Torquay United Fans Forum

[quote="Nick Potkins" post_id=264179 time=1662718940 user_id=315]


Thank you for posting, an interesting read. As I've said before we as a club need to 'think outside the box'; attracting additional monies, creating a bigger profile, while securing the best players we can. Leadership from the very top is needed with a vision to drive change. 💛
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Attracting additional monies. Surely, the easiest way to do this is to change to an artificial pitch, which can be used more than once a fortnight. When, or more likely if, we ever return to the dizzy heights of the FL, we can always return to grass. ;-)

I don’t think there’s no reason we can’t hit a top ten comfy position this year

[quote=budegull1954 post_id=264177 time=1662649479 user_id=23934]
Didn't know which thread to put this in, but a great article by Paul Breen about the future of small clubs like Torquay:

https://www.castrust.org/2022/09/footballs-fawlty-towers-and-the-fight-to-save-small-clubs/
[/quote]

Thank you for posting, an interesting read. As I've said before we as a club need to 'think outside the box'; attracting additional monies, creating a bigger profile, while securing the best players we can. Leadership from the very top is needed with a vision to drive change. 💛

Didn't know which thread to put this in, but a great article by Paul Breen about the future of small clubs like Torquay:

https://www.castrust.org/2022/09/footballs-fawlty-towers-and-the-fight-to-save-small-clubs/

Today was a bit of a wake up call. Big improvements needed throughout.

A lot us will remember Plainmoor in the 80s/90s, we seemed to be forever stuck in Division 4 (Oh to be stuck in League 2 now!) No fees paid out for players, our best one sold every season it seemed.
It felt we had no ambition, but in reality it was spending within our means. I didn't see that as a 20 something!

Expectations. The season after such a near miss can go a few ways. The players could still be shattered mentally and physically, and fall away the falling season. Two things stop that with us, Gary Johnson is one. He just won't tolerate it. The other is losing a few of those players, so bringing in new ones who haven't had to deal with that and reenergising a squad.

Or we use that experience and push on. With other clubs spending, maybe some unknown Dark Horses emerging, Play offs would be a good target.

Expectations are also that we need to be a league club sooner rather than later, what happens at the end of our 5 year plan if we're not.

Hopefully today will see a continuation of our high energy pressing game. Maybe with more pass and move rather than pacy tricky players. Please not hit and hope if it doesn't work straight away.

Lastly, Asa Hall? Our club is famously quiet on the player news front, but has there been anything?

I think we'll finish in the top 8, and give ourselves a shot with the playoffs. Omar and Holman are really intriguing signings, and hopefully will prove masterstrokes. Lapslie seems as solid and dependable midfielder as we could've hoped to sign. I imagine today's starting XI will be:

Halstead
Wynter Lewis Omar Moxey
Little Lapslie Andrews
Holman Wright CLE

A solid team with goalscorers in it. One concern is a definite lack of pace. In Nemane and Whitfield, we have lost that dimension, and Randell also dribbled well (see Wright's 2nd vs Notts County). It'll also be interesting to see how long Moxey keeps Martin out the starting line up. Pointing out the obvious, we also need another central defender to deputise/challenge Lewis and Omar.

For whatever reason we are under the radar this season which is great. Stockport, Notts, Wrexham, Chesterfield have all previously gone into or near administration and it seems haven’t learned the lessons of the past. Only 2 will go which Will crucify those that don’t. Paying a Mullen £5.5k a week will not get you promotion. Likewise the money Stockport are throwing about. We just have to hope like Sutton did last season we remain a tight group and injury free, as the latter cost us promotion. In Johnson we trust, exciting the squad has not 1 loan signing

Saying we ‘blew it’ is a bit strong, i firmly believe it was just the awful injury list we had stopped us winning the league & then we were just unlucky in the final.

Looks like our signings aren’t too bad so hopefully if we have a much injury free season & good loans we can do at offs or more again

Absolutely no expectations whatsoever. We punched well above our weight last season and got lucky on many occasion. The injury situation was unfortunate but it seems to happen to us a lot. Two years running we had 10+ players laid up. From the moment Matt Buse missed his penalty in the PO final I had a feeling of dread that our chance has gone, can't see us ever getting out of this league, we gave ourselves a golden chance and blew it. We won't be among the top boys this season I fear. Hope im proved wrong. Pessimistic I know but that's what 34 years of supporting TUFC will do to you.

[quote=Gull1899 post_id=257744 time=1629473004 user_id=24754]


That’s not a bad attitude to have as a fan, & to some extent I agree- As long as the players/Manager & club do their all I can be content how the cards fall in a season.

But as a club the expectations have to be to improve every season & to be the best we can be so I hope their aiming for promotion & eventually League 1 & one day (call me crazy if you like!) but the Championship too. Plenty of smaller teams have reached that level so why not us, & being in the southwest on the English Riviera I feel like we could carve a niche in a higher league
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I totally agree the clubs expectations should be to improve every season but I was looking at it from a fans perspective. In todays modern game fans have a tendency to see football almost entirely through a financial lens i.e. big spenders higher up the league than lower spenders and get dragged into superiority of wealth and thus expectations. If fans wholly define their player’s quality by the size of their transfer fee or wages then many fans at some clubs are going to be throughly disappointed e.g . Stockport, Notts, Chesterfield and Wrexham. At the end of the season I predict this pressure of expectation to have serious economic repercussions for some of these clubs.

Thats why I say hats off to Sutton fans and their part-time club (albeit the Bar Manager is full-time). They had no automatic promotion expectations last season but were pleasantly surprised to win the league. Fantastic, no expectations by the fans, no demands to spend more or the owners to break the bank to try and reach the land of milk and honey. Nice to see a clubs fans expecting little and just hoping for the best has not gone out of fashion.

[quote=MellowYellow post_id=257738 time=1629458818 user_id=22826]
I remember a time - a fair way back - when TU fans did not really have any real expectations other than hope and dreams of glory,. We just went, we witnessed whatever happened and then returned home again, happy, annoyed or bored.

If we have little or no expectations for the season ahead, we will never be disappointed, but we do stand a chance of being pleasantly surprised which is a happier way to live our football lives instead of forever feeling the club isn’t meeting our expectations.
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That’s not a bad attitude to have as a fan, & to some extent I agree- As long as the players/Manager & club do their all I can be content how the cards fall in a season.

But as a club the expectations have to be to improve every season & to be the best we can be so I hope their aiming for promotion & eventually League 1 & one day (call me crazy if you like!) but the Championship too. Plenty of smaller teams have reached that level so why not us, & being in the southwest on the English Riviera I feel like we could carve a niche in a higher league

I’d say play offs is reasonable expectations every year in this league, & I think it’s a half decent squad we have so who knows! The boys were so close last year where only ab awful injury situation meant we came 2nd rather than 1st in my eyes so I’m quietly confident

Expectations of a Division 3 relegation scrap and hoping someone in the Conference went bust so there was no relegation from the league. Happy days.

I remember a time - a fair way back - when TU fans did not really have any real expectations other than hope and dreams of glory,. We just went, we witnessed whatever happened and then returned home again, happy, annoyed or bored.

If we have little or no expectations for the season ahead, we will never be disappointed, but we do stand a chance of being pleasantly surprised which is a happier way to live our football lives instead of forever feeling the club isn’t meeting our expectations.