Torquay United Fans Forum

There's nothing either strange or incompetent going on at TUFC, Clarke Osbourne knows exactly what's he's doing and it's starring us right in the face, while GJ remains, while nothing changes at TUFC, Osbourne knows.

Any chance of new investment = zero
Any chance of new sponsorship = zero
Any chance of holding on all of the current sponsorship= slim/remote
The chance of season ticket sales collapsing= very high
The chance of attendances figures dropping like a stone= very high
The chance of protests gathering pace= very high.

Yet he sits there and does nothing, for those who haven't woken up yet, ask yourself why.

Culmstockgull Don't take this the wrong way, but you are seriously overthinking this here. For a start Torquay United supporters trust is an official organisation, with an annually elected board, so I think we can take it the person posting as TUST official probably is on the TUST board therefore is a TUST official.

TUST officials post begins with an opinion, then states several supporter groups are joining together for a peaceful protest not just TUST, and ends with a question; Will you join us?

I don't see a single element where TUST official is trying to speak for 'you' 'me' or 'anyone' individually, there talking about the fanbase at large, and simply asking whether you'll join a protest.

I'm not a member of TUST, because all money I would have spent on football for games I've not attended including TUST membership fee even though it's small, I'm putting to one side for any future community share issue, I'm happy to support TUST in their efforts however, and, at last we're seeing different groups coming together and mobilising.

One thing as a general point that makes me frustrated is, it's quite obvious with the sheer numbers across the forums and social media who are clearly not happy with how our club is being run, but when anyone whether it be TUST OR West London Yellow advocate taking either direct or indirect action for change, they're accused of being trouble makers, agitators or trying to put words into others mouths.

Our fanbase need to ask themselves what is it we want ?

Because jack shit is going to change by just moaning on the internet, and boy TUFC fans are good at that, nothing is going to change if our fanbase keep turning into 'jellyfish' every time someone says, time to stop talking, time for action.

TUST official what sort of time are you people going to be at the ground, I'm happy to join in.

Well if GJ cares about this club and it's fans as much as he says, then why doesn't he resign, the club is being killed from the inside, GJ must know this. Being honest on a personal front, I won't be satisfied until Osbourne, Edwards, Hayman and Johnson have gone from our club the later have sold their souls to the devil.

Even if it does force the club into liquidation.

The Great Muta! wrote: ↑17 Feb 2024, 19:03 I'm not trying to be clever, but the majority of fans predicted a loss, we then go and lose, and everyone is up in arms about it, I'm not excusing it at all, but we've met st Albans,Slough,and Braintree probably at the wrong time (form wise) we aren't going up this season, let alone making the playoffs, like someone else has alluded to, we need a fresh start or clean slate, sounds harsh but who would fans keep??, I'd like to know, it could be a catch 22 scenario, and season 24/25 could involve a brand new squad and that takes times to bed-in,so I wouldn't put my mortgage on promotion next season either..

Correct, most myself included predicted defeat today, however I think it's more the manner of defeat some are up in arms about, when we consider the opposition were down to 10 men after 28 minutes with the score 0.0, our team have preceded to have just 1 single shot on target, and 3 corners , and managed to have player sent off from the subs bench, think fans have the right to double down on the result.

To be fair, we're a full time professional football club with resources that dwarf most of the NLS, there shouldn't be a wrong time to play St Albans, Slough or Braintree.

If GJ is still here, I wouldn't bet my mortgage on promotion either.

MellowYellow wrote: ↑14 Feb 2024, 20:10 The provisional development for building a stadium and community facility was £3.5 million

See link for how they proposed to raise the capital:

https://fc-utd.co.uk/files/documents/FC ... %20Doc.pdf


Edit: It appears to meet spiralling costs of the new stadium additional loans were taken out and total cost of completion was £6.3 million nearly double what was envisaged.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... 0k-8188428

And what you've presented here Mellow, is an absolute reason to any TUFC fan why CO's 'events' stadium is a white elephant that will 'never' get built, factor in inflation, the fact that CO wants to build an events stadium with commercial ventures around , so likely to be bigger and more involved build than the stadium for FC United, I can only hazard a guess the build cost could be 4x's possibly more than the £6.3 million for FC United's ground.

It doesn't surprise me the council have indicated CO's latest stadium plan didn't stand up to scrutiny anymore than his original plan did, I'd respectfully suggest in reality CO's plan could be for some land at the back of nowhere, for a ground comprising of cut out shipping containers bolted together.

Difference here to me is, FC United was a formation of a new club, no history, no ground, no infrastructure. Here at Torquay we have a ground as well as other things mentioned, Torbay Council is no more cash strapped than any other local authority, if it wanted to sell the ground to CO or anyone else it could have already done that more times over.

I see no reason why Torbay Council wouldn't want to work with any phoenix club for a renewed lease on Plainmoor, in the event that should be required, as the retention of green field sports facilities is popular and a vote winner. And when you consider that the overwhelming majority of phoenix clubs including Bury managed to retain their grounds, why couldn't Torquay do the same ?

What would you/we want more ?

TUFC playing in step 9 under CO's ownership with him making a vast profit of the back of our misery. Or TUFC playing in step 9 as a fan owned club with a future of our own making and united behind a common goal, I know what I'd rather have.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑14 Feb 2024, 11:37
.if you dont I have the name , the lease , the players contracts etc and you can start from scratch.
It then remains that our sole hope is a late application to the western league, sensible questions from the league such as,have you got an approved ground, have you got a team, have you even got a manager, have you even got a strip or a name, do you have a budget, these are things that cannot be sorted out overnight, with say 500 TUST members who all have their own differing opinion and a say on our new name/manager do we have to go through time consuming ballots

Clarke Osbourne could relocate the club, as the original Wimbledon became the MK Dons, but where to? Near his Bristol base ? when you already have City, Rovers and Bath City on the doorstep, so the Bristol Gulls wouldn't work, Gloucester, there's Cheltenham, FGR and Gloucester city , not going to work there either.

So can't see a single reasons as to why he'd want to leave Torbay and take the football club with him, also must be remembered Torbay Council own the lease, the lease is between Torbay Council the owner and TUFC the tenant, under any scenario CO doesn't get to walk away with the lease.

The most likely thing that will happen if CO doesn't get what he wants within any set time frame will be for CO to withdraw funding and walk away. In this case, and everyone with an I.Q slightly above a turnip knows the most desirable option would be TUST with an investor/investors taking control of the club in it's current form, but the likely hood of that coming to pass, is slim at it's best.

So that will leave of us with a phoenix club, as TUFC would have gone into liquidation, in which case the lease between Torbay Council and the club would cease. Phoenix Torquay may not get automatic entry into any step level, may have to wait one or more seasons.

Yes in the event of a phoenix club there would be ballots, TUST members and community shareholders would have to appoint a management committee, who would have to present their decisions to be voted on, democracy would win the day, but when you own a share in your football club, would you stay away, because your preferred candidate didn't get the job ?

A phoenix club is the last resort, but what's so great about what we have now , if nothing changes between now and June, season ticket sales will collapse, a phoenix club maybe required no matter what, and is nothing to be scared of.

Pretty much everything has been said about current form, although Braintree's recent run of good results has largely against teams you'd expect them to do well against, however they did beat Hampton 3 v1 and have picked up an away draw Maidstone, not since their Christmas double header v Chelmsford have Braintree suffered any defeats.

This match could depend on who is upfront, D.O.A with Jarvis could work well, however if D.O.A is a makeweight for Jarvis can see that having a negative effect all round, we know our defence awful, and hardly a surprise Halstead has lost confidence, think any keeper would lose the will trying to organise this lot.

Braintree 3 v 1 TUFC

Taelee73 wrote: ↑11 Feb 2024, 16:27 Read the post a couple above my last one, the dad said he felt some glee at the scoreline for being proved right about not wanting to go after his son had gone anyway.
Also on Torquay Yellow Army on Fbook, I have seen a few posts from time to time hoping we get hammered in certain games to help convince the owners to act.

Yes I see it now, must admit I only skim read posts with long closed up sentences, as far as the Yellow army FB tend to take a lot written on there with a pinch of salt.

To to add to my opening post, think it's stating the obvious now this is a must win game and no other result will do but a win. At the start of the season what ever side of the fence we sat on, we all agreed nothing but promotion this season would be acceptable, failure to win this game and our chances of even making the play=offs will start to look bleak.

I think a top 5 finish has now gone, looking at the current top 5, Yeovil, Chelmsford and Maidstone have suffered only 1 defeat in their last 5 games, Worthing and St Albans both undefeated.

Also added to that next Saturdays opponents Braintree sat 8th are on a run of 4 wins and 1 draw, Bath sat 6th have won their last 3, only Hampton in the play-off zone look out of form right now, we must keep pace.

I brought a ticket for the original date, so will be at the match, hoping to bring some luck.

brucie wrote: ↑11 Feb 2024, 12:28 Watch the highlights. Halstead has regressed as a keeper and is an accident waiting to happen. For one of the goals he is running back to his goal when the corner is taken. Utterly pathetic.

Not saying he hasn't, the point here Brucie is, what the I was trying to say, is you don't go through virtually 2 seasons of winning one MOTM award after another, to regressing into mistake ridden keeper who's lost his confidence without here being a valid reason for it , when you've got an ageing left back who can't run, and a centre back pairing who split apart faster than the red sea, hardly down to Halstead for not knowing whether he's coming or going is it.

hector wrote: ↑11 Feb 2024, 13:38 I didn’t read the OP as slagging off TUST, nor suggesting that they mount a bid to buy the club.

I interpreted it as nothing more than an urging for TUST to condemn the current regime and coordinating a response. Good on the kids who are protesting but I think it’s time for TUST to hold a further meeting and establish a way forward from there as they are best placed to gather fans and establish a route forward. At the moment, there is a lot of anger, ad hoc movements organised by the youngest supporters but the fanbase is fractured, unsure what to do.

The youngsters can at least look back and think at least they did something even if some mock their age and numbers. I’d prefer them to focus more on the ownership than Gary Johnson but at least they are doing something and TUST need to act too.

I largely agree, although I will not back down from believing GJ has been a large part of the problem.

Taelee73 wrote: ↑11 Feb 2024, 12:56 Would never wish Torquay to lose a match ever.
People wanting Torquay to lose (to prove a point or to get the manager the sack) I really don't get that

Don't think anyone wishes TUFC to lose a match. Out of interest where have you seen posted on here where anyone hopes to see TUFC lose, I must have missed that as I can't recall ever seeing it.

If some are getting sick and tired of being told by people not to go and watch TUFC , then they really need to show some evidence of the numerous times they've been told this, and by whom. Because I haven't seen a single post on any platform telling a single individual they have to boycott a game.

I have seen posts advocating a boycott, I happen to agree with them, Boycotts 'ARE' a personal choice, if ones organised and some wish to join it, great, if others don't wish to join it and want to attend the game, great, that's what freedom to decide and personal choice is.

Like we have freedom to believe or not to believe CO wants to build a new ground to improve the financial position of TUFC and for the betterment of TUFC, some believe in, Fairies, Leprechauns, Flat Earth and geo engineered clouds that's the beauty of freedom of choice.

Never worth getting annoyed about.

In no doubt of that, but gates of 1,500 or less will only heighten the losses, which again the continued employment and failure to remove the entire first team coaching and recruitment staff is becoming more bizarre by the hour, as a business decision.

I'm sure there's a thread knocking around for this match already twice postponed, however due to the prediction league and sure many will want to revise their predictions, thought it wise to do a fresh one.

Yesterday saw yet another poor result even harder to stomach as the team led on three occasions, we are in a position heading into Tuesday nights game
having seen the concession of 15 goals in the 5 games since our last victory, I listened to the BBC commentary with excellent summary from Chris Hargreaves giving a professional football insight to how the game unfolded.

I see criticism of Halstead raising it's ugly head again, not sure what some expect of a goalkeeper subjected to sure poor cover in front of him, and Hargreaves pointed out on numerous occasions the gap between our 2 centre backs being far too wide.

I'm trying to be as objective and balanced as can, but today it's hard, one think Chris Hargreaves said was, under Buckle tactics were always kept simplistic, everyone in the squad never doubted what their jobs were, which I get even as a humble fan, limited footballers require limited tactics, CH went on to say he could see no signs of the players understanding what they were supposed to be doing.

Even as a humble fan I have to question playing the aging leg weary Moxey at left back, and the much younger and faster Martin ahead of him, surely it would have been better to have them the other way around.

Match statistics according to Sky Bet in play market so no reason to doubt, may suggest a problem, they had possession at;
Torquay 55 % Slough 45%

However from there shots;
Torquay 9, of which 6 were on target.
Slough 16, of which 10 were on target.

The corner count at;
Torquay 3 Slough 7

From dominating the possession statistics like those shouldn't be happening regards shots and corners.

So onto Tuesday nights game, we saw both Hall and McGavin depart through injury, if I may suggest, think it will unlikely that Hall will make this game, McGavin more of a who knows. I've also checked the weather forecast that has Taunton dry and sunny both today and Monday, currently giving between a 40 to 60 % chance of rain Tuesday PM , we all know about Taunton's pitch, with a forecast like this hopefully it'll be on this time.

Taunton issues have been well documented, and are now playing with a much weakened squad, regardless of our own issues, I see this as one of those default wins, the team will have to play well and earn it of course, but can see us having too much for our opponents here.

Taunton 1 v 3 TUFC.