Tuesday 8 December 2015 15:56, UK
Port Vale Football Club is officially up for sale, owner Norman Smurthwaite has confirmed.
It is understood Smurthwaite, who is also the club's chairman, has been actively looking for a buyer for some time and made his decision public following the FA Cup defeat to Exeter last weekend.
Smurthwaite, who bought the club and their Vale Park home from administrators in 2012, says he has "let the club down" by trying to run everything himself in order to cut costs and invest in the players.
He recently invested a further £800,000 into the club but has confirmed he will not put any more money into the business and hopes a new owner or consortium comes forward in the immediate future.
Smurthwaite told Sky Sports News HQ: "There are a lot of factors that have brought me to making this announcement.
"Sunday, I thought I was having a heart attack or a stroke at the game. I really was worried about the symptoms I was enduring in the second half. I thought 'crikey, this isn't good' and the pain got worse when I sat down. I couldn't sit down.
"There's been a sequence of events. I think the first red flag, as it were, was in April 14 when there was three chaps by my car in the car-park, something hit me over the head and they started kicking me, which resulted in a loss of two teeth and stitches.
"What they said was 'give Micky Adams a new contract, extend Tom Pope's contract, and leave the club because you're a waste of space', and they left me in a pool of blood and went home.
"My wife wanted me to leave the club there and then, and the incident has left me with a one foot out, one foot in mentality. Then my daughter had a situation in August where some fans confronted her in the car-park, and she took it badly. And my wife has taken time to come back to the stadium.
"The abuse and chanting you get used to, but that set things ticking and asking 'why am I doing it?'
"Owning a football club is a massive challenge and made more so by how I've structured the club. My first priority has been to give the maximum amount of cash to the manager to put something on the pitch that entertains and drives aspirations by results. It's always been my standard to try and get us into the Championship.
"What I was thinking on Sunday was 'if I drop dead today, the club's finished on Monday'."
Smurthwaite personally boarded supporters' coaches to apologise to fans immediately after Saturday's defeat before sounding out manager Rob Page for lengthy talks on the touchline.
Page had told the media his side, who are 11th in League One and four points off the play-offs, had been punching above their weight.
And Smurthwaite said: "I read what Rob said. League-leaders Burton's budget is about 30% less than ours.
"If I thought for one moment we would be punching above our weight I would have kept the £800,000 and spent it on something else."
