who's gonna sort the contracts out??

[londongull63]

Looks like we're in the awkward situation of an embarrassment of riches with 2 good managers in my view!
But even if Alan Knill won every remaining game the board couldn't appoint him, as Lingy is in the driving seat as he has a year on his contract (which I have a feeling was a rolling one like Buckle had, but in any case legislation means he has to be paid in full on sick pay for a year), so the only way Knill could take over permanently if Lingy didn't resign is if lingy was officially sacked, in which case we'd still have to pay him up for a year.
Knill seems to be doing very well, but it is one thing and far easier to pull in some good loan signings who can't get in the first team at their teams, and another matter trying to get players like Labadie to sign for us permanently with them and their clubs not wanting too much money.
In Lingy's defence, those who've been praising Cruise and Leadbitter, he brought them in to add to Saah, Howe, Downes, Olejnik.
And secondly, Lingy always had to keep one eye out on the long-term position and "get away with" doing as well as possible by spending as little as possible, to have money for the following season, or for emergencies like the recent one, or for an extra promotion push.
I'm sure ideally he would have liked to add one or two more in the first half of the season if money was no object, but the squad he had got off to a good start and so it was a bit of a wait and see situation of holding back the little bit of money to see where it might be needed later. Then, after the postponements, in January when things were obviously not going so well I imagine he was "off the ball" really as his mind was on his illness unfortunately and perhaps the effort wasn't going into improving the club. I'm sure if he'd been in good health he would have realised some loan signings had to come in.
Knill has also had the luxury of a board seeing a serious emergency crisis now and realising they HAVE to throw money we haven't got or would rather have used next year. He's been able to have 3 loans with perhaps another one. I'm sure we are running at a loss at the moment, in fact the board have been personally pumping more of their own money in.
Two months ago Knill might have been told the purse strings have to be kept tight, and similarly if Lingy was here now he might have been told spend whatever is needed to save us even if we can't really afford it.

(oh and the club can't really say what's wrong with Lingy unless he OK's it. If one of us had some illness that we regarded as embarrassing or private or whatever, we may well not even want our work colleagues knowing beyond our boss or HR department, yet alone having it broadcast to the world)

[ferrarilover]

So, are we all pretty much agreed that Dinger isn't coming back?

Matt.

[Gullscorer]

Er... No..

[Scott Brehaut]

No, I would say it's a fair split either way Matt

[Yellow4life]

Depends which rumour you hear is the right one that is wrong with him... If its the one he could have controlled then he is in breach of his contact so can be sacked no questions.

[ferrarilover]

Depends which rumour you hear is the right one that is wrong with him... If its the one he could have controlled then he is in breach of his contact so can be sacked no questions.

You'll have to speak to MidDevon about that, apparently, he is on some sort of miracle contract where he cannot, under any circumstances, be sacked

Are we allowed to mention the Betty Ford Centre, or is that likely to make someone on Twitter shit themselves and get me banned again?

Matt.

[Scott Brehaut]

You won't get banned for it, but I don't think it's right to speculate as to Lings illness.

The club have said about as much as they can, Ling clearly doesn't want it public (or he himself would go to the press surely), and I have heard three differing reasons for why he is currently on sick leave from the club. Whilst one of the rumours is, potentially, of his own doing, the other two clearly aren't.....once we know exactly what is wrong with him then by all means discuss, but until then I think it would be wise to keep ones counsel.

Besides, rumours of his resignation have proven unfounded - two people that I would trust have both confirmed that he is currently still employed as manager of the club. Until I hear otherwise from the club themselves (or the two people I trust), I will continue to believe his employment with us to be the case.

[ferrarilover]

Undoubtedly, he is still employed as manager, it's the reasoning behind his absence that is the really interesting thing.
While I'll grant you TUFC have never been PR savvy, the answer to this speculation is to make a club statement:

Torquay United would like to confirm that manager Martin Ling is suffering from a recognised medical condition which is not self inflicted. His family ask that his privacy be respected at this difficult time.

This clears things up nicely without giving it away, he could have anything from piles to stage 4 Neuroblastoma, but non self inflicted rules out sucking the moisture from mannequin wipes or injecting crack into his eyeballs (does one inject crack, or is it smoked?)

Matt.

[gurneygibbs23]

Sure I want Knill in as much as the majority do - but will he want to be permanent manager with a board who will probably be reluctant to give out decent money for loans/wages?

If Knill takes over he needs to be given advice from Martin really with regards to retaining the out of contract players.
I.e. player X may appear off form and not upto it, but Martin may advise player X is worth a 3 month contract...

[bixieupnorth]

crack is normally smoked, its sometimes known as sucking on the glass dick!

but i think it can be injected too, after all its only freebase cocaine

[AustrianAndyGull]

crack is normally smoked, its sometimes known as sucking on the glass dick!

but i think it can be injected too, after all its only freebase cocaine

Yeah, what he said. ;P

[stevegull]

crack is normally smoked, its sometimes known as sucking on the glass dick!

but i think it can be injected too, after all its only freebase cocaine

Is my shipment on it's way Bixie?

[SuperNickyWroe]

Undoubtedly, he is still employed as manager, it's the reasoning behind his absence that is the really interesting thing.
While I'll grant you TUFC have never been PR savvy, the answer to this speculation is to make a club statement:

Torquay United would like to confirm that manager Martin Ling is suffering from a recognised medical condition which is not self inflicted. His family ask that his privacy be respected at this difficult time.

This clears things up nicely without giving it away, he could have anything from piles to stage 4 Neuroblastoma, but non self inflicted rules out sucking the moisture from mannequin wipes or injecting crack into his eyeballs (does one inject crack, or is it smoked?)

Matt.

well that "narrows" it down to (putting my RGN hat on here) about 10,000 different "ailaments".............

[AustrianAndyGull]

He can have one of mine if he wants, i've got sh*tloads!!

[SuperNickyWroe]

He can have one of mine if he wants, i've got sh*tloads!!

well thats fine and very kind of you........

but we arnt talking about psychiatric ones on this occasion..............