England C

[hector]

Ryan Bowman has been selected again.

An interesting selection is that of Weston-super-Mare keeper, Luke Parnell, from a club that is below Conference national level. Local enough as well, perhaps, for a club like Torquay to look at.

[Dave]

Fair play to Ryan Bowman, but is he fit after coming off Saturday. That's a good point about the WSM keeper, I've been sympathetic to the situation Chris Hargreaves finds himself in as TUFC manager, he hasn't had the resources that recent successive TUFC managers have had, should Luke Young be sold, I can't see CH getting his hands on any of the transfer fee likely to be paid.

The position our club finds itself in now, highlights the need for the manager if he doesn't have good knowledge of the non-league pyramid to tap into a scouting network that does, and focus shouldn't just be on the goalkeeping position but right across the team, the impressive Kurtis Guthrie who played for FGR Saturday is a prime example, 21 years old, Jersey born , after an unsuccessful year with Accrington, including a loan spell at Southport, signed for Bath City before moving to welling, FGR signed him in the summer from Welling.

It proves that young talented players with heaps of potential are out there around the pyramid, if you get them at the right age before lifestyle and technical bad habits set in our club could profit from signing such players, and they'll be the type of player that will fit our budget long term.

[tomogull]

Fair play to Ryan Bowman, but is he fit after coming off Saturday. That's a good point about the WSM keeper, I've been sympathetic to the situation Chris Hargreaves finds himself in as TUFC manager, he hasn't had the resources that recent successive TUFC managers have had, should Luke Young be sold, I can't see CH getting his hands on any of the transfer fee likely to be paid.

The position our club finds itself in now, highlights the need for the manager if he doesn't have good knowledge of the non-league pyramid to tap into a scouting network that does, and focus shouldn't just be on the goalkeeping position but right across the team, the impressive Kurtis Guthrie who played for FGR Saturday is a prime example, 21 years old, Jersey born , after an unsuccessful year with Accrington, including a loan spell at Southport, signed for Bath City before moving to welling, FGR signed him in the summer from Welling.

It proves that young talented players with heaps of potential are out there around the pyramid, if you get them at the right age before lifestyle and technical bad habits set in our club could profit from signing such players, and they'll be the type of player that will fit our budget long term.

Yes - good post, Forever, and I agree that lower league clubs is a fertile area to trawl. To be fair to Chris Hargreaves, he has already had success with the players he has brought to Plainmoor. You mention Kurtis Guthrie who played for Welling last season. Hargreaves brought in Toby Ojala of course ...... from Welling !! What a team they must have had last season !

[Kit_robin]

I don't think we can criticise CH in the signing-young-players-with-potential front; that is basically all he Has signed, bar Briscoe. Seabright, Richards, Duane, Ajala are all starting their careers and all undoubtedly have potential. You could even include Bowman and Young in that, even though they are more established.

Of those, Ajala has had spells in non-league, and Duane was playing local football before Southend.

If a question mark exists about CH's recruitment it is in the field of experienced pros, but only because our budget has not yet allowed him to display whether he has the contacts there or not.

[Dave]

Apologies hadn't meant to come across that I was levelling any criticism against Chris Hargreaves, agreed, he has done a good job and bringing the likes O'Archie, Ajala and Richards to the club.

I more looking at it from a what if the club does not secure promotion back to the football league this season point of view, at the end of this season some of the high earners, Tonge, Harding, Downes are out of contract coupled with the potential sale of Luke Young I get the feeling that a part of our fan base think this could lead to Chris Hargreaves having an increased player budget and room to bring some ready made top end conference players, hope I'm wrong, but I just can't see that happening.

I think failure to win promotion with the ultimate loss of parachute payment, along with the fact the club netted a virtual big fat nothing from this seasons F.A cup will only result in budgets potentially being cut, regardless of who leaves, what wages they were on and any fees brought in.

So just suggesting to move forward as a club, rather than any hope of bringing ready made players, we're going to have search deeper and wider into the non-league pyramid to find young players with the potential to develop, and using Guthrie as an example not just that these players are out there, but how far the club may have look to find them.

[Jerry]

I keep seeing comments about Luke Young being sold either in January or the summer.

He turned down a League One club to sign for us because he didn't want to move away from the area.

Firstly this would surely put off any potential suitors and secondly, what has changed in the last 6 months?

If he doesn't want to leave then we won't be selling him!

[Dave]

No body is saying Luke Young will be sold, and you're right Jerry, if LY doesn't want to leave he won't be going anywhere. But the difference now is, in the summer LY turned down Colchester while his stock was reasonably low, to stay in the area and sign for Torquay, what's changed, six months later his stock is a heck of a lot higher.

Lets say Bristol City (as rumoured) were interested, if that interest was to turn into an acceptable bid, could anyone see him turning them down ? League 1 promotion candidates, good chance of getting into the team their, 1 hour up the road, just a thought.

[Jerry]

No body is saying Luke Young will be sold, and you're right Jerry, if LY doesn't want to leave he won't be going anywhere. But the difference now is, in the summer LY turned down Colchester while his stock was reasonably low, to stay in the area and sign for Torquay, what's changed, six months later his stock is a heck of a lot higher.

Lets say Bristol City (as rumoured) were interested, if that interest was to turn into an acceptable bid, could anyone see him turning them down ? League 1 promotion candidates, good chance of getting into the team their, 1 hour up the road, just a thought.

Yes I imagine he would be interested in them, but a "good chance of getting into their team"? Can't see it myself. They are walking away with the league 2 divisions above us. That is one hell of a jump in quality. As well as he has played for us this season, I don't think he is of that standard yet.

In fact I'm not convinced that his "stock is a hell of a lot higher" either. He was a regular in a League 2 side last season and by all accounts (except Sheridan's) had a decent season. I make him about even in that case, a decent season at League 2 level against a great season at a lower level.

Also, as I mentioned, I imagine clubs would be put off by his reluctance to make a move away last summer. There's a risk of him failing to settle at a new club.

[Glostergull]

If Bristol City were to take an interest in luke now. It would only be with a view to not gaining promotion. as it is they seem to be climbing further away at the top of League one., I suspect they will be back in the Championship next year. if so. do you really think Young could make that jump. if so he will be worth a lot of money to United. hey we could even get as much as £50. Well we are united. Bargain basement car boot sale. give away Torquay. Much as I would like to think we had a player of that quality. We would never ever get fees like many of the other clubs in the league seem to get.

[Dave]

Have to disagree there, the reason why I think LY stock is a heck of a lot higher now is because he was far from a regular in Plymouth's team last season, 28 league appearances from 46 games how many of those from the bench ? yes he dropped down a league with us, but has played in every league match and been consistently our best player and in my view is up there in the elite bunch of stand out players in the conference.

Can a footballer make the jump from the conference to League 1/ Championship or higher, yes, if they have genuine ability. Lee Gregory FC Halifax to Millwall already scored 3 in 10 games, Andre Gray left Luton at the end of last season scored 6 in 16 games for Brentford, and Marcus Maddison has 5 goals from midfield for League 1 Peterborough after his move from Gateshead, and we could go and talk about Jamie Vardy, Chris Smalling and many others.

Could Luke Young make that jump, well none of us can answer that question factually, because we actually know for sure either way, we can only offer an opinion, if, and mean if there are any interested clubs out there, they will not let the fact LY decided to stay in Devon put them off making a move to sign him, lets not kid ourselves on that, I actually think Luke Young made a very wise career move joining us, he's played every game bar one cup match, he's learning and getting stronger all the time.

Will there be any pressure on CH to sell LY if a club was to show it's hand, you can bet your last pound there will be, the only thing I know for sure is January will be a nervous month for us, as he'll be a whopping great loss if we can't hang on to him.