Torquay United Fans Forum

Matt88 wrote: ↑26 Jul 2018, 11:37 Before we run through the play-by-play, it's important to understand a few things:
The majority of locals have zero interest in TUFC.
Torbay is a Brexit heartland. Post-truth politics and 'alternative facts' tactics are proven to work here.
Osbourne is well versed in this...

We've already seen phase 1, the palm greasing.
The Gordon Oliver trophy? It's not subtle, it's disingenuous and it's so, so obviously a 'move'. All that was true of the £350m claim on the Big Red Bus, the people of Torbay absolutely lapped that up.

Phase 2 will be the public consultation.
It will be a chance to show off an artist's conception of what the place might (but won't) look like when finished. This is simply buying time for phase three...

Phase 3 will be after 19th March 2019; you'll see why in a sec.

Locals will be told two things/lies
1) that this project will create many jobs WHICH WILL GO TO BRITS NOT FORRINERZ!
2) That the council is cash-strapped and it's either increase revenue, or raise council rates

The locals will swallow this hook, line, and sinker.
They'll attack opponents as 'anti-British remoaners' and 'monied elites' who don't care if council tax goes up because they are 'the rich'.

Those opposing the new ground will be portrayed as ungrateful.

"I don't know what these football supporters want. They're getting a big new ground for free and they're still not happy. Typical Generation Snowflake, it's all me me me. Never satisfied. Bring back national service"

The justified concerns of fans will be ignored, because the argument against a new ground is counter-intuitive to the uninitiated. It is a nuanced argument, not easily portrayed in a 'Brexit means Brexit' or 'take back control' style soundbite.

Osbourne will point to Poole and Bristol Rovers and will be backed up by Masters who will point to the Stadium for Cornwall as a model of how these things do get completed.

The tales none of them will tell will be the those of decades of delays, tens of millions in wasted costs, exorbitant rents, stadia standing mostly empty even on days when they're actually being used because their supply massively outstrips demand. Event costs going sky high.

Again, opposition to these plans will be shouted down.

"They got there in the end, didn't they? Why can't you just believe in Torbay a bit more? We used to be the jewel in Britain's crown, then the EU came along, but we're free of them now. Make Torbay Great Again".

Further homes ("so your grandchildren don't have to move away") will be promised (and built, and immediately purchased by either local no-hopers, or Londoners wanting A Place By The Sea). No other amenities will follow. Local services will be put under increased pressure.

This increase will, as usual, be blamed on 'foreigners'. No one will look at the local demographic amd realise that Torbay doesn't have any foreigners.
By this point, it's too late anyway.

Uncle Clarke will break even on the house building. He'll make his money, inter alia, charging TUFC £20,000/month in rent.
It'll be Oxford United all over again.
£40 to get in. A fiver for a cup of tea. Others will hate coming here because of the cost.

We, as fans, will have to go to forums and local pre-match pubs and meekly apologise for the enormous cost, explaining that we're no happier than they are.

They will smile and nod and sympathise and wish us all the best for the season and pay us no further heed.

That's what's coming, folks, and that's how it will go down. Feel free to follow the thread through over the next 18-24 months and see it unfold before your very eyes.

Just one vision of hell that I conceived and whacked on Twitter yesterday.

Matt.

hector wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 11:55 There may be some TUFC fans whom see Exeter as our rivals but we are so irrelevant to them now, that they don’t see us in that way.

There was a time when I really couldn’t stand Exeter and took enormous pleasure from their misfortune and when they lost games. This has dissolved over recent years when they have become a progressive club with a good culture based around the development of youth and playing attractive football.

It is the Neanderthal element that is going to blow this apart for them, by being shortsighted when they served Tisdale his notice. Somewhat ironic that their own fans will eventually be the authors of their downfall and the irony could be delicious as I can perhaps get back to enjoying their demise and disappointments rather than the respect and admiration I currently have for them.

As for Plymouth - don’t get me started - I can’t abide them and the patronising attitude of plenty of their fans basking on the supposed glory that robbing local businesses gets you when you only repay 0.7p of every £1 you owe, vexes me even more.

However, deep down in the NLS, both Plymouth and Exeter are now so far removed from them that seriously considering them as rivals is daft. You’re only rivals when a feeling is mutual and there is no way that either seriously see us as rivals anymore.

merse btpir wrote: ↑27 May 2018, 20:36 It's a big man who can wish his opponent well; a small man who can't.

Good luck City!

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑02 May 2018, 05:51 Conveniently forgetting that it was Harrop who signed and agreed contract details. Merse and Little Merse Wannabe can't resist slinging mud in their haste to defend Owers, as if anything he's done during his reign is defensible.

merse btpir wrote: ↑25 Apr 2018, 11:15 The clue would lay in the shifty appearance of his Gaming International colleague Bill Glass on a Sky Sports greyhound coverage last season when he said 'we endeavour to keep these sports running as long as possible' when he should have more honestly inserted 'as long as necessary' when talking about their development plans for projects at various stadiums they are involved in.

To believe Osborne; he has been the unluckiest man in the world of business with 'bad luck' at Reading, Milton Keynes and Swindon.....once is (maybe) acceptable and believable; but time after time? Come on Clarke!

So Bristol Rovers 'wanted to be evicted from Eastville' eh? No they didn't; they wanted a landlord who would provide them with the infrastructure they required at a price they could afford...similar to Torquay United; they had fallen into the clutches of the then Bristol Stadium company after previous financial deficiencies had delivered them into their hands.

Similarly Poole Town got in the way of the company's plans for Poole Stadium; they had to go and look at them now playing in a pathetic little enclosure totally unfit for purpose to the extent that they were denied a place in the play-offs last season and now face relegation back to the Southern League such is the damaging legacy of all that.

Osborne shamelessly admits to talks with 'the Mayor's Office' whilst Torbay Council deny us the right to information on the grounds of it not being advantageous or some such crap.....collusion, illusion and smoke and mirrors is Osborne's modus operandi ~ and no-one can claim they weren't warned a long time ago by both this forum and BTPIR

Yorkieandy wrote: ↑23 Apr 2018, 18:06 Says it all about Torquay United as a football club when the only manager to have achieved his remit after Ling and the only man that actually gave a shit about the club and it's fans and tried to give something back was treated the worst.

Knill took the money and took the club to the brink of relegation to the football league. Hargreaves took the money and the club out of the football league and Owers took the piss and the club out of the National League.

Say what you like about Nico but he did everything he could with his hands tied behind his back including driving the team bus and he was sacked for an absolute dour, monotone loser like Owers.

Bugger off Owers. There are people out there working their balls of in supermarkets, warehouses etc and doing what they are being paid to do and actually producing. You haven't done that and once again it's another failure who is stealing money off the club.

Marmoduck wrote: ↑23 Apr 2018, 17:32 Too late. It no longer matters. Unless a supporters trust-like organisation achieves a broader-based ownership and is prepared to start a Wimbledon FC-like revival over the next decade, it's the end, fin, slut, finito. Since this scenario is as likely as Torquay Athletic challenging the Exeter Chiefs for the Premiership within the same decade, given the present ownership's appeal to the estate agent mentality of Torbay Council, it looks as though TUFC is, very sadly, history.

Yorkieandy wrote: ↑22 Apr 2018, 17:42 Totally agree Neal but you're wasting your energy.

Let others do what they see fit to do and you go and do what you see fit to do. As i have. Time now not to judge anyone but if you feel dis-united from your fellow fans then there is nothing wrong with that. I've felt that way for quite a number of years now and don't see it changing.

If what you do doesn't involve TUFC anymore then don't let anyone get away with calling you out on it. Your choice. Your life.