Torquay United Fans Forum

[quote=KeithMalone post_id=206259 time=1495826871 user_id=23157]
If Nicholson pulls his boots on I reckon we can enter the 7 a side summer and winter leagues, although best make sure the players are registered appropriately (something we struggled with a few years back) and don't swear!
[/quote]

It's the refs at Clennon Valley you have to watch out for. We always used to have an argument with the little one (was his name Keith?). I'm convinced he hated us.
or, you know...hated everybody.

[quote="merse btpir" post_id=206272 time=1495864749 user_id=23969]
there are clubs in the levels below that who are flashing the cash just in order to get into it.
[/quote]

Yes, I am fully aware of this. I always found it ironic that the ‘small club on the hill’ FGR had the slogan ‘sustainability in sport’, plastered all over the New Lawn but are reported to have £10m debts over the past four years, and recently released figures that revealed £200,000 had been spent on agents’ fees this season alone. I am not fooled into thinking the National League will be more of a level playing field next season. It won’t. Farewell Forest Green Rovers, but hello to AFC Fylde and to Ebbsfleet United. And your right things will be getting more difficult before they get easier if you look down the leagues i.e. Salford City, Billericay Town etc. Town's budget last season when they failed to reach the Ryman Premier play-offs was over £20,000 a week, the owner tweeted it. And yet, I still live in hope when I see clubs like one you have mention on this forum Dulwich Hamlet FC who have grown exponentially in recent years. This club have garnered a support base and profile far greater than what would be expected of a team competing in the seventh tier of English football thanks to their strong commitment to community activism and altruistic social values. To this end, solace can be found in our local non-league club if we are able offer a greater sense of community and resonance with our own values than football league giants care to entertain.

As for Verma and Sparkes ,can we say sideway moves?. Both their respective clubs are a league below us. In the case of Verma, I would say we saved his flagging career as he could not even make the grade a league below. If - as we are led to believe - we are to become a promotion pushing side next season, then your right, they appear to have little football ambition. Home and family is understandable, but only shows the weakness of our recruitment programme - why take players who do not buy into the clubs long term vision rather than pay them to believe in the vision. And before we lambaste the town of Torquay for failing to attract players - my career took me onto the streets of London and other dirty old towns and the word 'Paradise' still quivers from my lips when asked about 'Torquay'.

Our new scout will find the players and Mr Harrop will complete the deals.
What have we got to worry about.

[quote=MellowYellow post_id=206270 time=1495846310 user_id=22826][i][b]Valid points- but if (as told) we have a top 10 budget where is Sparkes and Verma going for improved one year contracts - Tranmere, Eastleigh ? Are we being told porkies about our budget - maybe three little pigs can enlighten us![/b][/i][/quote]

I would imagine it is not pursuit of a markedly better remuneration that drives Verma and Sparkes away it is the belief that they can at least match their earnings without the need to live miles from home and their families. Two years has been enough for Verma and just one for Sparkes and if they need to drop down a level to procure those deals then I'm sure they will happily do so.

You can hardly say either showed particular footballing ambition to come to Torquay (sideways moves from Kidderminster and Braintree respectively) and only where they go will reveal their true intentions this time.

Top ten budget? Wouldn't surprise me if you take the strictly 'playing' aspect of it away; there are some pretty low budgets in this league and some pretty modest offers being made to players from what I've heard. Eastleigh, Tranmere and anyone else who wants to break the bank and fly in the face of sustainability in pursuit of that extra million or so in income result of being in the English Football League are the exception rather than the rule and there are clubs in the levels below that who are flashing the cash just in order to get into it.
[b]
Follow the progress of [i]Billericay Town[/i] as they try to extract themselves from the Isthmian Premier this season in a ground unrecognisable after summer redevelopment and paying some players c £1,000 a week if stories are to be believed for evidence of that and they quite possibly might be the next 'Whitehawk' or 'Eastleigh' but when players drop down two or more levels for that sort of club, make sure you realise just why they're doing it.[/b]

[quote="merse btpir" post_id=206268 time=1495835127 user_id=23969]

[b]But that's the nature of non league football; if you only offer a one year contract then don't be surprised if the player opts to move on at the end of it......[/b]

[b]
But the [b]FACT[/b] is a manager and recruitment set-up with adequate knowledge of emerging and upwardly mobile young players operating in the levels below the National League can put together a squad fit for purpose for this league........ [/b]

[/quote]

Valid points- but if (as told) we have a top 10 budget where is Sparkes and Verma going for improved one year contracts - Tranmere, Eastleigh ? Are we being told porkies about our budget - maybe three little pigs can enlighten us!

I am in agreement on the recruitment set up - I can remember a time when the quality of Torquay United's recruitment of players was at least as good, if not better, than most of their rivals. You only have to look back to 2012 when they sold goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, Mark Ellis and Eunan O'Kane for a combined total of nearly £700,000. Players that we brought in and nurtured based on a simple policy of 'speculate to accumulate'. The Gulls' fortunes will not pick up until they restore that policy to something like its former levels. And if (as it appears) we cannot offer the sort of contracts that lit up the eyes of former players then the talent-spotting operation will now need to be second to none. I assume this is the role Dave Hedges, Recruitment Manager is now undertaking; to find and bring in the next young Nicolas Anelka

[quote=MellowYellow post_id=206261 time=1495830240 user_id=22826] [i][b]my greatest fear is NIcho having to mould a new squad again, it was our downfall last season letting to many players leave and having to rebuild.[/b][/i][/quote]

[b]But that's the nature of non league football; if you only offer a one year contract then don't be surprised if the player opts to move on at the end of it......[/b]

As for 'letting too many players leave and having to rebuild' last summer ~ you're having a laugh aren't you? Those players struggled to make a fist of National League football and too many of them were re-engaged and proceeded to let the manager down again throughout the first half of last season and the manager was saying that himself to those he chose to speak to.

Those six 'nothing for you yet' characters are only getting that because the manager is worried that he cannot construct a fit for purpose squad on the money made available to him and might be forced into scraping the barrel again to re-engage such unsatisfactory and ineffective players as Anderson, Rowe-Turner, Williams, Gallifuoco and Harrad. With the exception of Williams, I would be surprised to see any of them get offers from anything but a lower level of football for next season and if the manager does have to resort to making them offers to come back then we can only expect more of the same level of ineptitude next season.

But the [b]FACT[/b] is a manager and recruitment set-up with adequate knowledge of emerging and upwardly mobile young players operating in the levels below the National League can put together a squad fit for purpose for this league........Forest Green Rovers took Ethan Pinnock from Dulwich Hamlet last summer and he hardly missed a game for them as they achieved promotion. Now who would pretend that Sean McGinty (a player Nicholson is pleased with) comes anywhere near him for technical ability and sell-on potential? And there are many more; a trawl through the non league transfers reveals scores of young and upwardly mobile players coming into the National League for next season and some jumping even higher to EFL clubs but when the manager has to admit to being unable to 'carry' any development players on the payroll next season ~ as he has to professional colleagues managing other clubs ~ then we have to realise that the club is still a million miles from being able to run in the manner that a provincial non-league outfit should be and that puts him well behind the managers of much less supported clubs ~ such as Dagenham & Redbridge and Woking to name but two ~ in the manner that he can manage.

I personally could take or leave Moore. Some great shot-stopping but plenty of clangers too. Not going to say "there are better out there", but I do believe there will be comparable keepers who might represent better value for money

Lucy, honestly.. chill out! :rofl:

Great news! if Moore signs then that 4 out the six I wanted retained - my greatest fear is NIcho having to mould a new squad again, it was our downfall last season letting to many players leave and having to rebuild.

Great addition to the squad. The jokes of 5 and 7 a side are pathetic. When is a squad built in May, The players offered contracts have until 3rd June to decide. Lets also factor some are on holiday. Mcginty showed plenty of passion throughout the season. Just look at the end of the Solihull match. And let's not forget he was once a Manchester United player.

If Nicholson pulls his boots on I reckon we can enter the 7 a side summer and winter leagues, although best make sure the players are registered appropriately (something we struggled with a few years back) and don't swear!

Another one signs up for next season, the spine of the team is looking good now!

Got enough now for a 5 a side with 1 sub!