Is Ling the real thing ???

[coley in stripes]

At the end of last season when to get promoted was far easier than to fail, I was well slated and termed as a 'troll' for giving my opinion that the team had lost 'their bottle'. People were refering to Ling as 'Saint Martin' etc and supported him through to the end of season...He sold a few of our best players and announced that the club were 'quids in' and how shrewd that was. However the result is that the replacement purchases other than Pokey have transpired to not work consistantly. (A few opinions have suggested that he goes into the loan market).

Despite our league position performances this season have not been convincing as we should have been up there with Gillingham and Port Vale at this stage. Ling has openly stated that his team 'has no back bone' Well sort it out, without 'washing your laundary in public'. He has recently moaned that he hasn't had enough time to prepare for yesterdays match, despite the part timers worst situation (Do you really needa lot of time to work out how to beat them at home ?)

Ling started the season with last year's statement 'We will use the play offs as a safty net', OK fair comment BUT all recent comments are public moans..Sorry to all Ling fans BUT it's his problems, problems that he is paid to sort out...Sort them out privately and positively without public moaning or GET OUT.

[brucie]

Got to say as I mentioned in the match thread - moaning about not having time to prepare for yesterdays match seemed pretty odd to me. I would have thought that the extra time was just what we wanted.

[gullintwoplaces]

Well, nothing changes does it? The first chance they get and Coley and Brucie are jumping on Martin Ling's back. Bad result yesterday of course, very bad, but to state that Ling should "get out" is unbelievable and ridiculous. Get a life Coley, when the team's form improves, as it will, I bet you will dive back into the shadows.

[coley in stripes]

Don't agree, the fact is that he has said what has been said, I forgot to mention the article on how much the cup money means to the Club - The man is slowly making a prat of himself. Needs to keep his opinions behind closed doors, he's killing team morale but can't see it !!

[Kernowgull]

What do you want Coley? Someone telling us how well we are playing and how unlucky we are every week? I seem to remember another manager doing that, and he wasnt overly popular for it.

I havent heard Lings interview, and I will listen to it later before I comment, but I have never heard him make a prat out of himself. If we've been good, he says so, if we've been poor he says so. You really think morale is affected by what Ling says in the media? If it is, the players need to man up, but if anything is affecting morale Id say its playing poorly in the first place.

This is Lings job to sort out yes, but hes proven before tgat he can sort it, so lets see how he does.

[gullintwoplaces]

Don't agree, the fact is that he has said what has been said, I forgot to mention the article on how much the cup money means to the Club - The man is slowly making a prat of himself. Needs to keep his opinions behind closed doors, he's killing team morale but can't see it !!

Completely disagree with you, in fact with most of what you say on this thread. Martin is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. At least he doesn't come out with the crap that Buckle did, week after week.

You say that we should be "up with Gillingham and Port Vale" in your earlier comment. On what basis? We aren't far behind Port Vale, we beat Gillingham less than two weeks ago, we are 7th in the League. For goodness' sake, what more do you want. I agree that our performances have been average for the most part (although there have been some good games, like against Gillingham), but we are still grinding out decent results (yesterday of course excepted).

You say that the new signings haven't performed. So Downes hasn't performed then? Craig has come into the team effectively as a new player, and he hasn't performed then? Bodin has had a lean spell, but he will get over that. I'm afraid Coley that you are just like Brucie and that Yellowmonkey, rant when the team is performing below par, disappear when it is doing well.

[yellow]

In answer to the OP question -Yes.

If the team has no back bone then it is because ¾ of it was removed during the Summer as the squad underwent spinal surgery to bring in funds. Whether Lingy had any choice in the matter is open to speculation.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. We are re-building and our current league position is probably an over achievement.

Losing to non-league clubs is hardly unchartered territory for us is it?

[cambgull]

coley - The reason you were shot down last time was because your opinion was WAY too negative, to the opposite extreme of suggesting we were like Barcelona. The reason you are now being shot down, yet again, is because your opinion is WAY too negative. To suggest that Ling needs to "GET OUT" when he has a team which has a lot of room for improvement yet are still sitting in the play-off positions is ridiculous at best. He'll get it sorted out eventually, and when we're playing good football and grinding out good results, we won't need to read your drivel on here, because you'll disappear into the shadows like the other miserable, vapid wastes of fresh air that we have on here.

[kingsgull]

The answer is yes.....needed to sell players to keep the club in good shape and pay for bristows bench....
We are in a terrible position...playoffs....got the 2nd highest striker in league 2 and a ground that we can finally say looks good....ling is a very honest and tactfully guy...even he admits if he got it wrong...yesterday was a bad result...first time in a while in the facup run but I don't get the topic ? Bruce or coley...do you want buckle back then or Martin who is doing a good job with the budget and club he is working with...we may not be perfect and its always a learning curve and we do having some mire games but just sit back...grab a beer ..and look at the league table....
Long live lingy !!

[coley in stripes]

Thank you, some interesting opinions. The point made was that you don't 'air your dirty laundary in public'. The comment about the Team having no back bone was in regards to the present situation not the present Team development (All comments were posted via the BBC Football website) My point was that he should get on with the job privately and stop moaning in public. What do you expect people to think about those moans !

Cambgull, try being more reasonable and make points without having to insult (not educated is it). Less aggression please, better for the blood pressure.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Being a little negative myself ( no, seriously, i am ) i can understand some of what coley is saying and feeling. I would hazard a guess that Coley is frustrated like myself because i get REALLY frustrated with Martin and the team at times and it is difficult not to let this anger and frustration boil over into some sort of unbalanced rant ( which i don't do :Oops: ). In terms of what Martin has done for the club such as recruiting players like Bobby and others to get to the play offs and selling Robbo, Ellis, O'Kane and Bobby and still being where we are in the league there can no really be any complaints in that respect. I don't agree with some posters who claim that we are little Torquay and just to survive every year in the league is success, that to me is complete b*llocks becuse how do you call that progress? If you don't show progress then what's the point to it all. Martin comes across as a really decent bloke and one who i respect and he undoubtedly has managerial ability. The 'but' for me is that i don't think he has a plan B nor ever has had one and although he is an inexperienced manager still learning the ropes essentially he has to progress in his personal development also and i just think that he is unwilling or frightened of making drastic decisions which sometimes as a manager you need to do.

Take Billy Bodin for example, obviously he is a good player but obviously it isn't happening for him this season whether it be games where he doesn't even move because he can't be arsed or games where he squanders chances. If we can put aside the fact that i have criticised him and i think it was a mistake signing him, he clearly needs a boost because he is struggling and the boos and abuse is beginning to escalate. Martin left out Oastler and played Leadbitter instead because Oastler had began to look out of sorts and to a certain extent the decision has been vindicated as Leadbitter has apparently been a more than adequate replacement. For me though the decision keep Leadbitter in is not a brave one as Leadbitter had already secured his place in the team by default and it was easy for Martin to continue with him and keep Oastler on the bench because of this. I believe Martin should give Bodin a rest and perhaps keep him out of the squad totally for a few games to help him concentrate and get some confidence back. This would be a brave and sensible decision for Martin to make but i don't believe he has that ruthlessness in him to make it. I say ruthlessness, i mean for Martin to drop Billy and offer support, explain to the boy why he is being dropped and offer support to get him back firing again. Continuing to play Billy when most of the time he couldn't hit cows arse and makes it worse by then not even offering any application is a mistake. Many of you have had sympathy for Billy because he is a young lad and i appreciate that, maybe i am more unsympathetic than most but it is not intentional. Being young does not excuse a poor performance and if these performances keep happening then perhaps the player himself just isn't good enough. Again i always try to like situations to real life and i'd say if i worked in a factory producing bottles and a 19 year old new starter worked with me and was producing 50% less bottles than me after a year then he is either tossing it off and taking the p*ss or he isn't competent enough at the job he is being paid to do and should maybe look for something else. I admit it's a very simplistic way of looking at the situation but that is why i have some of the views i do, because i am a bit Karl Pilkington-ish and things are generally black or they are white. I don't think i am being unreasonable in my reasons for wanting Bodin dropped. Maybe if he is struggling because he is a young lad and doesn't know how to cope with the lack of form then perhaps again it would be a sensible idea from Martin to remove the lad from the firing line for a while to get him re-focussed.

The other critical element of Ling's management is his consistent ability to come out after games and say that we were slow, lethrgic and lacked energy and it was an unacceptable performance. He said that after the Rotherham game then we went to Wycombe not long after where he said that was the worst we had played, then we went to Bristol Rovers , similar story. I haven't read yet his comments on yesterday but i'm presuming it will be more of the same. It's as if he KNOWS the problem but has no idea of sorting it out. I'm sounding a bit of a knob here because we are doing ok in the league but these dire performances are going to keep on occurring until he can essentially shove a hypothetical footballing rocket up the players arses and get them to play with more purpose away at least. We've had some great results at home always followed by a shocker and we cannot string a set of decent performances together. This means we won't be troubling the top 7 this season come the end but that's ok, it's just with a bit of tinkering and assertiveness here and there we could be RIGHT up there because we have a decent squad.

Martin is amazing but he has flaws in his management which i consider basic and the sad thing is i know that HE knows what these flaws are but seems powerless to rectify them. I implore Martin to just be a bit more aggressive, be a bit more assertive, don't be frightened of making decisions and get the team going out there pumped up but composed instead of laboured, tired and scared.

[Gullscorer]

Don't agree, the fact is that he has said what has been said, I forgot to mention the article on how much the cup money means to the Club - The man is slowly making a prat of himself. Needs to keep his opinions behind closed doors, he's killing team morale but can't see it !!

Careful Coley; or some people might say the same about you..!! And I disagree with you Andy about Ling. It's not Lingy. It's the players. And I'm sure the players themeselves are aware of it, and will be doing their utmost to improve things. As will the manager himself. And if a few of the players aren't up to the job, I've no doubt Lingy will bring in replacements as and when necessary. But, in view of this first round fiasco, it will probably be loan signings rather than buying a player or two..!!

[cambgull]

Thank you, some interesting opinions. The point made was that you don't 'air your dirty laundary in public'. The comment about the Team having no back bone was in regards to the present situation not the present Team development (All comments were posted via the BBC Football website) My point was that he should get on with the job privately and stop moaning in public. What do you expect people to think about those moans !

Cambgull, try being more reasonable and make points without having to insult (not educated is it). Less aggression please, better for the blood pressure.

1) I didn't directly insult you.
2) I made points before any insult, which you obviously didn't read.
3) Your opinions since joining this forum have been so ridiculous they are barely worth taking seriously. Perhaps a slap with a happy stick would be of use?

[usagullmichigan]

Coley, stop inhaling solvents.

[coley in stripes]

Thanks Andy, your comments are always fair, without insult and you honour individual opinions. Although I thought that I was reporting facts based on reports via the BBC. I can see that people get upset with the way I come across but I tell as I find....It doesn't matter where we come in the league or how long it takes to build a team, lets get on with our business behind closed doors !!