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I always liked him and always supported him, even to the point of ridicule on the "old" site (pre crash).

However, the way that he went about leaving (and totally lying about it to us) leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. It is difficult to "like" somebody after the way they seemingly treated the club and the fans in the space of two weeks.

well lets face it you dont have to be cracker to work it out....

self centred.
never wrong.
wont change his mind.
above his own station.
egotistical.

cant keep his...........

oh, ill leve it there.

SuperNickyWroe wrote:well lets face it you dont have to be cracker to work it out....

self centred.
never wrong.
wont change his mind.
above his own station.
egotistical.

cant keep his...........

oh, ill leve it there.

Enough about you though Barnse - what are your thoughts on Bucks....

scottbrehaut wrote: Enough about you though Barnse - what are your thoughts on Bucks....

well.......... =D

I used to speak to him most weeks......as the company I work for sponsored the playing squad.

I always found him to be very warm and friendly, of course he always professional and said the right things and was extremely grateful etc etc. - but it didn't come across as false to me.

The man is of course very driven.....but so he has to be, to succeed in the football world. I have never heard anybody say that Buckle was anything but polite to fans.

The reason for his "apparent unpopularity" has more to do with a section of our fanbase than it has to do with the man himself in my humble opinion.

Like someone said earlier.....give me success over popularity any day.

P226 W104 D58 L64 - 46% win rate

2nd in the all time list of wins as Torquay manager, and only because the person in first was manager for over 650 matches.

royalgull wrote:P226 W104 D58 L64 - 46% win rate

2nd in the all time list of wins as Torquay manager, and only because the person in first was manager for over 650 matches.

And because he spent 2 years in the conference playing the likes of Barrow, Northwich Victoria and Forest Green Rovers? Statistics, you've gotta love em.

jocktheknife wrote:I used to speak to him most weeks......as the company I work for sponsored the playing squad.

I always found him to be very warm and friendly, of course he always professional and said the right things and was extremely grateful etc etc. - but it didn't come across as false to me.

The man is of course very driven.....but so he has to be, to succeed in the football world. I have never heard anybody say that Buckle was anything but polite to fans.

The reason for his "apparent unpopularity" has more to do with a section of our fanbase than it has to do with the man himself in my humble opinion.

Like someone said earlier.....give me success over popularity any day.

Fair points JM. Should clarify i never once met the man so my thoughts were based on how he appeared - i think many people will base their opinion on that, probably wrongly.

scottbrehaut wrote:I always liked him and always supported him, even to the point of ridicule on the "old" site (pre crash).

However, the way that he went about leaving (and totally lying about it to us) leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. It is difficult to "like" somebody after the way they seemingly treated the club and the fans in the space of two weeks.

Excuse me Mister, in the early days you hated the bloke. It was only when others started doing the same you suddenly changed camp.

SuperNickyWroe wrote:
well.......... =D

Now that's what I call banter.

Southampton Gull wrote:
Excuse me Mister, in the early days you hated the bloke. It was only when others started doing the same you suddenly changed camp.

I think you have me mixed up Dave - me and you have had "heated" exchanges in the early days about Buckle - the last few times I have been over I have been supportive of Buckle, even when you told me what he was really like.

I have never hated him mate - not until the last couple of weeks anyway.
If only we had the old stuff so I could prove it.

Not a chance, I' can vividly remember your anti-buckle posts. Bloody vas memory

We will have to agree to disagree then me old Magners drinking chum.

Firstly I really do not think any lack of popularity Paul Buckle had amongst fans had anything to do with his connections with Exeter, and those who take that view point are foolish in my opinion.

He came to our club as we all know at our lowest point; we had 5 players so Paul Buckle had to throw a squad together as a rookie a manager, up to the half way point of his first season results were good, our team was very much in the running for the conference title and had gone through a few rounds of the F.A trophy, however there was an issue there all along, the style of play, we were then an out and out hoof ball team not a style of play that us fans liked or were used to, I remember at the time this was pretty much forgiven because the team were winning and were just a point behind Aldershot with games in hand.

The rot started to set in around Christmas time of that season and issue s started to be highlighted .Rice was brought in for Rayner in goal, Rice I don t know maybe at that time was not ready however he clearly was not up to the job, buckle continued to play him (including that 4.3 away defeat to Exeter when we were witness to some pathetic keeping from Ricey) even sending Rayner off on loan only either brining Rayner back when it was to late, that same season early in January we played Burton this game stuck in my memory and I have picked it out as another reason why fans started to question Buckle s management, in game we hoofed long ball after long ball at the Burton defence to see them cope with ease, the game plan was clearly was not working and we lost, as we saw in many other games, his refusal to admit he got it wrong and change things did not help.

I have to be honest here; I completely lost patience with Buckle early in his second season and was vocal in public and on various forums pleading with the board to remove Buckle as our manager, the reason Chris Hargreaves being moved to centre back, don t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with any manager moving a mature midfielder to centre back, it has worked out for many clubs players and managers at all levels, however it did not work out for C/H ,not Greavsie s fault but he was the worst centre back in the history of football it stood out like a sore thumb, we were conceding awful goals because of it and losing match s because it and found ourselves in the bottom four of the conference because of it yet he would not change it, finaly whether someone pinned Bucks up against a wall and told him to change it, or he realised it could not go on, he did move Hargreaves back to midfield and we never looked back.

I do not want this to come across all negative, Paul Buckle did win me over, as he showed he could recognize when things were wrong and make a change before it festered, he started to show in match s that he was not scared to make a change early in tactics and personnel when things were not going to plan, I also saw Paul Buckle spend a lot of time coaching our centre of excellence up close and personal last season, where he demonstrated to me that he was a very passionate football man, clearly loves football, and not only loves coaching, but is a very good football coach.

The real shame for me is, despite all I would have liked to have given him a polite round of applause and thanks for efforts here with us, but now feel totally unable to that, due to way he left, don t get wrong I do not begrudge him the Bristol Rovers job, however there is aright way to move on to a new club and a wrong way, he chose the wrong way, that does leave a bitter taste ,so ram it as far as he is concerned.

Southampton Gull wrote:Nothing to do with his managerial ability for me at all. I found him arrogant and totally ignorant and I think he let his personal life cross over far too much into his working life.

Far too stubborn when things aren't going right as well. Seemed to be the last one to realise Benyon up front on his own didn't work, I could easily forgive that if he was more gracious when dealing with people, found him to be a total tosser when i met him, to be honest.

What is the story with him and RL...also with Bayes...why won't anyone let on???