What A Difference A Year Makes

[Regiment]

This time last year we were angry, disappointed, worried..............................etc.

The day after our defeat at Old Trafford, our manager naffed off. Whilst most of us were willing to help him pack, it had a huge impact on our club. We lost Branston, we lost Bevan, Stanley didn't sign, Robinson didn't sign, Tomlin didn't sign, Zeb put in a transfer request, and the list goes on. For a Torquay fan, the future looked bleak to say the least.

We all speculated and "picked" our new manager. Then out of nowhere Martin Ling appeared, to a mixed reception. He had no time, no money, and a threadbare squad with the new season fast approaching. He signed Danny up for two years, signed Joe Oastler too. He brought back Brucie's favourites Martin Rice and Chris McPhee. He brought in Rene Howe, Brian Saah and Bobby Olejnik. He gave a trial to Taiwo Atieno. Had anyone ever heard of these guys ??? No, it looked to some to be desperate signings to assemble a squad in time for the new season.

At no point did anyone look at our squad and think, Mansell in midfield is going to be one of the top midfielders in league 2. No one thought Eunan was going to flourish in the way he did and become one of the best midfielders in league 2. No one gave Danny a hope in hell of improving and doing well. Some even thought Nico was past his best.

In general, negativity and fear for the coming season was coming out of every orifice. And fans of the mighty Rovers were having a great time coming on here taking the p.

Pre-season didn't go too badly though, and a thumping of Exeter in front of a Paul Buckle who sneaked in, then sneaked out again, and all of a sudden things didn't look quite so bad.

However, there were some who felt Bobby didn't communicate well with his defence, and his kicking was poor. Oastler looked a bit dodgy at right back. Saah was all over the place, Danny was still out of his depth, and Rene was too heavy.

Two weeks in, and for most of us, it didn't matter what happened in the coming months - we'd gone to the Mem, and beaten Buckle and co. on their own patch, in their first home game of the season. sweet.

The weeks rolled on, we had a bad patch, came out the other side, Bobby fast became the best keeper in the league. Saah found his feet and even after Robbo moved on, Saah and Ellis looked as solid as any defensive pairing we've had for years. Manse and Eunan were taking the league by storm, Nico was fantastic despite his part-time naked cleaning job , Danny was turning defenders inside out, and Rene was a handful for any defence.

As a result we spent most of the season believing we could reach the top, and any early concerns of being at the wrong end were well and truly gone. We won at Rovers, we did the double over Plymouth, we went and won at Crawley.

I could go on and on, but i'm sure you won't thank me for that.

What i will say though, before i sign off, is yeah, we're disappointed that Bobby, Ellis and Eunan won't be here next season. But a year ago, Bobby was unknown, Eunan was largely unproven, and Ellis was on the bench. Isn't it funny how quickly things can change ?

Things could be far worse for us. We have the core of a good team, actually no, we have the core of a very good team. The manager has time and money to build the squad how he wants, and we've got a shiny new stand.

I can't wait for the start of the new season, and am eagerly awaiting some interesting new arrivals in the coming weeks.

COYY

[brucie]

Plain fact is that we are now worse off player wise than we were lats year. Our three best players have all but gone and replacing them is going to be harder than people make out.

[NA Gull]

Agreed. I would rather be in our position now than where we were last year. We have a manager who can build a solid, team, likely to have money in the bank and the core of a decent team.

Looking forward to the new season.

[Gulliball]

The difference is that this year we will have some room in the budget to work with, and have had a whole summer to plan.

We won't have to act quickly or sign any players just to make up the numbers. We still have 8 of our starting XI from last season at the club, so even if you include two new wingers/attackers that everyone agrees we lack, it's only five players we have to bring in, as well as some squad depth.

Two solid signings, two rabbits out of the hat, one good loanee and suddenly we have a very strong team again.

[usagullmichigan]

Plain fact is that we are now worse off player wise than we were lats year. Our three best players have all but gone and replacing them is going to be harder than people make out.

brucie, what you can't seem to grasp is that we are Torquay. We will nearly always be worse off player wise after a good season. We are in L2. We sell!. We get not very big crowds and our chairman don't have gobs of money. I think you need to go support Man City to try and cure your bitterness and find some happiness because you are not going to find it at Plainmoor.

[Gullscorer]

If only life were that simple..

[Glostergull]

Plain fact is that we are now worse off player wise than we were lats year. Our three best players have all but gone and replacing them is going to be harder than people make out.

Brucie. For someone who bemoans our position as a lowly club having to sell our best players. I wonder how long you have been a so called fan for. Our Team has been this small all it's life. Nothing much has changed. You came here as a fan when it was like this and it's still like this. I wonder why you became a fan. You could have decided to follow Excretia or one of the Premiershite teams. In fact many on here wish you had. As you have constantly said. you won't come back untill things improve. Have you ever thought that you like many others of your ilk are actaully causing part of the problem. after all without your hard earned dosh. How is the board going to fund a brilliant team!!
Nuff sed! :whip:

[Regiment]

Plain fact is that we are now worse off player wise than we were lats year. Our three best players have all but gone and replacing them is going to be harder than people make out.

i quite often laugh at your posts Brucie, you do it to get a reaction, and it usually works. i do wonder if what you post is genuinely your opinion, or you're just going against the grain to create banter. it can often be quite funny. but do you honestly believe we were better off a year ago ??

[tufc si]

Brucie. For someone who bemoans our position as a lowly club having to sell our best players. I wonder how long you have been a so called fan for. Our Team has been this small all it's life. Nothing much has changed. You came here as a fan when it was like this and it's still like this. I wonder why you became a fan. You could have decided to follow Excretia or one of the sh*t teams. In fact many on here wish you had. As you have constantly said. you won't come back untill things improve. Have you ever thought that you like many others of your ilk are actaully causing part of the problem. after all without your hard earned dosh. How is the board going to fund a brilliant team!!
Nuff sed! :whip:

Do you know what Gloster, I'm guessing most people on here wonder why and how Brucie is a fan, I dont honestly think I've ever seem him/her say a positive thing about our club!!

[usagullmichigan]

Do you know what Gloster, I'm guessing most people on here wonder why and how Brucie is a fan, I dont honestly think I've ever seem him/her say a positive thing about our club!!

Her? You think that a female and brucie have the same bitch level?

[AustrianAndyGull]

We've lost Bobby, probably Eunan and Mark too so in reality Brucie is right in assuming that we are possibly worse off than last year; however, Martin has got time on his side to bring in the faces required and a bit more resources with which to do it. IMO Bobby is more important to us than Eunan and he is the biggest loss of all, Eunan will be a great loss too but not so much Ellis. I trust in Martin to replenish the squad with some decent signings but my only worry is that he will replace the ones that leave and not add to the squad further to improve the depth of our squad. It was horrendously threadbare for most of last season. We need quite a few more bodies in yellow still.

[Colorado Gull]

A good post Regiment. Firstly I think 70k for Ellis and 175k for Eunan are small sums and we should be getting more, because I think they are worth more than that, IMHO. However, for the first time in a long time we'll have money to spend on players. Ling created a team before the season just gone with no money and look how the season ended up. I have all the faith in the world that Ling will replace and add players for an exciting season ahead.

[Dave]

Sorry Andy, but Brucie is not even close to being right, on the second day of last season our team went away to Bristol Rovers, in the team/squad that day were Bobby.O,Eunan O'Kane, and Mark Ellis, Brucies exact words were, I remember it well was.."we are going to get a shellacking" Brucie can't on one hand say these players are not good enough to beat Rovers, then on another say we are in a worse position because we have lost them to other clubs.

These same three players were in the squad , that many members of this thought would be in a relegation scrap, thats needs to be remembered before we continue to throw our toys out of the pram.

A year does make a difference, this time last year Martin Ling did not sign the players he really wanted, he signed the players the club told him he could afford, now Martin Ling may well have a much bigger budget to play with, hopefully he can now go and sign the players he does want, then the pressure will be on, as he, and they the players must deliver.

[stevegull]

Sorry Andy, but Brucie is not even close to being right, on the second day of last season our team went away to Bristol Rovers, in the team/squad that day were Bobby.O,Eunan O'Kane, and Mark Ellis, Brucies exact words were, I remember it well was.."we are going to get a shellacking" Brucie can't on one hand say these players are not good enough to beat Rovers, then on another say we are in a worse position because we have lost them to other clubs.

These same three players were in the squad , that many members of this thought would be in a relegation scrap, thats needs to be remembered before we continue to throw our toys out of the pram.

A year does make a difference, this time last year Martin Ling did not sign the players he really wanted, he signed the players the club told him he could afford, now Martin Ling may well have a much bigger budget to play with, hopefully he can now go and sign the players he does want, then the pressure will be on, as he, and they the players must deliver.

Exactly. Situation dictated that Ling's hand was forced into collecting some players from the football 'scrapheap' as by the time Ling got the job the cream of the 'free players' crop were long snapped up. He signed Atieno and McPhee to give out squad more numbers, and although they didn't set the world alight, they did their jobs respectably. With more time, and more choice of the market, I don't see any reason why Ling can't help make us push for play-offs again.

[Scott Brehaut]

If one was to be pedantic, this time last year we had just appointed a manager that very few people were happy about, didn't have a keeper (Bobby signed on the 1 July), and lots of people were pessimistic for the new season.

Right now, we have a manager who has exceeded expectations, still have Eunan (for how long, who knows), and, in fact have only lost one player from last season - although he is going to be a great loss.

So, in actual fact, things are a lot better NOW then they were on the 19 June 2011....