Torquay United Fans Forum

[quote="portugull"]I apologise to Ferrarilover if my post came over as whinging. At no stage did I claim to be a scouting genius. At no stage did I claim to know more about the game than PB or his team of scouts. I think your post is extremely negative and not at all helpful. [color=#BF0000]Perhaps you would prefer it if some of us exiles refrained from comment[/color].[/quote]

Yes I would. Foreigners, gays, women, the other lot we're no longer allowed to joke about, the lot of you, just bloody well keep to yourselves. The internet is for white, English, middle-class males only. Let that be an end to it!

Porta, I was only kidding mate, it was mock-anger, like mock-turtle soup, but less delicious. It's not the worst idea I have ever heard, I just don't think it will ever be more than an idea purely because of factors of which I am unaware. I guess that if it was a viable option, clubs would have figured it our long ago and acted accordingly upon it. Judging by the obvious complexities of registering a loanee from another club in the same division based barely 200 miles away, I can only barely conceive of the abject horror of the paperwork of registering a Portuguese player on a regular transfer from a club 2000 miles away. The costs, we imagine, would be enormous and you have to wonder about the situation from the player's point of view. It's not like the Premier League (what a misnomer that is, by the way, the Shameful League more like) where the incentive for a man to move thousands of miles away from his friends, family and loved ones, to a country with shitty weather, bad food, an incomprehensible language, needlessly high cost of living etc is a weekly salary of £250,000. We would be asking these guys to live in a totally alien environment for the princely sum of £30,000 a year, hardly worth it really.

Now, Johnny foreigner, back to your siesta or eating dog or whatever oddity it is that you have all the way down there!

Matt.

Torquay need to do what I do on Football Manager, buy 11 awesome foreigners, they're cheaper, better and want less wages than their English counterparts. My back four is the entire Namibian defence.

I apologise to Ferrarilover if my post came over as whinging. At no stage did I claim to be a scouting genius. At no stage did I claim to know more about the game than PB or his team of scouts. I think your post is extremely negative and not at all helpful. Perhaps you would prefer it if some of us exiles refrained from comment.

It was indeed.

Is that in reference to the E-Mail thing? Coz I spotted that too, but left it in anyway.

Matt.

[quote="ferrarilover"]Then stop whinging about it on here and [b]E-Mail the club[/b]. If you're lourded as a scouting genius, I'll eat my hat, if not, my theory about PB and his team of scouts knowing more about the game than you stands.

Matt.[/quote]

:whistle:

Then stop whinging about it on here and E-Mail the club. If you're lourded as a scouting genius, I'll eat my hat, if not, my theory about PB and his team of scouts knowing more about the game than you stands.

Matt.

I guess the response was predictable. It will be difficult, it wont work, it wont suit our style of play, housing problems. Why then has Eunan O`Kane been such a success. Ok he is not Portuguese but he came over from Ireland, had to find accommodation, is a physical lightweight, but he has class, skill, and possibly against all odds has now established himself in the team because of his ability.

I am not suggesting we need 11 highly skilled players in league 2 but I promise you 2 or 3 skillful players can transform an average team into a very good one.

Every day the world becomes a smaller place and there is now more and more movement of professional footballers not only between one country and another but between continents.

I know little of our scouting system but I do believe there are many players available without a transfer fee if clubs like United just broadened their horizons. Exeter to Faro is 2 hours which is probably a lot less time than it takes for John Milton to drive to London to watch a prospective player.

[quote="RussianGull"]

Look where it got us though, straight up, then down, twice.[/quote]

To be fair though, that was more the board and the lack of money to strengthen the team, rather than the style of football.

[quote="robc"]RussianGull - Did I imagine us getting promotion in 2004 playing attractive, passing football?[/quote]

Look where it got us though, straight up, then down, twice.

Bruno Mereilles did look a decent enough player. My opinion of the couple of times I saw him was that he was almost always trying to find the killer ball rather than keeping it simple. He certainly didn't look out of place.

However it was in the days when our transfer policy was revolving door - no doubt due to the financial restricitons imposed on Leroy. I think we had a JPT (or whatever it was called then) when Leroy started both Bruno and Ashley Keane. I think they were both subbed by half time and never to be seen again, with leroy saying something along the lines of "some players had been on at me to get a game, I give them a chance and that is what they show me". Perhaos it was Bruno who rated himself slightly higher than Leroy did.

[quote="happytorq"]Anybody remember Bruno Mereilles? Wasn't he portuguese? He looked like he had a lot of talent but he just couldn't use it, even in league 1. Let's face it, the main thing that teams of our level need is somebody who can take a kick or two.[/quote]

Good point, he did look to have some ability and it was a shame things didn't quite work our for him. Similar story with Khalid Chalqi (though not Portuguese obviously), another player from the continent that looked able to deal with the physicality of the English game, but with a decent technique.

Anybody remember Bruno Mereilles? Wasn't he portuguese? He looked like he had a lot of talent but he just couldn't use it, even in league 1. Let's face it, the main thing that teams of our level need is somebody who can take a kick or two.

The problem with teams like Torquay buying cheap foreign players are the costs involved mainly, most clubs will have to help provide some sort of housing for the players who have never been in England before, and we would probably have to pay some kind of transfer fee (how many times do we do that with English players?!). The few occasions you see foreign players in teams like Torquay is when they have already been playing for another English team and generally, they aren't small, skillful players. They are French players who (without trying to sound racist) are black, 6 foot 4 and built like brick sh*thouses, play upfront and generally play like Emile Heskey except even less talented.

As much as I would love to see some decent Portuguese wingers come in and dominate L2, the costs would probably outweigh the possible transfer fee we might get, assuming they don't become homesick, play badly then bugger off.

RussianGull - Did I imagine us getting promotion in 2004 playing attractive, passing football?