Torquay United Fans Forum

This year is the year he had the smallest budget, but the squad was already pretty much in place - he didn't have to actually build the squad on that budget, just maintain it.

What I've gathered he didn't have anywhere near the shoestring budget in previous seasons he likes to claim he had. He had money in the BSP, in a time where there wasn't much money in that division (unlike now) - the bigger clubs were all struggling to make ends meet.

He was a good overall manager for me - but of his 4 seasons 2 where good (although 1 of these would have been very disappointing had we not won the playoff lottery), 1 was average and another was pretty disappointing.

My biggest problem is that Buckle doesn't acknowledge the help he got - he whines on about we've got were we have in 4 years under his management despite a shoestring budget. This is clearly BS when you look at our setup in the BSP.

Frankly, I'd firstly attribute our swift return to the football league to those that dug into their pockets and gave Buckle the support and finances he needed in the BSP.

True, Buckle was a massive help in getting us back, but he wouldn't have done it without the support he received.

Ultimately, Paul Buckle is shadowed by another Paul in my appreciation for getting us back into the FL, it's sad how this is being overlooked - no thanks to Buckle.

I would also add what would we have done had we of equalised?

The subs in the 80th minute added nothing, however they could have added something had one of the two with a better eye for goal had scored in the last ten minutes hadn't been taken off.

We were left with no plan to win in extra time had we of equalised. The subs could have been used in extra time were players start to get leggy for both sides and we'd have had an advantage with having an additional set of fresh legs on, as Steveage used 2 of their subs by the 60th minute.

Out of interest, how many seasons was he really on a shoestring budget? This season yes, but in the BSP? I'd have thought we should have been looking at playoffs in the BSP on that basis.

Some of the clubs that you could have said were bigger also had money problems at the time eg Cambridge and Oxford were going through a shakey finance period IIRC.

Are you certain? Heard otherwise on here tonight.

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I wouldn't worry too much about the drop in attendance this year. A congested midweek schedule from mid January due to the particularly horrid winter this year. Midweek games attract less than weekend games at the best of times, make the midweek games a weekly occurrence and you'll see enthusiasm drop significantly - as the nice occasional change of having a midweek game becomes arduous and inconvenient for many supporters when you have so many of them.

We also lost the games over the festive period which usually delivers above average attendances - and were rescheduled to midweek February - which deliver below average attendances.

These factors would account for most, if not all, the drop in average attendance this year I think. However, I am nevertheless a strong believer that the board should be doing more to address attendances.

If he was working on a voluntary basis at any point, that to me suggests his move down to Torquay was not a career orientated move, which would suggest that he would be reluctant to uproot perhaps?

Pure speculation on my part though as I know nothing about his personal life.

Not sure whether my head handle processing positivity today and as a result my ability to identify good news has diminished somewhat, but this sounds good, I think?

That would be awful no matter who he is - simply for the PR perspective as we'd look like Exeters (our main rivals ) reserve side / B team or something if we take their assistant for the second time running.

Hasn't this really just been a idea pushed out by those with a vested interest in Rovers - they want him gone off the wage book.

Finding out our pre-season fixtures is like a treasure hunt. Maybe the club is trying to create some fun for us.............

I wonder if the first person to put together the complete schedule wins a prize.

Not my understanding from temping agencies where 1 month rolling contracts can be common. The contract doesn't end unless either party states it ends, but the contract will always run between a pre-specified period of time, for instance October to October.

Unless either party wanted to terminate, the contract would have automatically rolled over for another 12 months in October without the need for negotiations etc.

Doubt it would have been that much. Only had until October before the contract rolled onto the next year didn't he?

It really depends how much patience they have. I don't think Rovers fans quite grasp just how dire and prolonged our bad runs of form could be under Buckle and it was rarely (if ever) down to injuries or thin squad. There have been times here were many people would have happily have seen him leave / get the boot and we don't have as high expectations as you do.

If he has one of these spells before a good spell, he will be shown the door pretty quickly. The chances of this happening are 50/50.

Isn't it depressing that we even considered that a possibility (no matter how remote) in the first place?