Is patience wearing thin

[teeboo100]

I believe in the notion about giving a manager time to sort his contacts build a squad talk to his exsisting players bulid backroom staff ect ect however we need to start signing some bodies Painfully thin stroke anorexic is our squad size at the moment come on martin we need some signings mate. a month is what we have b4 we kick off against burton with new faces and a new manager how long are we giving potential new signings time to jell to be moulded into a competitive team... by the time we play tiverton we need the the basis of our first team sorted then one or 2 other loans squad players can come on in to give a bit of depth . The last thing we need next wed is to be having to play billy and ray spear up top just to fill a shirt so come on martin lad lets get this forward line sorted in time to trash tivvy.

[CP Gull]

I believe in the notion about giving a manager time to sort his contacts build a squad talk to his exsisting players bulid backroom staff ect ect however we need to start signing some bodies Painfully thin stroke anorexic is our squad size at the moment come on martin we need some signings mate. a month is what we have b4 we kick off against burton with new faces and a new manager how long are we giving potential new signings time to jell to be moulded into a competitive team... by the time we play tiverton we need the the basis of our first team sorted then one or 2 other loans squad players can come on in to give a bit of depth . The last thing we need next wed is to be having to play billy and ray spear up top just to fill a shirt so come on martin lad lets get this forward line sorted in time to trash tivvy.

It's not Tivvie I'm worried about, Billy can sort them out on his own ... how many did he get there last year ... 5 goals if memory serves me right? But in all seriousness, in an ideal world, like you say we would want the squad settled and in place by the time the first friendly comes around and the Burton home game suddenly doesn't seem so very far away .....

[Jerry]

Talking of Ray Spear.... Palmer and Yeoman have both had a full year as professionals now, can we expect them to step up and have some involvement in the first team this season? I think they are both 19, Billy Kee played a full season for Accrington at that age so you can't say they are too young, but are they good enough? Does anyone who watched them in the reserves last year have any insight?

[ferrarilover]

All the more worrying coming from you, T. Can we infer that you have no further pearls of wisdom to offer regards signings?

I think he has done precisely as we were told he would; taken his time to get the right people, then gone out and got a gaggle of players, before seeking and finding the next batch of recruits.

No, we're not as strong (on paper, which counts for nothing) as we were last year, but we do have the bare bones of a decent enough squad, we're now looking for the vital meat to go on those bones.

Matt.

[Richinns]

teeboo - can we take it Andy Parkinson is not coming now?

[royalgull]

Talking of Ray Spear.... Palmer and Yeoman have both had a full year as professionals now, can we expect them to step up and have some involvement in the first team this season? I think they are both 19, Billy Kee played a full season for Accrington at that age so you can't say they are too young, but are they good enough? Does anyone who watched them in the reserves last year have any insight?

This is probably a really general answer and may be totally wrong or turn out to be totally wrong but I don't hold out much hope for any of our current youngsters in all honesty and the reasoning being we didn't have a youth system for so long that all the talented players around this area would have been hoovered up by Exeter, Argyle, Yeovil etc. The ones playing in our system now especially the ones of around 17+ are the ones they didn't want. So to expect them to be good enough for League 2 football now I'd guess is hopeful. Halpin has been involved a little bit and Derby took a look at him so maybe he might go against that grain, i truly hope I'm wrong on this one.

i think our youth setup will take quite a few years yet to come to fruition, minimum of about 5 years probably longer.

[teeboo100]

ime having to keep things to my chest matt dont want to be upseting any 1 now do i just kinds getting squeeky bum syndrome regarding players i would give my right arm to do that horrible disgusting little mans team on the 13th

[CP Gull]

Talking of Ray Spear.... Palmer and Yeoman have both had a full year as professionals now, can we expect them to step up and have some involvement in the first team this season? I think they are both 19, Billy Kee played a full season for Accrington at that age so you can't say they are too young, but are they good enough? Does anyone who watched them in the reserves last year have any insight?

I saw quite a few reserve games last season and they both acquitted themselves very well. But, as always, it is difficult to say whether they are ready for the step up to League 2 football as obviously it's a big step up. Personally I like the look of Palmer and think he may have a better chance of making it than Yeoman but I think both would benefit from being loaned out first at a decent level of football. I know Palmer had a few games at Weymouth last season but would like to see if he could take it up a gear or two to perhaps BSP level - somewhere like Forest Green Rovers or Bath City would be ideal - but only if he got to play regularly.

Same for Yeoman, he has undoubtedly got some talent but will he ever make the grade? It does seem like an awfully long time ago when he came on in the game against Oxford (?) back in the BSP days and I don't think he's had a look in since.

[Yellow4life]

Just a chat on spear(I know under 18 football is different from league 2) but my point is- when I refereed Torquay last season for one game, he was terrible. Didn't chase down- didn't have a shot that day. Doesn't look like a footballer- from my view. Let's give him chance though! Yeoman is much more of a prospect and at 18 too.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Just worried that within 4 or so weeks the season begins and we ain't got any firepower. You would have thought also that anybody who has any semblance of footballing ability who was available this summer would be fixed up by now?

[CP Gull]

I believe in the notion about giving a manager time to sort his contacts build a squad talk to his exsisting players bulid backroom staff ect ect however we need to start signing some bodies .

No great surprise if he (Ling) has hit a bit of a wall at this stage with new signings. He is now looking at players who play at the "business end". These are the more creative players, the wingers, the strikers and the goalscorers. I imagine it's far harder trying to bring this type of player into a club like TUFC not least because nearly every club is chasing them and it's also probably true to say that goalscorers and the more creative midfielders are typically amongst the highest, if not the highest, earners in football and so very often they will either have a number of clubs to choose from or will command wages that we simply cannot afford.

I've not doubt he's trying hard and there will be "lots of fingers in lots of pies" but at the end of the day it's not an easy task and never has been to get players to come all the way down here.

[GulldenBoy]

I've been more of an observer recently but I thought it worth pointing out that most clubs and managers like to have a look at all their players in pre-season before considering putting some out on loan.

I wouldn't expect us to get any loan signings for at least another two weeks.

Similarly, Ling will want to have a look at our players in pre-season and identify where the weak links are. Remember he even said himself that he hadn't watched us till the Play-off Final.

Also, with the sale of Zebrowski, there is probably a reassessment of who our targets are going on at the moment considering we have more money to play with.

I think we all need to be a little more patient and see what happens in the next two weeks.

[happytorq]

Similarly, Ling will want to have a look at our players in pre-season and identify where the weak links are. Remember he even said himself that he hadn't watched us till the Play-off Final.

This is a great point - we know the previous manager had his weaknesses, maybe promoting a younger player was one of them? I'd expect Ling to treat the first week or so training as a 'getting-to-know-you' session. Hell, maybe he'll decide the Billy Kee can get us 25 goals and bring in players to support him! (rather than rushing out to find any old striker). For me, the next 10 days are the most important for the coming season; not because of the new faces we'll see, but because some of the players we already have could come to the fore and be better than we'd ever have expected.

I really hope this is true for Danny Stevens

[brucie]

Lets hope that Ling has not come to the end of his contact book. Mcphee (lives in Torquay so that one was obvious). Saah (lings lovechild) Leadbitter (hmm) Keeper (no idea) Stevens/Oastler (nobody else wanted anyway).
If thats it we are fecked.

[teeboo100]

ever the optimist brucie however stevens is totally garbage so ile give u that 1