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... to join the Buckle Revolution.

No great surprise really, other than it's taken this long!!!!

Apparently their recent signing from QPR (Lee Brown) intimated that the only player he knew from their current squad was an "imminent signing" .......

http://www.brfcforum.co.uk/index.php?/t ... n-oastler/

Oh well, I guess that just creates another gap in the squad! If, as has been speculated on another thread, Danny Stevens is indeed off as well then that leaves a squad of just 14 players including the likes of Spear, Yeoman and Palmer and when you consider the limited first team exposure that Halpin, Macklin and Rowe- Turner have had then in reality we would be left with no more than 7 or 8 "senior" pros !!!!

Whether Martin Ling turns out to be the right appointment only time will tell but we better hope that his "contacts" are as good as he says they are because to my mind (if the above should happen) we now need eight or nine quality additions to the squad .... and the new season really isn't that far away now.

I too have seen this. Very disappointing considering he "agreed" a deal. Maybe he agreed the deal with Buckle as he was working for Rovers aswell as us.

In some ways I think it'll suit him better anyway. At least the side will contain players he's chosen, we'll have a better idea of his talents a bit sooner than expected.

Should Zebs add to those departed then he'll practically need a whole side. I heard a whisper that Lathrope might seek a move away as well so ML is going to be pretty busy.

Southampton Gull wrote:In some ways I think it'll suit him better anyway. At least the side will contain players he's chosen, we'll have a better idea of his talents a bit sooner than expected.

Should Zebs add to those departed then he'll practically need a whole side. I heard a whisper that Lathrope might seek a move away as well so ML is going to be pretty busy.

With that in mind, it'd be nice to see some progress. There were suggestions, when we were waiting for a manager, that whoever arrived would probably already have a list of targets identified. At some point we need to start bringing some in...

Completely agree. Ling is firmly in place now and we need to start seeing some new faces arriving at Plainmoor the sooner the better as our squad is very threadbare at the moment. I normally wouldn't be too concerned and preoccupied with the lack of new signings but the fact we have lost a good few players already plus specualtion that others could be on their way makes me panic a bit that Ling may plunge for a few duds in desperation to get the numbers up as we all know getting players to come to Torquay is very difficult. I am trusting in him that he has the contacts he claims and he is able to bring in a few players of league 2 quality.

Southampton Gull wrote: I heard a whisper that Lathrope might seek a move away as well .

No prizes for guessing where that "move" might be ...... Uncle Paul, can I come too?

In all seriousness though, I would suggest that it is not a particularly "healthy" situation having the nephew of the Manager of a competitor on the staff as clearly he might be "compromised" and would certainly be in a position to "influence" other team members who might be "unsettled"!

It's a good job i'm not colour blind, because when i arrive at the Mem on August 13th it's only the yellow shirts that will remind me which team is ours!

I was about to comment that I'm not actually too concerned by Oastler not signing as we have Lathrope who is a very similar player and at the roughly the same age. Plus I hope to see Mansell back in midfield. Hopefully Lathrope will stay. I liked the look of him last season and think he's effective in a holding role alongside a more creative player like O'Kane. At least he's under contract so we would command some sort of fee (although I doubt it would pay cover the cost of Bristow's Bench!).

Genuinely on here in peace, unlike most of the gasheads that signed on here i'm not going to be an idiot. The post on the Rovers forum that I made was just pure speculation. It is far more possible that the player we are target isn't Oastler at all, i was just putting two and two together so who knows? I don't have any sources or anything like that and as of yet there has been nothing mentioned on the reliable websites such as Vital. Best of luck for the season, was written in the stars that we'd play you early, for what it's worth i think it's written in the stars that you beat us as these things tend to happen against returning managers.

It wouldn't surprise me though, and Oastler is a good player who will only get better with experience.

Edit: Forgot to add a warm welcome to TorquayFans.com

Shame if he is signing for Rovers (which i still hope won't happen) as he's a pretty essential player really. Play along the defence as well as the midfield, the sort of player we need if our squad is going to be small. Still I think Ling needs to make one or two signings soon really, just to put some of the worries of the fans to bed.

If Oastler has an ounce of ambition to play he'll come to Plainmoor, because the only way he gets into the Rovers side is because of injuries.

I had someone on Twitter this evening claiming that Cureton is signing for them on Monday and that an improved offer was going in for Zebroski - seems Buckle is keen to take every asset we have apart from O'Kane, and I think only then because he knows he wouldn't be able to afford him.

I honestly don't care if Lathrope goes, as he is a very limited player, and would choose Oastler over him every day of the week.

I'm glad the Club are sticking to their guns re Zebs. We could stand to make a tidy profit there, let's hope ML gets a decent percentage of that for players.

Ill be very surprised if Oastler comes to us as if it was going to happen with him I would have expected it about a week ago if he was out of contract (Which i assume he is?) At this stage of proceedings I would have said that we would come in with a higher bid for Zebrowski as we have so far mainly signed free transfers and I would have thought that Buckles aims would be to go in for free transfers and low fee players to get our numbers up and see what he had left in the budget then try to get Zebroski although there is still a strong rumour on our site that we will sign Cureton. It is quite a coincidence that you are our first opponents as I remember well you were our first home game back about 2000 when Gerry Francis took over. We had a crowd of 10,200 that day.Would be great if we could get a similar crowd this time but I would be surprised if it is over 8000.

Southampton Gull wrote:I'm glad the Club are sticking to their guns re Zebs. We could stand to make a tidy profit there, let's hope ML gets a decent percentage of that for players.

It's a difficult one though isn't it Dave.

In reality, I'm pretty sure that Bucks willl be reminding the Board with every offer that he makes that whatever happens if we don't sell Zebs now then OK he will pick him up for NOTHING next summer. At the end of the day, all parties concerned know that there is a point at which TUFC will cave in and accept their offer ... it might be £30k, it might be £50k, it might be £75k ... who knows? But there is a point, as we all know, at which TUFC will do the deal ... it's just a matter of how much Buckle wants to get him in now, or whether he is prepared to wait another 12 months.

As for Oastler, I would be very surprised if he doesn't move on.