Torquay United Fans Forum

6th member could also be the trust. If the expectation is that they'll be d oing a fund raise to get the 'buy-in', they presumably can't be named or made official until that's done, and I'd imagine (not sure) that they also can't be attached to the CVA documents yet either

would imagine the ideal time would be after the deal has actually closed and we've signed something resembling a squad.

brucie wrote: ↑13 May 2024, 22:01 Been more or less confirmed by someone in the know its Wotton as expected

Amazing how many people are in the know with regards to manager, owners, players, secretaries and the like

NotStickingItIn wrote: ↑13 May 2024, 17:27 That's the kind of interview that will bring fans flocking to Plainmoor. I'm blown away by the transparency.

Agree - a thoroughly encouraging start. Not much more he could say. It looks as though Mr. Westcott will be te 'front-man' (if you will) for the consortium, which itself is positive given the dire communication from the club in the past 6 years.

MellowYellow wrote: ↑13 May 2024, 17:16 He is better than regional football admittedly - but I see no reference to him moving to another club having been released from the OPR development squad.

Well, yah, because QPR's job is to tell their players whether or not they have a contract. It's not their job to find them a new club. I would imagine that once the list of released players gets circulated, quite a few league clubs will at least take a look at AJB (and the others on the list), if only because QPR have a pretty good reputation for young players. Would be amazed (although very happy) if he came back, simply because based on what we saw, he'd do a job in a decent League 2 side tomorrow.

Arkell Jude-Boyd released by QPR.

(shut up, no he's not coming back, sadly)

bringbackthecowshed wrote: ↑11 May 2024, 18:19 All good apart from talking to TUST-Dont trust them

bloody hell, did somebody in a TUST hat pee in your tea or something?

Why don't you trust them?

culmstockgull wrote: ↑10 May 2024, 12:46 Not so sure about that, it seems according to the small print the Torquay United AFC Ltd will continue to run the club with the Bryn consortium being the major shareholder, I hope that does not mean that Edawrds and Hayman stay in post.

is this not how it always works? you own a piece (or all) of the TUAFC company and that allows you to control it.

not sure if that's something I'd be worried about

Genuinely don't understand the hate that the Trust seems to engender. For 6 years we had an ownership group who patently did not give a toss about the actual club or the fanbase.

Do you want people involved who care about the club? That's the Trust

Do you people involved who want the club to have long term future? That's the Trust

They obviously do not have the money to buy and run the club outright - they've disclosed their current financial situation - so given that there's a consortium who is agreeable to the idea of trust involvement, they will need more. A community share issue makes sense, and I would imagine they couldn't start that process until the new owners are in situ.

If you don't like the individuals involved, then fine - stand for election as a member of TUST leadership. If you don't think fan involvement in the ownership is a worthwhile endeavour, why are you a fan at all? There are plenty of clubs happy to just take your money for shirts, who will sell you a ticket and are significantly easier to see in TV. Being a fan of a lower league side is about the community, and nothing is as emblematic of that community support than a fan's organisation.

I think the Trust still has some way to go before speaking for a majority of fans, but it entirely possible that looking for legitimacy in this way will help them there. I could see the membership swelling significantly.

Most of us don't have the funds to consider owning the club, or even being part of a consortium, so the Trust is the simplest and cheapest way of getting a say in what happens.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑01 May 2024, 19:08 So everyone who say donates 100 pounds for a bond/share in the TUST offering it is a very slim to nothing chance you would ever see that money again as your share is 1 in 1500 of slightly less than 15 per cent of the shares available.

Anybody who is financing a lower league club expecting to see a return on investment is bonkers. You pay your hundred quid, or whatever it is, to feel involved with the club and connecting to this worldwide community of people who - for whatever reason - care about what happens to this small, provincial and (let's be honest) mostly terribly mediocre club. That's the reason for engaging with a share issue.

Good season from the Under 18s. Hard to tell whether any of them will make it (with us, or elsewhere) but it's encouraging that they are performing well. I'd hope that the new management and ownership do whatever they can to make it easier for players to transition from a youth side to the first team squad.

brucie wrote: ↑26 Apr 2024, 18:05 Its the best forum for all things Tufc

other opinions are, of course, available

Vick wrote: ↑22 Apr 2024, 16:07 Taunton Town are not renewing the manager Rob Dray's contract.
A bit harsh in the circumstances, I think. I thought he did well in very difficult times.

could be that they can't afford him. They struggled to pay players back in february, after all.

"bitcoin club" seems like a hiding to nothing, honestly, because that $4.5m could be worth half that next year (equally, could be twice as much; crypto is a little bit too volatile and opaque for my tastes).

Bedford is going to be very well placed to grow as a town in the next 5-10 years, though. The Universal Studios theme park hasn't been officially confirmed yet (still very much in the planning phase) but if it happens they'll see a huge influx of visitors, *and* it's fair to assume that there will be a lot of peope moving close by for work.

JimNichol'sdog wrote: ↑19 Apr 2024, 11:10 Why would Torquay United want to sign any players from Taunton who have proved that they are not good enough to play at this level?

I hope to be proved wrong, but I remain highly suspicious about the secrecy surrounding the identity of the preferred bidder. As previously mentioned, other clubs are overt about potential purchasers/investors - e.g. Man Utd and Sir Jim Ratcliffe - so why all the cloak and dagger activities at Plainmoor?

Man Utd are an entirely different proposition - they're a public company and so any sort of takeover shenanigans legally have to reported to the market. TU(A)FC is a private company and is under no such obligation.

It would of course be preferable that we know more, but I dont automatically assume there's something nefarious going on just becasue we don't.

Taelee73 wrote: ↑17 Apr 2024, 17:27 The statement mentions poor runs and a disastrous season, why would we want him here?

Most managers have an expiration date - it's incredibly rare for a manager to have success at one club for more than a few seasons. Look no further than Gary Johnson - not only with us, but also with Yeovil, he had one or two really good seasons, then it went off the boil, then it went rapidly downhill. Garrard was a really successful manager for BW, getting them into play-off final - there's no reason he won't be a success elsewhere.

With that said - as I recall the playing style of the BW side was pretty agricultural. Not sure if a new owner would want to default to that.

desperado wrote: ↑18 Apr 2024, 13:40 As much as I like Aaron Downes, I feel if he is told to carry on next season he will try and re- sign as many of the squad as he can. I don't imagine he has a massive amount of contacts either.
Too much of a Johnson influence on his coaching. too.

That's an easy conversation to have - "hi Aaron, we want to give you a 2 year contract for the manager's job, but just so you know, we think this squad have been terrible so we're only prepared to offer contracts to the top 4 or 5 on your wish list. Choose carefully!"