Martin Ling

[usagullmichigan]

The things is Martin Ling did get the O's promoted but did an awful job at Cambrudge. Rather than hire someone like ling I would rather have taken a punt on a young new manager like forster. I would even would have preferred Hargreaves above Ling. It proves that TUFC have no money and are looking to saty in the league next season where as Forster would be looking for playoffs. Bad choice IMO. I have no optimism at all here.

LING OUT

[NA Gull]

Don't really understand the negativity about this appointment. In my eyes he is no better or worse than the other applicants and you could look at all of their CVs and they would have done well at some clubs and not so well at others.
Did well at Orient and got a promotion under his belt and then joined Cambridge at the wrong time after two consecutive Play off final defeats and a club that drastically cut back his budget.
All I am saying is that we should give him a chance. Lets see who he brings in and how well he does before we write him off completely.
The orient fan I know thinks highly of him and thinks we have a decent manager.

[crazyfool]

Will give him a chance but i've just had some interesting views from an Orient-supporting work mate:

"He bolstered the midfield when he took over from Paul Brush but was fond of playing people out of position"

"His biggest annoying habit was waiting too long in pre-season to sign his targets, e.g. we could have got Mackail Smith from Dag but Ling dillied and dallied and he signed for Posh instead"

but…

"Ling's press conferences were always on the nail though, he knows when his teams don't perform and won't try to pull the wool over your eyes or blame a ref, weather, fans etc"

I hope Billy and Manse don't read the first one

After his twitter comment Mansell's guaranteed himself that right back spot now!!

[CP Gull]

8/maybe he will bring scott mcgleish to the club,great goalscoring record and played under ling at orient,plus i think he is a free agent.maybe the candidates had to give a list of realistic potential signings and this had some bearing on the boards decision

Don't think he did actually.

McGleish joined Leyton Orient in February 2009 (according to Soccerbase) the month after Ling departed. Like you say though, he would be an excellent signing at this level - even at 37. I imagine he would want to stay in the South East though as he never seems to venture too far away from that area!

[royalgull]

It's a huge gamble from the board in my opinion. Ling showed what he's like working with a tight budget last season at Cambridge. i felt this was an enormous appointment and a decision the board couldn't get wrong, we now must wait and see if they've done the right thing.

We have to give the bloke our full support though and give him a chance at the job.

[Glostergull]

**** Ling!! I'd rather have had Steve McLaren!!! or Mr Tumble!! Thanks board for knowing piss all about football you geriatric set of useless arseheads!! I just hope he proves us all wrong and does ok and we have to support him and see what happens. I've waited two weeks for martin ling. I'd have rather had a colonoscopy!!!

Hey Guy
I promise you you wouldn't . I know. I have had three. Not fun unless you grace some of those specialised houses of ill repute. =Z =Z =Z Not that I would know of them of course before you all jump to conclusions.

Give the guy a chance before you bury him. He may well come good yet. Then if it all ends in tears by all means offer Mr Ling a colonoscopy with a rough end of a pineapple

[Scott Brehaut]

Hell, the negativity on here is shocking.

This board has been full of people moaning about the board dragging their heels and, when they finally make a decision it is full of people moaning about the appointment.

I note one comment stating how unprofessional the club are in not appointing somebody from their shortlist. Sorry, but did you ever see an official shortlist? It was, it would seem, guesswork by the Herald.

We need to all get behind the appointment that has been made and start to be positive about it all. It seems that some on here are not happy unless they are moaning.

[mlw]

There seems to a lot a mention of the appointment being crap, the board not caring about the supporters and the club heading head first back to the BSP. Well, having taken the time to read a lot of the posts and give some THOUGHT to the appointment I think the only thing that is crap is the quality of some of the posts.
Talk about throwing the toys out of the pram. Because you didn't get get man you wanted it is automatically a crap appointment. In these situations it is usually better to sit back and think before making a comment and that certainly applies to many who have posted here. Martin Ling may or may not turn out to be a good appointment - only time will tell, but the vitriol poured out in many posts is frankly shameful.
Ling had a largely successful time at Orient gaining them automatic promotion from L2 and keeping them in L1. The Cambridge situation is very different in that they were (and still are) a club in steep finiancial decline. It is difficult to pass accurate judgement (although many on here have tried)on his time there. Also bear in mind that Ian Barraclough & John Hughes were both dismissed from their previous clubs for failing to make the grade - yet to many here that makes them eminently suitable to manage TUFC. - a slight case of double standards?
I admit that I was in the Nicky Forster camp and am disappointed that he didn't get the job, but I for one will be giving Martin Ling my full support in the coming weeks. None of us were present at the interviews and have no idea what sort of impression any of the candidates made but the board obviously saw something in Ling which swayed them his way. We have no option but to accept their decision unless we want to become ex Torquay fans.
Somebody on another thread talked of us being a laughing stock - what ill considered rubbish - there are Orient fans on here saying he did a good job for them. No doubt some Cambridge fans will say the opposite - but they would wouldn't they.
This is a time for getting behind the club and the new manager not spouting the first load of drivel that comes into your head. I will read with interest what the new manager has to say at the press conference tomorrow and try to be as positive as possible.
So stop acting like spoilt children who didn't get the Christmas present they wanted and get behind the club like the mature ADULTS most of us claim to be.

[NA Gull]

Well done mlw. Totally agree. The problem with computer 'experts' nowadays is that they all think they 'know' what is a good or bad appointment.
Hiring Martin Ling is no more of a gamble than any of the other candidates, but it is only people's perception of the cadidate that changes.
Any manager comes with risk, either inexperience or a sacking. Failure can make us stronger.

[Warwickgull]

The things is Martin Ling did get the O's promoted but did an awful job at Cambrudge. Rather than hire someone like ling I would rather have taken a punt on a young new manager like forster. I would even would have preferred Hargreaves above Ling. It proves that TUFC have no money and are looking to saty in the league next season where as Forster would be looking for playoffs. Bad choice IMO. I have no optimism at all here.

LING OUT

I would have thought the totally inexperienced and local Hargreaves would have come a fare bit cheaper than the relatively very experienced Ling, who allready has success at this level on his cv. Do you know of many experienced managers at any level who haven't got a failure on their cv, whom could have been attracted to the Torquay post? Yes most of us would have gone with Forster because its not our money and we all like a punt/risk, but this has obviously been a carefully considered apointment after a long interview process by a board with the clubs best interests in mind.

A PUNT as you describe on Forster may have been exactly what put the board off, and they have gone with the candidate who has already shown ability to get a side promoted at this level.

Do we really know the facts of his Cambridge failure? Did he not try and resign after 9 days which indicates he may have not been told the truth about the club and the state it was in? According to the bbc site he had a 4 month battle for severance pay so he certainly wont be getting any nice reviews from Cambridge fans.

[Gulliball]

Ling is probably somewhere in the middle of who we could have appointed. Not the most popular, the most experienced or most anything, but as pointed out above, ticks all the boxes of who we were looking for, and presumably is cheaper than a few of the other contenders after his experiences at Cambridge. He's got a hell of a job on his hands to get us ready for the start of the season, so good luck to him.

Just read this from an Orient fan:

Interesting one. Every season before he was sacked we finished higher than the one before. When he came in we were bottom of the Football Leage and he left us as an established League One outfit so that is a superb job in itself. He also has a reputation of playing nice football. I say reputation because it's not entirely true. When things are going against him he can't turn it around which leads to long winless streaks, the football becomes rather route one, but a really ineffective route one and he has no plan b. This is evidenced in 03/04 with a 14 game winless streak; 04/05, 1 win in 11; 05/06 was solid with promotion; 06/07 1 win in 16; 07/08 3 wins in 18 with 11 goals scored in that period then 08/09 then 2 wins in 16, (not including JPT, so in 14 there were 9 goals scored) followed by an 8 game winless streak which saw him sacked.

He isn't great at dealing with the big charcters. For example Sean Thornton arguably our then best player was shipped out to Shrewsbury on loan and only really flourished when Geraint Williams came in and he'd have his favourites such as Jason Demetriou and Paul Terry who were always guarenteed a game regardless of how dire their form had become.

I don't think Cambridge was a great example of Ling as a manager as all the reports I've heard at the time it was a poisoned chalace but if he can learn how to combat a dry spell he will do a good job.

Edit: Looking at Cambridge's result's this season, they actually did worse when Ling left.

Might not be too different to Buckle then in many ways. He'll need a good start to get some positivity around the club.

Anyone know how long the contract is?

[tktufc91]

There seems to a lot a mention of the appointment being crap, the board not caring about the supporters and the club heading head first back to the BSP. Well, having taken the time to read a lot of the posts and give some THOUGHT to the appointment I think the only thing that is crap is the quality of some of the posts.
Talk about throwing the toys out of the pram. Because you didn't get get man you wanted it is automatically a crap appointment. In these situations it is usually better to sit back and think before making a comment and that certainly applies to many who have posted here. Martin Ling may or may not turn out to be a good appointment - only time will tell, but the vitriol poured out in many posts is frankly shameful.
Ling had a largely successful time at Orient gaining them automatic promotion from L2 and keeping them in L1. The Cambridge situation is very different in that they were (and still are) a club in steep finiancial decline. It is difficult to pass accurate judgement (although many on here have tried)on his time there. Also bear in mind that Ian Barraclough & John Hughes were both dismissed from their previous clubs for failing to make the grade - yet to many here that makes them eminently suitable to manage TUFC. - a slight case of double standards?
I admit that I was in the Nicky Forster camp and am disappointed that he didn't get the job, but I for one will be giving Martin Ling my full support in the coming weeks. None of us were present at the interviews and have no idea what sort of impression any of the candidates made but the board obviously saw something in Ling which swayed them his way. We have no option but to accept their decision unless we want to become ex Torquay fans.
Somebody on another thread talked of us being a laughing stock - what ill considered rubbish - there are Orient fans on here saying he did a good job for them. No doubt some Cambridge fans will say the opposite - but they would wouldn't they.
This is a time for getting behind the club and the new manager not spouting the first load of drivel that comes into your head. I will read with interest what the new manager has to say at the press conference tomorrow and try to be as positive as possible.
So stop acting like spoilt children who didn't get the Christmas present they wanted and get behind the club like the mature ADULTS most of us claim to be.

As far as I'm concerned, your only as good as your last match. Ling may have done a good job for Leyton Orient, but his record at Cambridge is far from brilliant. They went over 4 months without a victory in late 2009, early 2010. I will fully support Martin Ling when the season gets underway and I do hope he proves me wrong.

[bixieupnorth]

i cant believe how bad most of you lot have been, its not a bad appt, similar calibre to all the other candidates, give the poor guy a chance, see who he brings in, at least hes gotta be better personality wise than that tit who's just gone!

i think someone who knows the lower leagues and conference inside out is a pretty shrewd move, he must have loads of contacts and will be able to pull a few strings.

he played football the right way so hopefully he'll have us keeping it on the floor for the whole 90 mins, rather than the buckle hoof when plan a failed

[Jerry]

He will already have some local knowledge as Brian Ling (Westward Video in Marnham road who used to record all our home games) is a relation (Uncle I think).
His cousin Mark is a regular on the popside.

http://www.westwardvideo.co.uk/tufc/

[yellowforever]

Just read this from an Orient fan:

You could substitute Buckle and respective players associated with us through the times in there, and it'd make pretty good sense.