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Unfortunately I fully expect the same to happen to us if we have abit of success. Mourinho did the same when he won the champs league with Porto then took Deco, Carvalho etc with him.

Surely your energy would be better focused on why your chairman let this happen when he knew before the Shrewsbury game Buckle was off and the contract was sent to the LMA. He's either very naive or stupid, I don't know him so I'll let you all be the judge. There's no reason for you not to have had a manager in place the same day Buckle left or atleast to have interviewed. Players could then have been offered contracts etc.

DEAR BAKER AND CO,

Pull your fingers out!!!! Are we just going to stand and watch Buckle **** us over or are we going to put up a fight? Sort it out!!!!!

In fairness, Bucks is Rovers manager now. His job is to do his best for them, and he knows just as the rest of us do that Stanley is an excellent player at this level. If he'd opted not to sign him because he knew we wanted him (which he doesn't), he wouldn't be doing his current job effectively. I'm frustrated that Stanley won't be here, as our team functioned better with him in it. But there's not really anyone to blame. Bucks is doing his job, and Stanley has presumably taken the best offer made to him. I'll consider Bucks to have over-stepped the mark only when he starts making derisory offers for the players we have under contract - just because he knows our financial position...

Fonda wrote:In fairness, Bucks is Rovers manager now. His job is to do his best for them, and he knows just as the rest of us do that Stanley is an excellent player at this level. If he'd opted not to sign him because he knew we wanted him (which he doesn't), he wouldn't be doing his job now. I'm frustrated that Stanley won't be here, as our team functioned better with him in it. But there's not really anyone to blame. Bucks is doing his job, and Stanley has presumably taken the best offer made to him. I'll consider Bucks to have over-stepped the mark only when he starts making derisory offers for the players we have under contract - just because he knows our financial position...

FACT and agreed fully.

We don't even have a manager, there's no guarantees if the board started signing new players that the new man would even want Stanley. Like Fonda has just written if he tries nicking our players on the cheap then he's taking the piss, signing out of contract players from other clubs, listen to yourselves.

Trying to remain positive, we have to remember Stanley was with us for less than half the season & we still managed to finish in the play off and dominate a very good league 2 side in shrewsbury over 2 legs without him. I dont think he has ever played above league 2 so that would suggest something. I admit he was a great addition while with us but perhaps he was at the top of his game while at plainmoor and there is no guarantee he will recreate that at rovers. It is a loss but lets stay positive and see who the new man brings in!!

Absolutely gutted but not surprised. However, we have shown before that we can do well without Stanley (the two play-off matches with Shrewsburys comes to mind.)

Hopefully we can keep O'Kane, although I do fear he'll be gone elsewhere by August.

royalgull wrote: FACT and agreed fully.

We don't even have a manager, there's no guarantees if the board started signing new players that the new man would even want Stanley. Like Fonda has just written if he tries nicking our players on the cheap then he's taking the piss, signing out of contract players from other clubs, listen to yourselves.

Perhaps the new manager or the board had no intention of making him an offer. We don't know. But surely Buckle knew at least how much he was wanted here on a permanent basis by many of the fans?
As far as we knew we had a very good chance of signing Stanley, all the clues were there. He bonded with the team, came to matches even when his loan spell was over and told fans he hoped to stay. Maybe we have no right to be up in arms since he was never ours but we are fully entitled to be disappointed that we've missed out.

The hits keep on coming. This is a bigger blow than the inevitable loss of Branston. Stanley and Gill is some partnership. I understand that Buckle is doing his job, but the thing that bugs me is he's completely disregarded his own comments post-play-off final. But then I shouldn't be surprised. I expect Robinson and Tomlin to follow suit.

I'm hoping we're employing the rope-a-dope strategy and will come back out fighting soon, but we're in grave danger of being knocked out before pre-season even begins.

HRG wrote: Perhaps the new manager or the board had no intention of making him an offer. We don't know. But surely Buckle knew at least how much he was wanted here on a permanent basis by many of the fans?
As far as we knew we had a very good chance of signing Stanley, all the clues were there. He bonded with the team, came to matches even when his loan spell was over and told fans he hoped to stay. Maybe we have no right to be up in arms since he was never ours but we are fully entitled to be disappointed that we've missed out.

exactly.

whether or not Stanley was ours, is not the entire issue. if, as has been reported, the bucks deal was done back in Jan, when he brought in the likes of Stanley, Tomlin, Robinson, he had an eye on them for his next job. Basically gave them a trial, and is now taking advantage of that.

Conspiracy i tells ya!

Or he thought they could do a job, was proved right they enjoyed playing here and more importantly working for him so in Stanley's case have followed to work with him again.

HRG I understand you dissapointment but you're almost saying Buckle shouldn't sign him because the Torquay fans wanted him to come here. That's umm optimistic at best, laughable at worst.

Bucks inabilty to give Branno a new contract in January can be scrutinised and questioned. Who's best interests was he acting in? But with Stanley, he's done nothing wrong. We were never going to pay money for a player in January that we could sign the following summer for free. He's become a free agent, and Bucks has done what is best for Rovers and snapped him up. It's not realistic to think he'd ignore him on the off-chance we wanted him.

Fonda wrote:Bucks inabilty to give Branno a new contract in January can be scrutinised and questioned. Who's best interests was he acting in? But with Stanley, he's done nothing wrong. We were never going to pay money for a player in January that we could sign the following summer for free. He's become a free agent, and Bucks has done what is best for Rovers and snapped him up. It's not realistic to think he'd ignore him on the off-chance we wanted him.

Exactly my thoughts on both issues. I will be amazed if Branston doesn't sign for Rovers.

Just been listening to Buckle's press conference on BBC Bristol and he essentially said exactly what Fonda and Royal have said, in that he's perfectly allowed to sign out of contract players. Got asked whether any more Torquay players would be joining him, and he certainly didn't rule it out...

It's extremely disheartening, but Buckle certainly hasn't done anything wrong here. I'll be far more dissapointed if it turns out he's been preparing this whilst he was still contracted to us.

MK Gull, he was. His contract was done prior to the playoffs. He has been working for BRFC for a good 3 weeks before it became official, I think. Who released the 17 players from BRFC? Who sold Hoskins for half a million?

The man who should have been trying to guide us to League One was.

royalgull wrote:Conspiracy i tells ya!

Or he thought they could do a job, was proved right they enjoyed playing here and more importantly working for him so in Stanley's case have followed to work with him again.

HRG I understand you dissapointment but you're almost saying Buckle shouldn't sign him because the Torquay fans wanted him to come here. That's umm optimistic at best, laughable at worst.

I'm not all saying that Buckle shouldn't of signed him because he knew Stanley was wanted by fans. Buckle is no longer our manager, he will sign players that he believes are the ones to help Rovers and his career progress. Stanley will go where he feels his needs are best met. But having felt we stood a chance is where the disappointment comes in. Stanley could've signed for Rotherham and I'd have been disappointed, it being Rovers after all of this just makes it a more bitter pill to swallow.

Who's to say that it was all down to Buckle that he was so good here? Perhaps it was a team effort?