Torquay United Fans Forum

Just popping back on here to say that George Edwards is now no longer a director at Gaming International, or that company's parent Toklon Ltd

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

Does that mean that there has been a falling out? Or is he a potential purchaser?

Time will tell, I guess.

grockle wrote: ↑26 Nov 2020, 08:17 They didn't seem to ignore ECFC when they were in the conference.

On the contrary, in our first season in the Conference, BBC Spotlight made a very specific point of dropping coverage of our results, in favour of showing Yeovil's goals etc - as the Glovers had just gone in the opposite direction up to the League. Even though, Yeovil were also covered by the BBC Bristol area I think.

Of course, in our second Conference season we then went on our Cup run and met Man Utd, which resulted in wide national media coverage. At that point, they came back to us with their tails between their legs. Very satisfying.

But the coverage of Conference action was still very patchy after that.

Do agree, though that it is a consequence of a very marked Plymouth-centric approach by the Beeb.

You reap what you sow and we will always be a smaller club with smaller crowds. If we had invested in a youth scheme then maybe we would be getting nice little payouts every now again but we allow good quality youngsters to go elsewhere.

The Grecians gave a league debut to Josh Key at the weekend, and he was actually at your Academy until it was closed down a few years ago. Josh also played and scored in the EFL Trophy in the previous week.

I understand why some clubs (e.g. Brentford) prefer to operate without a youth set-up, but generally it doesn't make sense. At least you've started a youth programme again, but it's a really long term project and can't be turned on and off on a whim.

Kerrr-ching!!!

https://www.exetercityfc.co.uk/news/202 ... -transfer/

culmstockgull wrote: ↑07 Jul 2020, 14:45 Are previous managers and directors of football still receiving payouts,only current salaries can be considered commercially sensitive,if you are not totally transparent, people will draw their own conclusions.

Oh god, I didn't read this.

Paul Tisdale rather infamously had notice served on his contract by the Trust. When he left the club there was a small amount of time left on it - 4 months maybe. I *think* that the club received a small amount of compensation from MK Dons as a consequence, and we're not in the practice of paying people who no longer have contracts.

Neither is Steve Perryman being paid - related party disclosures are set out in the accounts. When he was a Director he was paid and he was also director of a company called OTR Limited which owns a property ECFC pay rent on. But anyone who cares to look at Companies House records will see that Perryman resigned from that company in February 2018, and he ceased being a Director of ECFC when Tisdale left.

The people "who will draw their own conclusions", have another name - conspiracists.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑07 Jul 2020, 14:45 Grecian 71, exactly what part of my post was garbage,

Where to start...

"Ajose who has only played six times this season"

- Make that sixteen. Sure, he's been disappointing, but he had a flipping knee operation in mid-season. Let's see how he does next campaign.

"Their new stand was funded by a combination of finance form the football trust and Exeter university so no great outlay there".

- Yep, we did well to effectively get the stand essentially for free, but have you had a look at the away end recently? That had to be paid for.

"They have a premiership training facility"

- Cliff Hill compares well with most League One and Two set-ups. And new artificial pitches don't come cheap. But you wouldn't mistake it for Cobham or Carrington.

"similar to us, we built a stand that we cannot fill at our level"

- we've already filled it at least once for certain, and come close on a number of occasions. Decent seated accommodation has always been a problem at SJP and depressed crowds. (The wooden stand was quaint, but the obscured views and loos from the dark ages put off plenty). As soon as the new stand opened during the season before last there was a notable uptick in attendances.

"what has happened to all their money"

- football clubs are very expensive. As I say, the club has underlying operating losses year-on-year. (Something like £750K last year alone I think - without looking). And then there was the small matter of then making a thumping one-off profit in one financial year due to transfer fees. Do you know what profits lead to, if you play by the rules?? Taxes. We had to cough up over £500,000 in corporation tax to HMRC for the year ending June 2018. Makes me spit when I think of the multinationals who use various devices to avoid tax.

The Trust gives out a lot of information, and it's pretty easy to follow the money if you know how. The problem is that all clubs have fans that are full of s*** and assume there's conspiracies when they can't be bothered to put in the work to figure out what's happening.

None of this is to underplay the tightrope that Exeter City have to walk, but compared to most we are pretty well-run with a very clear strategy. You can argue whether the strategy is right - and plenty of City fans do. And the club gets things wrong, and like every club the manager signs a duffer now and again. But there is no mystery where the money goes - investment in the ground, investment in the training facilities, a Category 3 Youth Academy for 9yos upwards, and a heavily-subsidised wage bill.

culmstockgull wrote: ↑01 Jul 2020, 13:29 They have invested 75K in Bowman and Ajose who has only played six times this season is on mega wages for a leage two side. Not one of the supporters can get a straight answer, even the Exeter trust is reluctant to give straight answers. Their new stand was funded by a combination of finance form the football trust and Exeter university so no great outlay there.They have a premiership training facility with league two football,again horse before the cart, similar to us, we built a stand that we cannot fill at our level whereas if the money had been spent on players we would undoubtedly been at a higher level and definetlely been able to fill it.

This is utter garbage.

Any City fan wanting to know the club's financial position only needs to read the accounts or tune into the regular fan forums. As at year end June 2018, ECFC was sitting on shareholder funds of nearly £2.6M and laid out a plan to fans in an open forum that effectively showed us overspending by £0.5M a year for five years to finance a competitive playing budget. This was pretty much on track at the year-end June 2019 with the accounts showing shareholders funds of £1.98M.

Now Covid is of course going to really throw a spanner in the works, and I'd guess it has accelerated things by about a year. Hence some sensible decision making on contract renewals. Out of those who have not had their contract renewed, probably only two - Aaron Martin and Brennan Dickenson - would have had a chance of getting an offer of renewal in normal times. But as it is we're waiting to see what next season looks like before offering new contracts. (And Martin's Wembley display may not have helped him anyway).

Exeter City have a strategy. Invest in the training facilities and the training staff and produce players who can play in the first team, and the best (Matt Grimes, Jordan Storey, Ollie Watkins, Ethan Ampadu etc) will occasionally earn a fee large enough to enable the whole cycle to begin over again. And remember sell-on clauses sometimes apply too. We stand to trouser 20% of any profit Brentford make on Watkins when he eventually is sold.

Year after year, people expect us to struggle after we fail to go up - maybe one season that will happen but it hasn't yet. But even if it did I can't see us budging from the strategy. There is enough talent coming through - shown by the u23 results last year - to keep our heads above water at L2 level.

desperado wrote: ↑17 Feb 2020, 15:01 Perhaps a good chance of getting him at the end of the season especially if they go up

I suspect that Gary Warren will be available at the end of the season whichever division we (ECFC) are in. We have a couple of decent young defenders out on loan this season. Previous experience suggests that we will give them their chance of breaking into the first team next season. And I wouldn't really expect our first choice centre-halves to move on - they're solid but unlikely to attract interest from teams higher up if we stayed down in L2.

Warren is likely to get a start tomorrow night in the Mickey Mouse Cup semi-final at Portsmouth. We've got to the last four of that competition with a mixture of reserves and youngsters, but will probably meet our match tomorrow.

https://x.com/OfficialECFC/status/1160826479493730304

Comes across as a really nice guy in the interview.

In case you've not seen it, the "360 degree" video that City produced for the match on Saturday.



We produce these pitch side videos for all home games and have done them for the pre-season games.

Hmm not sure the link works. Anyhow, his Twitter ID is @kevnicholson1 if you're interested

The "other" Kevin Nicholson posted this on Twitter just over a week ago

https://x.com/kevnicholson1/status/1036577647281823745

Did well at Bangor City in the Welsh League - until they had to let him go due to off-field problems which were none of his doing. Was with us (the Grecians) in the youth set up for a while. Highly regarded. Could do worse.

tomogull wrote: ↑28 Aug 2017, 20:59 Very good impartial post from an Exeter fan. Thanks Grecian71. Do you need another striker to replace Ollie Watkins. You can have Rory Fallon for free ....... with a couple of cornettos thrown in !

No probs - I had a distinct feeling of "there, but for the grace of God" today - so will keep my fingers crossed for you, both on and off the pitch.

Will try to catch another of your games up here later in the season when I'm not on Grecian duty, next time at a ground I've not been to (Maidenhead sounds nice). I now have a busy September of FGR, Barnet and Coventry - a weird mix.

Fallon? Thanks, but no thanks!

portugull wrote: ↑28 Aug 2017, 13:14 neal it could be that GI are looking for ownership of a loss making Football Club so they can put a tax loss against a big profit elsewhere.

Sometimes it suits a Company to do this as it mitigates the amount of Corporation Tax they have to pay.

Of course they have to see an upside as well and that is the sale of Plainmoor at a future date.GI are a very long standing Company and you can bet they know what they are doing.

I emphasise this is pure speculation on my part but stranger things have happened in Football.

From a quick look at G.I.s accounts on the Companies House website, in a number of the years up to - but not including - the one ending December 2015, the company (and its parent) managed to avoid paying corporation tax (or only had nominal liabilities) even though it made handsome profits most years. "Utilisation of tax losses" being part of the mix. But not being a qualified accountant, I don't fully understand the mechanisms here.

Then in the year ending December 2015, the company had a tax bill of £49,000.

The accounts for the 2016 year are due to be filed with Companies House by the end of September. Given that their takeover of TUFC took place during the 2016 financial year, you'd expect to see some kind of narrative covering that in the accounts. The accounts for 2015 predicted that the Swindon greyhound stadium would be completed in the winter of 2016, but of course that has failed to happen. Press reports suggest drainage issues.

A quick eye witness account from a Grecians fan at the game - I live in a village not far from Woking and thought I'd take in some football. I'll keep it short as you probably won't appreciate a City fan having witnessed that - but just to say that for the sake of professional football in Devon I do hope you turn this around.

I didn't really understand your line-up given the circumstances, far too attacking leaving a back four of limited ability, and low in confidence, exposed. You were outnumbered in midfield and while I guess Luke Young is a decent player he didn't have a great game today - tidy enough when in possession but offered little protection to the back four when in defensive mode. (Watch the third goal to see how he bounced off the Woking player who then crossed for a decent finish).

Their first goal should have been a save all day long, but it looked like the keeper saw it late, still got to it but then misjudged the trajectory and appeared to palm it into the net. Poor defending on your right from a routine throw-in on the halfway line led to the second. And then you get back into it with a great strike following a long throw which was cleared well enough, but returned with interest.

That just went to show how brittle Woking were, they briefly went to pieces at the back and you had a decent penalty shout straight afterwards which if given would have put them down to 10.

However normal service resumed in the second half, no changes to personnel or tactics and the third goal followed, which as I say resulted from poor midfield cover (and a non-existent left back) followed by a smart finish around the six-yard line. The fourth was another good finish from someone who again had too much space to attack the back four.

I understand the doom and gloom but I honestly think that was a game you could have got something from with a more defensive set-up, hit the channels for wide runners and then relied on set pieces. At this point the management should be just stemming the bleeding and accepting some grubby 0-0 draws, or with luck a one-nil win against the run of play. Some of the basic ingredients are there - Gosling can deliver a good cross, you've got your guy with the throw, and judging by Keating's record he's got an eye for goal.

Some final points;

- good positive away support, though I didn't wait for the end to hear the reception at the final whistle
- I honestly think the players kept trying despite everything.
- Fallon offered very little, he just gets in the way of players with more to offer.