Martin Ling

[Southampton Gull]

What part of it in particular did you not agree with TCP?

Probably the facts

[TCP]

If only life was that simple eh.

[Southampton Gull]

If only life was that simple eh.

It's football mate, if we all shared the same opinions and views as each other there wouldn't be any need for fans forums

Like others have said, I've got a real hope that you guys get back in the league. I had a good laugh with some of your fans at the Railway in Histon after our play-off game there, top lads. It was really funny watching them chase off the young Histon lads giving it large, and I'll never forget seeing a load of your fans up on the bank cheering us on.

[TCP]

I was sat there cheering you guys on that day

Good times

[ferrarilover]

Witout writing an equally in-depth response to the OP, I would say that there's far, far more to Ling's abysmal failure at CUFC, than was mentioned in that very well structured post.

The bottom line is simple: He had the tools and full support of everyone at the club, but managed to fail in a more spectacular manner than any other manager in the 26 years since I've supported CUFC.

The Rolls argument doesn't stand up at all as well, as he was working under Paul Barry for 99% of his tenure, so we can instantly discount that.

And herein lies the defeat of your own argument. We KNOW Martin Ling to be a good manager, we can prove this by evidencing his time at Leyton Orient.
If he failed at Cambridge, it is not because he became a terrible manager over night.
We are able to evidence his continued skill as a manager by the performances he has show in his time here and the signings he has made.

So, if the fault doesn't lie with ML, then it MUST lie with the other variable in the mix, i.e. the club to which he moved.

Matt.

[TCP]

You don't KNOW anything yet, as you've yet to see Ling manage your side in a competitive match.

At this point in time, I am more qualified to comment on Mr Ling's managerial abilities (or lack of) than you or any other TUFC fan is.

"So, if the fault doesn't lie with ML, then it MUST lie with the other variable in the mix, i.e. the club to which he moved"

Quite frankly that is an absolutely ridiculous statement to make, and it highlights your clear lack of understanding regarding his time at CUFC.



If I may, I would like to share a small sample of some other CUFC views on Mr Ling....

“He was given everything at this level and the return was so bad that it doesn't bear thinking about, had he not been sacked when he was”

“Nice work on completely ignoring that he inherited the baulk of a squad that finished second the year before, that last pre-season his squad was assembled well before the start of training, had no players he didn't want left over the previous regime had a top eight budget and spent 10K on a striker who scored one goal all season”

“I have never seen a more unfit, tactically hopeless and worse prepared team in my thirty years of watching this club than I did last season. It was an utter embarrassment, and the buck has to stop at ML's door, like it or not.

“I have to say that when he came in I thought he was a decent appointment, but the writing was on the wall about 3 months into his first season (around the time of the first Hayes away debacle!!!!). He used far, far too many excuses for a manager of his level of experience.

“Naturally, many gave him the 'first season at the club' benefit of the doubt. However, no-one, whether pro or anti-Ling, could have foreseen the unmitigated disaster which was last season. His position became untenable around October, IMO (coinciding with the second Hayes away debacle!!), but he got his stay of execution due to the club's financial situation”

“He failed on a top eight budget and with more than a half decent team he inherited. To any Torquay fans reading this thread....You have been warned”

“Reading that just hits home how delighted I am he's not 'ours' anymore...good luck to them, they'll need it if things start to go wrong that's for sure”

“Jez showed more tactical nouse in 3 months, than Ling showed in his entire tenure”

“I have to say very disappointed with those comments. Typical Ling, blames everyone but himself for his failings here. We saw same of the worst football ever witnessed at the Abbey Stadium under his leadership”

“Time to move on though, he could really benefit from a fresh start at Torquay but ultimately he will not change his approach or character, so if the going gets tough there I'd expect to see him really struggle...”

“How many defeats into the season will it be before Ling comes out with the pearl of inspiration that was "They need to decide whether they are solider/artist, artist/soldier, artist/artist, solider/soldier".

“I wouldn't get too upset by this sort of cobblers from Ling, he survived most of his time here on it and he fooled a few of us for part of that time”

“As I said in a previous post - at the time it appeared to be a good appointment.
Within about three months, though, the writing was on the wall - the results got worse over that first autumn and winter he was here. That first mauling at Hayes sticks in my memory. He wrote the season off in his post match interview, only for the board to apparently panic over the effect that statement might have on attendance levels - and hence a quick retraction of his statement was issued”

[Southampton Gull]

“Naturally, many gave him the 'first season at the club' benefit of the doubt. However, no-one, whether pro or anti-Ling, could have foreseen the unmitigated disaster which was last season. His position became untenable around October, IMO (coinciding with the second Hayes away debacle!!), but he got his stay of execution due to the club's financial situation”

“He failed on a top eight budget and with more than a half decent team he inherited. To any Torquay fans reading this thread....You have been warned”

Can you see why this is confusing? It ties in with him saying his budget was being reduced and that although he accepted his share of the blame it was also the Boards fault for not giving him what he was promised.

Whoever is right or wrong is immaterial, he did well at Orient, he failed with you and he's made a very promising start with us at a difficult time for our Club. You've made your point, we've made ours, time to move on perhaps?

[ferrarilover]

You don't KNOW anything yet, as you've yet to see Ling manage your side in a competitive match.

At this point in time, I am more qualified to comment on Mr Ling's managerial abilities (or lack of) than you or any other TUFC fan is.

"So, if the fault doesn't lie with ML, then it MUST lie with the other variable in the mix, i.e. the club to which he moved"

Quite frankly that is an absolutely ridiculous statement to make, and it highlights your clear lack of understanding regarding his time at CUFC.

We KNOW that we are impressed with the quality of his signings.
We KNOW that, the football we have played against opposition of all abilities has been very good.
We KNOW that, regardless of three points at stake or not, the matches we have played thus far have been in a competitive spirit.
All of which which are opinions so widely held that, while not directly quantifiable, they may be regarded as fact.
So, I have duly proven that he is a manager with ability. Further to this, I offer the irrefutible fact that, under the ML stewardship, Leyton Orient were taken from the lower reaches of L2 to the middle reaches of L1. Further evidence that ML is a perfectly decent manager.

The statement to which you refer is perfectly valid, since I have proven (twice now) that ML is not the weak link. He IS a good manager, I can and have offered overwhelming evidence to support this.

This leaves us with only one conclusion, and that is that something at CUFC, other than ML, was to blame for the failure experienced while he was there.

Matt.

[TCP]

Indeed.

We can all argue this until the cows come home without ever coming to any sort of agreement. My 'beef' lies purely with Ling and not in the slightest with a fantastic club such as Torquay United, a club whom I have many fond memories of seeing visit the Abbey over the years.

Ling aside, I wish you all the very best for this coming season.

[usagullmichigan]

At this point in time, I am more qualified to comment on Mr Ling's managerial abilities (or lack of) than you or any other TUFC fan is.

In That case we are more qualified to comment on league football and the standard that we play in LEAGUE football. Halooooooo down there.

[Dave]

To make thing's clear, i have no problem accepting the view point of every Cambridge fan, and have taken on board every thing that has been said by the u's fan's, i have also taken on board everything that Orient fan's have had to say aswell, and you will not find one o's fan who will agree witht he Cambridge point of view.

I have said above and do not mean that to be patronising, it is understandable why most U's fan's feel they way they do about Lingy , but there is two sides to every story, Cambridge say he had all he needed in term's of budget support etc to suceed, Lingy says he did not,and was largly screwed over, who's telling the whole truth, that remain's to be seen, as Cambridge will tell there fan's what they want to hear, and Martin Ling will tell all around TUFC what we want to hear.

I have said from day one, when Martin Ling got the Torquay job, as much as you can not dismiss his record with Cambridge, you can not in any way dismiss his record with leyton Orient either, however you can spin his record at Cambridge and Orient which ever way you want to suit, some will tell at Orient his sucsess was only ever down to his assistant, not aiming this at anyone, but what utter ballhock's, every single manager has either leant on his assistant, or taken advice from another.

AS said all us Torquay fan's can do is judge lingy on what he does here, he has not played a competative game yet, so 10-20-30 games in we will see, all we are saying on pre-season and the way he gone about his buisness,so far, so good, a one comment i have had from a board member of TUFC, is, "it's nice to our player's walking around with a smile on there faces again"

[Regiment]

Indeed.

We can all argue this until the cows come home without ever coming to any sort of agreement. My 'beef' lies purely with Ling and not in the slightest with a fantastic club such as Torquay United, a club whom I have many fond memories of seeing visit the Abbey over the years.

Ling aside, I wish you all the very best for this coming season.

well said, sir. and all the best to you guys as well. hopefully you'll be heading back into the football league soon, so we can have more enjoyable trips to the abbey.

[usagullmichigan]

I do miss Cambridge in the league a long with York. Some of the old school games were good. Now we have to put up with Crawley until the go bust.

[Gashead1979]

We KNOW that we are impressed with the quality of his signings.
We KNOW that, the football we have played against opposition of all abilities has been very good.
We KNOW that, regardless of three points at stake or not, the matches we have played thus far have been in a competitive spirit.
All of which which are opinions so widely held that, while not directly quantifiable, they may be regarded as fact.
So, I have duly proven that he is a manager with ability. Further to this, I offer the irrefutible fact that, under the ML stewardship, Leyton Orient were taken from the lower reaches of L2 to the middle reaches of L1. Further evidence that ML is a perfectly decent manager.
The statement to which you refer is perfectly valid, since I have proven (twice now) that ML is not the weak link. He IS a good manager, I can and have offered overwhelming evidence to support this.

This leaves us with only one conclusion, and that is that something at CUFC, other than ML, was to blame for the failure experienced while he was there.

Matt.

That isn't strictly true.

Paul Trollope took Bristol Rovers from the bottom of L2 to midtable in L1 and was found to be a poor manager. He may be a decent coach but a manager is a different animal.

Lennie Lawrence his assistant is thought to be the the main reason for anything good that happened, much the same as Orient are saying about Ling and their assistant. Trollope collapsed when Lawrence left and he couldnt hack it on his own.

Very similar circumstances really, although Trollope hasn't gone on to manage another club since whereas Ling has.

[Southampton Gull]

Except that Trollope is still drawing money from Rovers..............................