by royalgull » 19 Mar 2012, 10:50
This may be a post of length so apologies in advance.
I'm not one of those people that normally gets annoyed or upset when Torquay aren't mentioned by the national media. I know that the general public interest of Torquay United is about the same as who is singing for Finland in Eurovision. Other than about 5000 people in the south west and a host of us dotted around the world we aren't a fashionable club or one that immediately everyone wants to hear about....BUT. For me Torquay are the example of how you run a lower league club not just that what Martin Ling and Shaun Taylor has achieved this season with the team deserves more accolades than they are getting, maybe if we see the job through at the end of the season we might get them but I somehow doubt it.
I wish sometimes the folks at BBC, SKY or whoever actually did some research into the lower leagues and whats going on rather than saying stuff like 'what Crawley have done is an incredible achievement' James Richardson on Late Kick Off last week or just 'the Swindon Town juggernaut rolls on'. It should do. These two sides but especially Crawley over the last 18months have spent more than the entire division combined. I think there was a stat last season on the 'fairytale cup run' from those plucky underdogs from Sussex that in the Conference they had spent more than Leagues 1 and 2 combined on players. That's grotesque, but also they should be 10 points clear in this league and Swindon shouldn't be far behind.
Taking Swindon as an example, Di Canio signed about 10 players in the summer, about 6 games in he worked out loads weren't good enough and he's bombed them out and bought another load. To give him credit you still need to get the right players and he's done that but if we'd done that just bought 6/7 players and it didn't work, we'd be near the bottom of the league and the club would be in ruin. It's fantasy management at this level for most clubs and it's why the achievements of ours, Cheltenham's and to a lesser extent Southend are far greater than those at Swindon, Crawley and Oxford. In fact I'd say Crawley and Oxford have underachieved this year.
We've got a squad realistically of 18 players, 2 keepers, 2 loanees. It's been our squad all season give or take. In the summer whatever money we did have has been invested off the field to hopefully improve Torquay Utd's standing and long term prospects. Essential stuff, note we have to as a football club choose one or the other. Not do what little Crawley can do and fund a new stand along with another 5 overpriced footballers. Martin Ling was hardly the choice for most of us when he was announced and it was common knowledge that the playing budget this season was a lot smaller to what we had last year, even when he was announced words like 'consolidation' were used, even the powers that be thought this season would be tough.
Our management team had gone, our player of the year had gone, our GK had gone, our top scorer had gone, we'd lost all our good loannee players and about 3 games in we lost another striker. Ling signed players from non league, he signed players not deemed good enough by L2 clubs, and he signed 1 or 2 he knew. Lets be honest when we kicked the season off who realisitically and honestly held out much hope for this year?
I felt we'd be lower end of the table, my City mate was convinced we were going down with Argyle, I said we'd probably be 15th/16th. I felt our GK would be POTY mainly by default because I thought he'd be busy. He's still a front runner as it happens but he's mainly been a cog in the machine rather than the full on engine I thought he was going to be.
Obviously whats gone on has been football miracles for me. For us to be 2nd with 9 games to go, Our team hasn't changed much from that opening day Oh other than us having to sell another player to help with the coffers we still keep ticking along. Winning points off these big teams who whenever you click onto BBC you see Oxford sign a striker, Crawley sign a midfielder, Swindon sign a midfielder who Oxford had. We even borrowed one of Swindon's players who wasn't good enough for them but was a star for us. As a club and squad on paper we have no right to be mixing with this lot but we are and through merit, pure hard work, togetherness and a dab of quality. Mainly down to Ling's outstanding recruitment this season.
Small squad, paper thin squad yeah that's fair in my opinion. Although the lads that have come in though at different times this season have been exceptional. Mcphee coming on after 10mins at Cheltenham having not played really all season in a massive game, putting a shift in, taking one for the team and us winning, Howe missing for Swindon, Oxford, Argyle and we took 7 points when Atieno came in. Saah/Elis/Robertson. People missing the other coming in, Morris coming in for Bodin, Stevens rejuvenated, I made the point elsewhere that we'd never have got this consistency out of Stevens, Ellis and Lathrope under Buckle because he'd constantly be looking to replace them with an Ashley Hemmings or Ryan Gilligan or Kieron Charnock or somebody like that. Ling has showed trust, patience and confidence in all these lads and they've come up trumps, big time.
What i would say about our team more than squad is we have a very good one for his level. Right down the spine of the team we have some of the best in the league in their positions. Olejnik, is there a better LB than Nicho in L2? Mansell and O'Kane for me the best player in this league and Howe up front. I really rate Howe, he's trimmed down a bit but for a big lad he has great movement and quality on the ball and brings others into play superbly. Around those guys we have people that know how to do their jobs and they do it really well.
I think what my overall point is this season has been incredible. beyond expectations is putting it mildly and whatever happens whether we go up, go up through playoffs or lose in playoffs or whatever then this club should be applauded for the way we do things. We might not get the headlines that the others get which is a shame but we know and I think people in football know what has gone on here, how difficult the situation was or could have been when Ling took over and where we are now. I think we deserve it I really do. We deserve a bit of luck after the Cup last year and the playoff final defeat, we've done things the right way and it would be nice to see the nice guys actually get something in terms of a reward at the end of this season.
We've got 9 games to go and another 17 points will almost certainly see us get what we deserve, we can have a free shot at Swindon tomorrow. if we lose we're expected to but with the result we got Saturday it would mean 3 points this Saturday against Port Vale would keep us on track. if we take something tomorrow it would be a bonus but it's not unrealistic also. We've won big games away from home all season so hopefully we can do that again tomorrow night.
Whatever happens folks, enjoy the ride. These seasons don't happen to often, especially at TUFC. I maintain we've been spoilt these last 4/5 years as ever since I've been supporting the Gulls I've seen far more relegation battles than promotion battles until these last few years. Give Ling and all the players the support they need, calm heads no pressure environment and lets see where we end up. We might get a snippet on Sky at the end of it all here's hoping eh.
This may be a post of length so apologies in advance.
I'm not one of those people that normally gets annoyed or upset when Torquay aren't mentioned by the national media. I know that the general public interest of Torquay United is about the same as who is singing for Finland in Eurovision. Other than about 5000 people in the south west and a host of us dotted around the world we aren't a fashionable club or one that immediately everyone wants to hear about....BUT. For me Torquay are the example of how you run a lower league club not just that what Martin Ling and Shaun Taylor has achieved this season with the team deserves more accolades than they are getting, maybe if we see the job through at the end of the season we might get them but I somehow doubt it.
I wish sometimes the folks at BBC, SKY or whoever actually did some research into the lower leagues and whats going on rather than saying stuff like 'what Crawley have done is an incredible achievement' James Richardson on Late Kick Off last week or just 'the Swindon Town juggernaut rolls on'. It should do. These two sides but especially Crawley over the last 18months have spent more than the entire division combined. I think there was a stat last season on the 'fairytale cup run' from those plucky underdogs from Sussex that in the Conference they had spent more than Leagues 1 and 2 combined on players. That's grotesque, but also they should be 10 points clear in this league and Swindon shouldn't be far behind.
Taking Swindon as an example, Di Canio signed about 10 players in the summer, about 6 games in he worked out loads weren't good enough and he's bombed them out and bought another load. To give him credit you still need to get the right players and he's done that but if we'd done that just bought 6/7 players and it didn't work, we'd be near the bottom of the league and the club would be in ruin. It's fantasy management at this level for most clubs and it's why the achievements of ours, Cheltenham's and to a lesser extent Southend are far greater than those at Swindon, Crawley and Oxford. In fact I'd say Crawley and Oxford have underachieved this year.
We've got a squad realistically of 18 players, 2 keepers, 2 loanees. It's been our squad all season give or take. In the summer whatever money we did have has been invested off the field to hopefully improve Torquay Utd's standing and long term prospects. Essential stuff, note we have to as a football club choose one or the other. Not do what little Crawley can do and fund a new stand along with another 5 overpriced footballers. Martin Ling was hardly the choice for most of us when he was announced and it was common knowledge that the playing budget this season was a lot smaller to what we had last year, even when he was announced words like 'consolidation' were used, even the powers that be thought this season would be tough.
Our management team had gone, our player of the year had gone, our GK had gone, our top scorer had gone, we'd lost all our good loannee players and about 3 games in we lost another striker. Ling signed players from non league, he signed players not deemed good enough by L2 clubs, and he signed 1 or 2 he knew. Lets be honest when we kicked the season off who realisitically and honestly held out much hope for this year?
I felt we'd be lower end of the table, my City mate was convinced we were going down with Argyle, I said we'd probably be 15th/16th. I felt our GK would be POTY mainly by default because I thought he'd be busy. He's still a front runner as it happens but he's mainly been a cog in the machine rather than the full on engine I thought he was going to be.
Obviously whats gone on has been football miracles for me. For us to be 2nd with 9 games to go, Our team hasn't changed much from that opening day Oh other than us having to sell another player to help with the coffers we still keep ticking along. Winning points off these big teams who whenever you click onto BBC you see Oxford sign a striker, Crawley sign a midfielder, Swindon sign a midfielder who Oxford had. We even borrowed one of Swindon's players who wasn't good enough for them but was a star for us. As a club and squad on paper we have no right to be mixing with this lot but we are and through merit, pure hard work, togetherness and a dab of quality. Mainly down to Ling's outstanding recruitment this season.
Small squad, paper thin squad yeah that's fair in my opinion. Although the lads that have come in though at different times this season have been exceptional. Mcphee coming on after 10mins at Cheltenham having not played really all season in a massive game, putting a shift in, taking one for the team and us winning, Howe missing for Swindon, Oxford, Argyle and we took 7 points when Atieno came in. Saah/Elis/Robertson. People missing the other coming in, Morris coming in for Bodin, Stevens rejuvenated, I made the point elsewhere that we'd never have got this consistency out of Stevens, Ellis and Lathrope under Buckle because he'd constantly be looking to replace them with an Ashley Hemmings or Ryan Gilligan or Kieron Charnock or somebody like that. Ling has showed trust, patience and confidence in all these lads and they've come up trumps, big time.
What i would say about our team more than squad is we have a very good one for his level. Right down the spine of the team we have some of the best in the league in their positions. Olejnik, is there a better LB than Nicho in L2? Mansell and O'Kane for me the best player in this league and Howe up front. I really rate Howe, he's trimmed down a bit but for a big lad he has great movement and quality on the ball and brings others into play superbly. Around those guys we have people that know how to do their jobs and they do it really well.
I think what my overall point is this season has been incredible. beyond expectations is putting it mildly and whatever happens whether we go up, go up through playoffs or lose in playoffs or whatever then this club should be applauded for the way we do things. We might not get the headlines that the others get which is a shame but we know and I think people in football know what has gone on here, how difficult the situation was or could have been when Ling took over and where we are now. I think we deserve it I really do. We deserve a bit of luck after the Cup last year and the playoff final defeat, we've done things the right way and it would be nice to see the nice guys actually get something in terms of a reward at the end of this season.
We've got 9 games to go and another 17 points will almost certainly see us get what we deserve, we can have a free shot at Swindon tomorrow. if we lose we're expected to but with the result we got Saturday it would mean 3 points this Saturday against Port Vale would keep us on track. if we take something tomorrow it would be a bonus but it's not unrealistic also. We've won big games away from home all season so hopefully we can do that again tomorrow night.
Whatever happens folks, enjoy the ride. These seasons don't happen to often, especially at TUFC. I maintain we've been spoilt these last 4/5 years as ever since I've been supporting the Gulls I've seen far more relegation battles than promotion battles until these last few years. Give Ling and all the players the support they need, calm heads no pressure environment and lets see where we end up. We might get a snippet on Sky at the end of it all here's hoping eh.
