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Scott Brehaut wrote:It's unfair Andy because we have been told by two excellent sources on this site that at least TEN players have been approached and they have all turned him down.
Hey, we are going in the right direction - most people predicted a loss yesterday and we got a point.
Many people have said that they don't rate most of the squad so why now do people expect Knill to get them playing amazingly well when they are not rated by everybody anyway?!
Many Knill has seen on the training ground quite how poor they are and knows that if he went "gung-ho" we would be annihilated.

thats all very well scott - but we have received the same answer from all of them - thanks but no thanks........
at this rate we will get to 50 before we get a "yes"..........

Well quite Supes - but I was merely trying to prove that Alan HAS been at least trying to get people in!!

Scott Brehaut wrote:It's unfair Andy because we have been told by two excellent sources on this site that at least TEN players have been approached and they have all turned him down.
Hey, we are going in the right direction - most people predicted a loss yesterday and we got a point.
Many people have said that they don't rate most of the squad so why now do people expect Knill to get them playing amazingly well when they are not rated by everybody anyway?!
Many Knill has seen on the training ground quite how poor they are and knows that if he went "gung-ho" we would be annihilated.

But apparently it's over exaggerated how difficult it is to get players to Torquay.

It's miles away from anywhere and we pay peanuts. Bloke's got no hope.

Andy and some others, if we had gone gung-ho on Saturday and lost 0-1 we would be in dire straits today. We would be on 37 points, only one above the bottom team. Take Saturday on it's own, a draw away from home against a team with better form than us is a good result.

Otherwise I will agree, I too am disappointed, mainly with team selection. I was happy to see the change to 4-4-2. I understood the squad selections to start with, he needed time to evaluate the team but after 7 losses on the bounce he should have realised that the current 11 simply wasn't working.

I was worried after Macdonald's performance as sub last week that he may put Oastler back in the defence to shore it up a little and sure enough he did, dropping our best player in recent games.
Nicho, Manse, Jarvis. They all need dropping (maybe not Jarvo but the wing is not where he should be playing). So we couldn't get any new bodies in for Saturday, so what? We have a squad of players and we need to be trying new things. As has been said many times before constantly doing the same thing expecting different results is madness.

What was that comment all about on the Football League show about Knill no longer being interim manager but now permanent manager?

chippygull wrote:What was that comment all about on the Football League show about Knill no longer being interim manager but now permanent manager?

Just semantics I think. The Herald reported this but nothing on the OS to suggest that it carries any import.

Lingy will return if and when fit to do so.

Weighing up the present situation re loans, it maybe that as well as looking for a few additions, AK may be trying to scare the team into some possitive reaction by the loan threats. Let's be fair, they all have the skill and ability but seem it have individual issues......It might work, see Saturday, as those targeted to be replaced could find themselves in the Job Centre !!!

Just seen the BBC Sport piece on Knill under the headline 'TORQUAY UNITED BOSS ALAN KNILL PREDICTS WINNING RUN' and whilst i think it's a bit OTT to say that about a side who have only won once since the 1st of December, i also think it's the kind of positivity lacking during Lings reign this season. Knill is right to say that what he saw at Accrington was promising as we did play some decent stuff at times and had a few spells knocking the ball around. I know he has to come out and say positive things but should we get the ball rolling against Oxford on saturday and go on to safety then i shall apologise to all you who saw the turning point at Accrington when we kept a clean sheet, stopped the rot and played better. I have to be honest and say i saw those things too but i didn't see a side who looked likely to win football matches so we'll see if Knill has been working the oracle in training and i'm really looking forward to saturday now, something i haven't been able to say most of the season. Good soundbites from Knill.

Yes, that's a big statement from Knill but at least it's positive (fed up with the bad press that was coming from behind the scenes). If it does happen and we somehow manage to finish mid table, give Knill the job, forget this seaons negatives and look forward to next !

I think I started to be a little bit concerned about the appointment of Alan Knill when he said in an interview, cannot remember who with, that he is really a coach rather than a Manager. I suspect that he's right,I think as I've said elsewhere, that given time he could make an excellent Manager at TUFC. I reckon he can spot a decent player (Labadie is a decent start) and I reckon he is probably pretty good on the training ground too ... the sort of qualities that in the long term would make him a good appointment.

But the immediate concern is that is he a great motivator, can he inspire, can he turn things around? Has he really got great contacts in he game? Is he forceful enough? Although I completely loathe the guy, I could almost guarantee if someone like Steve "fatty" Evans had taken over at the time Knill did, not that it would ever happen, that he would have had half a dozen or so players in by now ... same with Martin Allen, Micky Adams et al.

We need a firefighter, we've had them before ... Neil Warnock, Colin Lee, Ian Atkins ... and it has worked well for us, but the big question is, is Alan Knill going to be added to that list of latter day heroes ... or not.

My fear was that Alan Knill was not a firefighter. He failed to have the slightest impact at Scunthorpe and that was main my concern when he was appointed here. Like CP Gull suggests, he may or may not be a good appointment with a whole season in front of him (not that I think I want him if we are in the Conference) but not in this situation of attrition we find ourselves in. It is like the team go out tht match waving white flags before they even start.

As for next season, whether we are in the league or non-league I would quite like it if we went for someone like David Hockaday at Forest Green Rovers - not that he would probably be interested if we went down

We need a motivator right now, a buzzing personality, a 'geezer'. Ok so we have a poor team but a team which should be doing better and a bloke with the attributes i've mentioned is what we needed and not Knill. All we need is someone to provide some ENERGY and get the players enjoying football again and improving their attitude and we then would win the 3 or 4 we need for safety. Knill has had 4 games now and i've seen nothing different to Ling. In my opinion he has the next 2 games to get a win AND make us LOOK like we can get a win otherwise we are down and it is another massive gaffe by the board bringing in someone unsuitable for the position we are in. No offence to Knill but i do actually believe that he thinks he has bitten off more than he can chew with us. We've replaced lethargy with lethargy and that means no change and relegation i fear. We need someone who is UP FOR IT! Get Louis Spence in FFS! That bloke will get the lads buzzing!

austrianandygull wrote: Get Louis Spence in FFS! That bloke will get the lads buzzing!

Well, the goal celebrations and group hugs may be a bit more interesting

The post match showers would be very awkward...

austrianandygull wrote:We need someone who is UP FOR IT! Get Louis Spence in FFS! That bloke will get the lads buzzing!

I'm sure he would be....... :} :no: