Billy Palfrey

[Willowgull]

Plymouth Herald is reporting that we've signed Plymouth youngster Billy Palfrey on loan. No news yet on OS. It seems he can play in defence or midfield. Anyone know much about him?

[Dutchgull]

Also Joel Ambalu........
http://www.footballconference.co.uk

[Gullscorer]

Joel Ambalu, former West Brom youth team player, signed from Midland League Division One side Heather St John`s.

[Jeff]

Another West Brom link. Always handy to have a good relationship with a club higher up the pyramid (and hopefully the Scrivens situation won't have affected things).

I can only assume that Ambalu is so keen to get into the professional ranks he's playing for nothing. And kudos to Argyle for letting us have a player for what must be for free

[brucie]

I can hear the sound of a barrel being scraped.

[Tarrboy1]

Joel looks ok - Not that you can tell much from a 3 year old video.

[Lloyder5]

Possibly. But if you go back a couple of years, the club was regularly criticised for not scouring the non-leagues in order to unearth a 'gem'. Also, all our 'greats' of years passed have been with us because something prevented them from playing at a higher level but they found something at Torquay that enabled them to excel at the club's level; Graham, Saunders, Fowler and you could probably add players before that who we with us because they were too old for higher level football or too slow or too injured.

That said we wouldn't want to rely on these guys, however, if one or both did well it would be a big bonus. But I guess we will see.

[Gullscorer]

I can hear the sound of a barrel being scraped.

You mean 'the bottom of a barrel'...!? Can't really expect anything else these days Brucie. But you never know, miracles do happen, or so I'm told. Especially if it's a cider barrel..

[Neal]

O'Kane

[Neal]

Gus

[MellowYellow]

Def bottom of the barrel signings, but these players hunger should drive them on, although I am dubious on what they will offer or whether they will even play particularly as Scriven's was not given the game time. I was disappointed by the Scriven's affair, some may say he was not man enough for the conference style of football, but I think that is part of the WBA loan deal, to strengthen him up both physically and mentally. He arrived highly recommended and Nico said he would cause the opposition problems with his pace, but alas was never given the chance to show what he was made of. Not sure how we can send back a Premier league starlet in the making and replace with a injury prone ex-WBA academy player who did not make the grade and a Plymouth youngster on a 28 day Youth loan. Now I know what a bottom of barrel looks like!

[Dutchgull]

A bad realityy check.....Scrivens was never going to make it in the national league (!) not built for it yet...

[PhilGull]

Def bottom of the barrel signings, but these players hunger should drive them on, although I am dubious on what they will offer or whether they will even play particularly as Scriven's was not given the game time. I was disappointed by the Scriven's affair, some may say he was not man enough for the conference style of football, but I think that is part of the WBA loan deal, to strengthen him up both physically and mentally. He arrived highly recommended and Nico said he would cause the opposition problems with his pace, but alas was never given the chance to show what he was made of. Not sure how we can send back a Premier league starlet in the making and replace with a injury prone ex-WBA academy player who did not make the grade and a Plymouth youngster on a 28 day Youth loan. Now I know what a bottom of barrel looks like!

I'm pretty sure Scrivens trained with the squad and Nicho did bring him on as a substitute a few times. You can't blame the manager for the player not 'getting an opportunity'. It is 100% up to the player to earn it, to force his way in to the team. If Scrivens showed himself as good enough in training or when he got on the pitch as a sub then he would have started some games.

[Gulliball]

That's true. Joe Ward has made himself a regular in the side, and Andre Wright played quite a lot last season. Danny Stevens was a regular player in the side that almost reached League One. If he's behind Jamie Reid and Brett Williams then he's not much use to us and he won't gain anything from sitting on our bench, so it was the right decision.

The side today has Ward out of position but still has 11 good players on the pitch. Ok the bench is the manager and 2 players signed yesterday who are playing for nothing (an average of 115.33 appearances for the club per person, surely a record for a subs bench?) but I'd rather spend our budget this way than the Cox method of 12 months ago and have a squad full of players who aren't up to it.

With the number of players we have missing due to injury, suspension, international duty and childbirth, this is as bad as the missing players can get, and we've still got a good side out. With no transfer window and players who are willing to play for nothing on loan or trial, I think we're actually spending our limited money well, and the manager deserves a lot of credit for keeping us competitive with the limitations he has to work with.

[Gullscorer]

Bring back Danny Stevens. He's a Torquay United hero, and still not yet 30 years old..