Torquay United Fans Forum

Be interested to know if Bill Phillips was at Lords over the weekend watching the cricket......

Nah, i'm sure he was researching the candidates!?

Thank you Southampton.

I would very much expect the three of Baker, Phillips and Rowe were given the task of representing the Board as a whole and made the decision amongst themselves.

It may have been the CAPS Porta. They can come across a little AGGRESSIVE, see?

For my part, I'd assume that the vast majority of the board would have to be in agreement, otherwise the appointment is doomed from the start.

Matt.

I thought I asked a legitimate question. The reason I was interested was I worked at Board level for 20 years and I was curious with a large Board how many Directors were closely involved in the appointment. My question had nothing to do with holding Directors accountable.
If you look at another of my posts today I said Martin Ling had much to commend him so doogull I do not need to get real . As for getting over it we have to trust the Boards judgement. I think both Dave Pougher and doogull made unwarrented assumptions about my question. What is the forum for if we cannot ask legitimate questions?

I know Bill pretty well.......as mlw says he's been pretty successful in his business career - hard nosed/ thick skinned, head screwed on? a minimum requirement, of course....

He was a FL linesman for a time and Ref at semi pro level i think......he's been involved in Local sport for donkeys years as well.

I first met him through cricket, when i was a youngster and he was a slightly ageing opening bat, he was and is still, always a good friendly guy to have a chat and a beer with.

Most importantly though, he's TUFC through and through and has been coming to Plainmoor for years......and knows the club and the business world well.

Taunton Gull

Bill Phillips spent most of his career as an executive in the food industry. He ran what was then the St Ivel factory in Paignton and then Devon Desserts in Newton Abbot for a number of years. I worked under him at Newton Abbot for a while and would describe him as a pretty hardnosed businessman with his head firmly screwed on. I believe he did consultancy work more recently but our paths havn't crossed for about eight years. He was of course prominent in local refereeing circles and I think he made league line level but not referee - he used to be called on to referee pre season matches at Plainmoor years ago.

Dave_Pougher wrote:
Although I just can't see Alex Rowe being over the moon with this decision. May be wrong though.

I think you'll find he was, Dave.

my direct answer to you question portugull is,i do not know,it would be speculation,the one thing i think is fair to say the decision would have required a majority vote in favour of the whole board.

I mean this part in a general sense,i posted on here last week ,that i believed the club were beginning to lose control over the playing/football side of things,in these situations it is up to the chairman to stand up and take command,i also said that if MR.Baker was not up to it he should stand aside,well if he has stood up here and helped force this decision through,then fair play to the guy,it was allways going to be a tough choice,somebody at the club had to show some balls and take the decision.

I think us fans have got to get away from talking about the shortlist,the official shortlist has never been made public,also as stated by many we do not know what happened or who was acually interviewed,i have heard many shout for John Hughes,Simon Baker touched on something that i realized,and i think many others did aswell,Hughes football career is almost entirely scottish based his contacts are all north of the border what half way decent scotish footballer was going relocate to Torquay,would Hughes have been right for us,not a chance,it would have been a hopeless mistake in my opinion.

So if ,and i mean a big if,Forster and Baraclough weres till in contention along with Ling,then the club have obviously gone down the road of experience after all Ling does have not far off 300 games under his belt,over inexperience,judging by all the posts i have read these last few weeks,most of us had a manager with football league experience on our wish list,Ling has a proven track record in the football league,yes i did want Forster aswel,however the more i think about this, the more i think the club regardless of what directors did the interviews and made the selection,have got this decision totaly spot on.

From the outset it seems Simon Baker and Bill Phillips have been the main men in overseeing the application and interview process. I would be interested to hear if anyone knows Bill Phillips personally as I don't know a great deal about him. I understand he has worked in football at a local level (assistant referee/Devon FA??) but his appointment seemed to slip under the radar somewhat, certainly as he now appears to be helping make big decisions at the club. I imagine he was probably brought in to replace some of the football experience we lost with Colin Lee??

Having had a day or so to reflect on the appointment whilst he may not be everyone's cup of tea I don't actually think Martin Ling's CV compares that badly at all to the other candidates who were considered. OK he has had a dodgy spell in non-league but I don't think there was anyone else out there with league 2 promotion under their belt. I certainly think he's going to need help making a success of it, a good assistant is key (we await news on Russell) and of course a playing budget. I don't necessarily like the fact that the phrase 'over achievement' has appeared on the OS a few times today. OK, it may be true to a certain extent but I thought we had ended that nonsense when PB left.

Ling's appointment definitely came out of the blue and I am surprised that if he was only interviewed yesterday at the speed in which this has happened. I would be very interested to find out the consultation which took place within the board. They seemed very keen to take their time and then the ML appointment came from nowhere.

why? decision made live with it, and anyway what are you or anyone else gonna do go and tell them off for employing a manager with L2/L1 experience with a very good track record in this division and the one above, get real and get over it.

portugull wrote:Simon Baker our Chairman obviously played the pivotal role in selecting Martin Ling.
Does anyone have a clue as to which other Directors were involved in the interviews and the decision making process?

Not sure why you would be interested in who to hold accountable for the appointment. I suppose ultimately they are all surey collectively responsible.

Although I just can't see Alex Rowe being over the moon with this decision. May be wrong though.

sorry happytorq

Bill Philips

Why the capital letters on all of your thread titles? We can all read - no need to be so dramatic.