Tough job for Ling

[Southampton Gull]

Justin, I would agree with most of what you say except that Ling has no more idea of the budgets around League 2 than anyone else. When he last managed he was in the BSP with Cambridge who we all know have had to slash their budget tremendously. With that in mind I think it's fair to say that our budget looks favourable in comparison, I'd be very very surprised though if it was indeed a budget comparable to any of the "middle" 8 clubs in League 2. Look at who would figure in that group. Clubs much bigger than ourselves. I know what was on offer to Buckle if he'd stayed and it was dwarfed by what Rovers were offering.

For the record, I don't see the deal for Zebs as a bad one, anyone who thinks £35k is the full and final figure is hugely mistaken.

As for your point about those 10 that did put their hands in their pockets, that was a long time ago now, I'm extremely grateful they did BUT that doesn't mean they are free from being criticised for mistakes just because of that. It's plain to see that they've made some huge mistakes along the way, we've all to a man (and woman and child) suffered at some point because of them. I'm happy with their appointment, I think Ling is just what we need for this season, I certainly think he will do a better job than Buckle would with the same budget. I also think theur appointment of Andrew Candy is a fantastic one, so kudos to them for some good decisions amongst some bad ones.

Like you I'm waiting for the season to start and although I think we'll struggle initially, I'm sure that Ling is the right man for the next part of our adventure. Rovers are welcome to Buckle et all, we know more than they what lies ahead for them on occasion.

[jocktheknife]

Dave, Of course they've made mistakes.....plenty of them too - Lee was of course, a biggun!

I prefer to see where we are as a club now under their tenure.

Out of the Conf, established in lge 2 with a youth system and a decent infrastructure, they're even chucking in to build our long awaited grandstand and don't even own the land.

When you see some of the shysters and property developers that currently own a lot of Lge clubs, we are incredibly lucky that we are owned by fans of TUFC.
I'm all for freedom of speech but some of the unnecessary crap thrown at them by people who clearly couldn't run a piss up in a brewery themselves, is pathetic and out of order.

I guess it's the way of forums....

[Gulliball]

in the words of Gulliball - "You do have to question the direction in which the club is being run" - dear oh dear! With fans like you I'm feckin glad I'm not one of 10/11 that chucked their 'hard earned in to save this club.

I wasn't slagging off for the sake of slagging off. What I actually wrote was factual and expressing concern at our summer activity. We've lost 6 first teamers, and are replacing them with 4 players of first team quality (2 of which are yet to arrive). Then to make the numbers up, we're 'promoting' players from last years status - Stevens and Macklin into starters and Yeoman, Palmer, Spear to squad players. Personally, I count that as moving backwards, although I'm happy to hear your argument to the contrary.

Several things have happened this summer that in my opinion fans have a genuine right to be concerned about: The manner in which Paul Buckle left, the lack of communication over his appointment (it was over two weeks before a statement was made at all), the accounts revealing £200k was paid to Colin Lee, statements posted on the website which have been PR disasters, and important squad members leaving the club.

I'd be very worried if this was going on and no-one was asking why. Undoubtedly we owe a lot to the current owners for getting us back into the league, but time doesn't stand still and customers, no matter how loyal need some reassurance that they are getting a fair deal. In the last few months there's been pretty amateur handling of the Crawley and Stevenage ticketing, and the Robinson player registration point deduction (which could have cost us a play-off place) was our third administration error since we rejoined the league under two years ago.

Maybe if their communication was better, more fans would feel positive about our future. But when you are paying out £200k to Colin Lee, and then sell Zebroski for a fee of... fans are going to feel a bit upset, especially when we are cutting back on the playing budget to the extent we are.

[bixieupnorth]

For the record, I don't see the deal for Zebs as a bad one, anyone who thinks £35k is the full and final figure is hugely mistaken.

i'm sure yr right SG, but what if, as many of us here now hope, that buckle fluffs his lines, is sacked and his players, low on form and confidence, are farmed out for peanuts? to hope for more money from the transfer we have to assume that the weasel does very well there and surges back into league one with zebs scored freely, i for one want him to crash back down to earth as soon as possible, thereby kissing goodbye to any sizeable returns from zebs.

a bad deal all round on the face of it. but we'll never know due to the daft undisclosed amount, cant understand how they can possibly get away with that these days?? what was the crowd today, i'm not telling you mr taxman!! makes no sense in this world of fanancial clarity does it?

[Southampton Gull]

Dave, Of course they've made mistakes.....plenty of them too - Lee was of course, a biggun!

I prefer to see where we are as a club now under their tenure.

Out of the Conf, established in lge 2 with a youth system and a decent infrastructure, they're even chucking in to build our long awaited grandstand and don't even own the land.

When you see some of the shysters and property developers that currently own a lot of Lge clubs, we are incredibly lucky that we are owned by fans of TUFC.
I'm all for freedom of speech but some of the unnecessary crap thrown at them by people who clearly couldn't run a piss up in a brewery themselves, is pathetic and out of order.

I guess it's the way of forums....

I'm with you on that.

My worry, like some others is that we run the risk of returning back to where we were. All i would say though is that freedom to express those concerns on here is what forums should be about. You state your opinion, express your concerns and others refute your viewpoint and state why they think differently. My bugbear is people who try to shout them down without even offering a counter-argument. As always you back your views up with solid reasoned opinions and I've no problem with that, it's what makes a forum what it should be in my view.

[Southampton Gull]

i'm sure yr right SG, but what if, as many of us here now hope, that buckle fluffs his lines, is sacked and his players, low on form and confidence, are farmed out for peanuts? to hope for more money from the transfer we have to assume that the weasel does very well there and surges back into league one with zebs scored freely, i for one want him to crash back down to earth as soon as possible, thereby kissing goodbye to any sizeable returns from zebs.

a bad deal all round on the face of it. but we'll never know due to the daft undisclosed amount, cant understand how they can possibly get away with that these days?? what was the crowd today, i'm not telling you mr taxman!! makes no sense in this world of fanancial clarity does it?

I guess we'll just have to content ourselves with knowing Buckle cocked it up

In all seriousness, that's the risk you take when agreeing a deal of that nature. Let's be honest here, if we did as some suggest and told Rovers to do one, do any of us honestly believe that Zebroski would be worth his place on the teamsheet after being denied the chance to double his wages?

[SteveDeckchair]

I have just had a watch of the interviews on gullsplayer and have to say that I am warming to Martin Ling (not that I was against him anyway mind you!). He may not be the most articulate fella, but he certainly speaks a lot of sense. I am also very pleased with the signings of Saah (?) and Boaby!

It sounds like he has good connections to some premiership sides (Aston Villa is mentioned) and that the loan market will play an important part, as it did under 'he who must not be named'.

Can't wait for the pre-season friendlies to start......

[brucie]

This isn't a knee jerk reaction. It isn't "unfair" as you put it. You are in complete denial if you think our current squad will get off bottom place this year.
Read Gulliballs excellent post.
I don't feel sorry for Ling. We don't need to wait fifteen games, four wil be enough. If w3 have ONE point on the board we will be lucky and our goal difference will have taken a fearful hammering.
The Bristol Rovers game is going to be an embarassment of epic proportions. Stanley,Gill,Carayol,Zebroski,Harrald against Stevens,Macklin,Oastler,Rowe-Turner and Mcphee.
The idiot who said wait till august and play some football is away with the fairies.
I would estimate that we need five decent league 2 standard players and that will just be to stave off relegation. It just ain't going to happen. Ling has not got a hope. He only got Mcphee because he lives in Torquay - if thats the best we can do we are up shit creek without a paddle.

[jocktheknife]

Gulliball,

You state that you write factually......then you go on and spout some clear untruths and a load of pure conjecture!

How do you know Stevens and Macklin are "starters" this season? Yeoman and Palmer were squad players last season, so not much promotion there.....Spear was in the youth set up and has obviously deserved a crack at being a pro.
How do you know what our squad will look like, when their is still several players to come in?

You don't, of course.......nor do I.

You then state fans are going to feel a bit upset, especially when we are cutting back on the playing budget to the extent we are.

Again......pure conjecture, unless of course you want to supply the figures in question.

Of course, we're all a bit pissed off with how it ended up last season, expectations were raised and we didn't deliver twice when it mattered, Crawley and Stevenage.

Was that the boards fault too?

[Southampton Gull]

Come on, lets be fair here. Martin Ling has to assemble a side with limited funding while Buckle tries his best to scupper his plans and preparations. When he finishes putting his squad together he will then start to get an idea of where he needs to strengthen and how to go about it. Judging him so soon on a few signings isn't fair at all. Does anyone else not think our defensive spine looks stronger than last season already? A specialised right back, give me Saah as a replacement for an aging Brabston every day of the week. If Robbo stays so be it, if he goes we have Mark Ellis to come in at the very least. Good managers build from the back first, he's done ok for me so far, give the bloke a chance.

[Southampton Gull]

Of course, we're all a bit pissed off with how it ended up last season, expectations were raised and we didn't deliver twice when it mattered, Crawley and Stevenage.

Was that the boards fault too?

There is a case to say the Board were responsible for the last task though, Justin. Did anyone see Buckle during that game? He didn't look concerned at all, a real lack of professional pride if you ask me. His substitutions on the day confused everyone. My view is that the Board knew well in advance the state of affairs and mugged us off by allowing it to unfold the way it did. I heard there was talk of putting Buckle on gardening leave at the time, I'd rather have lost with Kerry Haggan in charge that that smug prat Buckle.

EDIT: Before Darryl gets on my case, that is not intended to be a slur on Kerry at all

[AustrianAndyGull]

Add a few strikers and a couple of squad players and we have a decent chance of top half at least. Brucie i think on this occasion you are being a little apocalyptic! Stevens is truly shit and McPhee needs to step up to the mark but why would he come back if he didn't feel he could give it a decent crack? The reast of the squad is absolutely fine. If we ARE in a relegation dogfight it will be due to Lings inability to get the best out of players that are decent at this level and i really don't think that will happen.

[jocktheknife]

This isn't a knee jerk reaction. It isn't "unfair" as you put it. You are in complete denial if you think our current squad will get off bottom place this year.
Read Gulliballs excellent post.
I don't feel sorry for Ling. We don't need to wait fifteen games, four wil be enough. If w3 have ONE point on the board we will be lucky and our goal difference will have taken a fearful hammering.
The Bristol Rovers game is going to be an embarassment of epic proportions. Stanley,Gill,Carayol,Zebroski,Harrald against Stevens,Macklin,Oastler,Rowe-Turner and Mcphee.
The idiot who said wait till august and play some football is away with the fairies.
I would estimate that we need five decent league 2 standard players and that will just be to stave off relegation. It just ain't going to happen. Ling has not got a hope. He only got Mcphee because he lives in Torquay - if thats the best we can do we are up sh*t creek without a paddle.

Bruce....Terry....me old mucker.

You may be a miserable old bastard but I still enjoy your posts.......I admire the way that you at least, are a consistently miserable old bastard and can see the despair and despondency in any situation.

If knee-jerking were to become an Olympic sport in 2012 - then you my friend, would be there on the podium, shiny gold medal around your neck

[royalgull]

Partly agree with the OP, it's a tough job for Ling to come into especially when he's probably in last chance saloon himself. However teams like us who have that one good season, if we don't go on and go up then you do see this happen quite a bit. Players think well that's that chance gone, won't happen again coupled with the offer of more money and a chance to play for bigger clubs in areas maybe closer to their family it's hard to stop them. Big fish eat little fish and we are a little fish in this league, small ground, small gates no big money men behind the scenes and no where near the biggest payers. Just reality setting in.

In a way it's good for Ling because a) he has an excuse if we don't hit the ground running and b) he gets to build 'his' team and not just manage Buckle's side with players that might not want to be he here and might not put a shift in.

We do need some more players but they'll come over the next few weeks, plus there's always the loan market which i fully expect us to use a lot throughout the season.

[SteveDeckchair]

This isn't a knee jerk reaction. It isn't "unfair" as you put it. You are in complete denial if you think our current squad will get off bottom place this year.
Read Gulliballs excellent post.
I don't feel sorry for Ling. We don't need to wait fifteen games, four wil be enough. If w3 have ONE point on the board we will be lucky and our goal difference will have taken a fearful hammering.
The Bristol Rovers game is going to be an embarassment of epic proportions. Stanley,Gill,Carayol,Zebroski,Harrald against Stevens,Macklin,Oastler,Rowe-Turner and Mcphee.
The idiot who said wait till august and play some football is away with the fairies.
I would estimate that we need five decent league 2 standard players and that will just be to stave off relegation. It just ain't going to happen. Ling has not got a hope. He only got Mcphee because he lives in Torquay - if thats the best we can do we are up sh*t creek without a paddle.

Why not wait until the season starts and we see who is in place rather than spouting this bile in July FFS! Stevens, Rowe-Turner, Oastler probably won't be starters and you're basing Mcphee's ability on seven (!) years ago at Torquay. On current form he's a good signing. Don't you realise that at our level, we can't afford 20+ starting quality players? Crikey, even Man Utd can't! Squad players cost less!!!!!!!!!!!

If the players you mention all start in August, then yes we will struggle this season. You can moan as much as you like then. Wake up and smell the coffee though Brucie, unless i'm very much mistaken its the first week of July and the transfer window is still very much open!

Do you intentionally try to wind people up? I'm glad I don't stand anywhere near you Brucie, cos you'd get a half time pasty shoved up your arse!

Actually, why don't you go onto Exeweb and chat to some friendly City fans. Your opinions will be very similar and they'd make you feel very welcome. I'm sure some would even hold you up as a typical TUFC fan and pause on your every word. You're not thankfully.

I'm kind of glad the grandstand is going to be missing for the start of the season as it means morons who sit behind the manager talking rubbish won't be able to any more. In that respect, Ling's job might be a tiny little bit easier... 8/

rant over.