Port Vale's Rebuild: Ben Garrity Offered New Deal
Relegation has a way of stripping a club back to its essentials. At Port Vale, one of those essentials is Ben Garrity.
The 29-year-old captain has been offered a new contract as the club prepares for life back in League Two, a clear signal that Jon Brady wants his leader at the heart of a summer reset that will touch almost every corner of the squad.
Garrity, an attacking midfielder who arrived from Blackpool in June 2021, has become a constant in a period of sharp swings in fortune at Vale Park. He has racked up 198 appearances in all competitions and was a driving force in the promotion to League One in 2024-25. This season never really caught fire for him after a disrupted pre-season, yet he still featured 28 times.
Talks are ongoing. For a fanbase bruised by a grim campaign that ended with a 22nd-place finish, 10 points from safety, his decision will feel like a first verdict on the club’s new direction.
Contract calls and quiet wins
While Garrity weighs up his future, Vale have moved decisively elsewhere. Defender Connor Hall and midfielder Ryan Croasdale will both remain at the club for the 2026-27 season after extensions in their deals were triggered.
It’s not headline-grabbing business, but it is the kind of groundwork that shapes a dressing room. Hall brings steel, Croasdale brings legs and balance. Brady will need both as he tries to turn a relegated squad into a promotion contender in the space of one summer.
Clear-out of promotion heroes
The loyalty of the promotion side has met the cold edge of reality. Seven players from the group that came up from League Two under Darren Moore two seasons ago are being released: Ben Amos, Mitch Clark, Ben Heneghan, Jesse Debrah, Sam Hart, Ben Lomax and Funso Ojo.
They are joined on the way out by Arron Davies, Tyler Magloire, Grant Ward and Andre Gray.
It is a hard cut. A reminder that the glow of past success fades quickly when a team slides back down the ladder. For some of those players, promotion with Vale will remain a career high. For the club, it is now just a reference point in a rebuild that has to be sharper and more durable.
Transfer list signals fresh start
The reset does not stop with expiring contracts. Goalkeeper Marko Marosi and midfielder Jordan Shipley, both of whom signed two-year deals at the start of the season, have been made available for transfer. So have Rico Richards and Ruari Paton.
That kind of move is always telling. These are not fringe academy products quietly shuffled aside; they are players backed not long ago as part of the club’s medium-term plan. Brady clearly wants room to reshape the wage bill and the spine of his side, even if it means accepting that some recent bets have not paid off.
What remains
When the dust settles on the departures and the transfer list, Vale will have 19 players under contract going into the summer. It is a base, not a finished squad.
There is experience in there. There is also scar tissue from a season that never really climbed out of trouble. The task now is to add quality, energy and a bit of edge in key areas, while persuading Garrity to stay as the figurehead of a new push.
League Two can be unforgiving for clubs who assume they will bounce straight back. Port Vale have chosen to act early, to be brutal where they feel they must, and to anchor their rebuild around a captain they hope will sign on again.
Whether that gamble pays off will define the next chapter at Vale Park.
