Thanks to our owner

PL21gull · Post by **PL21gull** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:04

Amongst all the welcome euphoria and congratulations to playing, coaching, backroom staff, should we not also offer thanks to our owner for keeping us full-time, for reversing the disastrous decision to appoint the lacklustre GO last season, and for providing the funding behind our push for promotion which has hopefully galvanised both club and fans with some extra pride and passion for the future?

kerswellgull · Post by **kerswellgull** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:10

You won't get any praise from certain quarters for that post but I quite agree, whatever his final motives may be

Plainmoor78 · Post by **Plainmoor78** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:12

What extra funding for our promotion push? Given the reduction of the squad size by Johnson off loading players who didn't come up to scratch I would say there was probably a reduction in expenditure on the playing side of things.
This club is not Manchester City. What was achieved was done so through pure footballing means, that is Gary Johnson proving what an incredible manager and coach of players he is.

kevgull · Post by **kevgull** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:14

1.4 million pound promotion project

budegull1954 · Post by **budegull1954** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:21

'This club is not Manchester City' - well said that man. Put Pep Guardiola in charge of Concord Rangers for instance and he'd be bloody useless. Man City have bought success, no doubt about it - TUFC have indeed achieved success by appointing a manager who knows all about lower league football. What does Guardiola know about the NLS? Sod all. (I have to own up here, I am a Man United fan as well as a Gulls fan of long standing!).

fred · Post by **fred** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:34

Not an accountant but I read the 1.4 million investment as 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons. Two terrible seasons which probably saw over 100 players go though the club with poor home attendances. Surely this season is 2018/2019 so it will be interesting to see if there is an improvement on the £959,000 loss with a settled team and higher attendances. Would we be paying the full wages of the 5 loanees? Also my understanding is quite a few players signed extensions to their contracts at Christmas which ensures they are paid over the summer. If this is the case then fair play to the club.

standupsitdown · Post by **standupsitdown** » 14 Apr 2019, 10:40

No thanks from me unless it becomes clear that his plans (his real ones) are in the long term interest of Torquay United and I've seen no evidence of that.

Modgull · Post by **Modgull** » 14 Apr 2019, 11:03

Why does anyone seek ownership of a professional football club - a type of business where it is notoriously difficult to makes ends meet? I guess there are at least four types of owner:

- The shrewd business person(s) who tries to balance the books to make the business sustainable but probably does not inspire the fans - Mike Bateson perhaps?
- The enthusiastic football loving person(s) with reserves of cash they don't mind speculating on success but at some time they get tired of writing the cheques as their resources disappear down the plughole of failed ambition - the Bristow's maybe?
- The fantasist who hasn't got a clue - does Roberts ring a bell?
- The developer/opportunist(s) who sees owning a Club as a way of meeting other business objectives by "sweating its assets" - Clarke Osborne comes to mind?

It seems to me that it doesn't matter what the owner(s) motives are for most people as long as they are successful. Thus we can be grateful to CO that, whatever his motives, we have achieved promotion albeit only back to where we were when he arrived.

The point at which we can be truly thankful, however, is if and when he has delivered his elusive 5 year plan of getting us back into the football league as well as leaving us with a sustainable business, presumably in a new, multi-purpose stadium.

brucie · Post by **brucie** » 14 Apr 2019, 11:19

Uncle Clarke did say that we would only be in the NLS South for one year - so he was as good as his word on that one!

Launceston Gull · Post by **Launceston Gull** » 14 Apr 2019, 12:49

I`m well aware of the cynicism and scepticism surrounding our owner and rightly so but GJ in an in interview said everyone at the Club including Clarke was deserving of praise and I`m happy to go with that view. I hope The Man puts in an appearance at the Hungerford match, if ever there was a game he needs to be at its that one.

lucy6lucy · Post by **lucy6lucy** » 14 Apr 2019, 16:36

At the moment the club is being run the best it has been in years, so credit for that. I just hope it continues

standupsitdown · Post by **standupsitdown** » 14 Apr 2019, 17:37

Launceston Gull wrote: ↑14 Apr 2019, 12:49 I`m well aware of the cynicism and scepticism surrounding our owner and rightly so but GJ in an in interview said everyone at the Club including Clarke was deserving of praise and I`m happy to go with that view. I hope The Man puts in an appearance at the Hungerford match, if ever there was a game he needs to be at its that one.

I hope he doesn't.
The players and manager deserve the thanks they will get and for our highly controversial owner (who has no interest in football) to turn up will cause divisions in the crowd on a day we should be united.

Launceston Gull · Post by **Launceston Gull** » 14 Apr 2019, 18:14

Have to agree to disagree standupsitdown, whos`s paying for the players and manager, who kept us full time? There`s been plenty of calls on this forum for CO to show his face this is an opportunity in my view. Perhaps he is put off by the animosity that some express here. Divide the crowd, I`m not convinced of that and you don`t know that for a fact either. We know the views of various forum members that number a few hundred at best who portray him as the Devil but we don`t know how 4500-5000 attendees would receive him. There may be significant numbers whilst suspicious of him feel he has played a huge part in whats been achieved, Gary Johnson being one of them. We`ll all have our own opinions.

culmstockgull · Post by **culmstockgull** » 14 Apr 2019, 18:35

There has more written about the man OSBORNE than probably any other subject on this forum, rarely if ever positive, the idiots before him asked him for a loan to keep the club going, he made it a condition of the loan that certain things would occur if they did not pay up at the agreed time, quite right too, well we know what happened, they had no cash to start with so they were never going to pay the loan back unless we had got Man Utd in the cup, they were total chancers who if the league had been up to their job they would in all probability have failed the fit and proper persons test, since then Osborne has poured in hundreds of thousands of pounds, whether it be his personal money or his companies it matters not, like the idiots before him he could have pulled the plug last season and put us into receivership, I know there were allegedly others on the side-lines chaffing at the bit to buy the club, none of which had sufficient finance to keep us going more than a few months.There were probably also very good reasons that the said idiots did not wish the potential buyers anywhere near the club.
Yes, we know he has some mercurial plan in place for the future, other than rumours no one but no one has any idea other than Osborne what that is, the problem with supporters is they do not know something they tend to invent, I am not talking about his well known track record of the past, I am talking about today, this month, this year. So on the basis of his commitment to date towards Torquay then he will get my vote of thanks along with the others at the club.

Post by **Southampton Gull** » 14 Apr 2019, 18:36

None so blind as those that won't see.

He's got us back where we were when he started and now the club owe him 7 figures in loans. Fantastic!!

I'll give him some credit when he has us back in the football league and in a shiny new stadium and debt free. I'll also watch those pigs flying way before that ever happens.

Yes I'm enjoying having a team playing attractive football, yes I'm enjoying having an open and honest manager but since when has CO been open and honest?

Enjoy the moment but don't take your eye off the ball for a second!!

Torquay United Fans Forum