Torquay United Fans Forum

Knill us got us relegated - not Hargreaves. He signed that shower of shit that took us down!

Oh good, more evidence, just what we needed.

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote: I have a fat chocolate Labrador and she knows more about the club than you. When CH took over, we were about as far from a proper football club as it is possible to be without, technically, being a blancmange.

Matt.

We were far more of a club than we are today. Pissing away money under Thea's ownership does not make it any less true. A well run club? far from it but Hargreaves getting us relegated massively hastened our downward spiral.

Ultimately it's the club's fault, for treating Martin Ling the way they did, for poor financial management, and for poor decision-making in appointing both Hargreaves and Nicholson in preference to signing an experienced manager.

can we hear from the fat chocolate Labrador!.

SenorDingDong wrote: We were when Hargreaves was first appointed. His poor managerial skills are one of the factors that attributed to our current downward spiral.

I have a fat chocolate Labrador and she knows more about the club than you. When CH took over, we were about as far from a proper football club as it is possible to be without, technically, being a blancmange.

Matt.

Spot on.

Well that's the thing, Chris Hargreaves had so many excuses made for him, and made many excuses himself, the goal posts were moved on Martin Ling, Alan Knill had a striker all signed and sealed when the goal posts were moved on him as well, Chris Hargreaves wasn't the only one.

Lets look at some of the evidence here, Chris Hargreaves still "HAD" room in his budget to sign Luke Young, Louis Briscoe and Ryan Bowman these players didn't come for £300 a week, did CH really have his hands tied, did CH have his hands tied quite to the point that Cox and Nicholson have, no, he didn't, not even close.

Chris Hargreaves had Aaron Downes, statistically on defensive clearances the best defender in the conference premier last season, CH released Downes, look where he is now, captain of the team top of the league, now there's a surprise.

In Downes and Pearce CH should have had the best centre back pairing by some distance, but he at no point did he, I know both weren't always available, CH had more than enough football league experience to have chased down a play-off spot with the squad he had, but failed miserably , CH was the manager that lost at 1.5 to Braintree, lost twice to Telford, and the genius played Richards at centre back v Alfreton , making Hawley look like a world beater on the day.

Chris Hargreaves is in the top 5 all time worst managers our club ever had.

Lets be honest about this, hindsight doesn't come into it, if CH had started the season with the budget Cox had, would we better off, no, if we'd have kept CH would the budget have been better, not to the point it would have made much if any difference.

We're "not" in this mess because the club appointed either Hargreaves or Knill, the damage was started way before that, it happened the day Lingy sold £650k worth of players and was given not a penny to replenish the squad.

hargreaves was promised much from the board at the time and they never came up with what was promised, he was constantly coming up agaisnt a brick wall.
he has had a lucky escape i reckon, he will go on to manage again with far better results.

ferrarilover wrote:In fairness to the man, we aren't a proper football club, so it's tough to blame a proper football man when he's not really equipped for the job.

Matt.

We were when Hargreaves was first appointed. His poor managerial skills are one of the factors that attributed to our current downward spiral.

In fairness to the man, we aren't a proper football club, so it's tough to blame a proper football man when he's not really equipped for the job.

Matt.

toastkid wrote:The trouble with Hargreaves was he thought he was a better player than anyone in his squad.

Some of his statements "no players work as hard as in used to..."

Nico will do fine. But we shouldn't forget that he has little money, and so his man management skills and patience with his team will be critical.

The trouble with Nico is that he thinks he still "has it" as a player too....

bobby93 wrote:I think he would have come good. We can all see his hands were not just tied, but were also behind his back or possibly severed altogether. Metaphorically speaking.

I think he would have come good as a manager. It wouldn't have been pretty for a season or two but then, we're hardly pretty now either are we? I can only think that the incoming board felt his often negative attitude would have been difficult to handle. Cox & Nicholson were/are probably easier to work with.

He was here at the wrong time - for us and for him - but I'm sure he'll go on and succeed somewhere else.

I think that "negative attitude" was possibly just more blunt than others could stomach. He knew he'd been sold a pup and wasn't the type to gloss over something.

The trouble with Hargreaves was he thought he was a better player than anyone in his squad.

Some of his statements "no players work as hard as in used to..."

Nico will do fine. But we shouldn't forget that he has little money, and so his man management skills and patience with his team will be critical.

I think he would have come good. We can all see his hands were not just tied, but were also behind his back or possibly severed altogether. Metaphorically speaking.

I think he would have come good as a manager. It wouldn't have been pretty for a season or two but then, we're hardly pretty now either are we? I can only think that the incoming board felt his often negative attitude would have been difficult to handle. Cox & Nicholson were/are probably easier to work with.

He was here at the wrong time - for us and for him - but I'm sure he'll go on and succeed somewhere else.