Who's lost hope?

[Trojan 67]

Maybe this thread should be called "have a little faith".


I remember a motion picture, back in the day, called "Kelly's Heroes".


It aint over until "Oddball" says it is.


(Sherman tank commander sergeant "Oddball" was not receptive to negative waves).

[Neal]

Unfortunately the change of fortune and new impetuous should have happened when the new manager took charge, that's what has happened at the shots. And is what usually happens, but not for us. Either the team HAS given up as well or Knill is not the motivator we need St this point

[AustrianAndyGull]

Maybe this thread should be called "have a little faith".


I remember a motion picture, back in the day, called "Kelly's Heroes".


It aint over until "Oddball" says it is.

(Sherman tank commander sergeant "Oddball" was not receptive to negative waves).

Ok then, it's over.........................

[yellow]

Unfortunately the change of fortune and new impetuous should have happened when the new manager took charge, that's what has happened at the shots. And is what usually happens, but not for us. Either the team HAS given up as well or Knill is not the motivator we need St this point

Like hollering at Jo Kuffour to get his arse in gear at Carlisle?

Unless I am much mistaken, this is a time for the 'Atkins Diet' form of motivational speeches.

[wivelgull]

If we lose today, me.

[Wisconsin_gull]

[quote="forevertufc"]Towards the end of Novemeber I started to get a sinking feeling about this season, after allways being the one on this site to stick to the one positive,even I started to post concerns which something I have never done before on this or any forum.

Have just reviewed our points per game since start of 2011-12 season and the 30 game moving average shows a clear inflection point at end of last season - Wimbledon away as it happens

Looks like things may have been rotten for longer than we thought, big ask for Knill to turn the ship around now.

The great escape begins today!

COYY

[hector]

Having been a Torquay fan for so many years 30+, at least, you can often predict how things are going to go. Not because of any necessarily rational reasoning but simply because that is what happens when you support Torquay - a bit like watching England. You expect the worst and you usually get it. Perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy but I am sure that I was not alone when fearing the worst for this season when we imploded so badly last year.

When this time last year, when we couldn't lose and seemed secure in the promotion places, I did start to dare to dream about League 1 football. And here we are a year later looking at non-league football again. But when our form deserted us around march time it would have been typical of Torquay to squander promotion and then struggle against relegation. Even though that scenario did worry me, not even the most pessimistic part of me would imagine ti could turn out to be so awful.

I fear the worst because of the ramifications of another relegation to non-league football. At least last time it marked a sense of renewal from the era of Bateson and Roberts. Being in non-league football with a progressive outlook backed by a lottery winner was preferable to the years of stifling penny-pinching that marked the Bateson era.

Two years in the Conference, the trips to Wembley, promotion chasing, cup runs, followed by two play-off campaigns set us up as a club on the up. The new stand, training ground, the infrastruture being built up, youth scheme etc...everything had improved and was better than it had been for years, This is the real tragedy of a possible relegation.

At least with Plymouth you can reason that it is the natural consequence (and deserved one as well) of their over-spending and living beyond their means. For us it will be squandering all that good work to get us back as an established and steady league club and the waste of it is almost heartbraking because the next spell in the conference won't be the almost 'exciting' time it was before.

The way it leaves me feeling is that it almost adds anxiety into your life. I can do without it. We all have problems in our lives that football should be an escape from but when the football club you have followed for over three decades has just rolled over and died, then you start to get to a stage where you are past caring. I look at the website each day - and have been since the transfer window opened in January - in the vain hope that they may have done something to arrest a slide which was blatantly obvious even then. But each day I look I am disappointed. Greeted on the official site by some glib and pointless headline, usually two words, which say **** all as usual.

The site is trying to put the positive slant that there is still 'over quarter of a season to go' as if to say 'don't worry, there are loads of games left'...well 12 quickly becomes 9, then 6 and then 3 and then too late. Also, every other club has 12 games left and are in better form than us and they only need the 12/13 points or whatever it is to get to that 'safety' margin. WE are less likely to achieve it than the other clubs.

I have bought a season ticket for the last 6 years. I will not be renewing it in the Conference. I, like so many others, will probably pick and choose my games because if we go down it is more likely that we will struggle like Lincoln, than storm the division like we did last time.

It could be that someone feeling like me would be accused of lack of loyalty or being fickle but it is just I have had enough. Watching the club throw away all it has achieved just makes me too angry and disappointed to feel like caring.

So an element of me has given up hope because I just do not see us winning enough points, especially if today goes wrong. The lack of reinforcements is utterly disappointing and it leaves me wondering if it is all talk coming out of the club as they have been promising players since January and other than Benyon (who is a waste of space anyway) there has not been a sniff of a new player, so we are left with the same squad who before the 7 defeats on the trot had a spell of around 6 games chucking games away in the 85th minute.

What possible reason is there for any supporter to have any faith in this bunch of players? There is none and with the club seemingly unable to rise from its slumber and wake up and see what is going on, there is little reason to hope and reasonably think we are likely to get out of this mess.

Such a terrible waste and there will be no coming back from it this time.

[Forest gull]

That long post sums up my feelings and fears exactly. Can't be there today, I've for three boxers in the ABAs but will be glued to Internet, at least until it goes accrington 1 ..........

[Southampton Gull]

We're normally at loggerheads (not even sure why) but that post sums up a lot of the feelings I've had for quite some time. Most people seem to take out their frustrations on Martin Ling or certain players, for me it is certain Board members who came to the fore when things were going well and have overseen the scenario you describe. We may be a small club with little in the way of support and finance but that doesn't mean we have to think small time. Good ideas have surfaced and been brushed under the carpet when it has been glaringly obvious that things needed changing. Things needed to be tried after taking advice from people at other Clubs who had made these ideas successful. Look at how Yeovil have pushed on. The community need constant reminders through various innovations that there is a League Club on their doorstep. Too often the Club have failed to build on situations that could have pushed us forward.

It really is time the people with blinkers on who are controlling matters at our club step aside and allow more ambitious and forward thinking members to come forward and lay down some foundations to help increase revenue at the club.

[SuperNickyWroe]

hector, that sums it up perfectly. (three posts above)
one of the best posts for a long time.

[royalgull]

Agreed with hector on everything there. good darts.

[Bloggy]

Having not been at a home game this season*, is there any anger shown towards the Directors during/after a match? Are there ever any Rafa style banners unfurled at any point?
Just wondering if the delusional board (as indicated on here) are even aware of the animosity towards their lack of ambition?

*Only Rovers away. Nice goals from Rene and Aaron btw.

[CP Gull]

Having not been at a home game this season*, is there any anger shown towards the Directors during/after a match? Are there ever any Rafa style banners unfurled at any point?
Just wondering if the delusional board (as indicated on here) are even aware of the animosity towards their lack of ambition?

*Only Rovers away. Nice goals from Rene and Aaron btw.

The thing is Bloggy is that, in my opinion, it would be grossly unfair to have a go at the Board given all the money that has been spent on the infrastructure and how could anyone seriously have a pop at say Thea Bristow when you look at how much her family has invested in the club?

I agree, that in any other scenario, say we had Mike Bateson still in charge, there would have been plenty of vitriol directed at the Directors Box after some of our recent home performances but in all honesty there hasn't been any during our recent slump.

There are some who won't have a word said against the Board, simply because of the money they have put in, and you can understand their point of view. But just because they have invested heavily, doesn't necessarily mean that they are making a good job of the resources they have (or had) available. Football is quite literally littered with stories of generous benefactors who have wasted millions on football clubs, nearly all of them successful businessmen (after all how else did they make their money) but it doesn't necessarily follow that they will make a success of running a football club. People make mistakes and sometimes costly mistakes.

As fans, we can see first hand all the tremendous improvements that have been made at TUFC but the Board should never lose sight of the fact that as far as the vast majority of fans are concerned it really is all about the performances and results on the pitch ... anything else is secondary, regardless of how important the improvements to the infrastructure are (Bristows Bench, Youth set up, Training Ground, Gulls Nest, Big Screen etc etc etc) for the future success of TUFC.

It is also inevitable that questions are going to be asked, when we are on the sort of run we are on, of "where has all the money gone" (wish I had a £ for every time I've heard that phrase in all my years of supporting TUFC) when we know that the club sold it's three best players last summer and received a c £600k "windfall" albeit not all in on go. What fans find difficult to understand is why, within a few months of this "unexpected" income we are told in December/January that there is no money in the kitty for new players ... seemingly all of it having been spent on the stand. I can understand that argument, but if money really is so tight now, then really where would we have been if all three of those players had left for NOTHING in the summer??? It doesn't bear thinking about!

I would seriously hope that there are never any protests against the Board, after all they are all Torquay fans themselves and as such are probably all hurting just as much as we are, probably even more given their financial commitment! It would be a very sad day indeed if, after all the good work they have done, the Board suffer relegation back to the BSP. It really doesn't bear thinking about given all the progression we have made these past 5 years, but if the worst should happen then you would have to question how the situation should have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent as to allow it to happen... and whether more could and should have been done to stop it.

[yellowmonkey]

It ain't over till the fat lady sings and I'm sure i saw Rene in pantyhose at the local karaoke, so we doomed to BSP. But being positive at least the investment in a plastic pitch and the new stand will give us one of the best grounds next season in non league.

[jonnyfive]

It ain't over till the fat lady sings and I'm sure i saw Rene in pantyhose at the local karaoke, so we doomed to BSP. But being positive at least the investment in a plastic pitch and the new stand will give us one of the best grounds next season in non league.

Get back to Exeweb, troll. You aren't the least bit funny.