New Stadium-The Willows

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 13 Feb 2016, 14:36

samuel wrote:I'm not a fan of artificial pitches. The modern trend seems to be call off games at the drop of a hat. Look at the some of the photos of the pitch in the 70's 80's. Muddy as hell or no grass at all. So what, it isn't as if we or the teams we play are exponents of Peps passing game. I like mud, heavy pitches, brute strength and clogging thrown into the mix because what comes out of that is desire and effort. The pitch, and weather, make it a more interesting game. Oh, and the postponements. I think in 87/88 Torquay had 5 games on the bounce postponed from Wolves home on 26/12/87 to Swansea 13/2/88. In fact they played a league game against Halifax on 12/12/87 and didn't play at home until Wolves on 23/2/88. 1 freight rover in between on 19/1/88. 73 days without a league game.

I'm with you, Samuel - we're of a similar vintage !! There was nothing so thrilling as watching Tommy Northcott ploughing his way through a muddy Plainmoor. I can understand the arguments for artificlal pitches (greater usage etc), but to me plastic pitches = plastic/sanitised football. The playing conditions are the same week in, week out - season after season. I'm not sure that is good for football.

madgull · Post by **madgull** » 13 Feb 2016, 17:10

...and attitudes like these two above is why England will never win ANYTHING for a long time, and why the English brand of football is laughed at by the rest of the world and shown to be ineffective time and time again.

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 13 Feb 2016, 19:03

madgull wrote:...and attitudes like these two above is why England will never win ANYTHING for a long time, and why the English brand of football is laughed at by the rest of the world and shown to be ineffective time and time again.

Maybe so - times and styles move on. But I'll tell you what - we enjoyed our football a bliddy darn sight more than we're 'enjoying' it now !!

Yorkieandy · Post by **Yorkieandy** » 13 Feb 2016, 19:04

England don't have a brand of football. They try to follow the latest trend and copy it but are never accomplished enough to do so effectively. Nothing to do with archaic attitudes but more that modern English coaches are **** useless and the players don't know what it means to take responsibility for their individual performances on the pitch (or lack of as the case may be with England).

Gazza was a great because he just wanted to play football more than anything in the whole world. More than money. The managers he had let him do this freely and we got Gazza. Like Messi now. Messi is minted. He could sit on his chuff every other game and get away with it but he doesn't. He plods on through the crap cup games and meaningless batterings of minnows like Sporting Gijon regardless and that is because football means more to him than money and his managers don't try to coach the living shit out of him.

Delle Alli is exciting and so long as he's just let loose to do what he wants and to try what he wants then he could be a star but I suspect in true good old England fashion they'll be some deadhead coach behind the scenes with all the quals but no idea what he's doing and the said player will end up like a **** robot.

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » 13 Feb 2016, 19:35

Yorkieandy wrote:
Messi is minted. He could sit on his chuff every other game and get away with it but he doesn't. He plods on through the crap cup games and meaningless batterings of minnows like Sporting Gijon regardless and that is because football means more to him than money

Still loves money enough to dodge his taxes though.

Yorkieandy · Post by **Yorkieandy** » 13 Feb 2016, 20:01

Well regardless of tax issues, Messi is the best player in the world by some considerable distance because he plays every week, he produces the goods every week and although I find footballers salaries abhorrent, he deserves every single penny he earns. Not only that but he gets kicked to death and gets up and on with it, by and large he doesn't dive and roll about, doesn't pose and preen and he puts in a shift as well as produces magic with a football. Take Aaron Lennon as a comparison, can run about a bit and that's it and is probably on about 50-80k a week? Players like Lennon are the problem, too ordinary, produce nothing but get money chucked at them. Football today is top heavy with ordinariness at the very highest level making players like Messi stand out even more.

There is some real talent in England but they'll never be able to come to the surface because they'll either be stunted by methodical coaching (like Van Gaal) or the players themselves will think they've already made it when they get given 80k a week just for turning up and their lack of mental fortitude and lack of drive to push themselves on regardless of money and fame ensures that they'll never really achieve their true potential. They'll play for big clubs and get loads of cash and fame without achieving anything but it's the desire to push on to that next level that just isn't there.

Added in 2 minutes 27 seconds:
Anyway, back on thread. Is the willows that 'bit' near Sainsburys ?

chunkygull · Post by **chunkygull** » 13 Feb 2016, 20:12

Yorkieandy wrote:England don't have a brand of football. They try to follow the latest trend and copy it but are never accomplished enough to do so effectively. Nothing to do with archaic attitudes but more that modern English coaches are f**king useless and the players don't know what it means to take responsibility for their individual performances on the pitch (or lack of as the case may be with England).

Gazza was a great because he just wanted to play football more than anything in the whole world. More than money. The managers he had let him do this freely and we got Gazza. Like Messi now. Messi is minted. He could sit on his chuff every other game and get away with it but he doesn't. He plods on through the crap cup games and meaningless batterings of minnows like Sporting Gijon regardless and that is because football means more to him than money and his managers don't try to coach the living sh*t out of him.

Delle Alli is exciting and so long as he's just let loose to do what he wants and to try what he wants then he could be a star but I suspect in true good old England fashion they'll be some deadhead coach behind the scenes with all the quals but no idea what he's doing and the said player will end up like a f**king robot.

Thats it in a nutshell, the best put, to the point and nail on the head thing I have read on this subject in ages. Some of the coaches/managers in the modern era over coach these talents to death and knock every ounce of natural ability out of them. They control, get involved and over organise every aspect, minute of the game and every inch of the pitch. The game and its players are becoming, boring, stale and robotic. Nothing wrong with being well drilled and organised, especially when you team doesnt have the ball but you need to let players do their thing with it.

Still its better to have a team over organised and prepared than very little or not at all, eh Kev.

ferrarilover · Post by **ferrarilover** » 14 Feb 2016, 02:27

The best footballers do earn lots, but then, they should. They're the top 1% of the top 1% of the top 1% of players on the planet. That makes them equivalent to the world's leading F1 drivers, businessmen, movie stars and rock stars. Lewis Hamilton wouldn't have a shit for what Rooney earns. At $50,000,000 a film, the likes of Brad Pitt make more in three months than Messi makes in three years.
Stephen Tyler, Mick Jagger and Brian May could buy and sell entire teams with the loose change they have in their spare dressing gowns.

The truly exceptional across most sectors earn silly money. That doesn't make it any the better that little Mwekwe starves to death in his hut in Somalia all the while Bill Gates wipes his arse with Mondrians, but that is the value to society of the talent these blokes have. Well done to them.

Matt.

gullintwoplaces · Post by **gullintwoplaces** » 14 Feb 2016, 08:06

tomogull wrote:

Maybe so - times and styles move on. But I'll tell you what - we enjoyed our football a bliddy darn sight more than we're 'enjoying' it now !!

I remember the O'Farrell team: capable/talented players, entertaining football, well managed. All these ingredients are missing from TUFC in 2016, and that's why I don't enjoy watching Torquay now! Nothing to do with the pitch!

tomogull · Post by **tomogull** » 14 Feb 2016, 13:11

gullintwoplaces wrote: I remember the O'Farrell team: capable/talented players, entertaining football, well managed. All these ingredients are missing from TUFC in 2016, and that's why I don't enjoy watching Torquay now! Nothing to do with the pitch!

Exactly. Frank's teams were probably the best, but we had some great times under Eric Webber (for those of an age who can remember !), Kevin Hodges, Cyril Knowles and Leroy Rosenior - all played a brand of football that was good and entertaining to watch. As a thought on artificial pitches, they would not have suited Cyril. He wouldn't have been able to turn on the hosepipe (allegedly) to waterlog the pitch to get a match postponed when we had a long injury list !!

Jerry · Post by **Jerry** » 18 Feb 2016, 17:56

[youtube]xpX6Xdy83HM[/youtube]

torq2u · Post by **torq2u** » 18 Feb 2016, 18:17

Seems like a 4G pitch is a must cos it looks even wetter than Plainmoor.

I'd love to watch Bristow's Bench being towed down the road to the new site!

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