Torquay United Fans Forum

Full interview here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p062znxp starts at 12:45

Yorkieandy wrote: ↑13 Mar 2018, 17:49 Yeah and someone who wrote a BBC article highlighting concerns about CO about 10 years too late.

Let's be fair to Brett, at least he actually stuck his head above the parapet and expressed fan's concerns, quoting some of the evidence against GI and Osborne. It's much more than anyone at the bloody Herald Express did, aside from Jim Parker having a pop at the fans when he got annoyed at having his Quisling attitude criticised.

As for this news about Masters, let's wait and see...it's not exactly the club out of the danger zone though. Masters is hardly sneaky clean and has seemingly no real reason to chuck money at the club.

Was never going to happen anyway, I'm still want to believe that it was a way for Masters to inject some money into the club without getting a slap on the wrist for being involved at two clubs, while still trying to keep Truro fans onside.

Easier run in than the past two seasons, however we're not going to do it, this is it for us. Owers and Kuhl couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag. For all his faults, at least Nicho could muster up a decent last 10 matches run in (it was the other 2/3rds of the season that was a problem).

Now I'm hardly a PhD student but if Clarke hates the negative publicity then here's a thought, do something about it. Actually start taking media interviews out there, put your story across, explain why it took the club a month to appoint a manager when some do so in days, give us our five year plan, explain the stadium situation. All this would end the negative publicity if you legitimately wish well for the club.

Of course if you're only here to make money off a property deal and there aren't answers/information regarding the above then refusing to comment on anything might be your best bet

brucie wrote: ↑24 Feb 2018, 10:57 Why do Hereford get bigger crowds now than when they were higher up?

No idea but I guess its something to do with them being the big fish in a small pond and are successful. I don't think its a lot different to us or any club really.

Would are gates suffer at all if we were top of NLS? - can't see it myself. I actually think attendances would rise.

What support would we take to Truro or Western Super Mare if we were top of the league? 100 -150 maybe. I reckon it would be 500 and probably more than that. It would be such a novelty to see the team win games - I've always thought football care little about the standard of theopposition, they just want to see their team win games.

Think it's pretty much down to a greater community feel around the club thanks to the ownership structure now compared to in the past, also due to the 'big fish in a small pond' issue and their record of winning over the past few years. Regularly winning and playing well attracts fans. Look at our attendances in our first Conference season (before the Financial crash) - we averaged something like 3.5k and had numerous matches over 4k. I dare say that if got relegated to NLS and challenged for the title, we'd be drawing 2.5k+ crowds, even in that league with minimal travelling fans.

Of course challenging for NLS all depends on Osborne's plans.

If we'd taken some points from Dagenham and/or Sutton then yes we'd be in with an outside shout. The fact we took 0/6 has eliminated those chances, which is odds against at the least.

MellowYellow wrote: ↑21 Feb 2018, 16:21 The question is would he be attracted to Torquay in the NL southern league. Rose's aspirations is to manage in the football league but Torquay just may be a big enough club to tempt him. It was Owers who said upon his appointment to Torquay “It didn’t take much thinking about really...This club has a history, it has been a Football League club and it is well-supported."

As long as we remained full time I imagine that any upwardly mobile NLS or below manager would bite your hand off at the opportunity to manage Torquay United. The main stumbling block would be Osborne's intentions and how much autonomy Harrop would give him, I can imagine that may put some managers off. I'm struggling to find any in the NLS/NLN though that match the likes of the Cowleys there's no tiny clubs punching above their weight that I can see, with the exception of our soon to be 'rivals' Truro :}

Bad management off the pitch compounded by decisions to employ 'legend' former players as managers, who had no previous experience in management. This was further exacerbated by our main backer deciding to the sell the club and a financially hobbled consortium taking over who later sold the club to a property developer. Said property developer then put his mate in charge who managed to spend one month in season appointing a manager, who has turned out to be a big disappointment.

It's basically been 5 years of bad decision followed by bad decision. If we were owned by the fans I'd almost (...almost) welcome the chance to completely gut the club and rebuild again in NLS, as shite as that league is. As it is, being owned by property developers, it takes them a step closer to killing the club.

uffculme1 wrote: ↑20 Feb 2018, 20:07 Got to disagree with the statement of Brucie that Harrop/Osborne had no intention of sacking Nicholson when they did, I think the decision to get rid of him had been put in place before the end of the previous season when there was a lot of chat that Nicholson could have extra money if he altered his three year contract, Nicholson even hinted at this when he discussed his relationship with Harrop, but when he told Harrop to stick that idea where the sun don't shine and still pulled of a minor miracle and kept us up, then Harrop led by his puppet master Osborne decided that Nicholson was a dead man walking and he was going, sooner rather than later, I was no great fan of Nicholson as a manager but as a person well that is a different manner.

They didn't like him and jumped on the opportunity to sack him but the intention wasn't there to sack him at the start of the season, why give him a budget to develop his own team if you're looking to sack him. Osborne is a shady figure but he was content to leave Nicholson at the helm to keep the club running before the god awful start happened, then Harrop totally botched both his manager search and the manager appointment.

brucie wrote: ↑20 Feb 2018, 21:56 Exeter are losing 1-0 in the 90th minute. And guess what they win 2-1. Your right I hate football as well.

That's because as a club they've embraced a positive winning mentality that pervades throughout the club, even if they lose matches. The players believe in the club and have a confidence and mentality on the pitch that means they can do such things. It's the polar opposite of TQU the past few years (Hargreaves/Nicholson/Owers) where the players seem to turn up for their pay packet only, have little to no mental strength when things go against them and don't seem to care when they lose. The last 15 games of Nicho's two seasons were the exception but the players reverted back to type very quickly (or the more vocal/important ones left) - it's a rot present throughout the club thus why it keeps re-appearing.

WESTWARDGULL wrote: ↑20 Feb 2018, 21:52 Why is owers still here. Any other manager would of been gone ages ago. Harrop needs to f..k off as well. And I think Osborne needs to now speak out and say what his plans are for NL South next season, i.e full/part time. There must be a few players whose phone bill is sky high from phoning around looking for a club next season.

He'll push us into part time citing 'business reasons' knowing full well that a part time system will not work in our geographical location and it'll further undermine the club and see us struggling in NLS to ever decreasing crowds, laying the groundwork for the next stages of his attempts to get hold of the freehold.

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑19 Feb 2018, 13:45 Your probably right. However that leaves us with the real possibility that Owers and co will still here next season just to save harrops face.

Harrop is even more incompetant at running a football club than I already suspect him of being if he hasn't included a relegation break clause in Owers/Kuhl's contracts.

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑17 Feb 2018, 11:39 I can go along with that Hector although I think his record is tarnished with the extreme circumstances he had to endure at that time. Can anyone honestly say that Owers has outperformed him? Really?

Nope but then Owers was hardly an inspiring appointment either, compared to some of the managers we were linked to.

Gulliball wrote: ↑16 Feb 2018, 16:44 The tyre flipping was a bit of fun in the summer of 2014/15, after the first great escape. Two players would face off, flipping tyres for one minute, and it was posted around social media for fans to keep engaged with the club during the close season (when our season ticket sales were a club record high and fans felt connected with the club). Despite Angus MacDonald doing this that summer, signing for Barnsley and going straight to the Championship starting XI, and being a very widely used training method in sport, it's become synonymous with our squad being unfit, which is brought up after defeats but disappears during winning runs.

Be be fair, when Nathan Blissett joined Plymouth they were scathing about his fitness and didn't play him in full matches for quite a while.