The 2016–17 season was Port Vale's 105th season of football in the English Football League, and fourth-successive season in EFL League One. Vale finished in 21st place – one point from safety – and were relegated.
The club underwent a complete transformation of the playing and managerial team, with 16 players coming in (plus two on loan) and 16 players going out throughout the summer. Ten new arrivals came from European leagues outside the UK, and bookmakers predicted the club would be relegated. However, chairman Norman Smurthwaite expected the team to push for the play-offs under the stewardship of new manager Bruno Ribeiro. Vale were knocked out of the EFL Cup by League Two side Carlisle United. They failed to make it out of the group stages of the EFL Trophy as they were unable to score against League Two clubs Doncaster Rovers and Mansfield Town. Ribeiro, the club's first foreign manager, resigned on Boxing Day, with the club languishing in 17th place.
Assistant manager Michael Brown stepped in as caretaker manager, but was unable to arrest Vale's slide down the table. The club had a poor January transfer window, losing top-scoring loanee striker Alex Jones, star goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, and reigning Player of the Year Anthony Grant. Despite failing to score in six of their final seven games, the fight against relegation went to the last day of the season at Fleetwood Town, but a 0–0 draw was not enough to escape the drop. After relegation was confirmed, Smurthwaite announced that he was stepping down as chairman.
Overview
EFL League One Following the decision of Rob Page to leave Port Vale to manage Northampton Town at the end of the 2015–16 campaign, many names were linked with the Vale job. Chairman Norman Smurthwaite hinted of three "outstanding" candidates, which The Sentinel reported as being Brian Little, Paul Dickov, and José Morais. Bookmakers initially listed Michael Brown as the odds-on favourite, before switching to Morais, then Shefki Kuqi, and then Bruno Ribeiro. Ribeiro was appointed as manager on 20 June, with Michael Brown as his assistant, and Peter Farrell as first-team coach. He made Dutch centre-back Kjell Knops his first signing of the season, who had spent the previous five years in the Eerste Divisie with MVV Maastricht. A day later, Curaçao under-20 striker Rigino Cicilia was signed after being released by Dutch side Roda JC Kerkrade. The next to join were French midfielders Quentin Pereira and Anthony de Freitas. Another Dutch-based centre-back, Calvin Mac-Intosch, was then signed from Cambuur.
The next trio to arrive were all Portuguese: midfielder Paulo Tavares and left-back Kiko, both from Vitória Setúbal, and striker Carlos Saleiro from Oriental. A ninth new arrival followed, Chris Mbamba, a Zimbabwean-born former Sweden under-17 international winger from Norwegian 2. divisjon club HamKam. A pair of English players then joined the club, former Premier League veteran winger Jerome Thomas and 22-year-old former Blackburn Rovers forward Anton Forrester. Bookmakers made Vale second favourites for relegation, though Smurthwaite intimated that he expected the club to reach the play-offs. Andy Smith was confirmed as the club's new first-team coach whilst the club decided to not hire Peter Farrell after all; Farrell only found out the news on his future after he heard it reported on the radio, and said "It would have been more respectful if someone had the decency to ring me up rather than leave it for 10 days". The club's Player of the Year, Anthony Grant, then submitted a transfer request. The playing squad however, continued to grow, with a 12th signing, Monaco reserve team captain Sébastien Amoros, signing a 12-month contract. The signing of 20-year-old midfielder Nathan Ferguson then took the club to 13 new players, and Ribeiro said he wanted to further expand the squad by securing the services of veteran trialist Nathan Tyson. However, he lost a player, as right-back Adam Yates was ruled out of action for seven months with an ankle cruciate ligament injury. Ribeiro broke with tradition by naming three players as joint-captains: goalkeeper Jak Alnwick, veteran full-back Ben Purkiss, and star midfielder Anthony Grant.
Nine players made their debut for the club on the opening day of the season at Valley Parade, as Vale held Bradford City to a 0–0 draw. Ribeiro planned to strengthen his team further though, and was hopeful of signing another goalkeeper, striker, winger and left-back. He achieved one of his targets by bringing in young Birmingham City striker Alex Jones on loan until January. Ribeiro went on to achieve his first win as Vale manager with a 2–0 victory over a poor Southend United side on 13 August. Despite only joining the club six weeks ago, Carlos Saleiro agreed to have his contract cancelled by mutual consent as he "found it difficult to adjust to life in the country". The good results kept coming though, and impressive young defender Nathan Smith scored a headed goal as Vale extending their run of league clean sheets to three games with a 1–0 win over Rochdale.> In a bizarre revelation, The Sun newspaper reported that Mario Balotelli could join the Vale on loan; the story was ridiculed by local journalists and fans on social media. Vale conceded their first league goal in a 1–0 defeat at Swindon Town on 20 August, despite Ribeiro's view that Vale were the better side on the day. Northampton Town boss Rob Page was allowed to sign JJ Hooper on a five-month loan deal starting from 22 August, after the striker began the season on the right-wing for Vale. Later that night a grenade was found at Vale Park, which was later determined to be a training device from World War II. With Kiko and Yates both injured, Ribeiro signed Liverpool Academy left-back Sam Hart on a season-long loan. He also signed 29-year-old former Northern Ireland striker Martin Paterson, who had been a free agent after leaving Blackpool. Vale continued their excellent start to the campaign by beating Scunthorpe United 3–1; substitutes Paterson, Hart and Amoros all made their first appearances for the club in the game, with the latter two players making their first appearances in professional football. Vale rounded off the month with two deadline day signings: Portuguese goalkeeper Miguel Santos from Benfica B and Swiss attacker Gëzim Shalaj from Enosis Neon Paralimni. Nathan Smith was named as the Football League Young Player of the Month for August.
Vale opened September by losing 4–1 to Bury in rain-soaked conditions at Gigg Lane; Ribeiro blamed himself for his players' poor performance, saying it was his job to instil the right attitude into the team before the match. Vale recovered and went on to claim a point at Peterborough United after Alex Jones converted a penalty in stoppage time to level the scores at 2–2. Visitors Gillingham led 1–0 at Vale Park on 17 September, before Vale turned round the game completely to achieve a 2–1 victory; manager Justin Edinburgh told the media that he believed the crowd had influenced the referee, to which Jerome Thomas responded on social media by displaying his bruised and bloodied shin. Vale then found themselves in the reverse situation at the Memorial Stadium, going from a 1–0 lead to an ultimate 2–1 defeat after Bristol Rovers equalised on 43 minutes. The perfect home form continued with a 3–1 victory over Millwall. Alex Jones was nominated for the EFL League One Player of the Month award for August and September after scoring six goals in eight games.
Coventry City manager Tony Mowbray resigned days before Coventry travelled to Vale Park for their fixture on 1 October. Vale were beaten 2–0 to lose their 100% home record and to give Coventry their first league win of the season. Vale's fixture at Milton Keynes Dons was shown live on Sky TV, and the Daily Mirror reported that Ribeiro paid £1,500 out of his own pocket to pay for a hotel stay for the team before the game as Smurthwaite refused to pay for the trip out of club funds. Smurthwaite refuted the newspaper's claim, saying he paid for the hotel accommodation out of his own pocket. The investment paid off as Vale scored their first goal at Stadium mk and recorded their first away victory of the season with a 1–0 win. However, they then put in a poor performance at Bramall Lane, losing 4–0 to Sheffield United despite United having three goals disallowed. They seemed to be heading for another defeat at home to Charlton Athletic, before they managed a late comeback to achieve a 1–1 draw. Former Wigan Athletic and Newcastle United defender Ryan Taylor then joined the club on a short-term deal. He made his debut at home to Oxford United, and scored the equalising goal from the penalty spot as Vale came back from two goals down at half-time; Oxford had dominated the game in the first half before Vale initiated a more direct game plan in the second half. Vale could not repeat the feat after going 3–0 down at high-flying Bolton Wanderers after 16 minutes, though did manage to score a consolation goal to make the score a respectable 3–1.
Vale moved back into the play-offs on 12 November after coming from behind to beat Fleetwood Town 2–1 at Vale Park. Fleetwood boss Uwe Rösler said that "Port Vale rode their luck today and I look like Father Christmas so they got a gift today from us". However, Grant was sent off for two bookable offences and suspended for a total of six games and fined £2,000 after he returned to the field after the match to argue with the referee on the full-time whistle. Vale then suffered a 2–0 defeat at Charlton, and dropped down to 11th-position. On 22 November, Vale came from behind at home to struggling Oldham Athletic to lead the game with a late strike from Cicilia, only for Oldham to score an equalising goal deep into stoppage time. They ended the month two points outside the play-offs after playing out a 0–0 draw with last-placed Shrewsbury Town.
Rob Page returned to Vale Park as manager of Northampton Town for the first time on 10 December, and masterminded a 3–2 victory to leapfrog the Vale, who sank to 15th place. The poor form worsened with a 4–0 defeat at AFC Wimbledon that could have been much heavier without some fine goalkeeping from Alnwick. This caused Smurthwaite to declare that 'Plan B' had been triggered, meaning the signing of "seasoned, higher grade" players, whilst he admitted he felt "a little bit hoodwinked" as Ribeiro's friends in the game (José Mourinho, Aitor Karanka, and Carlos Carvalhal) had provided him with glowing references but had thus far failed to lend any of their players to the Vale. Out of form Walsall then inflicted a 1–0 Boxing Day defeat on the Vale. This proved to be too much for Ribeiro, who announced his resignation hours later; Michael Brown was placed in temporary charge. Brown's first match in charge was a 1–0 home victory over Chesterfield.