I made copious notes of tonight's fans forum and I will be posting them up there in fairly short order.
Those who were not there will learn the truth about a couple of former players, a current player, as well as a few things about the club which may not have entered your mind.
In the mean time, feel free to speculate upon the identity of our new striker. You'll find out at (about) 1330 tomorrow when the team for the reserve side is announced.
Matt.
If anyone would like the very special colour version of this (makes it a bit easier to read and follow, can't be arsed to do it on here, sorry.) please PM me an E-Mail address and I will gladly send you an electronic copy.
Ok, this is a write up of the salient points from last nights Fans Forum. It is compiled not as a comprehensive report on proceedings, but more to give non attending Dotnetters an idea of what was said and discussed. I am doing it from memory, aided by notes taken at the time.
Sections in [square brackets] are my own annotations to acknowledge an omission or error.
Deano began by welcoming everyone to the event, but, rather frustratingly, did not bother to introduce those on the panel, so I still only know the first name of the newest board member (Bill)
The first question was asked by Dave Harris, a nice old supporter of many years who I am sure a lot of you will know, by sight, if not necessarily by name.
Dave asked what was the ambition of the club, since, in his view, the club had seemed to take one step forward and two steps back on occasion?
Paul Buckle (PB) replied: We are ambitious at TUFC, we want to go places, our ultimate aim is to be an established, comfortable League 1 side [No time frame was given]. We always strive to be better and for the team to be better. We have to be realistic in what we can achieve given our size, geographic location, fan base etc [no specific monetary situation was mentioned]. We have to cut out individual mistakes on Saturdays and, if we do so, I believe we can push for the playoffs this season. I urge all fans to really get behind the club and support the team for 90 minutes. Sometimes, it s easier to play away from home, because of the support and atmosphere the away following generates. The team and I struggled for long periods last season, but this year we are well capable of winning games.
Simon Baker (SB) asked of the audience: How would you feel about using the away end [or part of it at least] for home fans to generate better atmosphere in the ground?
The crowd acknowledged this would be an excellent idea.
Bill the new guy (Bill) added: There is presently room for just 78 seated away fans in the Grandstand and the club are bound by the FA to offer the away fans a minimum of 200 tickets [but did not say what happened if the away club failed to bring 200 fans].
[It seems to me that attendances are as much of a concern to the board as it is to me and, I m sure , it is to a great many fellow Dotnetters. This point is illustrated by the following statistic.]
SB: The TUFC gate receipts for the home match with Shrewsbury were £63,000 less than those for Shrewsbury s home match [opposition unknown] the week before. [Obviously, this is paraphrased, but the figure stated is definitely the amount mentioned.]
My buddy Pete then piped up and asked the question to which we all want an answer.
Our concern is the strikers, we aren t scoring any goals, please enlighten us.
PB: Spot on. I would have liked Benyon to go down on Saturday, because it was a blatant penalty [much laughing and big smile from Bucks]. Elliot is very dedicated, works hard in training. Dario Grady commented to me that “if he wins the lottery tonight, I ll buy Benyon from you.†Martin Gritton s return, while not thus far fruitful in front of goal, has been a good one for the club and the supporters. We need more bums on seats at Plainmoor on a Saturday, nippers are the future of the club and we need to inspire kids to come along and watch.
Bill: Good point Paul, for an adult and a child to come [assuming £18 + £6], plus treats and whatnot, it s an expensive day out. These are tough economic times and a lot of local families simply cannot afford to spend £30 every other week going to football. For the visit of Sky against Barnet [assuming the game is on TV], we are having a yellow day to hopefully attract kids to the ground based on what fun it looks on TV.
PB: We need to create a carnival atmosphere at Plainmoor. I want the away end painted blue and yellow, or at least something done to it.
SB: I agree about yellow days and we are planning more of them.
[Here was a rather dull question and answer about formations. I know there has been some chat about it on here, but in essence, PB plays the system he feels will best suit the conditions, pitch, oppo etc. Nothing ground breaking was said.]
I then asked about our links with other clubs. We fell foul of Davide Somma last year (Lincoln City) and he is now a Leeds superstar and we were upstaged by Ajose on Saturday (not a complaint, he is Ryan Giggs replacement FFS). I know PB has been to Man Utd recently and that we have good links with Mr Warnock at QPR, but what are the club doing to strengthen relations with bigger and better clubs to try to make loan deals for promising young players?
PB: We have good links with other clubs. Scott Rendell was a massive loss to the club, for all that he bought to the playing side. We simply did not have the money to challenge Wycombe for his signature. [There was no mention of the preference of the player for TUFC or otherwise.] We have a new lad on loan from QPR who will play in the reserves tomorrow (Tuesday). [PB declined to elaborate further, but I was later told the name which we all now know by someone other than PB.] I like him a lot, he is a very exciting goal scorer and we are thrilled to have him. [no mention was made of the terms of his deal].
[Steve Breed suggests that Robbo is not a right back. Long story short PB disagrees and, since he picks the team, it s his opinion in which I am interested]
A man asked for the new chap on the board, Bill, to tell us a little about himself.
Bill: I have lived in Torbay for 37 years and been a TUFC fan for the same time. I was approached in June about joining the board. My work history and consequently my position at TUFC, is that of operations manager. I am very specifically not a Colin Lee replacement. [Judging from some of the other interests he has in the area, he is a businessman through and through and is not likely to up and leave any time soon.]
A man asked about Zedders being the answer to our striking woes since Gritts is not getting the goals.
PB: We have tried Zebroski up front and, while he likes it, it is not the answer. Macklin is not trustworthy enough to enter the game regularly as a replacement winger. He is not reliable enough at tracking back. Having Danny and Zebroski in the team is a more reliable combination from a defensive standpoint.
A different fan said that the new grandstand was V. exciting, but question whether the money would be better spent on the playing squad?
SB: The current grandstand is very close to being condemned. We have a unique opportunity right now to build this new stand at minimal if no cost to the club. We are awaiting Football Foundation Funding approval [no mention of timescale or amounts] before the project ahead. The money spent will not impinge on what PB has to spend.
Steve Breed mentioned that Colchester Utd have two shops in their town selling merchandise, why do we have no such thing?
SB: This was investigated. The present shop is franchised out, but the club looked into having their own shop in Torquay town centre. It was not economically viable. Rents and rates are simply too high for the club to consider it. Woolworths [who gladly sell ECFC programmes] are not interested since TUFC sell only about 600 programmes a week, this is not worth it for Woolies. Stagecoach similarly are not interested in dealing with us, despite their connections to [the scum up the road] our local neighbours.
A young chap then made a slightly moot point about getting into West Brom v Fulham for £5 at the weekend. [Well, **** off to West Brom then!]
SB: The team who finish bottom of the Premier league get £30,000,000, they can afford to let people in for £5.
The question about the catering has been answered on dotcom, but in short, Nina (the old head chef) left and the club are close to appointing her replacement and resuming the full range and more of catering activities previously available at Plainmoor.
A chap inquired as to the state of the academy and when we could expect to see a product from it in terms of home grown players.
PB: We lost the whole thing a number of years ago and it has only been running for three years since we got it back. The players coming in are 8 years of age, so it takes many years to develop them. All our 14/15 year olds went to other local academies when our previous academy shut down. I feel that our first team is like an academy. We took Mark Ellis from Bolton [indirectly], we got Danny from Luton [possibly indirectly] and others [he meant Benyon and Eunan specifically] who we have picked up as promising youngsters and developed them into excellent players.
The remainder of the questions were so dull or irrelevant to anything that I didn t bother to make notes about them. A few comments made by the panel were of great interest however, so here they are.
PB: I have had calls [later confirms, no firm offers] for Nicky Wroe. By failing to sign a new contract and by offering the reasons he did for not doing so, it showed me that he was not fully committed to the club. It s all well and good having a clutured right foot, but I need my players to be willing to run through walls for the team and any player who does not convince me 100% that they are willing to do that will not be playing.
I believe the captaincy weighed heavy on the shoulders of Nicky Wroe [offered no reason as to why he was chosen in the first place or why he was not stripped of it once it became glaringly obvious that it was a millstone round his neck.]
Since being listed, NW s performance in training has gone through the roof and he is a transformed man. [No mention of taking him off the list] if his attitude and application in training continues, there is no reason why he cannot play on a Saturday.
I considered getting Tim Sills back, but I realised it would be my heart ruling my head.
Tim was arguably my best signing for TUFC, but as good as he was for us, we were equally as beneficial to him. [This is where it gets interesting!]
On the coach back from Port Vale last season, Tim had scored just 2 goals in 18 games [PB reeled this stat off the top of his head as if he were recalling his own name, it s obviously imprinted into his memory very deeply - or wrong.] I took him to the front of the coach and said “Tim, I need you to come in tomorrow [Wednesday, traditionally a TUFC rest day] and do some extra training.†Tim replied, “But boss, I like to spend Wednesdays with my kids.†In this instant, I knew that Tim was not at all committed to TUFC and he was out the door. From that moment on, it was over for Tim Sills at Torquay United Football Club. [OUCH!]
Chris Hargreaves was offered a one year playing extension and turned it down.
At this point, someone interjected and asked if letting Jesus go was the best move they had made.
SB: Where is Hargreaves playing now *cups ear*.
Silence comes the reply.
SB: Exactly!
Steve Breed asked the final question of the night of PB, did he see his future with TUFC.
PB: [short answer] Yes!
So, that was just about all the interesting or new things.
I hope you enjoyed this write up. PLEASE, if anything is unclear, or you feel is unfair etc, let me know and I ll think about editing it. Questions by PM and please don t forget you can vote for Member Of The Month at the top of the main page!
Matt.
