Torquay United Fans Forum

If he is playing to his potential then he is definitely worth a punt, we never really saw that after he signed permanently for us.

It's possible that a player can do badly at one club but shine at another. Or he can go through a lean spell for various reasons, but then regain his old form, or realise his true potential. So he's certainly worth a try.

Please don't let yourselves be fooled, he's a complete waste of time.

good grief !

I know its only against Cirencester Town but I see that Billy Bodin has scored a hattrick in the first 25 minutes tonight.Some who are at the game are saying he is well worth signing.

It's easy to make excuses for Billy. He contributed little in the two seasons he was a Gulls player. I think Hector is right - he's a confidence player. In a side doing well, he will shine as he did when he was on loan with us. When he returned to his home club, Swindon, after his loan spell, Di Canio was in charge and I suspect that the Di Canio method of 'management' did not help a player of Bodin's temperament.

His serious injury as we know was as a result of a horrific challenge by the former Nothampton player, Ravenshill (several red cards to his name), which deserved a straight red card but didn't even merit a foul in the ref's eyes ! I hope Bodin is given some sort of chance at Rovers - he deserves a change of furtune. He could well fall into the Paul Cox class of players - a player that deserves a second chance.

I find it surprising how negative our fans are in general of Billy.

He's a very talented player, but like all flairy wingers, he needs to be in a good team. That team last season was diabolical I must say, and no one stood out at all, let alone players in the position that require the most support. Injuries can't have helped either, nor the pressure of the price tag our fans put on him.

With good coaching in a settled team, there's no doubt he could play at a higher level - are we forgetting that first season we had him? He was brilliant because our manager had a system that suited and supported him.

A great talent but sadly he is not up to the rough and tumble environment of lower league football.

As crazy as it seems, in a half decent championship team he would probably do well.

With his disruptive international career now probably history, I hope he can earn himself a contact on merit and do well for himself.

[quote="forevertufc"]Wonder whether we've missed an obvious connection in the form of Lee Mansell, strikes me that perhaps Billy Bodin is on trial at Rovers on a recommendation from Mansell. Sometimes I feel us TUFC fans are little unforgiving and at times unfair.

I remember us being sat in 2nd place and many of us fans being devastated when Billy Bodin was recalled by Swindon, also remember Billy Bodin spending the second half of that season at Crewe, a club that was no where when he arrived and got promoted ahead of us, both us and Crewe fans wanted our respective club s to sign him, we were delighted when he choose us ahead of Crewe who also tried to sign him.

Not sure want this obsession is with every player having to run around the pitch flying into tackles every 5 seconds, Billy Bodin is not that type of player and never will be, if you want a player to get on the ball and make things happen, he can, could be that type of player. Billy Bodin has a flaw, confidence, he is a confidence player, when he's on it, Swindon, Torquay/Crewe loan he's as good as anything you'll find at this level, when he's not he does struggle, as we saw.

He's had a serious injury, one that could have cost him his career, not nice experience for any player, the lad deserves a break, hope he gets it and wish him well.[/quote]

I would agree with the above - Bodin was all about confidence and I had also thought about the Mansell link.

At the moment, Bodin's confidence is probably shot. His two seasons with Torquay were very poor and then last season he barely featured anywhere. Add his quite serious injury into the mix and I think he will be a sort of poor man's Martin Phillips, one who will never quite hit the heights he was meant to. When Bodin was here on loan he looked electric.

Sadly, it was never the same again after he signed a contract for us.

Thanks for all your replies. From what i have read here I would imagine it will be 2 weeks and that will be the last we hear of it because DC is pretty ruthless on handing out contracts which is good after years of paying well over the top for rank average players. I wish you all the best for this season and hope that you can force your way back into the league. I believe you now have a Manager who could well do that because I think he is a Manager who wont sign big names but will make good signings who will make a career in the lower leagues. Good luck.

Wonder whether we've missed an obvious connection in the form of Lee Mansell, strikes me that perhaps Billy Bodin is on trial at Rovers on a recommendation from Mansell. Sometimes I feel us TUFC fans are little unforgiving and at times unfair.

I remember us being sat in 2nd place and many of us fans being devastated when Billy Bodin was recalled by Swindon, also remember Billy Bodin spending the second half of that season at Crewe, a club that was no where when he arrived and got promoted ahead of us, both us and Crewe fans wanted our respective club s to sign him, we were delighted when he choose us ahead of Crewe who also tried to sign him.

Not sure want this obsession is with every player having to run around the pitch flying into tackles every 5 seconds, Billy Bodin is not that type of player and never will be, if you want a player to get on the ball and make things happen, he can, could be that type of player. Billy Bodin has a flaw, confidence, he is a confidence player, when he's on it, Swindon, Torquay/Crewe loan he's as good as anything you'll find at this level, when he's not he does struggle, as we saw.

He's had a serious injury, one that could have cost him his career, not nice experience for any player, the lad deserves a break, hope he gets it and wish him well.

Disagree slightly with Burnham. I've seen Bodin work hard, I've seen him track back to be fair but what I haven't seen is tangible productivity. Neither have Crewe before us nor Northampton after (although he rarely got on the field of play. Reason?).

IMO his addition would be a complete disaster. League 2 last season was brutal. There is no space. Rovers aren't likely to be confidently steamrollering teams willy nilly and knocking it about like Barcelona, conditions Bodin will prefer if he's to achieve anything at all on the green stuff.

Also the added pressure on him to do well at a club with a much larger fanbase whilst at the same time trying to get back on track will also be an issue. I just don't think he's a strong enough character mentally to learn what isn't working for him and improve on it and ultimately to turn his career around.

For his sake I hope he does. It doesn't matter either way to me. This is my view anyway.

Plenty of talent but a shame that he failed to reproduce the same form from his loan spell previous

A very very very poor mans Ronaldo........

He was all about the hair gel. I'll never forget watching him pre-season at Weston Super Mare a couple of years ago, He had a great sun tan, enough hair product to make his hair solid and still produced nothing. Even their defenders didn't fall for the step overs.....

Doesn't work hard enough, doesn't tackle, doesn't track back but probably wants a decent wage.

Good luck with him.

I think Bodin has talent, but for various reasons it didn't work out here.

His best spell with us was on loan when he was played in a favourable formation and in a team playing well. I think he looks good if the team are strong and playing with confidence. When he signed we were involved in two relegation fights and I don't think he was the type of player to knuckle down, and got lost quite often in games.