Zebroski

[Southampton Gull]

I will bore off

I just dont like hypocrites.

Torquay fans crying over Gasheads apparently being arrogant, yet Gulls fans slag Rovers off left , right and centre.

I wasn't banging on about attendances, just stating a fact. If Torquay were a club on the up surely you would of mustered up more support to one of your biggest games for years.

I think that proved to everybody that watched the game that the Torbay area doesn't have much of a footballing interest.

Again a Gull fan takes it the wrong way, and gets all emotional.

I never said it makes you any less of a club, I have stated many times I like Torquay.

Ok mate, I'll take you at face value but I'll respond to a couple of points. No emotion here just plain old common sense.

You say you don't know anything about Zebroski then a few moments later you're proclaiming he's a League Two player and therefore only worth the £75k being mentioned. How would you know if you admit to knowing so little about him?

Old Trafford saw us take 7000 up there. Nothing spectacular agreed BUT it was twice the number Stevenage took and they're much much closer than we are to Manchester. You'd have to ask yourself why their numbers were so low. Tickets were expensive for the current financial climate, probably affecting people in Devon a lot more than those in Hertfordshire. We had problems dealing with the numbers wanting tickets in such a short time period. It was on a day when the Champions League final was on just a couple of hours later and was also on a Bank Holiday weekend when I would imagine a lot of Devon based fans would have been prevented from going by the constraints of work taking into consideration it's an area that relies on tourism. For us, I'd say that following isn't as bad as it looks.

One final point, I'm always happy to welcome fans of other Clubs to our forum and leave them free to post on our main board but only on condition it doesn't descend into the throwing of petty and childish insults. If you can keep to that then fine, leave us to deal with any of our fans that don't show the same consideration. If not the relevant thread will be moved to the Banter Board where you won't get the same numbers participating and giving a more accurate assessment of the views of our fans. I should add I'm not casting blame, just making our position clear.

Thanks.

[Dave_Pougher]

Stevenage are not a club on the up at all, why because they got promoted? they will be back down again next year, its hardly a club on the up.

I would say Stevenage are definately a club on the up, in fact I don't think they've ever taken a step backwards, certainly considered more on the up than a club like say errr who shall we pick? Bristol Rovers! and like Nickgull says if consecutive promotions by a club isn't considered on the up then I don't know what is. I think Norwich doing the same) probably think their on their way up.

Re fan base, although you need support/cash obviously you have to consider teams like Bristol City their support although larger has never been that much bigger than yourselves yet year on year their more successful and will continue to be so

[Plymouth Gull]

Friendlygas, I saw you lot let Jeff Hughes go. What was the reasoning behind that? Injury prone? Too expensive? Likely to go to a bigger club?

I only ask because I always thought he was one of your better players, and we haven't had a left-footed winger since Buckle has been here (probably Buckle who released him!!).

Realistically, would we be in with a chance?

[friendlygas]

NickGull,
Jeff Hughes is a great footballer but unfortunately is one of the laziest players around. Great penalty taker and has a great shot but has about 1 good game every six games. For somebody who was brought up as a full back he is a poor tackler.As regards whether you could sign him I would say probably not as when he joined us his first quote which I have never forgotten was that he joined us because he was offered a fantastic amount of money!! I would imagine he is hoping to stay in League 1 at least but I have my doubts. Oh by the way he is not in any way a winger as he does not have pace and rarely beats a player. I would say he was a central midfielder that was being played at left midfield.

[gashead josh]

Hughes had his critics but he was our 2nd top scorer last season (mainly from pens), but with his wages of £3500 a week he was always going to be let go to give Buckle a chance to rebuild the squad. On his day he was at times unplayable but too inconsistent and rarely beat a man or got a cross in.

I don't think he'll have any problem finding a L1 club.

[BritishGAS]

Friendlygas, I saw you lot let Jeff Hughes go. What was the reasoning behind that? Injury prone? Too expensive? Likely to go to a bigger club?

I only ask because I always thought he was one of your better players, and we haven't had a left-footed winger since Buckle has been here (probably Buckle who released him!!).

Realistically, would we be in with a chance?

Nick Gull

I will answer you, if you will value my opinion.

Jeff Hughes was good for Lincoln in League 2 and always played well against us, I think that is why Trollope signed him when he became available from Palace.

On his day he can be pretty good, but unfortunatly his day only came about 3-4 times a season. He was always played as a winger here, and I dont think that suited him, I think he would be best suited to play in the middle, he does have good ability, but he is very lightweight, and when he played out wide he always drifted into the centre and made us very narrow.

His stats look decent, but his goal tally is boosted by penalties, he scored 11 last season but I think 6 were from the penalty spot and he scored a hat-trick away at D&G.

He was on about 3k a week here, I dont know what Torquay's budget is.

He will certainly be a decent signing at this level. I was surprised to see him released as we got relegated, If we would have stayed up then I could have seen him being released.

If you could sign him, he will be decent, but he certainly is not an out an out winger.

[ferrarilover]

As your man says in the post above, there is absolutely no need to continue responding to this thread, or indeed any of the myriad others started by Rovers fans.

They have signed Paul Buckle, good luck to him and them.

If there is to be reasoned debate and discussion regarding transfer rumour, then please, carry on, but if these threads are going to degenerate into (very boring) repetitive arguments about whether or not Rovers are a big club or whatever, then I'm afraid we are going to have to start locking and moving threads, which is something we are keen to avoid.

With this in mind...

Zebroski to Rovers; discuss.

Matt.

[Fonda]

Can I firstly say if you beat us and come on our forum then it wont be well looked upon I doubt if you havent been on there before.If however you come on our forum now and debate things then you will be made very welcome as I appear to have been made welcome on here. We get Bristol City fans on our forum and although we hate the club there ius still healthy debate with many of them. As regards the size of the support..who really cares I would admire your 5-6000 supporters far more than the extra 30,000 odd we take to big matches.The same way I admire supporters who support THEIR club and not the might of Manchester United or Liverpool despite the fact they were born in Bristol. We are mainly a small friendly club but like all clubs have our idiots (some more than others!!) I am sure your supporters will be warmly welcomed to The Memorial Ground as you are known as a friendly club and a visit to Torquay is one of the consolations of being relegated. (It was not that long ago that we looked upon a visit to Blaclpool as our day out! How things change in football.
I hope that both of us and Plymouth and Swindon are fighting near the top of the table and would be great if Cheltenham were there too. Its sad times when only Bristol City and Exeter represent the West Country in a level above League Two.
On the matter of signing Zebroski there are quite a few Rovers fans who think we should be aiming higher but I disagree entirely.We are what we are a League Two team the same as you and at the present time we are BEHIND you. We have only 7 senior Contracted players and I see three of them leaving. Zebroski would without doubt be a big signing for us. From the players we have left the total number of goals scored by them last season is probably about 15!! We have sold Hoskins 20 goals and let go Jeff Hughes who scored 11. WE are in no position to come on here boasting.We are a side in the process of completely rebuilding and in all honesty should bve looking at mid table survival this season.Anything more will be a bonus. We must give Paul Buckle time to build a team and as regards you beating us I would not be at all surprised at the present time if you did.

Nice post, cheers. We re generally very accommodating to opposition supporters, but I m afraid a few of your fellow fans have got a few backs up. It s good to know that some of you are a touch more considerate. We don t respond well to fans of bigger clubs pointing out how small and insignificant we are – it s not that we don t know, we d just rather not be reminded! You ve taken our manager, and are now in the process (evidently) of preparing bids for players too – I m not sure how well your fellow fans think such news is likely to be received…

[BritishGAS]

I would say Stevenage are definately a club on the up, in fact I don't think they've ever taken a step backwards, certainly considered more on the up than a club like say errr who shall we pick? Bristol Rovers! and like Nickgull says if consecutive promotions by a club isn't considered on the up then I don't know what is. I think Norwich doing the same) probably think their on their way up.

Re fan base, although you need support/cash obviously you have to consider teams like Bristol City their support although larger has never been that much bigger than yourselves yet year on year their more successful and will continue to be so

I agree with most of that, Bristol C*ty have a rich benefactor who has ploughed millions into them, that is why they are doing reasonably well at the moment, but if you compare them to say Blackpool and Swansea, they look pathetic as they have spent god knows how much more than them.

Likewise the same with us, the transfer fees and wages we have branded around, shouldn't see us in League 2, It just shows how money doesnt always guarantee success.

Ok Stevenage probably are a club on the up momentarily but they wont be able to susatin it. Unlike clubs like Norwich who really should be in top 2 tiers anyway. They shouldnt have ever been in League 1 and are now back to where they should be.

[Plymouth Gull]

Thanks for the 3 quick (and sensible) replies from the Gasheads regarding Hughes.

From reading them, it sounds like he would be way out of our budget (theres no way we could afford £3k a week on 1 player).

But I would also hope we stay away after reading them. Thanks again for the insight.

[tommyg]

Nobody can convince me that Zebroski is worth less than six figures. He's probably the first name on the team sheet. If we end up selling him for £75k then I will be furious. I'd go as far as saying he's irreplaceable due to his versatility. I suppose you can't blame Zebs if he wants to go as Bristol Rovers will probably double his wages, but the board need to hold out for more money if there's any truth in this.

[nicktufc]

It would sound, having listened to the BRovers posts, that Jeff Hughes is to be left well alone. Expensive, Lazy, Lightweight, but with an occasional flash of genius. Sorry, but that's not the type of player we need. I'd rather have 2 players with endless energy and desire, over 1 player who lacks commitment and drive.

As for Zebroski, he lives in Swindon, and seems to be drawn to Buckle. I can't see any reason why he would turn the chance down to play closer to his home, and for the lure of more money, and I would imagine a longer contract with better benefits. Would any of you turn that down over staying at TUFC, if you looked with neutral opinions of both clubs.

The better the fee we're given for him, the better. As for other players leaving, I would be suprised if many followed Buckle, i'm not being bitter towards him, but he didn't have many of them join his fan club.

[friendlygas]

Fonda,
Thanks. As regards how our fans take to signing players from you.Personally I think having watched you in the three play off matches and obviously seeing all the goals you scored on the Late night soccer I would say that you have some very good players at that level and that is the level at which we are playing this season. I hope that we dont sign many of your players because I, like you are a supporter and to have built a team like you have you deserve to keep the majority if not all the players and see that mainly young team progress ,as they will. Footballwise you were without doubt a different class to Stevenage and I felt you did not deserve to lose. If you consider you played badly then you obviously have a very good team because I felt only luck deserted you in the final third. I have faith in Paul Buckle and hope we wil give him our full support which I think we will and support any signings he makes.

[Fonda]

Nobody can convince me that Zebroski is worth less than six figures. He's probably the first name on the team sheet. If we end up selling him for £75k then I will be furious. I'd go as far as saying he's irreplaceable due to his versatility. I suppose you can't blame Zebs if he wants to go as Bristol Rovers will probably double his wages, but the board need to hold out for more money if there's any truth in this.

You re right, but we don t really hold the cards (as usual). If he wants to go (and with more money, bigger club, big city who could blame him), our bargaining power is virtually nothing. He could leave in a year for nothing, we re seemingly desperate for cash and there is little point to keeping a player that has had his head turned by a move. History tells us that as a fan of TUFC, If you work on the premise we ll get about half of what any player is actually worth, you won t be wide of the mark. Apart from Matt Gregg obviously.

[Boom Boom]

ahh I see, so its because of everybody else, but nothing to do with Paul Buckle whatsoever? He took you from the depths of Blue Square football to one game away from League 1, yet it had nothing to do with Paul Buckle.

Just because your not a club on the up, doesn't mean that you wont be there or thereabouts next season, Rovers aint gonna take your whole team, plus with the compo from Buckle, and the money from maybe Zebroski who will have more funds than you will have had for a long time and will have more money than the majority of League 2 clubs.

Again you have to turn it into a dig.

Having bigger support will help you progress yes, You will probably take this the wrong way again, knowing you, but to compete in higher divisions, you have to have a nucleus of a decent fanbase or you cant compete, unless like Crawley you have a wealthy benefactor. That is why teams like Barnet, Macllesfield,Cheltenham, D and G and now Stevenage will not stay long in League 1 for long which has been proven over many years.

You may be able to sustain play off pushes in League 2, but unless you can get averages of above 3k, you aint going to survive above that.

Its just common sense.

Don't be stupid you willy. Obviously Buckle deserves some credit, I'm not saying he's completely useless.



What about Yeovil, Rochdale, Exeter etc. they don't have the most amazing support in the world yet they've seemed to cope well enough from League Two. It's not always often the case. I can see where you're going though, you will need bigger support to survive & that's why you're in League One.....actually no you're not. Doesn't always work does it.

Enough of this banter now I've got a banging headache!