What went wrong ....

[CP Gull]

... Just putting a few thoughts together about what has gone so badly wrong over the last 12 months which has seen us fall from the heights of automatic promotion contenders to likely relegation.

Sale of key players - undoubtedly THE single biggest factor in our demise. Whatever people think about Paul Buckle there is no getting away from the fact that he left us in a very strong position with a very strong squad. We all point to the loss of Olejnik (a Ling signing)' O'Kane and Ellis in the summer as big losses but we shouldn't forget that prior to that we also lost the likes of Branston, Zebroski, Kee and Robertson. Quite simply, trying to replace that quality was never going to be easy - particularly with very little of the transfer income c £ 750k (when all the money comes in) being reinvested in the playing squad.

Windfall income (transfer fees) did the Board become too reliant on it? When you look at unbudgeted income over the last 6 years we really should be in a very strong position if all this "extra"money really wasn't factored in. When you add in the sales of Benyon, Sills, Wroe, Zebroski (again) to the aforementioned sales, we have probably pulled in close to £1 million in transfer fees during that period. Not the sort of money that we are used to coming our way, not since the heady days of he sale of Matthew Gregg and Rodney Jack anyway.

Windfall income (part 2- FA cup income) - whichever way you look at it, we have enjoyed unprecedented success (up to this season anyway) over the last 6 seasons. Without ever really pulling out a big one - how different things could have been if we had only beaten Crawley and got Man U - we have done incredibly well in the FA Cup and indeed the FA Trophy (Wembley final) before that. The prize money alone from our runs to the 4th Round of the FACup, allied to gate income and TV monies yet again brought in unprecedented levels of income for a club like us, which has traditionally not fared we'll in the competition ... Buckle changed all that.

Windfall income (part 3 - play offs) yet again, an unprecedented success story. We have featured in the end of season play offs in 4 of the past 5 seasons and ended up in what should have been a money spinning Final on 2 occasions. Whether we have ever capitalised on this success is questionable, the ticketing fiasco and the lack of cashing in on marketing opportunities, probably meant we earns a lot less than we really should have done.

Back to reality - the Harrogate FA cup loss. Probably the biggest single reason, in my opinion, why this season has gone so horribly wrong. It signalled, for me at least, the point where the relationship between Manager (Ling) and Board started to show signs of cracking. We lost a game we should easily have won and more crucially lost the income that that would have brought in. Martin Ling, at the time, in a thinly veiled criticism of the club, said in an interview with BBC Radio Devon that " relying on income from an FA Cup run was no way to run a football club". It may, of course, have been a generalisation but personally I feel it was at that point that Ling probably realised he wouldn't be getting much, if any, in the way of income for the desperately needed squad strengthening that was needed in January and for the first and only time I can recall vented his frustration and hinted at a rift with the Board.

What all this means is what sort of budgeting really goes on at TUFC if all this "unbudgeted" income isn't factored in and yet it seems we are still making losses... it really does beg the question as to where we would be without all of it!!! Perhaps too much reliance has been placed on the money keeping on rolling in, which was never going to happen and it seems like the one season where this hasn't happened is the one where it as all fallen apart.

Recruitment - very patchy under Ling. For all the good ones ... Olejnik, Howe, Saah, Downes ... there have been a few poor ones. Perhaps a little too much reliance placed on players who he had previously worked with with the likes of Easton and Jarvis being brought in perhaps purely based on what they had done in the past? But for me, the biggest problem within the squad has been the imbalance with far too many wingers/midfielders and not enough forwards and a clear lack of quality in certain areas. In particular too many "wingers" who are all too alike. The squad is also too large and too much of the budget has been wasted on players that have never even got close to playing for the first team (Cruise, Yeoman, Halpin,McKenzie, Thompson, Baker, Artemi and even the likes of Leadbitter and Macklin have barely featured). Too little use has also been made of the loan market under Ling - lots of teams at our level, and the one above (Yeovil being an excellent example) make real good use of the system, we haven't .... not since Buckle left anyway

Scouting - at it's best under Buckle with John Milton an important figure. I don't think we should underestimate the work he did in putting the squad together that got us out of the BSP. I also don't think that Ling did enough either. I may be wrong, but the only time he ever seemed to watch other teams/players was when there was a game on in his "patch" I.e. the South East. It is possible that Alan Knill, who has all ready watched Bristol City Reserves and Oxford v Rotherham in the last 2 weeks has watched more games, outside of the South East, than Martin Ling did in 18 months ... too much reliance placed on scouting "reports" from outside companies perhaps?

The Manager - should have made Torbay his permanent home or turned the opportunity down when it was offered. Living 200 miles from home is never a nice thing to do and he (and the team) has clearly suffered as a result. I totally understand his decision not to relocate given that his children are of school age but if he was serious about the job here he should have moved or turned us down.Living out of a suitcase isn't ideal and not only that but as far as I can see it meant he had the strain of a heck of a lot of travelling not only to/from away games but also to/from his Hertfordshire "home" every Saturday night to catch up with the family. It also meant the players never got the "you're back in training on Sunday" treatment after a poor performance as the Manager had to get back home to be with his family!

Leadership - not been strong enough. A closer eye needed to be kept on the football side of things and I don't think it has been. For all his faults, the job Colin Lee did at the football club meant that there was a strong link between Board and the Manager /Players which doesn't appear to be there anymore. Lee kept a close eye (perhaps too close an eye on occasions admittedly) on everything that was going on at TUFC. I don't know for sure what he "problem" is with Martin Ling, but if some of the suggestions are accurate then you have to question exactly how the Board weren't aware of his deteriorating health and why it came as a complete shock to them which I have it on good authority it did!

Training Facilities/Pitch/Weather/Postponements - shambolic. The combination of bad luck (dreadful weather) and poor planning (pitch/training ground work) has done for us and led to it seems a totally shambolic training regime where it seems the players are having to train all over the place and far too much time spent training on artificial surfaces which I believe may have contributed to the players being less fit and not being worked as hard as they were under Buckle ... too many "days off" have not helped either. The relaying of the Plainmoor pitch last summer has produced a poor surface that is not conducive to the passing game that both Ling and Knill prefer. Clearly the weather was a major factor, but I also think the delay in appointing a replacement Head Groundsman didn't help. The net result was that it probably cost us one or two games which might have been played if it wasn't for he "state" of the pitch .. ultimately costing us money (lost revenue) and potentially points as we ended up playing these games when we were totally out of form, rather than in form (up to the end of last year).

The redevelopment of the Training Ground is an admirable project undertaken by the Board but I feel it should have been planned better and is taking too long. The pitches at Seale Hayne have never been up to scratch since we moved there 3 years ago and the decision to finally upgrade them, rather than move to another site (Forches Cross) which was on the agenda for a long time has not only cost us a lot of money which might possibly have been better spent elsewhere I.e the team and has taken too long. Knowing that the Training Ground was largely going to be unsuitable to use for the entire season, we should have made better more permanent alternative arrangements.

Player Contracts - negligent. As it turns out, it may work in our favour in the long term as we can have a major clear out in the summer, but in he short term it has left us with 16 players who are out of contract in the summer. All those players will be feeling insecure, not knowing where their future lies and yet we are asking quite a few of hem to pull on a shirt for us and get us out of this mess, in the full knowledge that for some of them they have no future at he club beyond the next few months. Some of the ones we didn't want should have been moved on in January, some should have been loaned out sooner (it's only now, under Knill, that that's has finally happened) and more crucially some of our better players (Saah, Downes, Howe) should have had their futures secured much earlier, as it is, it is highly likely that all three will leave for nothing in the summer.

Ling/Taylor situation - I appreciate it has been a difficult one but it could have been handled better. It was surely fairly obvious that Shaun Taylor was not management material, he is a Coach (nothing wrong with that) but he should never have been given more than the 1 game in charge, and certainly not 4 games and it took them too long to realise that ... there was even talk of bringing in a coach to help the coach ... before the penny finally dropped that what was needed was a Manager! Time and more importantly points wasted unnecessarily by not being decisive enough.

Atmosphere at Plainmoor - sadly although the Bristows Bench is superb it has done nothing to add to the atmosphere and you even get the feeling that Martin Ling in particular might wish it had never been built! He probably preferred it when he didn't have the serial moaners on his back! Unfortunately, I think that the packed out Family Stand last year actually improved the atmosphere as the supporters are now too thinly spread out in the three sides of the ground occupied by home fans, that allied to the constant closure of the away end to away fans has also not helped improve the match day experience.

The Torbay public - quite simply, just not enough of them turning up on a regular basis.

The poor football on display - ultimately we just don't create enough chances, particularly away from home, let alone take enough of them. I feel sorry for all of those fans who travel regularly to away games as from what I can gather the fare on offer this season has been pretty dire.

These are just some of the things that I believe have contributed to our catastrophic fall

[Plymouth Gull]

Great post.

[nickbrod]

Although I sit next to you Chris in the Family Stand, having read your thoughts here I am compelled, for my debut on the Forum, to express my total support for your views about why the Club finds itself in this situation.
Having been into the BSP once I did not believe that we could be returning, certainly not this soon - and with ten matches to go I have to still believe it is possible to remain a League club.
In this age of instant communication, like it or not the Board needs to come clean about what's gone wrong. An official announcement about Martin Ling would be a start.
Back in the Bateson era, before these forums, I would write to him when things were dire (yes,we have been here before - several times) and after one such correspondence he rang me at home to explain what was going on. That made me feel better as I was given an insight into how the Club was run.
At the moment we seem to be in a void, hence all the 'guessing' posts by fans who desperately want our team to stay up. Once facts become clear the 100% support will return.
At the Oxford game I have to admit I was pretty cheesed off with the performance of some of our players and like others am baffled why the same ones keep being selected and why others haven't been given a chance or only rarely.
After the game I hung around to watch the team come back out to warm down and they looked a dispirited bunch needing a big pick-me-up. Manse looked particularly thoughtful talking with Rene. So what is needed is for Mr Knill to earn his corn to motivate these players who the Oxford manager confirmed are good.
At Dagenham tomorrow night would be the time for a new approach.

[Dave]

Very good post Chris.

Agreed I the Harrogate cup match may well have been the very thing that has blown our season apart and opened some small cracks into very wide ones.

Think it is important for us fans to remember that whilst it may seem the club has received £600,000-1 mill in transfer fees on paper in reality that is not quite the case, the club would have had to pay VAT/TAX liabilities etc on that so the final figure actually received in the clubs bank account may not have been anywhere near that.

The move the forchess cross would no doubt have been the cheaper option, however this is something that ended up way beyond the clubs control, I was told by someone from within that the club were only offered a 15 year lease on Forches Cross so it would have been plainly barmy to spend any money upgrading the facilities knowing in all likelyhood the club would have been kicked off there in 15 years time, leaving behind state of art factilities for someone else to benefit from, leaving the more expensive however much longer lease at Seayle Hayne a much better long term option.

The situation with Martin Ling was not handled at all well, putting out that he a virus well words fail me. However I will say some of rumours going around at the moment are beyond the belief, for a start Lingy apparently was in London Saturday morning watching his son play for Orient U16 so quite how he managed to get to Torquay I am not to sure, with the best will in the world it is a 4 hour drive so could he really have got here for 3pm, also I have now told by 2 different people what the possible illness is, if this turns out to be true, it is going to make another rumour look foolish indeed.

Agreed however the club would have known this was going to be long term and should have acted a lot quicker.

[taxilady]

Totally agree that the club need to make an announcement about Martin Ling; speculation is rife, I'm amazed that it hasn't found its way to the football rumour sites.After the Oxford game, there were quite a few supporters hanging around as well looking dispirited; every group I passed, I said 'We're NOT going down', & I got quite a few suggestions that I was drunk, or on a cloud, or worse! I do still believe that we can stay in the League, but it's all got to turn around pretty quickly! The Board showing some solidarity with the supporters to confirm or disprove some of the managerial stories that are going round from seemingly reliable sources (not just Yellowsmiffy's steward!!!!!) would help to explain some of our woes.

[Gullscorer]

Great post by CPGull. I think one of our problems may have been a lack of willingness to make changes in the team, and as a result a few players perhaps felt subconsciously that they don't have to make so much of an effort to justify their place in the team. Having to continually fight for a place in the team is what brought Man U their success; the opposite could be what has brought the Gulls their slide down the table. Certainly time to make changes; more loan signings and/or give our fringe players more opportunities..