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Our best chance in my eyes is to find a reverently (I.e last 5 years) retired lower league footballer who has recently found themselves unemployed from a Prem/Championship academy job.

Cheap and unproven enough that they are within our realm of possibility, enough of a knowledge of what it takes to suceed at this level and a recent involvement in youth football, so they'd know players with decent potential we could get on loan or who have slipped out of the pro game.

Whether such an individual exists, I have no idea

Go down Buckland FC and get their manager and team to sign up

For christs sake whats wrong with people, Mansell and Nicholson! I wish people would just get that idea out of their head especially Dave Thomas and that knob on radio Devon. It would be such a lazy appointment, have you learnt nothing from Hargreaves. Just because they have played for us does not mean they would be any good as management. Two of the most over-rated players to ever pull on a TUFC shirt, especially Mansell who might have run around a lot but he bawled at players covering his own mistakes and was one of the worst passers of a ball I have seen. Might be nice blokes and "good to have in the dressing room" but certainly not "legends", just because you play for a club for a while does not make you a "legend". This would spell the end for me if either of these get anywhere the hotseat.

As for Martin Ling, he is a decent man, very well liked among the fan base and media, the bloke has my every sympathy and admiration for the way he has had to battle his illness, but lets be real here, with a bit of luck and organisation he cobbled together a promotion challenging side out of the mess and bare bones of a squad Buckle left behind, he did very well, but he had an outstanding goalkeeper, a very decent midfielder and a half decent targetman/forward. We did blow it though when it looked easier to get promoted, but that I feel was more down to the chumps in the boardroom. After that though we were already on the slide with Ling, people have short memories - The boring football, negative tactics - the nick a goal, cling on for dear life and nick a win strategy wasnt working anymore and many forget how there was a lot of moaning and descent on here about it all before poor Martin had to succumb to his demons and take timeout. I do not believe he would be the answer in our current situation, least of all for his own health, this is no doubt causing many of us supporters worry, anxiety and depression, imagine what it would do to a manager with depression issues. Best left well alone I feel, no disrespect but also they say never go back, its never the same the second time around, and again we played some crap football at times in that last season and results had slumped, to be fair it may have been down to Martins off field problems affecting his management, but then many felt even though we had a good first season the football was dreadful and we often got lucky.

Joyce and Tully, again going down the ex player route, although both are managers at this time and fairly local , I would not be totally against it as I like to see people learn their trade, progress and earn and work their way up. Picking someone doing well at a lowert level could be a good thing. Not sure about the contacts issue though, but then again they would know of a few gems in lower leagues and possibly more local (potentially saving money) who I am sure given a chance would be hungry to do well and bust a nut for the team, probably give it more than players with no experience coming down here from teams higher up who have had sod all game time against savvy opposition and likely feel they dont belong here so they strut around without a care or a clue and put next to no effort in.

Neil Warnock, for christs sake live in the real world, he wouldnt give a toss about us now, he wouldnt sully his hands with it, unless we could pay him a fortune. Again, lets think a bit more outside the box than someone who has already been here.

The dinosaur tactics of Cox clearly werent working, we have also had a few strokes of bad luck, who knows whether his way would have eventually had the desired effect, I recall a few Mansfield fans telling us the football will be dire and it will take time to get results, well now we will never know. Also a few posters have pointed out that he has only really been successful at his other clubs with money. There is a lot gone on here that doesnt add up, and reading across the forums it stinks to high heaven. I am a little relieved he has gone and took his brand of football with him, I never feel boot and rush, kick it away and hope for the best war of attrition battle ball works.Who wants to pay £16 to watch that shit. Plus he seemed a bit jobs for the boys, bringing in players he knew but clearly arent good enough but he wouldnt drop them Surely you can be hard to beat and string a few passes together, other teams with even less budget than us in recent seasons have shown us that. I will probably be proved wrong and regret those words because on paper it looked a fantastic shrewd move and a bit of a coup for us, he seemed just what we needed but it wasnt meant to be, so thats it, time to move on now.

The next appointment is the most important in our history and I trust Steve Breed and Dave Phillips to make the right call out of the best available to us and who is best for our team and club. It doesnt matter if they arent experienced "football people", most boards of clubs arent, these fellas have been football fans for probably nearly their whole lives and due to football snobbery most fans never get enough credit from those "in the game" for their knowledge, insight and judgement on football matters. They will make their choice no doubt as people who love the club, are supporters but also intelligent realistic business people. Unlike the last appointment by the previous board where someone really was thinking as a fan, got a little bit giddy and starstruck and appointed someone who some called a "LEGEND" just because they played quite well for us for a couple of seasons.

Good luck to the board in making the next appointment, this one has to be a doozy.

Well, if SG is right Chunks, I'm guessing we won't be seeing you again then.

This is arguably the most important appointment in the clubs history. If they did decide to go with a rookie then it would be total insanity imo. Although the finances will make it very difficult, they must try and find someone with the requisite experience at this level.

You have to remember it's going to be hard to get players being a struggling team any manager with contacts will struggle. Ling would be a great choice but you just can't go there.

Whoever it is we need to give them a chance. Like it or not our support is a big factor on whether the new manager can keep us in this league or not.

This is such a depressing thread.

There are around 110 professional football clubs in England.

I do not have the facts but I bet over 300 hopeful men have managed those clubs in the last 3 years and goodness knows how many in the last 5 years....so where are all these ex-managers ?

The fact of the matter is, Torquay may be just about the smallest professional club in the UK, but even so, the job of Torquay United boss puts managers who still fancy themselves in the spotlight and can certainly be a springboard to greater things if the manager perform well.

To see men such as Mansell (who destroyed the confidence of younger players at the club in recent years) and Nicholson, who is another rookie is quite simply scraping the bottom of the barrel.

We can do better....and guess what? i think we will

Sean Joyce is a lovely bloke. As there is little money beggars can't be choosers. He'd do for me.

I'd quite like Joe Dunne. Spent some time managing at Colchester in L1, keeping them up in successive seasons (so has knowledge of relegation battles and what is required - lets face it, we look like we're in one). Currently assistant at Cambridge in L2. Ok, not the best win % but in his time at Colchester he brought through a fair few youngsters.

Perhaps out of our price range, but he's a young coach perhaps trying to get another shot at management so who knows?

no ex players please, forget nico, manse, joyce ,tully, etc, we need someone who knows how to get out of this league, someone with contacts, none of the above will have that, martin ling would do for me, i assume that now deano has gone his wages freed up will allow us to pay the manager so that should help.

I agree totally with Scott Brehaut and Kevgull- Martin Ling, arguably, would be a very credible choice.

For whatever reason, the previous Board treated Martin shamefully [ I make an exception of Thea in this regard as I believe she was heavily influenced by her co directors and pressurised into agreeing with them ] .

As I have argued previously, people who have suffered from mental illness manifesting itself in the form of clinical depression are eminently capable of making a full and sustainable recovery.

We are considered to be a family oriented club with decent values - we can and should make amends as regards Martin by giving him the opportunity to pull us out of this dreadful mess- I feel sure he would relish the chance

I agree with other posters on here that this next appointment is probably one of the most important in recent memory. We need someone who can turn the results around and bring stability to the club. Having approximately 6 managers in 5 years is not sustainable and has contributed to the financial woes and instability we now find ourselves in. We need someone with the relevant experience, a good track record, excellent man-management/ motivational skills and someone who the players can look up to and respect.

What we don't need is someone who is untried and untested as a manager and as F'rev as said above, 'no ex players please'. We've done that with Hargreaves and look where we are now.

I'm sure there's been lots of good applicants, however, my preference is Lingy . He has all the right attributes, he knows the club inside and out and he got results. Also, doesn't he have family living nearby?

No to Ling. Nice bloke, did well for us but would worry for his health. This job is going to be 10 times as stressful as when he was last here. I think part of Ling's problem was that he was away from his family. Same was happening with Cox. Ideally we need a manager who knows the area and will have support at home as well as from the club. That cannot be underestimated. And please not Nicholson! Again top guy and great servant but he's not got the qualifications.

We're in the relegation places, we need a firefighter . . . .

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