Torquay United Fans Forum

Hargreaves appointment as manager ultimately fast tracked TUFC to relegation. He turned out to be as clueless as the person(s) who employed him.

Great player, sh*te manager!

Agree with you Tommo, there's no doubting CH brought in some good players, it's what he did, or did not do with them after they signed that I would suggest was a part of problem, I don't think it's got anything to do with experience, we all could point to a few managers at all levels who've been successful with little experience.

For me it's about ability, the whole package in football management, which in m opinion is being able to spot the right player, the ability to create a good training regime, knowing which player needs an arm around his shoulder and which needs the hair dryer treatment, good game management, ability to get your message across to the players, making the best use of what you do have regards resources, rather then crying about what you don't have, and much more. Chris Hargreaves no doubt could work as a scout, or as part of a clubs coaching staff and be very successful, not as a manager .

Edit; Just to add to that, I look at players like Tonge, Harding, Pearce and even Hawley, talk to most TUFC fans about these player, and the response you'll get is, these players are rubbish, these players have all had good careers across either the championship, League 1 and 2, most have got Championship and promotion winners stamped on their CV's, they weren't rubbish players, I would suggest the way they were managed and AK is included in this, coached, treated, the whole package of their time at TUFC is what made them underperform.

With these players, adding in Downes, and the players brought in by CH, we should have been at the very least chasing down a play-off spot last season, we didn't get close the manager CH has to take a fair share of the blame, as it ultimately cost him his job.

[quote="forevertufc"]Just when I thought I'd got the nightmare of Chris Hargreaves out of my system, up there as one of worst managers in our history, a manager no more hamstrung than previous, and certainly not as hamstrung as our current one.

Could Hargreaves have put together this squad on the money PC has had to work with, no chance, would we have seen a team put out under CH so well drilled and organised, that's clearly being built from the back and is going set it's stall out to be, hard to beat, no, not a hope, I saw something yesterday that I never saw under CH's management, our team largely outplayed by a better footballing side, but a TUFC team that ran, worked hard, fought for every thing and never gave up, a CH team would have waved the white flag and done a runner.

Personally glad CH has gone, the very thought of watching his pathetic excuse for a team, followed one excuse after another, especially a certain person from the media, and I certainly would packed it in for good, felt like we had our club back yesterday.[/quote]

Don't disagree with what you're saying, but you can't deny that he brought in some useful players and a couple of good loanees - Bailey Cargill from Bournemouth and the forward from Spurs whose name I forget. Last September/October, we were purring at the football being played - there was no criticism of Hargreaves then ! It all seemed to go pear-shaped after that stupid decision to play Richards as a central defender at Alfreton. Whether he lost the support or discipline of the players after that, we shall never know and he never addressed the goalkeeper situation. But as you say, we never saw such a well drilled or hard working side as we saw yesterday. Lack of experience maybe. Certainly Mr Cox looks to be a better tactician and there's no doubts about what he expects from his players.

Just when I thought I'd got the nightmare of Chris Hargreaves out of my system, up there as one of worst managers in our history, a manager no more hamstrung than previous, and certainly not as hamstrung as our current one.

Could Hargreaves have put together this squad on the money PC has had to work with, no chance, would we have seen a team put out under CH so well drilled and organised, that's clearly being built from the back and is going set it's stall out to be, hard to beat, no, not a hope, I saw something yesterday that I never saw under CH's management, our team largely outplayed by a better footballing side, but a TUFC team that ran, worked hard, fought for every thing and never gave up, a CH team would have waved the white flag and done a runner.

Personally glad CH has gone, the very thought of watching his pathetic excuse for a team, followed one excuse after another, especially a certain person from the media, and I certainly would packed it in for good, felt like we had our club back yesterday.

Yeah it's important to remember that the players we signed under Hargreaves were actually pretty good, and the calibre was certainly of a top 6 style. It was the mismanagement and lack of a good base from our players that got relegated that let us down.

Young, Bowman, Briscoe, Ajala and MacDonald were good signings. Richards was decent for a trialist. It was the top half of the wage bill that let us down, performance wise. The under performance from Hargreaves wasn't as a result of bad signings but what happened afterwards.

Assuming the that Hargreaves and Cox's budgets are similar in the amount of hard cash available to spend - to discount the fact that last season's budget was hampered by the incumbent wage bill - I think the Paul Cox has shown the benefit of employing a manager [b]with experience [/b]in those circumstances.

Hargreaves was a mistake.

That's a good point. On the other hand, Mr Cox does not appear to have any more of a budget, ostensibly even less, even though the 'existing rubbish' has now left the club. What is more certain, though, is that Hargreaves' chances of success would have been, and Cox's would be, considerably improved with access to more workable budgets..

[quote="Gullscorer"]
Me too. And dare I mention that Mr Cox is of course even more hamstrung..? :)[/quote]

Did Hargreaves have any more money to spend? Obviously the wage budget was bigger but a huge chunk of it had already been assigned to existing rubbish. After Hargreaves had identified positions and areas he wanted to fill did he have any more money per player to spend than Cox? Or did he have even less?

[quote="Southampton Gull"]
Substitute the word hamstrung for inept and I would agree with you.[/quote]
Me too. And dare I mention that Mr Cox is of course even more hamstrung..? :)

[quote="Dutchgull"]So inept. So hope he can find another job and save the club so much money !!![/quote]


Substitute the word hamstrung for inept and I would agree with you.

So inept. So hope he can find another job and save the club so much money !!!

I believed in Hargreaves - character, role model, plus coaching skills. He signed some good players, but it didn't prove enough. I couldn't see that he had developed any of the players; his selections were occasionally counter-productive, and he was tactically limited. I hope he can get another coaching role and he may get another management job sometime.

He should do. He did well in his time as a coach at Bournemouth, by all accounts.

His legendary status as a player is still intact. No ill feeling for trying to do what he was appointed to by a naive Board in panic mode.

(But I still hope he finds a new allotment and moves on soon).