Torquay United Fans Forum

regiment wrote:just throwing out an idea here :-

it's reported on "twitter" that players haven't been offered contracts/not been contacted by club etc etc.

has anyone considered this might not be true ?!?!?? much easier for players on their way out to let the fans believe it's the club's fault, and nothing to do with the players themselves asking for too much ??

not saying that's whats happening, but who knows ??

i am optimistic it's going to be a busy week in TQ1 this week, so we're gonna have plenty to discuss in the coming days.

Branston is quite a genuine bloke, as Jake Robinson. I doubt either of them are going to lie on such a public forum as Twitter.

This is the worry.

While it may be argued that for a new manager coming in, it is better for him to choose his own players, it is also difficult for him to need to sign so many players that it disrupts the rythmn of the team and creates factions of old v new.

None of us would probably argue that there was much wrong with the team yet if we find ourselves bereft of our keeper, key defender, a skillful and talented midfielder and forwards, that is in effect a whole team that needs rebuilding and I doubt the new manager is going to be backed in the way Buckle was 4 years ago to build a team from scratch.

Surely the new manager would be better served by inheriting a functioning team with the spine strong. I do fear mass trailists that were common under Bateson.

JamieE wrote:Players contracted for next season are:

Mansell
Robbo
Ellis
Nico
LRT
Lathrope
O'Kane
Halpin
Macklin
Zebroski
Kee

That is 11 players. Assuming none of those leave, we need at least two goalkeepers, a centre half, two centre midfielders, a winger and a striker. That's the bare minimum. The money has to be in place for that to happen, otherwise we won't be supporting a team this year. Offering Branston and Stanley contracts, important players down the spine of the team, should be happening. It keeps continuity from a successful season last season, whilst also leaving room for a new manager to bring his own players in. The money has to be there to do this, otherwise we're in trouble.

Is Bevan out of contract as well?

The directors surely can see that those 11 players would not be competitive in this division. Branston and Stanley have both expressed an inclination towards us and it is folly to let that opportunity go, regardless of who a new manager is.

By the time a new manager is in, 5 weeks will have passed that our rivals are building their squads...even if that is our rivals in a potential relegation battle. Branston and Stanley are both key players who would make relegation a less likely scenario. It is almost neglectful to let that fester on. Get them bloody signed!

The great hope we had when courting him last year looks like we may have been saved by the fax machine. Grimsby have chucked him out.

http://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/jump? ... no-3647%2F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I see Paul Trollope is now favourite with Victor Chandler. No longer Chris Hargreaves.

http://www.victorchandler.com/vcbet/en- ... /6110141/1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The last time we met at Home Park, we were unlucky not to win. I remember Exeter's Richard Logan was on loan to us from Ipswich at the time and he scored a penalty in front of the away fans. However, it was an unfriendly atmosphere, like it often is there, with the stewards behaving aggressively towards Torquay fans.

Traditionally, I have always disliked Exeter more than Plymouth but that has all changed this season. Really cannot stand Plymouth.

How much truth there is in any of this is unclear. Forster perhaps offers more than say, Hargreaves. Also, not being known to the players, he would not have that difficult job of changing from mate to boss that Hargreaves would have.

Forster's surge up the betting odds may have more to do with the chat about him on here and maybe even he has been swayed by that by withdrawing his interest in Hayes job.

But the looking at the odds for the Cardiff job, at the moment Mark Robins is 2/5. It seems a strange one to me. For a club with Premiership ambtions, Robins, to me, would not have done enough to show he was ready for that sort of job.

In fact looking on the list for Cardiff and Rochdale and us, there does not seem to be a plethora of good candidates around.

Is Branston on a wage beyond us? Who says he is? Why is re-signing our best player a move that may move us towards administartion. It's a nonsense.

Let's see which championship or League 1 club he was at before he came here that must have been paying him a fortune that for us to maintain places the whole future of TUFC in doubt? Oh, no, hang on. It was Burton Albion and before that Kettering Town in the conference. Hardly massive payers that we would have had to almost bankcrupt our club to compete with.

The reality is if we get back to the Bateson era of penny-pinching, then the penny-wise, pound-foolish outcome will be the same. If the club are basically saying that they cannot even be competitive with the rest of the division then we may as well pack up and go in the Conference South.

It will be an utter disgrace if we let Branston go. What on earth are the board playing at?

I think I read that the shirts would be available around August.

Not sure what shorts are going with the shirt but I thought it looked quite nice. Vandanel get a lot of stick but I would rather we stayed with them because at least we get bespoke kits with them whereas if we were with Nike or Adidas we would just get a yellow version of what everyone else is wearing. At least with Vandanel our kit is always unique and mostly I have quite liked them...even the black one I have got used to.

I see no reason why the club cannot proceed with negotiations for Robinson, Branston et al. Whoever comes in as manager is going to inherit a fair few players anyway, so it is no problem if Robinson and Branston were signed before a new manager came.

It is so frustrating that because nothing is being done until a new manager is appointed, and very little appears to be being done in that respect as well, we are miles behind the rest of the league in signing players and behind other clubs when it even comes to signing our own players.

Just do not get what the board are up to.

Crawley were loathsome before they got their money. Evans is hateful and for Torquay fans in particular, their assistant manager is Paul Raynor is even worse. He is probably the biggest 'hate figure' in our club's history and that would need a separate histor lesson to explain why. That combined with their gamemanship and the way Evans and Raynor harrass officials. They are just despicable and nasty. The money makes it even worse. They will implode at some point.

dazgull wrote: Why have they got just a few days too think of a list of people they think will be good for the job? They have known Bucks has been going for weeks 8/ The only thing they wont have known is who would apply when he had actually left.

Exactly. And I think the players are starting to share the frustration of the fans. Lee Mansell tweeted on twitter this morning that he wished it would hurry up and get sorted out.

The board have known for ages. Surely they could have been making tentative enquires to possible managers. It has been a pretty open secret that Buckle was going so they are bound to have been people sniffing around the job.

Meanwhile, every other club in the division is getting what will be more than a months head start on us. Very disappointed with the boards inertia.

Utterly bizarre and of course it won't happen but Paul Trollope is 33/1 for the Fulham job.

Reproahcable Buckle must have been working for Bristol Rovers for longer than we even reckoned. In this article it states he has watched them a few times. Why? Gives some credence to the conspiracy theory that he was always going there and it was all arranged in January.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Nick-Hig ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;