Robbie Williams prepares shock bid to buy Port Vale | OneFootball

Worldwide superstar Robbie Williams could be set to take over his beloved Port Vale in the coming weeks after becoming the club's president at the weekend.

Williams, who made his fame as a member of famous UK band Take That, has embarked on a strong solo career away from the group and is one of the most recognisable singers of the late 20th and early 21st century across the globe - though that hasn't allowed him to forget his roots in Burslem.

Williams became president of the Staffordshire side at the weekend in a huge move for himself personally, and with reports on Wednesday suggesting that the singer is set to lead a consortium to buy the League One outfit in a bid to strengthen in the future, his involvement may yet increase.

A report by The Sun states that Williams is lining up a shock bid to buy Port Vale, the team he has supported from childhood.

Williams, 49, has been backed by a consortium to help take control of the club, which supposedly could garner a TV spin-off in the ilk of ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ and ‘Sunderland Til I Die’, which were both huge hits at promoting lower league football. Having been named as the club’s president at the weekend, Williams then teased a potential takeover in Burslem by posing with a team shirt, with the caption ‘Up The Vale’.

However, the club have been quick to deny any potentially possibility of Williams buying the club by producing a statement on Wednesday, which read: “We are aware of the ‘exclusive’ news that has appeared in several national news outlets overnight and want to clarify the following.

“Robbie Williams has not made a bid to purchase Port Vale Football Club and there have been no conversations regarding that happening. Robbie and his team attended the match this past weekend where he became Club President and officially opened the suite that is now named after him.

“There are a number of positive club projects that both Carol and Robbie are exploring with the intention of anything delivered being in the best interests of Port Vale Football Club. As owners of the club, the Shanahan family remain fully committed to Port Vale.”

Robbie Williams' previous football endeavours

Having played at Vale Park in a 2001 testimonial, whilst also helping design the club’s shirts in 2020/21 and even co-creating Soccer Aid - an annual event at Old Trafford which boasts celebrities and former professionals facing each other to raise money for charity - Williams has had more than enough involvement in football to know the ins and outs of buying a club; in which he founded his own Los Angeles-based side in 2005, aptly named Los Angeles Vale.

He said at the weekend, after being named president: “My life is bizarre and wonderful and has taken many turns and twists and to find myself from the Railway Paddock to be ‘El Presidente’ is pretty special. It feels as though I need to be doing more in and around this place.”

Born in Stoke in 1974, Williams’ parents ran a pub named the ‘Red Lion’ in Burslem, before they then became the licensees of the Port Vale FC Social Club. Williams even bought £240,000-worth of shares in the club back in February 2006 which made him the largest shareholder at the club; though the club entered administration back in 2012 and he lost his initial investment.

Whilst Vale are generally on an upwards trajectory having been promoted via the play-offs back in 2021-22, and easy escaping relegation down to the fourth-tier at the end of last season, they are currently in the midst of a relegation battle. Vale sit three points clear of Reading, who occupy the final relegation spot in 21st position - and if it wasn't for the Royals' off-field troubles and subsequent points deductions, they would be firmly in the bottom four and staring down the barrel at a return to League Two.

Manager Andy Crosby was able to bring in a plethora of players in the summer, including the likes of Conor Grant, Alex Iacovitti, Connor Ripley and Jason Lowe, alongside the impressive loan captures of Alfie Devine, Jensen Weir and Rhys Williams in the early stages of the current January transfer window. But further investment - regardless of division or timing - could help Crosby plan for the future heading into next season and beyond.

Vale are, at least in recent history, a team that have floated between the third and fourth divisions, with their best finish of memory in recent times being an eighth-placed finish in the second-tier back in 1996-97, where they missed out on the play-offs by just four points.