National League table after tonight's games

[Dazza]

The situation is utterly ridiculous tonight.. it's complete tosh..

Blissett has been gone for c2 months now during which time we have been unable to bring in any physical forward of any size or experience. Barrow tomorrow, physical side who will literally bomb our defence.

Feeble defence from Harrop - 'everyone wants a centre forward ' Of course they do - so why do we weakly sell ours to the first enquiry AND haven't got a clue how to replace him? . It happens time and again.Last year off went Bowman not a clue how he was going to be replaced- milky conconction of loan players for month after month - bouncing along the bottom of the league until it turned round when a forceful No 9 arrives. So we do this year- the opposite..Dire ,complete and utter tosh from Manager, Chairman, Board , Owners - as with the Football League we are intent on simply and stupidly throwing it away. Is it any wonder the supporter base is collapsing NO ONE is supporting them...

[merse btpir]

Are we really, with the budgets set and the club pretty much in administration before the buyout, actually underachieving though? I'd argue that for a club with next to no money for much of the season and a manager preforming every role in the club for much of it too, that we are achieving pretty much as expected.

Sorry it's taken a while to get back to you Scott but I've now found what I was looking for..........

and that is Nicholson's mission statement when he signed that contract:
"My sole focus now shifts to the 2 major goals for the 2016/17 season, namely:
1, Promotion. Take this club back to the football league, where it belongs.
2, Produce a team you can be proud of and inspired by. Form a group of players who you can believe in and enjoy supporting."

No mention from him of low budget, being at one end of the M5 or anything else. THAT was what he said; now ask yourself is he living up to his own publicity?

[Neal]

How long has Torquay been at the end of the M5 couple of years maybe, come on lame excuse. There are many factors why we are where we are.

[leetufc]

The geographical factor is not a new one but its one that becomes a bigger problem in the National League compared to the football league.

As a league club we had higher income (gate receipts, solidarity payments etc) and could offer a wage to encourage a player to relocate, in our current situation this has not been possible. A player wont relocate here if the rewards are not there, whereas moving somewhere else in commutable distance is more appealing.

As a league club we could attract more players to take a chance on moving down here if they thought it could put them in the shop window which is now harder to do as a non league club. A part time player may have been tempted to move up a division, but now there is no incentive to move to us when you have more central based rivals who can offer the same level of football.

[PL21gull]

And with only being able to give one-year contracts, any player who has proven himself here will be looking to move on, so we shall forever be in the same position of trying to find cheap young inexperienced players and changing the squad every close season.

[Dave]

This we're 'TUFC oh woe is us' attitude is something that's ground my gears for some time, and, an attitude that's been rife through our club for to long, in the main, something that's got to us where we are today, and still holding us back.

Let's just take a look at Lincoln, there's a good example, a club that struggled in League 2 from 07-08, relegated in 10-11, their record in this division this relegation shows them finishing, 17th-16th-14th-15th and last season 13th, debts reportedly of over £500k, not a cash rich club by any means.

The they took the decision to take on Danny Cowley as their manager, you know, the school teacher and part time Briantree boss, now top of the league, 5th round of the F.A cup, club transformed, gates nearly doubled, all debts paid off, money to invest. While we continue to say, leave Nicho alone, it's not his fault our clubs got no money, Lincoln didn't have that much money either, no doubt more to spend that us, and more favourable location, but still not great, the difference, they made some proactive decisions, not just on the manager, but how they run their youth set up, and other areas and changed the course of their club.

Think the problem here is we've not yet, as a club realised where we are, and what is needed to survive at this level, yes, clubs in the non-league regularly have to replace 6 or more players every season, it's part and parcel of non-league life, players move and move on again, they often have no choice but to.

The point is, if TUFC become known around the non-league as club that was great staging post for young talent at this level, as club season on season, we would have no trouble attracting the best young undiscovered players from around the non-league pyramid who want to follow in Dan Sparks foot steps.

Also, if TUFC became known as a club who has great success in unearthing little gems from around the darkest depths of the non-league, it wouldn't be to long before FL and clubs higher started to phone us, rather than the other way around looking to place some of their best young talent for first team experience.

Christ, I parked up at Truro City's ground in the week, the first thing that struck me was, and big sign on the front ' City diner open Monday to Friday 7am-2pm ' Yet our club struggles to turn out 1 carvery a week.

Bone idle, terminally lazy football club, that got far to used, to living of the Bristow's money, rather than building income streams that could have kept us where our club was, for years to come.

[CraigUnder]

Completely agree, the club need to take a long hard look at themselves and realise that we were the makers of our own downfall, living off of Thea's money looking at short term gain ( I use gain very very loosely) rather than the bigger picture of the long term future of the club. I am not a fan of GI and their past business ventures and current reputation but surely they cannot do any worse than the past couple of tufc boards in regards to utilising the clubs current and future revenue streams.

[merse btpir]

This we're 'TUFC oh woe is us' attitude is something that's ground my gears for some time, and, an attitude that's been rife through our club for to long, in the main, something that's got to us where we are today, and still holding us back.
Bone idle, terminally lazy football club, that got far to used, to living of the Bristow's money, rather than building income streams that could have kept us where our club was, for years to come.

I'll tell you what else is Amateurville; the players aren't on any appearance money or points bonus ~ no wonder they're so easy-osey never putting in a full ninety minutes of domination and lack that winning mentality.

Any manager worth his salt at this level fights his board for that ~ even at the cost of a reduced basic ~ but when your coaching CV is ladies football and junior academy levels; when you're on 'nicey-nicey' terms with your board and chairman all that goes out of the window.

Get a double glazing boss in as chairman (and no I don't mean Mike Bateson at this time of his life) a hard-nosed realist who recognises that the nice guys come second in the competitive world and you'll see the difference!

[Southampton Gull]

Merse, quite frankly I don't see how you can keep panning Nicholson for things like the fact we don't pay bonuses. That isn't up to him and when he can't even get enough money for even half decent travel arrangements how the hell is he supposed to extract a win bonus for his squad? He isn't the problem with the club and never has been. You talk about setting a team up, well that's something any armchair fan can profess to be an expert in. You make some valid points but spoil it for me with unfair criticisms of Nicholson.

One post contained an assertion that it's his team now so must be his fault. Actually it's his team based on a bottom 6 budget. Where we're sat right now is a reflection of the support the club have "given" him, not the man himself. Changing management is pure folly, who realistically could do better than he's done with our basket case of a club? We offered £300/week for Ngala. He got triple that from Dover. This is a player bought for £60k not so long ago. £300 a week will get you players like Richards/McGinty etc. This is the reality. The manager has been on a hiding to nothing from day one, I don't know of anyone who could have done better with the resources at his disposal. Ronnie Moore and Martin Allen have a budget 5 times the size of ours at Eastleigh, I'm pretty sure Nicholson would outdo either of those managers given half the money they've spent. No he isn't perfect but he's far from the useless doughnut you seem to think he is.

[CraigUnder]

It goes to show the team and results Nicho can get and build on when he has money and backing to do so, look at the turn of last season with the money GI loaned the club it was a pittance still to most of the NL teams budgets overall but he gave us near on play off form for the last 3/4 months of the season.

Back Nicho and he will flourish and hailed as a great manager, Give him a bottom 6 budget and he will scrape by and get ridiculed.

[Neal]

The whole debate about Nicho is a waste of time anyway. IF and I don't know if this is true Nicho IS on a 3 year contract he aint going anywhere, even if were relegated. GI don't care what league we are in, THEY publicly stated this, so they aint gonna pay up a contract, why would they.

[merse btpir]

Again............I'm not panning Nicholson I'm pointing out the need for a manager who CAN work and flourish within those constraints.

Jamie Howell has built two sides in two seasons at Bognor Regis on one of the lowest budgets in that area and has them top of the Ryman Premier playing great stuff.

Keith Rowland is doing well at Wingate & Finchley with the league's second lowest (c£1200 pw) budget team sitting just outside the play-off zone playing great football and his former mentor Alan Devonshire did the same at Braintree and Hampton & Richmond before getting a big budget set up at Maidenhead where he had done well before on a very small one.

If United do not find someone who can do this then they will almost certainly go down!

Yesterday was a fine point, but another day of sliding closer to that trap door.

[merse btpir]

GI don't care what league we are in, THEY publicly stated this, so they aint gonna pay up a contract, why would they.

Just where has this been stated by them? Kindly come up with proof if you think you have this.

You're taking what Dave Phillips said about relegation prior to them taking over not compromising their intention in his opinion and that is a very different thing and if you think managers getting fired gets them fully paid off then you're unaware of the clauses and penalty clauses set within most standard managerial contracts that are approved by the LMA that see so many go for failing to hit targets....that's what makes it 'do-able'

[kevgull]

Nicholson's last comment from the Barrow game is that after the last 4 games "the penny is dropping" with regards to team performances.

I would go as far to suggest that if the "penny hasn't dropped over the next 4 games" then TUFC might well do!

If we were to find ourselves in the bottom 4 with only and handful of games to go, whether we were to escape or not, the season would be deemed a failure IMHO.

We have lost around 600 home fans from the start of the season, I would suggest that the majority of the fans lost, were "pay on the gate fans" therefore leaving the ground mainly full of "bargain bucket season ticket holders" (like myself I might add)

To avoid the drop one season and get relegated the next, would be sickening a deja vu moment in our clubs history, and must be avoided if at all possible.

If any hard nosed decisions need to be made by the board, make them quickly!

[Dazza]

I agree with Merse here. The GI situation is not clear. The position attributed to GI by Dave Phillips was in a different context and is not valid here. Clarke has said we must do all to avoid going down .. with these four vital games coming up this week I think comes the vital test... either they don't care or want us down and continue to duck it or do it on the cheap as has been the case to date or they give Nicholson the resource to bring in proper proven players. We will know how fair and reasonable they are as a company by the end of this week. Actions speak louder than words.