Labadie Recalled by County

[oxgull]

I know it's not over but now Joss has gone back I honestly think is a slow death now. How the F$%^&*()(*&^%$£ has this been allowed to happen???? This is the worst time and now can you honestly see us pulling anything out at Gillingham? No, neither can I. Brackley Town here I come. We just aren't good enough any more and my fear is it won't stop at the Conf Prem as we will really struggle to get decent players so we won't be up for a very long time, if at all.

Well thats my rant over and there are 4 games left so lets all prey for a miraculous loss of form by two of our relegation contenders. Maybe Argyle and us could go down and make Excretia very happy GOD I HATE FOOTBALL

[CP Gull]

Gutted.

This was always my biggest fear, well that and Poke getting injured!!!!!

Unfortunately, they always had the option to recall after a month and their Manager even went on record when he first came here on loan that, despite Labadie being out of contract in the summer, it did not necessarily mean the end of his time there. Personally, I had been willing others to score over recent weeks as the more Joss did the more likely it was that County would take him back ... purely and simply because they probably want to have a close look at him in first team action before the (still relatively new) Manager there makes a decision on whether to offer him a new deal or not. The suspension of Alan Judge offers the perfect opportunity to do just that and needless to say those 4 goals in 7 games sparked their interest in him again I guess.

So, there we have it, we go into the final vital 4 games without by far and away our best player over he past month. Unfortunately, this was a situation that was always likely to happen and could easily have been foreseen by he Management.

I really do fear for our chances now, and the impetus that Labadie gave to our struggling team should not be underestimated.

I must admit to being hugely disappointed in Knill's recruitment policy since he has been here. He surely had enough time (and presumably money) in the job to know that we really needed more than just TWO new recruits and been aware that we always stood the risk of losing one of them before the end of season as well. Over a month ago, I posted on here that we needed FOUR new loanees, minimum! .... we've now ended up with just the one it seems. In a similar sort of time spent in the job as Knill by the time the transfer window closed, John Sheridan down at Argyle, managed to bring in EIGHT new recruits, despite admitting that it was incredibly hard to do so.

I have no doubt, as Roadrunner has assured us, that Alan Knill worked very hard at trying to add to the squad, but you really do have to question whether he was looking in the right areas, in other words was too much of his time spent/wasted on looking at unrealistic recruits from Northern clubs ... and was it really a sensible policy to wait 10 days or more in the chase for this young (Liverpool?) startlet who it seemed, to me at least, was more likely going to turn us down the longer it dragged on and sure enough he did.

To hear that he (Knill) actually turned players down because he wasn't sure they would add anything to he squad is very questionable in my opinion. More than likely we were being offered young kids from out of the Championship/League1 and Knill presumably didn't know much, if anything, about them but who really knows how much an impact a kid from out of an Academy might have made in L2 .... now we will never know.

For all the talk, well Simon Baker anyway, of Knill having good contacts in the game on his appointment, it all seems to have rather come to nothing (Jordan Chappell apart) and it also makes you wonder whether he really is the man for the job, if by some miracle we do manage
to stay up.

Unfortunately the recall of Labadie at this most inopportune of times really does sum our season up and illustrates yet further the poor planning by those in charge of TUFC.

[AustrianAndyGull]

GREAT POST CP !!

[coley in stripes]

More twists and confusing outcomes than a soap opera since this stage last season, does give the impression that at least some of it was planned or at least accepted without much concern. The minimum effort made to keep the fans happy, or attempt to. Can work out why the 'Club' turned their back on promotion last season but not why they want to drop out of the League now...Too many strange happenings to be coincidence, some unknown plan must be going on........Frustrating not knowing what the plan is, BUT there again the fans have never been informed at each incident.

[Gulliball]

Really this should never have been allowed to happen. If he had a recall option, he scores twice in his first week (4 in 7 overall) then the chances of a recall must be pretty high. We only signed him in March, we really should have either signed him until the end of the season with no recall clause or had a plan B. We've now lost our only goalkeeper, best midfielder and likely top scorer too, and the window to replace any of them is closed. If we get relegated then we have only ourselves to blame, from the position we were in it never should have happened.

[coley in stripes]

After waiting all season for the Gillingham game, I might go sunbathing instead....will be more enjoyable !!!

[WHG]

Any advocates of a conspiracy theory would think that it was Colin Lee's doing. Just showing his total love for TUFC :devil: :devil:

[Colorado Gull]

What's with the Craig-bashing? Why won't some of you be told, the boy is a cut above, but a little bit like playing Gianfranco Zola in goal, it's f**k all good sticking Nathan on the bloody wing. Get him in the middle, tell Manse to do whatever it is he is supposed to be doing and let Nathan pick the passes.

Matt.

completely agree!

As for Labadie, what a blow! It was always a worry if he'll ever be recalled, I actually thought that he might after the game on Saturday. A huge blow to our relegation battle, many thanks Joss for all the work you've put in, but we're in a worse position now.

[bixieupnorth]

We can't start having a go at Notts County.

stop being so bloody reasonable, of course we can have a go at them!! what reason have they given for interrupting this season end loan?? do they need him to fight a promotion or relegation battle?? did they not employ one lee hughes esq?? were they not billy big bollocks a few seasons ago, employing managers and players at wages far far above what should be allowed in the 4th division?? were there fellow countymen weak willed enough to cross picket lines during the miners strike, therefore helping to weaken the resistance to thatchers evil campaign to deatabilise the working classes and lessen the power of the unions, leading to this fooking horrorshow of a country we now live in, where we are owned by foreign companies, fuel bills are sky high, bus fares are thru the roof, no one fives two fookin hoots about anyone but themselves, communities have broken down, we have an unelected govt who appear intent to break up the NHS to benefit of all their shareholder friends on the boards of the new healthcare providers, gasp, so yes we can have a fooking go at notts county!!

[wivelgull]

Why, why, why, why, WHY didn't we get players in ? It was so obvious even back in December.

[Dave_Pougher]

Massive blow obviously, seems to have brought about some good post esp. the recent ones from CP and coley.

Hate cospiracy theories but what coley has said is what I have thought, off and on, for a while, the only difference being I think it goes back further. The only person that seemed happy as we left Old Trafford was Mr. Baker. Think what you like but at the end of the day the opportunity was there to be the top team in Devon, twice, and it was willingly passed up. I'll always be grateful for the consortium leading us out of the conference, but different people were leading the charge then, I shall be immeasurably ungrateful for a leadership that takes us back there. It's an insult to good supporters inteligence. I've said this before and I will keep saying it, whatever the outcome of this season Mr Baker & Mr Phillips need, for the sake of continued popular support, to stand aside, as they would had they been in charge of any other commercial organisation that had performed this badly.

But hey it could be worse,,,, it could be a WHOLE lot worse. Just imagine for a moment being in the conference with Buckle in charge.

Is that worse than now ?

[Gullscorer]

No.

[supergulls]

Even though we had an agreement to sign him until the end of the season any club can recall a player that has completed 30 days at the loan club. Those are football league rules. They have recalled him as he has they now have a new manager who wants to have a look at him and they have a suspension and an injury in that position. At the end of the day he is not our player and although how harsh it seems there is sod all we can do about it.

[gullno4]

what a load of boll*cks, was looking quite clear we were heading for non league, now this has happened it has been confirmed !! once we go down we won't be back !!

[londongull63]

I certainly think we CAN have a go at Notts County. The timing of this stinks, just after the loan window closed when they couldn't be safer from relegation and further from promotion. If they'd at least warned one of their players is on the brink of suspension and they intended recalling Joss in those circumstances at least Knill could have looked for another attacking midfielder as he didn't get his striker, but if he'd just got more midfielders with no indication that Joss could be recalled quite so unreasonably then the club would have faced 'what about our striker' complaints.
Who knows, as loan recalls do sometimes happen, Torquay might have favoured Labadie because they couldn't see much chance of Notts County wanting him back in their mid-table position other than in extreme circumstances.
They must have realised why we loaned him, we were fighting for our lives and wanted a central midfielder, while their season is ending aimlessly, so how would they like the boot on the other foot. And if we've been paying some of his wages they should give that back for shafting us as we would have probably looked elsewhere for perhaps a third string midfielder higher up the league, or a second loanee before the deadline. Ok, even if they had only a slender chance of promotion or relegation and they just wanted him on their bench, I could accept that because we would also want our best possible squad. If it was early season and they thought he'd gained a bit of experience and they just wanted him back as cover, I could accept that.
But it's simply because they've seen on TV he's scored 4 goals. I bet they haven't even watched him here. For all they know he could have been shite apart from his two tap-ins, and a close range header. Perhaps watching a good first time shot on the Football League show led them to believe a bloke who they've seen for five months can be a completely changed player over 4 games.
Knill was given money to loan a striker. Having not got one, if he knew County were going to recall Joss so easily he could have gone for another attacking midfielder instead. And also I remember some quote along the lines of we were trying to loan a striker "at the right money". Well if Notts County had warned us this might be coming, then the limit for that striker could have been upped quite a bit by adding Labadie's wages to the loan striker budget, so we could have given Labadie back and got a better class of striker than those we were targetting.
If they are having second thoughts about releasing him, and he is only on the bench for them, then as someone said they would be better off sending someone to watch him play 90 minutes for us.
And yes he was good, but he's not exactly going to single-handedly transform their Divison 1 results if he makes any difference at all. They didn't loan us one of the stars of Div 1.
I remember other teams in our league loaning players who excelled in recent seasons. Gillingham had some free-scoring striker, I think Grimes scored a lot somewhere and they weren't immediately recalled. This is different to when it's happened to us on previous occasions. Surely for a mid-table team like Notts the agreement must be a bit fairer than 'ok, you can keep him as long as he's pretty sh*t for you'.

Rant over. looking for optimism (love the way how players get clobbered if they appear to mentally throw in the towel, yet most people on here do just that! The only way we are definitely down already is if the players have taken the attitude of some posts here). 1. Barnet were abysmal up at their place. 2. They had 2 players sent off the game before last, are they suspended against us? 3. Craig played in the good performance against Southend. 4. Perhaps Morecambe and Bristol Rovers will throw in a couple of reserve team players to see if they should be released, or youngsters to gain experience. 5. Aldershot were pretty lucky to beat an ordinary playing-for-nothing Oxford team. They got a fortunate penalty for something that was no different to when Benyon was brought down at Northampton, and then Oxford had a man sent off.

Finally this idea of just surrendering the game against Gillingham. It's pretty important we make a fight of it even if we end up losing by one goal or even two as our goal difference is currently worth a vital point. If we get tanked then at least 2 teams, Plymouth and Barnet, who we can haul into trouble, get an extra point on us even if they lose.