Player Search - Who Will Turn Up?

tufcyellowarmy · Post by **tufcyellowarmy** » 06 Jun 2018, 16:35

Why on earth would he want Pitman to stay ? I can understand Gowling to some degree but Pitman played literally no football for us since he’s been at the club. If it’s a fitness issue then it will still be an issue next season .
Let Pitman move on whenever he can I say..

Dazza · Post by **Dazza** » 06 Jun 2018, 16:50

Maybe he now wants them both to stay so he can continue to blame Nicholson for it all.

MellowYellow · Post by **MellowYellow** » 06 Jun 2018, 16:54

On a light hearted note to stop hysteria setting in, I reminisce back to the 60's when pre-season recruitment was the 'Talk of the Town''. Picture the scene:-

West Ham win the FA Cup in '64 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in '65 and their captain Booby Moore lifts the World Cup in '66. Then in the 66/67 seasons our manager Frank O'Farrell signs stalwart defenders of that great Hammers side, namely John Bond and Ken Brown.

It adds meaning to the then Chairman Tony Boyce statement "A Torquay United manager needs to have three things going for him – contacts, contacts and more contacts."

To put it in todays perspective it is like Owers announcing tomorrow that he has signed Vincent Kompany and Karl Walker from Man City on free transfers.

Gary has now the opportunity to put his own squad together based on the criteria of his appointment, namely... extensive contacts .

So Gary - in you we trust!

Dazza · Post by **Dazza** » 06 Jun 2018, 17:00

Now that would be definitive hysteria

:K

stefano · Post by **stefano** » 06 Jun 2018, 17:58

MellowYellow wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 16:54 On a light hearted note to stop hysteria setting in, I reminisce back to the 60's when pre-season recruitment was the 'Talk of the Town''. Picture the scene:-

West Ham win the FA Cup in '64 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in '65 and their captain Booby Moore lifts the World Cup in '66. Then in the 66/67 seasons our manager Frank O'Farrell signs stalwart defenders of that great Hammers side, namely John Bond and Ken Brown.

It adds meaning to the then Chairman Tony Boyce statement "A Torquay United manager needs to have three things going for him – contacts, contacts and more contacts."

To put it in todays perspective it is like Owers announcing tomorrow that he has signed Vincent Kompany and Karl Walker from Man City on free transfers.

Gary has now the opportunity to put his own squad together based on the criteria of his appointment, namely... extensive contacts .

So Gary - in you we trust!

Yes those were certainly the days, never to be seen again at least not while I am still drawing breath! Quick adjustment to the dates. Bondie joined us half way through our promotion season from Division 4 in 1965/66. He was a major part of the push for further promotion the next season in Division 3, narrowly missing out to QPR and Middlesbrough. Ken Brown joined at the start of the second season in Division 3 1967/1968. He saw what a club he had joined in a pre-season 1-1 draw in Germany against Bayer Leverkausen, and then he and Bondie were stalwarts as Torquay led the table for the whole season, before slipping up right at the end and finishing 4th. No play-offs in those days so not even a second chance! A promotion in one of those 2 seasons could see us currently playing in a new stadium located roughly where Marks and Spencer and Sainsburys now stand, and Torquay fans celebrating a 3rd successive European Champions Cup win after beating Real Madrid 5-0 in the final, but us older fans moaning how much nicer it used to be in the cosy little Plainmoor where we all knew each other.

PS: The Bayer Leverkausen bit is true; the Real Madrid bit isn't!

MellowYellow · Post by **MellowYellow** » 06 Jun 2018, 19:28

Stefano, hence why I used the plural 66/67 (season/s) to denote it was over more than one season.

I never even bothered to mention our record signing (a left back) from West Ham in Dec 1967 - I am sure you remember him.

Little snapshot of West Ham below with Brown and Bond standing next to England's winning World Cup captain Sir Bobby Moore (top right). If you look closer, seated in the bottom left of the picture is a winger by the name of Tony Scott.

stefano · Post by **stefano** » 06 Jun 2018, 20:09

MellowYellow wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 19:28 Stefano, hence why I used the plural 66/67 (season/s) to denote it was over more than one season.

Shouldn't be so obtuse as 66/67 doesn't imply it was over 3 seasons as it was. 65-68 seasons would have covered it. Don't worry though we are all getting older and it happens.

brucie · Post by **brucie** » 06 Jun 2018, 21:02

John Bond, Ken Brown and Tony Scott - what players they were. It is scarcely feasible now that players of this quality actually played for us and for those not old enough to remember these kind of players well compared to watching Torquay United then to now it was like watching players in a parallel universe.

lucy6lucy · Post by **lucy6lucy** » 06 Jun 2018, 21:24

brucie wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 21:02 John Bond, Ken Brown and Tony Scott - what players they were. It is scarcely feasible now that players of this quality actually played for us and for those not old enough to remember these kind of players well compared to watching Torquay United then to now it was like watching players in a parallel universe.

No current feasibility study/research is required. The former Torquayunited players have won.

DevonYellow · Post by **DevonYellow** » 06 Jun 2018, 21:26

tufcyellowarmy wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 16:35 Why on earth would he want Pitman to stay ? I can understand Gowling to some degree but Pitman played literally no football for us since he’s been at the club. If it’s a fitness issue then it will still be an issue next season .
Let Pitman move on whenever he can I say..

Pittman has to go down as one of the worst pieces of recruitment in the clubs history. Announcing he is going to be somewhere else next season would boost season ticket sales massively.

I dread to think what his £ per minute contribution was for us.

sgf · Post by **sgf** » 06 Jun 2018, 21:53

DevonYellow wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 21:26 Pittman has to go down as one of the worst pieces of recruitment in the clubs history. Announcing he is going to be somewhere else next season would boost season ticket sales massively.

I dread to think what his £ per minute contribution was for us.

You clearly didn't see Alan Hay play, but then I dont think anyone did!!

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 06 Jun 2018, 21:55

brucie wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 21:02 John Bond, Ken Brown and Tony Scott - what players they were. It is scarcely feasible now that players of this quality actually played for us and for those not old enough to remember these kind of players well compared to watching Torquay United then to now it was like watching players in a parallel universe.

....... and don't forget Bill Kitchener and Bob(?) Glozier, both also from West Ham. All I can say is that we were lucky to be around at that time ...... bouncing up and down in the old Cow Shed. Was it really 50 years ago??

MellowYellow · Post by **MellowYellow** » 06 Jun 2018, 22:22

DevonYellow wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 21:26 Pittman has to go down as one of the worst pieces of recruitment in the clubs history.

This is a hard one to fathom. I really thought Pittman would have tried to kick his career on for a further few seasons when he signed for us. Was his absence from the field of play all down to injuries? or was it the rigid management style of Owers? It's not like he didn't have the footballing pedigree to force his way into the side. No player likes to sit in the stands and if we are brutally honest it's not like the squad were so talented with goalscoring abilities there was no way he could break into the side.

Whatever the reason, he's certainly getting paid 'money for old rope' while he makes preparations for life without his boots.

Launceston Gull · Post by **Launceston Gull** » 07 Jun 2018, 05:12

Guys don`t forget that in that same 1967 1968 ish side alongside Bond Brown and Scott were John Benson(ex Man City), John Smith (played in Spurs` 60/61 Double winning season and Jimmy Dunne who after he left the Gulls to join Fulham also won a full ROI cap. Such talent in the gold and blue strip. Unless you were there and saw it for yourself you would scarcely believe it.

Post by **Southampton Gull** » 07 Jun 2018, 07:56

brucie wrote: 06 Jun 2018, 21:02 John Bond, Ken Brown and Tony Scott - what players they were. It is scarcely feasible now that players of this quality actually played for us and for those not old enough to remember these kind of players well compared to watching Torquay United then to now it was like watching players in a parallel universe.

Those were the days

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