Torquay United Fans Forum

Martin, Dale, Kristian, Aaron, Levi, Luke, Courtney, Louis, Courtney, Ashley, Ryan, Danny, Jordan, Niall, Angus, Jake, Jordan, Sam, Micky, Billy, Elliot, Karl.

Although you are correct, there are no Paul's, David's or Steph(v)en's, all of the names bar Levi are what I would consider normal for this generation. Names go through cycles. When my sister was born, my grandparents were very upset with the name Carly, as they thought this was outrageous!! Then my cousin, Joel was born, and that was frowned upon as well!

And I'm quite happy with the dying out of the name Paul, in my year at school there were 9 of us, and I felt common! I imagine David's felt even worse!!

i'm not overly concerned about the average age of the squad, what bothers me is the average NAME of the squad!!

look at the first names of our players, wheres the traditional names?? what has happened to this country? not a paul, a david, a michael or a stephen/steven to be seen!!

[quote="hector"]


I'm afraid not, Stefano, for it was you who has been damning of CH. There is not much he can do when he is still lumbered with your mate's Knill's signings.[/quote]
:clap: I do love the way you re-write history Hector. You are an absolute star at it and it must have taken years of practice.

I was never damning of CH. I did think that he was the wrong appointment at the time for the situation we were in and I was proved right as we were relegated. As you are well aware CH was a background object as I attempted to provide some balance to your insane and often defamatory posts about Mr Knill. It really did become an obsession and at one stage I was really worried for you.

I like CH. A good professional who (as I have posted before if you ever bothered to check) I am confident will make a good manager.

Wrong appointment at the time yes. But too late now, we have to move on and can do it with CH at the helm. I just hope he is able to do it with the limited support available within our impoverished club.

I do love the way you are already setting things up to blame Mr Knill if we perform badly, and no doubt you will be able to find ways to blame him for a poor season in 2026/2027.

Matron! ..... Hector's out of bed again and drinking his shaving water! ;-)

[quote="stefano"]
"You'll never win anything with kids!". Was it Alan Hansen got that so spectacularly wrong? Some tw*t anyway! For me I was actually hoping that our manager may have applied his professional experience and given some thought to it. I hope he gets it right, or Hector will be demanding he fall on his sword before the end of August! Che sara sara ;-)[/quote]


I'm afraid not, Stefano, for it was you who has been damning of CH. There is not much he can do when he is still lumbered with your mate's Knill's signings.

[quote="PhilGull"]History suggest that it's the team with the experienced pros who know what the conference is all about that get promoted. On the other hand a youthful team can only improve with age and if they do well enough there could be a few financial windfalls coming our way over the next few years.[/quote]
"You'll never win anything with kids!". Was it Alan Hansen got that so spectacularly wrong? Some tw*t anyway! For me I was actually hoping that our manager may have applied his professional experience and given some thought to it. I hope he gets it right, or Hector will be demanding he fall on his sword before the end of August! Che sara sara ;-)

History suggest that it's the team with the experienced pros who know what the conference is all about that get promoted. On the other hand a youthful team can only improve with age and if they do well enough there could be a few financial windfalls coming our way over the next few years.

Ok - so this is currently a guess at the starting 11 and it is likely there will be a couple of additions (and perhaps outgoing players) which might change things but as things stand we are going to have a youthful starting XI for next season:

Rice - (28)
Tonge - (29)
Pearce - (24)
Downes - (29)
Ives - (16)
Young - (21)
Richards - (20)
Briscoe - (27)
Cameron - (21)
Yeoman - (22)
Bowman - (22)

That is an average age of [b]23.5[/b]

Other players in the squad include:
Sullivan (19)
Seabright (20)
Thompson (20)
MacDonald (21)
Hutchings (18)
Chapell (22)
Chaney (18)
Parcell (18)
Bodin (22)

We are also in contract talks with Toby Ajala (22) and Duane O’Achie (22 I think?) whilst Tom Cruise (23) is still on trial.

We do have a little bit of experience in the current squad, Hawley (32), Benyon (26), Harding (29), but what part they are likely to play seems to be questionable currently.

Will inexperience be a problem or will it prove a big plus for our chances this year?