Famous Players – The 2010’s

Carl Dickinson

Former Stoke City and Watford defender Dickinson was signed for the Vale by manager Micky Adams, initially on a one year contract in July 2013.  Capable of playing at left back or centre back, Adams was confident that Carl’s experience at a higher level would be important and his no-nonsense approach to the game quickly endeared him to the Vale supporters.

Following a successful first season with the Valiants, Carl signed a new 2-year contract and was made captain at the start of the 2014-15 season. However, following his poor start to the season, he was dropped from the starting line for a short period claiming that the captaincy had affected his game.

He made a good start to 2015-16 and was ever present until the new year until he was dismissed for an off the ball incident. He was offered a new contract at the end of the season but as this included a much reduced salary he decided to leave to sign for Notts County where he played for 2 seasons.

Carl subsequently played 3 seasons for Yeovil Town and continued to play in non-League for a number of years, more recently at Hanley Town as player- manager and Congleton Town.

Carl was named as Vale’s second best left-back of the 2010s in a public poll taken in January 2020 by The Sentinel newspaper. He received 40% of the vote just behind Lee Collins.