Torquay United Fans Forum

he has tried to sign numerous players and it aint for the lack of trying, he is close to two signings.

Quite worrying that despite all the promised "action" as regards signings we have signed exactly noone - that means its likely we will have to play Macdonald again on Saturday.

left back, right back and centre back all needed! And a experienced safe on the ball centre mid player. Was Easton kicking off for being subbed on tuesday night? If so, thats 1) awful as hes an experienced pro and 2) pathetic as he was awful on the night - and on the whole actually

It certainly doesn't sound as though any lack of additions are through any lack of trying. Clearly, it would have been preferable to have had any new players in by today to at least give them a chance to train with the team before (presumably) they board the coach for Accrington tomorrow morning, but it doesn't appear to have happened.

He (Knill) has no doubt found out just how hard it can be to get players down here and I recall John Sheridan mentioning how hard it was to get players in down at Plymouth when he first went down there, but he succeeded eventually and hopefully it will be the same for Alan Knill in time. I genuinely think it comes as a bit of a surprise to some Managers how unique our situation down here is and how tough it can be to persuade players to move here, even if it's only for a month, or two! It really is like we are on another planet to some!

It seems his targets are changing all the time. I think initially he may have been looking at kids from out of the Academies (Man Utd and Everton were mentioned) but after witnessing our last three performances has decided against that as he is now looking for players with experience of winning matches in League 2 and there aren't too many of those around in the Man U and Everton squads, that's for sure !!!

Despite the two defeats, I have been impressed with how he(Knill) has gone about his business since he got here and it's clear that he has moved away from the "fine tuning" approach to a "major overhaul" which is exactly what we need to stand any chance of turning this dreadful run of form around. Like quite a few on Tuesday I guess, I was a little disappointed with his substitutions (or lack of) but who knows what goes on at the Training Ground and what advice he has been given by the existing back room staff.

Fingers crossed he gets some positive news from all these phone calls .... as boy do we need some help right now!

he is working on it and is close

ROADRUNNER wrote:well said devon yellow, its just like the bloody morons i had to listen to on the popside on tuesday, the bloke has just got here and you would think he had been here all season, for christ sake give him a break , he needs time to try to get a couple of bodies into help. lets get behind him and support him or we just as well pack up know.

Agreed,, but unfortunately time is one luxury we don't have. With moral being so low something needs be done in terms of loans immediately. Otherwise there's a real danger of things just spiraling out of control.

well said devon yellow, its just like the bloody morons i had to listen to on the popside on tuesday, the bloke has just got here and you would think he had been here all season, for christ sake give him a break , he needs time to try to get a couple of bodies into help. lets get behind him and support him or we just as well pack up know.

Any reinforcements yet?

Neal wrote:All those saying we have been dreadful, boring and too defensive were right. I sat on the fence really mainly because I couldn't decide if we were rubbish or a side just short of a few players of being a good L2 team. But rt thinking about it we had lots of painfull, hard fought draws where we were a bit lucky. The luck ran out and we have been found out! To those who think the current squad is just a few players short of a play off team are fooling themselves frankly. The whole squad is mediocre at the best. Poke, Downes Saah and maybe Howe are the exceptions. None of the rest, even Howe, not convinced he is up for the fight to be honest. Hope I'm proved totally wrong. This squad has no real quality, someone said Craig, yep his OK and prob the nearest to real quality but he is no Eunan. And its not Ellis that we have missed its Eunan, he made the difference but to replace him would cost a lot of money and that ain't gonna happen.

I am resigned to relegation, but I will GOTO the same amount of games home and away. But For me I don't want either Ling nor Knill as manager in the conference, that would be awefull. We need an attack minded boss.

Alan Knill's Bury side that he brought to Plainmoor a few years ago were one of the most attack minded teams I have ever seen grace our pitch. They played some lovely stuff and had quick forwards that caused us no end of problems. To say he is not attack minded after only seeing two games in charge is quite frankly ridicuous. You state yourself that the "whole squad is mediocre at the best" so what do you expect him to do? I'd be more than happy with him as full time manager should the need arise.

sorry neal but i think howe is a quality player but he is in a poor team, as for alan knill give the guy a chance.

All those saying we have been dreadful, boring and too defensive were right. I sat on the fence really mainly because I couldn't decide if we were rubbish or a side just short of a few players of being a good L2 team. But rt thinking about it we had lots of painfull, hard fought draws where we were a bit lucky. The luck ran out and we have been found out! To those who think the current squad is just a few players short of a play off team are fooling themselves frankly. The whole squad is mediocre at the best. Poke, Downes Saah and maybe Howe are the exceptions. None of the rest, even Howe, not convinced he is up for the fight to be honest. Hope I'm proved totally wrong. This squad has no real quality, someone said Craig, yep his OK and prob the nearest to real quality but he is no Eunan. And its not Ellis that we have missed its Eunan, he made the difference but to replace him would cost a lot of money and that ain't gonna happen.

I am resigned to relegation, but I will GOTO the same amount of games home and away. But For me I don't want either Ling nor Knill as manager in the conference, that would be awefull. We need an attack minded boss.

Won't happen, Dave.

Simple Simon is enjoying his spell in the limelight a little too much. But then he stands on the terrraces so must be a good chairman, right?

Worse than that hector shotly afterwards Mr Phillips decided (unilaterally? I don't know) to announce on the O/S that we wouldn't be signing anyone in the transfer window. How did Mr Ling feel about that? Guess we'll never know.

We have blown it big time lets be honest. We have had the opportunity for two seasons now to be the No1 team in Devon and what do have instead a situation not that dissimilar to that of Argyles.

Regarless of the out come of this season I would like to see a change of Chairmanship and managing director for this debacle on the pitch cannot be allowed to continue (esp. in the Conference). For if it is allowed to continue then you have to wonder is Conference football what certain custodians wanted to happen all along.

hector wrote:We might have three games in hand but when was the last time we won 3 on the trot. On current form, 4 points is a more realistic target but 2 points a more likely outcome leaving us around 11 pts clear of relegation, the same distance Macclesfield had between themselves and the bottom two, this time last year and look what happened to them. We shouldn't go down but could we be the team that unexpectedly drops like a stone. Let's face it, we don't have goals in us and whereas last year we were winning narrowly, it is more likely to be the opposite this year.

I'm not trying to be wise after the event or say 'I told you so' but I, like others, predicted this two months ago when others were talking about the play-offs. It didn't take an idiot to see this, yet still we wait for something to be done to arrest this slide. In fact, even though, I felt we were in danger, I don't think in my wildest dreams I expected us to implode and falter so spectacularly.

royalgull wrote:what did you say to rattle manse the other day?

We won't go down, 7/8 points difference + a few games in hand is it? We'll pick up at least a point or two in those games because this league is wretched. We should be bottom 2 or 3 with the 'resources' we have this season, i suppose it's a credit to Martin Ling that we aren't. i don't see what the point of having a go at him achieves, Ling's a bit of a div but seriously you can't polish a turd and we are a steaming 10ft high one. There's nothing more he can get out of this group. I'm not a massive fan of Ling if truth be told simply because I don't enjoy the style of play we enforce but ultimately he's done pretty well with what he's got.
we need a massive clear out in the summer, a cup run next year and some funds depserately.

An absolute nugget this. Exactly the way i feel about him royal. Without wishing to reopen the Ling debate, i think Ling has done a good job overall and for the fans that are happy enough preserving league status year on year at the expense of good football it would be good if he hung around a while. I have watched some appallingly bad football under Ling and wouldn't be bothered if he left but in terms of relative success and managing expectations of the football club nobody can argue with what he has done thus far. If we are being greedy we could argue that Ling could have got much more from the squad than he already has and further enhance our league position but like i say, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and think we are better than we are.