Torquay United Fans Forum

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑28 Jan 2017, 00:12 You mean back when we had just pulled in £200k for the season tickets? The liabilities weren't too prevalent back then, it was the plans for the income through the winter where the problem lay.

Well the increasing debt to GI was there in the summer for a start Dave and money was owed to Pete Masters too......

For a long time there has been a lack of judgement from those blinded by loyalty to those they hold in high esteem: The 'Alex Rowe' board never really got to grips with putting in place sufficient extra streams away from the football side of the operation. They were better than when ~ under Thea Bristow's direction ~ Dean Edwards had virtually carte blanche to produce as little as he did without any proper questioning as to the discrepancy between what he was achieving and his counterparts at other similarly placed clubs. At BTPIR we had one infamous case of US having to chase HIM for three months just to get an invoice in order to pass money over to the club we had collected for a sponsored match....you couldn't have made this shit up if you'd tried!

.......and people like Stuart Wood then stand up in a fans forum and call us "poison"; whilst nodding donkeys like Nigel Tabb blithely say they 'don't read the forums'. No wonder these long standing supporters and others like them don't really know what's gone on, how they've been conned and cheated out of their devotion to the club and unwavering support.

The last administration under Dave Phillips has been a joke in it's naivety and willingness again to be conned by Edwards and it's lack of perception in what was really needed when looking for a manager to extricate a vehicle stranded over a cliff top with two wheels in mid-air......it certainly wasn't a learner driver was it!

Gaming International have immediately appointed a finance director (Chris Rich) and an expert in facility revenue maximisation (Bill Glass) to the football club (or maybe that of Riviera Stadium Ltd) board when it appears all the local populace want is to see is a return of discredited former directors who got the club into the mess it currently finds itself in.

Granted; there are concerns as to the genuine purpose of their ownership, but at the end of the day they have been delivered the club through the previous board's ineptitude and debt to their loan facility and there is nothing we can do about it but hope that they run the operation professionally and competently.

The million dollar question now remains: was that 'Trojan Horse' of a season ticket deal a stupidly and ill thought out measure to get money in with total disregard to the revenue streams for the rest of the season whilst the wolf was banging at the door in the summer; or was it a dastardly plot by Clarke Osborne to render Dave Phillips and his band of pensioners dead ducks by Christmas? Either way; that was the outcome and if in the event GI reap the benefit of another Angus MacDonald windfall thanks to Norwich City then how ironic that it was the board of Phillips who prevented them getting the second fifty grand instalment from Barnsley by taking a ten per cent hit and having it brought forward ahead of the finality of signing the club over to their nemesis have handed that to them on a plate.

SuperNickyWroe wrote: ↑27 Jan 2017, 19:39 I've seen worse players in a TUFC shirt this season....

Last week was the end of the line for a very poor ~ if well intentioned and dedicated ~ player.

You can't blame the player for trying his best, only the judgement of the idiot who put him there. The devoid of pace Delano Sam-Yorke made him look as if he had concrete in his boots last week simply by out thinking him and therein lay the problem.......his background in the game is not high pedigree enough. With a young right back struggling beside him and a scatter gunned performance from the goalkeeper who one never knows when he is going to spill the next shot; Gerring was all over the place and I would imagine his confidence is shot to pieces. Witness the second goal where he doesn't get within touching distance of the scorer following the keeper's error and you will see what I mean.

Hopefully he can go down a level and recuperate; but he really isn't up to the task in National League Premier level.

forevertufc wrote: ↑27 Jan 2017, 09:27 The point about transfer values is simple, market forces apply. TUFC owned the registration of a player, TUFC had bills to pay it couldn't, TUFC were desperate to sell the one player they had, that could be sold, TUFC had no choice but to settle for Barnsley's best offer, if Barnsley were not prepared to pay a penny more than they did, our club could have said no, but may have been left in a position where by it would have forced into administration, no option would have been worse than that.

Exactly; so no-one (let's say no-one who actually had to put their personal circumstances on the line because there were liabilities to service that they were responsible for) was complaining were they!

madgull wrote: ↑27 Jan 2017, 06:04 Actually, your wording of your post suggests that when he left it had got to the stage where you were happy to see him leave for nothing, and that him being sold for such a fee was the situation being turned around. If you had said 'At one, point it had got to the stage', then you could lecture PhilGull.

Really? That's your interpretation on it ~ certainly not mine and again I suggest reading of the post properly and so realisation that I said the situation had been turned around.

Whilst we're on the subject of players and the perception that they are (in my opinion) better than they really are; a lot of bog ordinary players are elevated to faux #legendary status in this day and age when in reality they would have been hard pressed to get into the reserves during the zenith of the club's history and I would include Angus MacDonald as one of those.

But good luck to him and he can only be what he is and try to be it to the best of his ability and it is patently obvious that he had let himself sink a hell of a long way after departing the scene at Reading FC before finally having the realisation that he could (and should) be doing a lot better for himself.

PhilGull wrote: ↑26 Jan 2017, 09:28 Speak for yourself [sic]. A lot of us were very sad to see him go. You forget that his dicipline [sic] had improved massively in the year before he left, to the point where alongside Nathan Smith he was the most important player in the team.

I've not forgotten that at all; where did I indicate that I had? I said that it had got to a stage with him; I didn't say that's how it was come the end of his time at TQ1 and indeed I commented on the improvement before he realised his potential .

Read posts properly before you shoot them down!

arcadia wrote: ↑25 Jan 2017, 21:45You've got to ask what did we let him go for £100.000 for, it shows the chairman and directors had no idea what the value of a young footballer could be.

Nobody was complaining at the time though were they ~ indeed quite the opposite.

I had got to the stage with him that with his conduct and play degenerating so much that I would happily have seen him bombed out for nothing so it is both to his and the manager's credit that the situation was turned around to such an extent.

Again.....a player is only truly worth what you can get for him and nobody was even talking in those terms when he was at Torquay.

Gullscorer wrote: ↑23 Jan 2017, 11:12Is there any reason why GI should not immediately provide Nicho with a little money to strengthen his squad (apart from the fact that they are GI) ?

They have; don't expect a signing(s) to materialise in the first 24 hours after the go ahead has been given. It takes a little while and I know of three 'on the stove' as you make your post ~ maybe today, maybe tomorrow; maybe not if they fall through but good signings and ones that are worth the time and effort, cost and research take a little time to materialise.

Remember, Keiffer Moore coming in required financing which was authorised but after all the work it fell through at the last minute and this is so indicative of what management is all about.

No-one was worthy of man of the match except maybe Brendan Moore....the rest were dreadful ~ including Young who just played ineffectively in the comfort zone.

Williams negated a great goal by taking a dreadful penalty and just what Richards, Gerring, Sparkes, Reid & Verma are doing in professional football God only knows.

Our fans were spread along one half of one side, made little or no noise; just stood in stunned disbelief at yet another embarrassment on the road....the kit looked the Dog's though!

Bleeper wrote: ↑21 Jan 2017, 23:16 He has downfalls,signing Harrad again for one and his tactical management is poor but who else would do the job for us right now? Give him time and money to spend and I'm sure he will flourish.

It's gone beyond that. I stood virtually at his shoulder today and the team has gone mentally, the technical area does nothing to inspire them, direct them or discipline them into defending properly or maintain possession. When you kick the game off by launching the ball sixty yards downfield to attempt to find touch, what does that tell you?

When twenty minutes gone sees you in a position where you could have been five goals down, you are playing balls into channels to a lone front man devoid of any pace whatsoever so that he is second to everything and you are having to talk a thick as shit right back through every move the opposition put together then you can see the work hasn't been done on the training ground and a so called full-time outfit are struggling against a part-time set up lucky if they get two evening sessions a week together.

It doesn't take budget to instil a game plan, desire and confidence. Nicholson and Herrera's side have consistently lacked all of this in every away game I have seen this season bar Braintree in the league and FGR.

It's stale, it's broken and it needs refreshing NOW. Someone else needs to be brought in to try to bring all these missing factors to the table or else the team is going down. It could ~ and should ~ have been five or six nil today!

arcadia wrote: ↑15 Jan 2017, 11:06 I asked a person in the bar yesterday who I respect and this person is totally behind G.I. but when I asked questions would not give answers but you could tell that they knew the answers.

Whoever they are; they obviously have a grasp of the FACT that the wages need to be paid and the operation of the club underwritten in the wake of the plainly stupid decision to offer those cut-price season tickets in the summer leaving the business with almost fatally reduced cash flow for the remainder of the season.

Whatever their motives; Gaming International have picked up the tab and ensured the club is not now in administration or worse still, liquidation; which was the almost inevitable conclusion the way things were heading at the beginning of December.

They also have to deal with the fifty grand hole in the finances for this month brought about by the previous board taking a ten per cent hit and persuading Barnsley to pay a reduced portion of the fifty grand balance before they departed on Angus MacDonald just so they could pay the December wages.

In the greater scheme of things anything that is made available to the manager ~ who doesn't have a great record with his signings ~ has to be viewed as a bonus and considering he could very well be history quite soon the way results are going ~ and I'm not so sure that if I were the person making the decisions, I would be entrusting that money to Kevin Nicholson but rather holding it back for his successor.

yellowmonkey wrote: Love the bit about people from the bay wanting to keep the club! I know several residents who live near Plainmoor and have said that they would be glad if the club went as their house prices would go up. Not everyone keen to save Torquay it seems.

It needs pointing out that not one of these NIMBYS owned their houses before Torquay United were established in the ground and that they have benefitted from a reduced valuation of their properties because of the proximity of the ground when they purchased them!

TUST weren't even informed or consulted by the Mayor
]even though they possess the AoCV

Just to illustrate how slanted all this tale is towards business interest and against that of the local community and supporters of the club; it has been brought to my attention that until they contacted the council; TUST were neither informed nor invited for their comments even though it is THEY who hold the Asset of Community Value for Plainmoor........

Even though the all important Asset of Community Value designation was granted for Plainmoor in 2015 in favour of Torquay United Supporters Trust, 'the council' appear blithely unaware of this or deliberately dismissive of it's relevance and legality.

So how come a committee has been formed to discuss the lease of this registered community asset without any consultation, indeed any contact with those who are the legal holders of it?

I think it now becomes apparent as to why the meeting has had to be put back a week.

As well as representatives from Torquay United, the council also included the neighbouring school in their communications, yet they omitted representation of the supporters of Torquay United and the wider community who have a clearly vested interest in any plans that could affect Plainmoor and the future of Torquay United.

Seeing as TUST are a legally constituted Community Benefit Trust and were forced to then request that they be included in all consultation with immediate effect I think that speaks volumes about either the ineptitude or arrogance of local government don't you?. 

Parkys People wrote:Plymouth have taken advantage of us here. Well done to those who negotiated this deal.

The fee involved in pitiful.

£15,000, possibly rising to £30,000, on how many conditions.. Whoop-de-doo.

The fee involved is based (as always) on the purchasor's (not the vendor's) value of him and the terms of contract he's been employed on (he's worth nothing after the very last game of the season) that can include 'trigger' valuation, consent to speak to clubs of a certain status ~ indeed anything that the player and his agent insisted on at the time of him putting pen to paper for Torquay United.

As a parent who has taken a very hands on interest in his own son's professional football aspirations, and who has worked on behalf of numerous other aspiring young players; I would not have let my son ~ if he were Nathan's age ~ sign for Torquay United without those clauses in place on his contract.

The club ~ indeed any club ~ cannot be fairly castigated for under selling a player without specific knowledge of exactly what sort of contract that player has been on.

gullsdiv2 wrote: Also spent time inside whilst at Bristol Rovers after a violent unprovoked assault left a man with a fractured skull! Doesn't do much for the family club image!

Are you being serious ~ do you have a death wish for relegation? This guy is just what this squad of ninneys need!

MF68 wrote: If ever the Herald Express needed to get involved it is now and make every resident aware of the scandal unfolding before us

It has been shown to me this morning that the Herald (Richard Hughes) is indeed in possession of damning stuff relating to the actions and wishes of the board in disposal of the club being in direct conflict with the best interests of the football club.

I am trying to get the consent of the source to blowing it on BTPIR this morning