Torquay United Fans Forum

Fonda wrote:So it seems now is the time for recriminations and accusations of blame. But where does the fault really lie for our current plight?

Hargreaves is the man in charge, it’s his fault isn’t it?

Others will point the finger at this group of players, suggesting they simply haven’t put in enough graft.

And yet more will suggest the consortium in charge of the club is completely culpable, for focussing their energies on none football matters and neglecting the playing squad.

Of course all these people are culpable to an extent. Mistakes have been made from top to bottom that have contributed to our demise.

There is a massive elephant in the room . . . .

NA Gull wrote:He has made several signings. The only ones that cost money in wages is Showumni, the rest are being paid in full by their parent clubs. CH has not been able to sign the players he wanted as we did not have the money, he has had to beg and borrow kids who clubs wanted to get some game time Hardly ideal in our position.

ferrarilover wrote:

Depends which club you're talking about. In L2, the gate money is much more important than in the Premier League, but the advertising, the money from the big boys, the FA funding, sponsorship, private investment and a host of other things make up a big percentage of the income for small clubs like ours.

Fonda wrote:So it seems now is the time for recriminations and accusations of blame. But where does the fault really lie for our current plight?

Hargreaves is the man in charge, and has completely failed to re-invigorate the playing squad in the way that we all hoped and many expected he would. So it’s his fault isn’t it?

But it was Knill that built the majority of this squad, and the evident apathy within it, so many will maintain that he is the biggest culprit.

Others will point the finger at this group of players, suggesting that there is enough quality within the squad to be more than competitive in this division, and they simply haven’t put in enough graft.

And yet more will suggest the consortium in charge of the club is completely culpable, for focussing their energies on none football matters and neglecting the playing squad.

Of course all these people are culpable to an extent. Mistakes have been made from top to bottom that have contributed to our demise. But arguing about who is most to blame is pointless and isn’t going to help. There is a massive elephant in the room (or rather not in the room). The true route of all evil. Dirty cash. We don’t have any, and increasingly, even at this level, you can’t compete without it.

People will use Accrington as an example of why tiny budgets can compete – but they are one of a decreasing number of exceptions, and I’d hazard a guess their time will come – sooner rather than later. It can certainly be argued that they’ve managed the budget they do have, better than us. But everything finds its level eventually. We are realistically about to find ours, and I don’t think it’ll be long before the likes of Accrington and Dagenham find theirs again too.

Simply, unless there is massive investment (such as at Doncaster for example), teams such as ours can only compete for so long, with the odds stacked so totally against us. It’s stating the obvious, but many seem to have overlooked it – if you can’t afford players as good as those that other clubs have, you’re going to struggle.

So in my opinion the true fault lies with the apathetic population of Torquay (or Torbay in fact). Our club simply can’t support a league team with the income it generates. Could the club have done more to entice greater support? It faces continued criticism that it doesn’t do enough. But the public of Torbay know the club is there. I’m very much of the opinion you can’t create an interest that doesn’t exist. No amount of flyers will get me to a rugby match, and people who don’t like football simply won’t want to go and watch football. They’ve tried incentives (such as the half-season tickets), I wonder how much take-up there was on that? They can only do so much. There isn’t enough interest and for that reason the harsh reality is, we’re going to end up where we deserve to be.

So don’t blame the managers, players or owners. Not completely at least. The fault lies in the apathy of the local population and it has long been so.

ferrarilover wrote:I'm not saying anything about managers or sackings or relegation, except the same thing I've said all along (because it was true). Sacking Knill (had some of our Board not been considerably more slimy than anyone could believe) would have, as near as makes no difference, certainly relegated us. As it is, our Board is comprised of some utterly shameless individuals who think nothing of robbing a little old lady of her pension in order that they may strut about the place as though they might not be a gaggle of complete and utter arseholes.

Not sacking Knill might well have relegated us, but (absenting the arseholes) would definitely have done so and that is where Hector and I differ in our thinking. The predominant difference is that Hec is basing his posts on personal dislike of Knilly and a chunk of guesswork, where as I'm basing mine on actual knowledge (which is why I appear to him to be an Oracle).

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote:Ok Hec, you keep banging that drum, eventually someone will believe you.
Matt.