible for all the summer moves. However, by the time the new year window opened, he'd been in post for six months. The January window was widely regarded as a disaster (although it could be argued that Vale's lowly position hampered their ability to strengthen their squad). Nevertheless, the departure of Ronan Curtis and Devante Cole dramatically weakened the side with new arrivals such as Andre Gray, Grant Ward and Tyler Magloire unimpressive. Summer 2026 By this summer, Darnborough had been in post for twelve months. Many fans will say the focus should have been obvious – getting goals into the side. In that respect, Vale seem to have failed miserably. Despite manager Jon Brady saying the club would need to spend to get quality upfront, the forward additions consist of two former trialists (both unfit) and four rookie loanees. It saw the club hit bottom place in the Football League last Tuesday night. So, where does this leave Darnborough? Well, one could argue that as there's been no interviews there's no culpability simply because no-one knows the head of recruitment's thoughts and plans. Recently the club appointed Martin Foyle as chief scout – could that impact on Darnborough's position? Foyle's approach has been markedly different to that of the head of recruitment. For one thing, Foyle has spoken to the media and what he had to say was interesting. The former Vale striker pointed out that targets for the summer were in place before he joined and that he feels that going forward, the club will need permanent forward signings not loan ones. Interesting comments, one might say. In this fan's view, Darnborough's position seems similar to that of director of football David Flitcroft some years ago. Neither have done enough to justify what is presumably a well renumerated role. Flitcroft was at least responsible for the signings of Ollie Arblaster and Alfie Devine on loan (but when both left in January the team's form fell apart). However, other signings were mostly failures and his other notable action was recommending the removal of Darrell Clarke and the appointment of Darren Moore. Perhaps the club should have remember the old adage 'once bitten' when they considered bringing in Darnborough. There's an argument whether a lower league club needs or can even afford the position especially one who doesn't appear to want to be accountable to fans and whose career success rate appears to have been poor. After all, to answer the question posed at the top of this article – following three poor transfer windows, surely the head of recruitment is the person who bears the most responsibility for those failures?