stefano wrote:
It depends what bit of the hill you start at!
It was muted on TFF a couple of weeks ago that the slide downhill started when John Bond left in 1969 and took our best players with him to Bournemouth.
Others would go back to 1959 when we finished in the bottom half of the Division 3 (South) and so became founder members of the new Division 4, this having challenged strongly for promotion to the 2nd tier in the seasons before that.
Whilst I can't see where or how we will pick up another point this season I cannot see us being relegated as I think we already have enough points to avoid it.
So let's put this season down as the lowpoint in the history of Torquay United .... and start climbing that bloody hill!
True Stef. Saying since the Cheltenham playoff is of course only my view (though if being brutally honest, I could have said around 15 months earlier).
Other people will of course have a different view.
I have to agree about having enough points already on the board. Welling are probably the most likely to be in with a chance but would require 12 points from their last 9 games to get to where we are now. Yes its only 4 wins, but even with our shower, I cant see us going totally pointless for the rest of this season.
Apathy Rules...............it's ok though, nobody's that fussed about it........
I honestly thought that our squad was good enough for at least play off places. I even enjoyed some of the football we played in a couple of games during our unbeaten run.
Now we are a shadow of that. On the field we are in complete disarray. We look slow, unfit and devoid of passion and of any idea of what to do. This is just not one player having an off day or confidence issues, its the whole damn lot.
SBP wrote:I honestly thought that our squad was good enough for at least play off places. I even enjoyed some of the football we played in a couple of games during our unbeaten run.
And the scarey thing is SBP, it's still the same players that looked like a top half team with a shout of the playoffs. WTF happened to turn them into
SBP wrote:Now we are a shadow of that. On the field we are in complete disarray. We look slow, unfit and devoid of passion and of any idea of what to do. This is just not one player having an off day or confidence issues, its the whole damn lot.
Apathy Rules...............it's ok though, nobody's that fussed about it........
The board have made many mistakes and i guess that's for another thread, i m only commenting on what i see on the pitch.
Firstly a player is responsible for his own diet and turning up for training and giving 100%. For christ's sake they are professional sportsman. How can they turn up overweight? Why after all the terrible performances are certain players out on a Thursday night on the pop? Completely stupid and there is no excuse for this.
Why is it that CH selects players that are unfit. It looks like a complete shambles. It was the same with Rene Howe, nice lad, meet him in the bar after an academy game offered to buy him a drink and he had about 3 packets of crisps.
Is this the same everywhere or is it just us.
I was at Exeter Chiefs the other day and every player has to weigh before and after each game, everything is monitored. I spoke to one of the players and there is no way a player would be selected or in the match day squad if they were not completely match fit.
In Rene Howe's defence, he did shed quite a bit of weight during his spell with us, whereas Briscoe seems to be getting fatter. I wonder if the fitness of the squad has anything to do with the exit of Damian Davey, who quietly disappeared despite being hailed as an invaluable physio by former managers and players at the club.
In the last two matches when Briscoe has run onto the pitch I think he is actually looking leaner. I mentioned this to people around me & they agreed.I haven't got a clue why he was substituted last night. He had a few attacking runs, I thought he was the most likely of any to score; he didn't look like he was tiring & his replacement did no better despite fresher legs. He certainly played far better than Bowman, & I would have preferred to see him subbed.
SBP wrote:I was at Exeter Chiefs the other day and every player has to weigh before and after each game, everything is monitored. I spoke to one of the players and there is no way a player would be selected or in the match day squad if they were not completely match fit.
Thats a little unfair comparison if I may say so.
If you go to the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea you will find they do something similar.
If you go to a tier 5 rugby club, (somewhere like Brixham or the Tics I would imagine) you will probably find it a lot less professional (it used to be though I honestly havnt kept up with things in the last 20 years or so ..)
To also be fair, there was a lot more of a regime under Bucks/Damien Davey. Certainly, several of the players used to dread the beasting in the MSFTs (beep test) and the diet plans. No idea if they are still enforced as strictly but suspect the regime is a lot less nowadays...
Last edited by Sunnysideup on 11 Mar 2015, 16:12, edited 1 time in total.
Apathy Rules...............it's ok though, nobody's that fussed about it........
tommyg wrote:In Rene Howe's defence, he did shed quite a bit of weight during his spell with us, whereas Briscoe seems to be getting fatter. I wonder if the fitness of the squad has anything to do with the exit of Damian Davey, who quietly disappeared despite being hailed as an invaluable physio by former managers and players at the club.
It wasn't that quietly - and it was, as is the case with most things at the club now, money related:
I dont think its unfair to compare with Exeter Chiefs. TUFC players are professional footballers. What does it cost to buy a set of scales and complete a weekly diary.
SBP wrote:I dont think its unfair to compare with Exeter Chiefs. TUFC players are professional footballers. What does it cost to buy a set of scales and complete a weekly diary.
Because like it or not the Chiefs are an elite unit with lots of resources dedicated to maintaining the peak fitness levels of their players. As I pointed out, go to Arsenal or Chelsea and you find the same things in place. We are a tier 5 football club and dont appear to have the resources, staff or the will for chasing such a regime.
And I will tell you now, theres a damn sight more to it than filling a diary in and having a set of scales :slap:
Apathy Rules...............it's ok though, nobody's that fussed about it........
Nothing to do with being a top tier club, my 'amateur' boxers weigh every session too. There is no excuse for a professional sports an NOT to be fit 8 months into the season.
I also think Louis is looking leaner and fitter. Which players are looking fatter ? I'm quite certain that Gareth Law keeps track of all the players weight and fitness levels.
Sunnysideup wrote:
True Stef. Saying since the Cheltenham playoff is of course only my view (though if being brutally honest, I could have said around 15 months earlier).
Other people will of course have a different view.
I have to agree about having enough points already on the board. Welling are probably the most likely to be in with a chance but would require 12 points from their last 9 games to get to where we are now. Yes its only 4 wins, but even with our shower, I cant see us going totally pointless for the rest of this season.
It was probably before the play-off game. St one point we were quite a few points ahead in the automatic places. We started stuttering towards the end if the regular season and it has been downhill ever since.
Sunnysideup wrote:
Because like it or not the Chiefs are an elite unit with lots of resources dedicated to maintaining the peak fitness levels of their players. As I pointed out, go to Arsenal or Chelsea and you find the same things in place. We are a tier 5 football club and dont appear to have the resources, staff or the will for chasing such a regime.
And I will tell you now, theres a damn sight more to it than filling a diary in and having a set of scales :slap:
Exeter Chiefs are not a club with the resources of Arsenal/Chelsea. They are an elite rugby club nowadays but in terms of club size , they are nearer TUFC than Arsenal etc
hector wrote:Exeter Chiefs are not a club with the resources of Arsenal/Chelsea. They are an elite rugby club nowadays but in terms of club size , they are nearer TUFC than Arsenal etc
Yawn!!!!!
Club "resources" (or size) has bugger all to do with it, do point out where I said it did.
What I said was top level clubs (be it rugby or football) invest far more time and effort in the overall fitness and conditioning of their players than a tier 5 club will do (using Brixham or the Tics as a comparator to the Chiefs, just in case someone struggled to visualise what sort of level tier 5 rugby was. I took it as a given we would all know what a tier 5 football club was and could visualise the difference between, say, us and Chelsea).
In fact, if my experience is anything to go by, you will probably find someone like the Chiefs (or any elite rugby club) invest more time and effort (on a pro rata basis) in the physical development of an individual player than the likes of Chelsea or Arsenal do, they certainly seemed to have a better grasp of the science. To be fair that was around 20 years ago when Chelsea were still using Harlington so things may have tilted the other way a bit.
Apathy Rules...............it's ok though, nobody's that fussed about it........
