Torquay United Fans Forum

Tomogull

That's encouraging news if correct. As Merse says, having competent players on season-long contracts is penny-pinching to the extreme.

Don't forget it works both ways. You don't have to think back very far to remember that the bunch of incompetents that Alan Knill saddled us with for 2 years, many of them on sufficiently lucrative contracts that meant that a crowbar wouldn't shift them while the big pay packets were coming in.

Those poor players, several of whom couldn't even get into the first team, sat tight on their 2 year contracts doled out by Knill. Just imagine if they'd only been one season deals and Chris Hargreaves had all their substantial wages with which to entice the players HE wanted ? Our chances of an immediate return to the Football League would have been substantially increased.

Also, it's a fact of modern football life that after a few defeats trigger happy directors and fans want to see a Manager sacked. Even Nicho, who is relatively new to management is one of the longest serving Managers in the division. If you give 2 year contracts to players, while also forever going down the path of replacing managers more frequently, then the consequence is that the new guy will be saddled with another managers players for longer.

He'll have to wait even longer before he gets the chance to bring in the players he wants. In fact he could well get sacked before he ever gets the chance, if the players enjoy substantially more job security than their Manager.

Ray Johnstone wrote: ↑29 Jul 2017, 07:14 Will Kevin Nicholson have two roles for a Club Captain and a Team Captain? Barrow succesfully employed this captaincy structure under Darren Edmondson's management.

Ray

No indication that Kev has plans to allow us more than one bog standard Captain. But dreaming up a title for various players (Luke Young, 'Captain of Midfield Industry' ?) does seem to be getting more popular. Boreham Wood trumpeted their appointment of a handful of Captains today: Boreham's Various Captains

Still looks a little like overkill for non-league, but whatever suits the individual club. Very much expecting to see Josh Gowling wearing the armband on Saturday, assuming he's fit enough to participate.

Anyone but Gowling getting it would be a bit of a surprise at this stage; not that I think it matters too much anyway. There's probably two or three more players who could also fulfill the role more than adequately.

Merse

In their manifesto, Labour promised to scrap university tuition fees in England but there was no mention of writing off unpaid student debt; I have a copy of their manifesto here with me.......you simply won't find what you claim in there!

Labour were well aware that inebriated students, of all people, were the last ones who would spend time seeking out manifestos and then studying them in detail. But the people who would have known for sure that Merse was exactly right when he says there was no mention of writing off unpaid student debt....because the claim simply didn't officially exist.......were Corbyn's very own Shadow Ministers....in fact they probably played a part in drawing up the manifesto.

But knowing full well that there wasn't a single word about writing off unpaid student debt, on the very eve of the election what was the message they were pushing hard to students ? Here is Shadow Minister Sharon Hodgson's plea to students already with student debt




Yet it now seems 'Labour could' had no more basis, judged on their manifesto, that the Tories could' or the Liberals could' because there was zilch about the debt that those students already in their 20's had, anywhere to be found in Labour's plans set out in their manifesto.

And here's someone else who should have had a far firmer and more accurate grasp of Labour's manifesto than any teenager thinking about University. The Shadow Justice Minister Imran Hussain. But what 'justice' was there in telling young people something that was blatantly untrue ? It's all very well Hussain telling electors, it's your own fault for not checking the manifesto to see if I was lying to you. But it makes the current claims of innocence ring hollow with many young people who believed what they were clearly told in speech, if not in writing by Labour .

"Every existing student will have all their debts wiped off"


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Just ignore it...I'm sure the Admins will soon put a stop to whoever has hacked Danny's account.

If you bear in mind that it's only just over 2 months since Danny was confidently stating:

'The Prime Minister has brought the Conservatives back to their true, core beliefs and that is why I have confidence in the Conservative Party. Theresa May is the strong leader we need during these tough times of negotiations with the EU. She is a leader who believes what she says and will do what she says and that’s why I can fully support her and her Party'.

Then it's stretching credibility that you're going to convince anyone that he could become such a turncoat in that short period of time. Not just weak or half hearted support, but full support pledged to Prime Minister May. Not the sort of loyalty you can just chuck out of the window and conveniently nail your colours somewhere else, even when the person you'd championed is still in office.

Danny has made it clear that he has enormous admiration for Theresa May. 'She is a leader who believes what she says' states Danny. It's a quality he admires, and naturally, by the same token, when he declares he fully supports her, then what he says must also be believable. Therefore to attempt to paint Danny as a fair weather supporter of Mrs.May who would even contemplate jumping ship to the Rees-Mogg camp is a disgrace.

Sorry this has happened Danny. I hope the imposter is dealt with soon

Just get TUST to run a couple of minibuses first. And if the service is hugely popular THEN think about bigger things....such as a doubledecker in club colours.

gullpower wrote: ↑05 Jul 2017, 21:05 and leave 15 minutes after the final whistle.

It's desperately slow progress for some sections trying to leave from farther down Bristow's Bench. Half your passengers would still be trapped on the wrong side of the retractable tunnel when the bus was leaving

Diversity Isn't Our Strength

the onus is now on the manager to produce from the off and not present the owners with the sort of shambles he presided over at the starts of the last two seasons. It could even be in the first six to twelve games that Nicholson is held to account for his 'persuasive powers' if the season doesn't kick-off in the manner expected after being given the tools to do the job.

Nico only presided over the start of last season. And in any case he's moved on the player/s who most let him down during those early months of last season

Clarke Osborne won't ingratiate himself with the locals if he pulls the trigger too soon on a terrace hero such as Nico. The Sustainable Success philosophy doesn't necessarily show instant results, and hopefully the General manager will have told the Owner that a football season is a marathon and not a sprint.

Bleeper wrote: ↑07 Jun 2017, 09:18 Guys this has already been talked about in the Transfer Rumours thread stickied at the top of the forum.

No harm should you or one or two others want to persevere with that, but I don't think it will have wide appeal. My guess is that over the Summer months Forum members will continue to indicate a preference for separate threads to discuss players individually.

In fact floating free, rather than stuck up with the dead men (threads last used in Apr 2016, and March 2017) may have give the 'Rumours' thread a better chance. Something like the 'More of Moore' thread already has more views and only went up on Saturday. Time will tell, but ultimately I don't think it'll really catch on.

If Nico's contacts mean we've got a better chance of bringing Gowling to us, then I'll be celebrating. While I acknowledge that many older Managers may have more people they can ring up and ask for an opinion, sharing a dressing room with, and playing alongside someone gives you a better and more thorough insight into a player than any older Manager whose playing days are long finished could possibly have.

Hopefully we'll weigh up the advantages alongside some disadvantages, as Kev having played with or against many of the players in this division is a real plus point, whereas only highlighting a negative aspect doesn't always give a true reflection.

SBP wrote: ↑20 May 2017, 10:03 Just wondering how Nico is going to prepare the squad physically and mentally in pre season. Has he learnt anything from the previous two.

Previous one surely ? Wasn't last Summer Kev's first attempt at organising a pre-season ? I'm sure he'll have learned lots of lessons regarding the preparation as well as the recruitment, and I'd be very sceptical of any Manager who claimed he got things exactly right at the first attempt and has stuck by that unmodified formula ever since.

I think Kev did indicate that the training was geared towards the players being strong during the latter stages of the season rather than shooting their bolt early and struggling over the final laps. In that respect I think he succeeded, but wasn't convinced we always looked as sharp as I would have liked during some other periods. When you think how far we will have to travel, even for a 'local' derby,then getting the fitness right is a difficult balancing act...where you wonder whether the players just putting their feet up and resting could be the better option during busy schedules.

Fitness work has certainly moved on from the days of trying to shift the beer bellies acquired over the Summer by running up and down sand dunes. I remember reading a few weeks ago, the words of the Lincoln City Manager, effectively saying that those players who keep themselves in shape over the Summer will get an extra fortnight off, or alternatively, those that don't, will be starting supervised fitness work two weeks early.



After completing their season at Southport last weekend, the players were back at the club earlier in the week working with the sports science team to assess their condition before heading off on their breaks.

“They'll have two weeks off the grass, so no impact work," explained Cowley. “They'll then all have individual training programmes to start up. They will come back on June 10 so we can make sure that they're doing their work. We'll test them to make sure they're doing what they've been told. If they have they can go and enjoy the last couple of weeks of their holidays. If they haven't then they'll have me holding their hand while they're doing their fitness work. We'll then be back on the last week of June." Cowley expects his players to be professional and to stay in shape. “Football is changing," he said. “Historically, pre-season was set up for players to get fit but now they should be fit. The idea is that come back to us in a good physical condition so we can push on. We don't want to waste time trying to get them fit for what will be a really exciting adventure. We'll get them match sharp, of course. But we want to be able to work technically and tactically as soon as possible."

Lincoln's Pre-Season Approach

Hector

However, Alpine, in your obsession to discredit community ownership, you neglect to acknowlegde that these clubs have done well under community ownership.

Torregull had just one-sidedly drawn attention to how well these clubs had done under Community ownership, but where was your demand that he balance his comments by also mentioning Trust owned clubs doing less well ?, or maybe adding a link to let us know it's not a big wide world of unending praise for Supporters Trusts ? Bolton Wanderers

While not asking for or expecting a level playing field, if the spectrum of allowable opinion continues to be drawn ever tighter, then will TUST actually benefit if every dissenting voice is silenced ? Whether it's having to jump through hoops such as being issued with a set of questions to correctly answer, or to have to routinely endure the personal attacks as threelittlepigs does, should he wish to express his viewpoint, or as you'll no doubt have noticed, the 'tampering' with my account at TFF, it's all mild intimidation targeted specifically at those who dare deviate from the approved opinion.

If you truly want balance then demand it from all. The more likely outcome from the current actions we witness is that the scales will be tipped totally in one direction; but the Forums will ultimately be all the poorer for it.

torregull wrote: ↑20 May 2017, 08:52 If Exeter go up that'll be two community-owned clubs promoted from League 2 this,year with Portsmouth going-up as well

Exeter have done really well. Personally I'd give a lot of the credit for that to Tisdale, and suggest that any club he was managing, whatever it's ownership model, would have a good chance to thrive. And does anyone doubt that if Trust members had been allowed to vote on whether Tisdale should be immediately slung out on his ear earlier in the season, that they wouldn't have overwhelmingly chosen that option, and helped him pack his bags and then have driven him to the station ?

As for Portsmouth, isn't there every likelihood that it'll be only a matter of days, possibly weeks at the most before Pompey fans decide to free their club from the shackles of 'Community' ownership ? If Portsmouth kick off next season as a Trust owned club, I'll be very surprised.

hector wrote: ↑12 May 2017, 19:53 I could perhaps live with them but for teams to have an equal chance, often favouring the team who happens to have hit a bit of form at the end, is not fair, when one may have finished 20+ points behind.

Although I agree with this, in the end it is decided by football, out on the pitch and by one set of players scoring more than their opponents. While it isn't entirely fair, it is a thousand times fairer than finishing higher in the league, but a worse team getting given promotion because their home ground may have more seats in their grandstand than yours does. Eradicate any cases of promotion being awarded/denied for non sporting reasons unconnected with what the participants have achieved, and once that shameful criteria is removed once and for all, then I'm all for turning our attention to whether the play-off system needs tweaking.