Torquay United Fans Forum

Thought the appointment of Sturrock was dodgy and it was obvious it was for everyone's benefit but TUFC's. With this bunch of buffoons running the club it's idiocy to expect anything different. I did not expect to be proved right within a matter of days though. Crikey. Feel for you guys. You really are being led down the longest of long garden paths and have been for some time.

My ànnoyance in all this is the lack of communication and transparency from the board / KT about what the **** hell is happening to the club. Nothing has changed and now you'll probably be left with one of the most prolific bullshitters at the club next season, CH himself.

Please, please GET TOGETHER as fans and DO something about all this mess and move forward together. No bullshitters, no lies, no cover ups, no secrets. Why moan about everything when you can take action for change? You do not have to accept your lot. You have many options.

Perhaps the most important positive is that now at rock bottom and nowhere else to go, everyone will now surely stop whingeing about how the state and running of their club is out of their hands and head en masse to join the trust? The trust. The only escape route from the permanent comedy show which also happens to charge patrons the most expensive tickets in the house (league) for the privilege.

brucie wrote:Havn't joined the TUST - its a complete waste of time. The club is dying, lets face facts. We have still got a manager who would have been sacked if had been at any other club.
Bail out and do something else on a saturday (or if you want to watch pro football go to Exeter or Plymouth)
Sad but thats the reality of it I'm afraid.
And before anyone says it - I am not forking out seventy quid a game to watch Conference South football or lower - which is weher we will be in a couple of years.

Brucie, i don't know whether to laugh or cry with this.

The club is dying I agree. Fans are seemingly happy to let it die. At the very least you are putting forward your reason for not bothering with the tust but you are of the opinion that the club will eventually go under, as am I. Doing nothing will just see that the club accelerates the inevitability (imo) of it's closure so I cannot quite get my head around why a fan wouldn't want to do whatever they could to help rescue the club.

I knew that apathy and TUFC go hand in hand but I never thought it could ever be this tragic.

The situation with Thea was always going to come around at some point and to be honest it makes it even more of s backroom disaster when people knew this and yet still carried on as normal presumably until The as money ran out. We talk of CH's no plan B but the board can trump that hands down. Those that defend the board and cannot understand all the vitriol towards them will be doing the very same thing in a few years when there is no club or they at best case scenario are paying 20 quid to watch southern league football. Obviously you are entitled to your opinion and could be right that the board are going to ride in on white horses with some oil magnates and propel the club back into the football league. It could happen.

In the meantime while you are all waiting, how about joining the trust just in case those white horses turn out to be black sheep in some strange twist of zoological fate.

If not then you could regret it and the fate of TUFC will be fully deserved.

Brucie has given up and I too for my own reasons which I don't expect or need people to understand but if you give up too then it could be game over.

Does it matter Mick? Either way you've all got no choice now but to follow the next chapter in the history of TUFC. Someone else will guide you now.

Once again though its all this cloak and dagger stuff. It's ridiculous. It's Torquay United, a fifth tier English football club. Not the CIA. Why is everyone kept in the dark all the time?

Nobody can say they haven't had the opportunity to change things.

I just hope there IS good news around the corner or you're ****.

Fingers crossed.

Awww gee thanks tomo!

Yes, you are right about Hartlepool. They looked dead and buried a couple of months back but will now escape comfortably imo. The good news for you (that's not a piss take after all Torquay fans have been through the past few years :~D ) but the good news for you is that Cheltenham are looking THE team most likely to finish bottom which would give you a relatively near away game next season. York play them on Friday and if we can beat them I reckon that pretty much would finish their resolve at this stage of the season. Trouble is the game is at Bootham Crescent where York have only won twice this season.

The look a poor poor side though.

As bad as York have been this season I'm relatively confident of survival. Comparing them to the Torquay side that went down last season and how Hargreaves managed the team to relegation I can see that York have been given a chance by the board and manager. The board have allowed some great loan signings and the manager too is now prepared to change systems and personnel in order to get results whereas Hargreaves was comfortable hoping for something to happen rather than TRYING to make things happen. Wilcox went 3 at the back v Mansfield with pressing high up and it paid off. Sometimesyou have to take a gamble and a gambler CH isn't. He's a safe pair of hands. Not good when gambles were needed to try and retain league football.

Anyway I digress again.

I think Cheltenham will drop as my banker and I think York will just scrape away although if York went down then fine. I know that the summer will be spent by the club trying desperately to retain supporters instead of shutting up shop and putting up a sign that would read 'back in 3 months'.

Tranmere have looked shockingly bad so its between them and one team who could go on a bad run, maybe Mansfield? Oxford even? Carlisle I think just have enough but it's intruiging.

forevertufc wrote:Regards club ownership, and the attraction of Torquay United as Burnham asks. There will be two different types of people interested in the club, those who's intentions are not honourable, those who's intentions are every bit honourable, this is where the harsh reality of the situation has to dawn on all of us TUFC fans, the only people with the right intentions who will attracted to own the football club, are going to be actual TUFC fans or people/persons with some emotional attachment to the club or area.

I can not see the trust being in a position yet to take full ownership of the club and be able to take it forward, so if that means Simon Baker and co, as much as us TUFC fans will not like it, were to come forward with a new investor and hopefully football club management structure in place, it may be the only way forward for the football club, the alternatives could be very, very bleak indeed.

At last. Someone else who isn't so far up there own arsehole that they can actually take a step back and see what is staring them in the face. Of course Dave, I've never considered you to be such a person who belittles others just because they think they know best but there are enough out there on planet Torquay United to ensure the club goes under. Only at the last minute when the deadline passes to save the club that they then realise the 'facts' they thought were true actually weren't. Shock horror, the people like me who are derided as either some sort of lunatic or simply a total bonehead turn out to be right. Wouldn't that just put the gloss on it for you yes?

What Dave is saying, and what I've been saying since last season is that Torquay needs a new direction and new investment. I think we ALL pretty much thought this to be fair but at this moment in time the club now find themselves exactly in that position. To go forwards a new investor has to be found. Finding one is one thing but as Dave says, finding one with the best interests of the club at heart rather than their own self interest will be near impossible IMO.

Touching on what someone said in another post, how many of you would do what Thea did if you won the lottery on Saturday and plough a substantisl amount of your new found wealth into the club? I doubt there now would be any. Why would you? The club has been run into the ground by complete amateurs for the past few years and the potential to make any modicum of profit doesn't exist and can't exist whilst the club remain in the conference. To get the club onto an even keel it needs to find dedicated journeymen professionals and combine them with young hungry kids with no or minimal experience at conference level. These players also must all be paid peanuts. Each and every one of them.

On top of this the club need to increase their media prescence, dramatically improve their levels of customer service, lines of communication and fan interaction and make matchdays a better experience. All with reduced staff levels. Fans need to be wooed back and faced with the prospect of the above, the anticipation of winning football next season and beyond would be very much misplaced. Half of the fan base want Hargreaves to go and he needs paying off if so and I could go on but you can begin to see just how massive the mountain now is and you'd naturally look suspiciously on any group or individual that aren't dyed in the wool fans like Thea actively wanting to take all this shit on for minimal self benefit.

So it's highly unlikely that a 'fan' with shedloads of money to waste will do a Thea and to be honest it's improbable that an investor, a businessman willing to come in, take over and lose money will be found.

This leaves another 2 possibilities which are the most realistic.

The majority of the current board members who haved failed the supporters for the past few years and displayed traits that to me are despicable will get together as a collective and regain control of the club for a pittance. Should this happen you will still have a club to go and watch but everything just stays the same and the problems, vitriol and poisonous atmosphere increases. Eventually TUFC go bust or end up in conference south. With the current board set up i see no other future. You'd always like to think people can change and also learn from their experiences but the idiots that have got TUFC into this position aren't capable of doing so.

The second option is for a group or individual to come in short term to steady the ship ready for a take over by the TUST. Those who have just read that and are wetting themselves with laughter can do so. Then I can laugh at you when in 10 years time you don't have a club to support. It's around the corner but if you are happy to be more intelligent and knowledgable about the club then me then that's your choice. You'll just simply be sleepwalking into a hole that will be too big to get out of in the end. Not quite fiddling while Rome burns but more sat in the armchair smug reading the Guardian with a pipe whilst those at the TUST are busy trying to make a positive difference off their own back to see the club they love saved before its too late.

Obviously the TUST is in its fledgling stage and there will be suspicion or doubters but what are the bloody alternatives?! Any of the above? Good luck with that.

Join the trust and have an input into your club if you really care. Why let some smartly dressed board member who has no vertebrae make decisions FOR you? Stand up for yourselves, get rid of the stains and look to a brighter more united community future with you all at the helm.

OK so the TUST may not be for everyone and there will be people with concerns but the way I see it there is no other option. Own your club or it will disappear. The assets, the history and the memories.

I accept that a hundred and odd members isn't going to have much bargaining power or financial clout but only you can get the club where it needs to be. If you all join its game on, you're all a big part of it and you can all move forward together. Carry on smoking the pipe in the armchair or doing the gardening if you like. Mocking the trust or simply being indifferent is fine, just don't whinge when you'll have no choice but to do the gardening on a Saturday afternoon.

Apologies for this, its no place of mine anymore. By all means go and watch Exeter, Plymouth, Bristol City or whoever but I'm sure you'd all rather watch a forward thinking, caring community club which treats everyone as equals. Torquay United can be that club you want. Just get your flamin' heads banged together and leave the past behind. More importantly, leave those responsible for years of misery behind and don't give them a second thought.

Its a free country but in my humble opinion Torquay United has no other way of sustaining itself long term let alone with a view to success on the pitch. Sustainability and stability are what are needed. May as well get the last bits of turmoil out the way now and then draw a line and start again. Carry on as you are and it will always be like it is now.

Not that anyone is particularly bothered but a strange day all round for me today. First of all back at Mansfield to see Stags v Minstermen, the first time I'd been back since I was there to witness Torquay slip out of the football league. It felt odd to be honest. At the same point last season I was enjoying the fancy dress fiesta and the company of some great people despite the inevitability of a Torquay relegation.

This time around I was hoping that lightning didn't strike twice and that York didn't suffer the same fate.

Someone struck twice and that someone was Shaq Coulthirst who had scored in that Torquay game too. In a bizarre twist for me personally given the Gulls link, Bobby Olejnik got a straight red for handling outside the area.

Not content with that, Billy Kee was on the other side. Quiet game though.

All round a bloody weird day and York amazingly managing to score 4 goals!!

Sad to see you lose again today and the incident with Ricey. He's a decent bloke and he knows he is not the best keeper in the world but last season he really did give his all for Torquay and it's just a shame that it has come to this. I wish him and yourselves a speedy reconciliation.

Neal wrote:Chasing glory is NOT a true loyal football supporter.

Yes we are all of those things, but you stick by your club / friends / family when the going gets tough. That's what determines if you are a true supporter of any club. And when, because it will be "when" Exeter" have a bad season you can go and support one of the Bristol clubs, what ever one is doing well at the time. ENJOY!

Just for the record and not that it matters to any of you but it does to me. Two things drew me away from Torquay United.

1. The people that hàve been running the club (except Thea) for the past 4 years have treated me like a simpleton. A cash cow that keeps on giving whilst at the same time laughing at me and treating me with contempt. This same thing applies to the management (Knill / Hargreaves) and pretty much each and every footballer that has represented TUFC for the past 2 seasons at least. That had to stop. I couldn't make them reflect and take a long hard look around at those faces of resignation displayed by the fans in most games to give them a catalyst to wake up and smell the coffee. They just were either unwilling or unable to listen. They didn't know how how to talk either. To talk to us - the fans - to give us something to work with or someone who could lead us. Thea did this on her own and I also cannot be a part of an organization that has men behind the scenes who were more than comfortable to let an old woman pay for pretty much everything AND face the music when it all collapsed. It sickens me and these are not the values I have been taught.

2. With this in the back of mind I understandably became really disillusioned and it makes you look inside yourself. Although Nina has pointed out, and I'm flattered by the recognition, that I was a terrace regular mainly at away games singing and shouting as much I could. My highlight being when I took a drum to Accy and 5 minutes in my drumstick snapped in half and hit someone but I digress. The fact is that I gave as much as I could for your club but as Dave SG mentioned somewhere else. A club, or at least a certain place or area is in your heart, usually where you grew up and you cannot change this. I had to go over old ground and accept this. Wisdom and Southampton Dave eh? Not sure if the two should go together actually. Bit weird. (Joke Dave! Don't come and smash my face in next season when I come down with the York lads). No, actually Dave and one or two others made it a no brainer and I'm grateful for that.

These are my reasons for 'changing teams' and I've probably gone over old ground but unlike Brucie my circumstances for doing this for me personally are totally different.

I don't know if Brucie supported Exeter before Torquay but I followed York before Torquay so in a sense I am not changing teams, just going back to the old one. This is because I grew up around there and spent time there and know the area. Not because it is quicker to get to than Plainmoor which is one of Brucies reasons. Also, I have always stated that the level and standard of football doesn't decide whether I support a team and go to games or not. If I support a team then I go to games and I give my all regardless of if the club is bottom of the table and getting gubbed every week. You cannot support a team then not go when things are shit. It doesn't work like that. You either go or stop going full stop IMO.

Anyway, I do care what people think otherwise I wouldn't be posting this but I won't be letting anybody's childish comments make any difference for I feel I've done the right thing.

I've always tried to give praise and wish you good luck even now I should no longer care and there will always be the odd miserable, cantankerous, know it all but don't provide any evidence, obnoxious, poisonous person lurking in the shadows and to be fair to Richinns he has a point. Torquay appear to have many more than one but for all the fans I've met prrsonally this has been far from the case. They've all been amazing individuals and i've been priveleged to meet you all and for you I just have hope that some good times are but a summer away.

Like I said, York will no doubt be visiting Plainmoor next season and I would like to buy some of you drinks if this is the case.

Like my bets, only I could go from supporting a team relegated to non league to another.

No bother. That's life.

Take care all, just don't claim there are any similarities between Brucie and I. There are none thank the Good Lord.

taxilady wrote:was wondering where you'd got to Andy ! Hope you're enjoying Shaq Attack. You're right of course....1133 members would sound a lot better ! Still, numbers are slowly growing, & you never know.......

Indeed I am relatively well Nina, thanks for asking. I trust you are too?

As for the Shaq, it came as as shock.

He made his York debut against Carlisle on Saturday but only got about half an hour. I thought he was a shoe in to start but hell what do I know? Excited though. Bobby has been pretty ropey in all honesty since he joined but shows his class in bursts. I honestly thought I would not see a worse team on a consistent basis than the Torquay side I watched so many times last season but hand on heart York are worse. Two home wins in all comps as we approach April.

Am I having fun? You bet!

Back in the groove like I'd never been away and getting involved and able to mutter incomprehensible noises to my fellow Yorkies that are completely understood and pass for conversation. It's great even if the football isn't. I've come to learn that at this level everyone is pretty much shit but it's all about not being as shit as the others and trying not to let the football get you down. I'd hazard a guess that the top half of the conference is better than the bottom half of league 2 by a country mile. Tranmere a few weeks back looked like 11 fenceposts all rooted in the wrong spots.

I just want Torquay to get themselves sorted out as it's heartbreaking to see the decay continuing. It was totally predictable though on and off the pitch, it's been coming. Like the deterioration unfolded in front of eyes but were powerless to stop it but now people have a chance to do something and change the course of the club in the other direction hopefully.

Good luck and look after yourself.

BayGull wrote:Having a 'Fans Representative' on the board is certainly a good idea, as it can keep the Directors up to speed with what fans think and would like at certain times - but do not expect them to listen or act for much/most of the time as it is their money that is involved!
That representative does not need to be a Director, but a selected member of the TUST who has the approval and permission of the Directors to be a board meetings/to be involved.

For the number of fans that the TUST has signed up to actually own/control/run the club is total pie in the sky!!
Not just regarding the finances which are totally out of reach - but also regarding the day to day running issues.

I suggest the Chairman of the TUST comes back down his step ladder and takes his head out of the clouds!

The TUST chairman may have his head in the clouds but he's not sitting on his are picking his toenails and scrutinising every last bit of small print before pondering for the next 20 years whether to join is he? Sometimes you just have to **** well go for it. It's not ideal but it's an opportunity offered on a plate. They need help, help which I assumed would be forthcoming from the fan base. Take all the time you need people.

My God

The levels of stupidity continue to amaze.

How about you both stop **** whinging about it and **** well join?!!

I'll tell you why, because it's easier to do nothing than something. Pathetic.

133 members is a start. As I've said for years, the apathy at TUFC is the reason why nothing can ever be achieved. All I've heard these past few months is fans lambasting the board, slagging off the team, panning CH and the odd complete cretin having the audacity to question the 'job' Thea has done! The minute an opportunity arises that may give you a chance to make sure this can't happen again in the future and a hundred and thirty three of you are the only ones arsed enough to do something positive!

Absolute madness.

Either strangers are going to come in and strip the lot down leaving you dead and buried OR the diseased board members who plan on taking back control of the club for a pittance are going to run the club into the ground because none of them know their **** arse from their elbow. On top of that they'll treat you all with contempt just as they always have.

These are the options.

A Saudi conglomerate willing to turn TUFC into a European footballing superpower aren't around the corner therefore if you all want a club to support in the near future may I kindly suggest doing something about it.

Join the trust in numbers, get your heads banged together and see this ship through to the other side or you're screwed.

As for Brucie. Just another uninspiring bloke who thinks the world owes him.

No, no problem Luce. Apart from the total apathy that was shown at the tufc exhibition launch, the apathy that was the tust which is struggling to find one man and his whippet, the apathy that is this forum and the ordinaryness that doubtless will be the answers to the Lincoln city bod wanting to find out something interesting and quirky about Torquay united. Oh and the sad voice in the dark calling me a knobhead. The club is on it's way out so either make an effort or go and support someone else. I've done the latter because, although I'm not mystic Meg, I can sense when it's time to bail out on a lost cause. Make an effort or don't, I'm sure Brucie will quickly find summat else to moan about. He's happy to pay for his ticket, do little else and moan when a 6 nil win doesn't come his way but he's paid for his ticket so has a right to vent yes? No. Do something proactive for tufc now or see the club go under. Kelvin is a step forward and why? Because he engages with the fans unlike those cretins before him who pissed around probably playing golf and telling anyone who'd listen that they ran a football club. Yeah, into the ground. Cheers tossers. Get control of YOUR football club now or go under.

I see Deon Burton scored the Eastleigh goal. He played for York at Cheltenham on loan earlier in the season then got a bad injury in the following home game which i was led to believe ended his season. Obviously not then.