Torquay United Fans Forum

Well forever, I think you have missed some of the key words in in Middevons post, these are "medium term" & consider. It is clear that a re-location could not happen overnight & would most likely have to be phased in over say a two year programme. The management of the playing staff would not be the first management team to be told that their company was re-locating to another area, it happens all of the time in industry. Most if not all of the players are on short term contacts so they would be able to consider if they still wanted to be a part of a Torquay side where the training is based away from Torquay. A move to the West Mids would be very cost effective if a training ground & associated staff could be shared with another club. Much cheaper I suspect that continuing to fund the present "Hogworts" training facility. The point you are missing is that all aspects of training would be away from Tqy & all of the training staff & players would live in, or around the area chosen, & travel by coach to home matches in TQY.
"Isolating your player recruitment to one area" ......Within around one hour driving of a Birmingham training ground are Oxford, Milton Keynes Northampton,Coventry,Leicester,North Bristol, Gloucester,Wolverhampton Stoke on Trent, Derby,Nottingham,Worcester as well as smaller towns such as Kidderminster, Walsall Stafford, Nuneaton etc etc. This is a huge recruitment area.

l aggre and posted a similar suggestion a few months ago . My favoured location would be just south of Birmingham, with easy access from M5, M6, & M40. It may even be possible to share training facilities with a West Mids. club. Players would not need to re-locate to S. Devon, & loaning players from Villa. City, WBA etc. could be possible. Most overnight hotel stops would not be needed. and this area is only around 3 hours by coach from Tqy, for travel to home games. The only things needed at Plainmoor are match day facilities.

With the club in the state that it is in, it does not matter who the manager is. unless he is given a shed load of dosh to sign better players, or has the contacts to get in some good loans. All Nico will be able to do is to get the players working their socks off , kicking the sh#t out of the opposition & learning a few set plays.This could be enough to secure a fith from bottom place.

Could this re-employment be linked with the proposed training ground share with Argyle? perhaps he will also help to train some of their players/youngsters, & they will pay some of his wages. If this is correct then it could start a trend where we share some staff with them.

Elliot Benyon for his bigman/littleman fox in the box plan!

Chris B wrote:

Who would you suggest then? or don't you like player managers?

Well I just hope that they don't take on another " I will work for expenses only, & climb half way up the chairman's bum" ( Alan Knill). I would like to see a player manager who has already made enough money out of the game, but is keen to manage & would only ask for a modest salary. Someone who has loads of respect, contacts, & would be able to get advice from top managers if required. Someone like Carlton Cole could fit the bill IMO.

I don't think that it is realistic to expect more than a mid table finish again next year, the important think is for the new consortium to ensure that the club don't make a loss & we live within our means, otherwise there won't be a club at all. Hargreaves will most likely have to loan youngsters from other clubs in order to stay within his budget, the players he would really want are probably too expensive, & will want 2 year contracts.
I.M.O. it would be nice to:
Beat the part time clubs,
Not get stuffed at home,
Play good football
Not grumble if we get sorted out by the likes of Grimsby & Tranmere.

Surely the current board have already worked on & finalised a business plan that will satisfy the Conference. I have no doubt that this will require savage cuts, if savings of thousands of pounds per week are to be acheived. What they have prepared can only be guessed at, but we will find out very soon.

forevertufc wrote:So I see in this link it's a £250,000 bond the club will be asked for, I wasn't far off.

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Tor ... story.html

Well if it's only a £250k bond that is required then I can't see a problem. Surely the current board will be able to finance this, it is about the same as the cost of a semi-detached house in Shiphay. If they havn't got this sort of money ( or the ability to borrow it ) then how did they get a seat on the board in the first place?

hector wrote:I suspect we are in serious trouble. The deal that was supposed to be concluded by the end of this week - perhaps depending on who was elected mayor - appears to be dead (according to Merse) and The funding required to demonstrate that we are a going concern, to satisfy the notoriously fussy Conference board, may be difficult to come by, which may mean we are playing against Bideford.

Surely all that is required is to present a business plan based on modest sales of season tickets, gates of say 1,000 & other non football income. It may of course mean drastic trimming of staffing levels & other cuts to achieve this budget. It is certainly not in the Conference boards interest to get rid of TQY as I would think that we are perceived to be one of the more prestigious clubs in the Conference.

Well obviously the prospective new board will have worked out that if the club is losing £500K a year, then they will either have to top up income to the sum of around £10k a week, or cut the expenditure by £10K a week.Is it possible to save this sum from the playing budget? I suppose it would be ideal if there were say 10 of them who each bunged in an initial £100K ,this would provide "breathing space" for drastic reforms at the club to get the finances back in order. I find it very difficult to comprehend how badly the club has been run to end up in this state. This would not have happened in Mike Bateson's day! It is no good pointing out that most of the Prem. teams are losing tens of millions a year, because it is not the same thing, & in any case Newcastle made a profit of around £18m.

I saw Bournemouth lose 2-1 in the cup at Villa, O'Kane was close to being the best player on the pitch, I don't think they will even consider selling him, unless they are getting a load of loan players in from Inter, PSG, etc.

Yesterday I "half heard" on MOTD 2 that the team finishing 14th. in the Prem will receive £140m in prize money next season, surely I am mistaken, did anyone else hear this?

stefano wrote: Lucy you do many excellent posts .... but you do care what Brucie posts otherwise you would not have responded.

He is a Torquay fan .... end of really. Privately he would agree with your Man U / Liverpool example. But don't expect him to say that.

Bloody good unexpected win today on what I understand was a ploughed field, and good on all those who actually went.

I went to Point to Point racing which I walked to (5 miles mind! ) but couldn't imagine dragging myself off to Halifax after the season we have endured. I do though admire those who will still do it.

Posh git!!