Torquay United Fans Forum

no a fair question, the league certainly asked the club to prove they had the money to see the club through the season, I am not sure how it works, but I assume it is "ring fenced" in an account that the Conference league have visibility of. A sort of bond.

Just some food for thought as everyone goes on about crowds all the time on this thread

1800 people, paying on average £15 (by the time you have taken concessions and season tickets into account) generates just £27,000 per league game, take VAT off and it comes down to £12.50 a person or £22,500

23 games , on budget would only generate £517,000

I believe this is why the league wanted a bond of £250,000 set up by the directors when they took over, because simply when the costs of running the club for the season was calculated, even with the cut backs we were that short.

I suspect (just myself suspects) that the initial investment from each director has yet to be touched as it essentially made up that bond.....and that simply as roadrunner agrees previously is why the board cannot afford to keep the club going into a new season

I have not been on the forum for a while, but today's news got me reading!

If the estimates are to believed, the current board have got estimated losses for the season of £850,000 down to £250,000. This has been done by wide cuts to the academy, the playing budget etc. as we all are aware. This, in business terms alone, is good work. However that still leaves a 6 figure deficit. I just wonder where some of you think we should be going?

It's quite simple, the current board do not have £200,000 to £250,000 a season to invest into this black hole of running a club. From where I see it is without new owners and investment the club simply will go bust.

This puts the whole Kevin Nicholson role into perspective. Call him a legend, call him the best manager we have every had, love him as much as you want, but quite simply, no new board, who are prepared to make up the deficit the club is currently running on and in addition invest money for the club to improve things going forward, is going to,do anything other than decide themselves who the next manager should be.

We do not need protests or signatures on a sheet of paper, we need to support the new board and give them a great welcome, because without them we could well be watching South West Peninsula football next season, sharing a ground with Galmpton.

I have to agree with your Southampton Gull. I think as supporters we should be celebrating every point we can scrape together with the state the club is in and the resources available to it. In my honest opinion I thought Grimsby deserved all 3 points and whilst I was not at Southport, I understand it was like the battle of the Alamo at times and we could easily have lost that game....had that been the case Nico would no doubt be getting some serious stick.

Luckily we are in a division when no teams are consistent, if they were they would be in the league, and every match we play is winnable of we put the effort in.

I believe Nico will have the players giving their all within the next couple of months and that should be good enough for survival , giving him the the time to release most of the squad and start again.

A bit like personal wealth only two things count. How much money you have coming in and secondly how much money you spend.

I've always enjoyed going to Accrington, many laugh at the state and size of the ground, but the reality is they have spent money only where they need to. A visit to the club shop, which is a portacabin, is quite an experience as the club offices all lead off that portacabin.

The whole place is crude, very basic, even the car park is left un-tarmacked, the away terrace has a crude extension and the floodlights just meat the leagues minimum standards.

....all of this is part of the reason they have done so well on limited resources, the supporters and the club almost love being an underdog at every match. That takes a sort of mentality throughout the club that Torquay currently just do not have. We simply have, too many people who think they are too big, too important or special. Accrington just dig their heels in and get stuck in.

I think it would be prudent for the Torquay United board in the medium term to consider re-locating their training ground away from Torbay.

The big problem of attracting players could be somewhat met if the club were to train in Bristol, or perhaps Southampton.

This is not a new solution for clubs based in far-flung areas, Barrow have had a lot more success since relocating training sessions to just South of Preston, specifically for the reasons always raised by Torquay managers.

Thoughts?

A silly appointment ? A lazy appointment ? An ill-informed appointment ? A cheap appointment ?

Who knows, but I am so disappointed that the man who I was told refused to travel with the team to Accrington Stanley when told he would be sitting on the bench is now in charge.

I suppose I have to give him credit for 1 thing, this is the 4th time I have been told he has applied for the post (or the 5th time, if you include the time him and his friend went to Bill Philips and to ask for Knills removal) so he has got stamina if nothing else

I really do hope he proves me wrong but I am not looking forward to football at Plainmoor from now on.....

This is such a depressing thread.

There are around 110 professional football clubs in England.

I do not have the facts but I bet over 300 hopeful men have managed those clubs in the last 3 years and goodness knows how many in the last 5 years....so where are all these ex-managers ?

The fact of the matter is, Torquay may be just about the smallest professional club in the UK, but even so, the job of Torquay United boss puts managers who still fancy themselves in the spotlight and can certainly be a springboard to greater things if the manager perform well.

To see men such as Mansell (who destroyed the confidence of younger players at the club in recent years) and Nicholson, who is another rookie is quite simply scraping the bottom of the barrel.

We can do better....and guess what? i think we will

Richards
Speiss
Smith
Hurst
Quiqley

Brett Huxtable can often be seen around the North Devon grounds, as I live in Mid Devon , I go to a few games on his turf and sometimes see his leather jacket clad figure walking around places such as Bideford.

Indeed he was at the Bideford v Torquay friendly this season and typically spent the vast majority of the match on his mobile to what appeared to be other refs, he was talking so loudly that it was obvious that he wanted the crowd to know who he was.

Now I do not know the chap personally, and have heard he is a smashing guy to be fair, but his chosen part time profession is clearly the most important part of his life and some would say is one big ego-trip for him.

As someone said earlier on the post he will dine out on last night for many a year to come.

For the record most of his overheard conversations, that he clearly wants others to hear, are questioning how this ref or that ref has reached that particular level......I am sure he is just what the FA are looking for !

I was at Bideford last night, no-one knew more than 2 or 3 of the Torquay line up, and that included the players. As an example when we took the lead we asked the 5 subs warming up near us who had scored and none of them knew.

This was a quickly arranged game and clearly, judging by the lack of talent in the side, a match arranged to look at just 1 or 2 of the players seriously, with the rest making up the numbers.

This was not a full strength Bideford side by any stretch of the imagination and in the second half they controlled the game with confidence.

Some of the United players got really frustrated with what was going on, there was the odd unnecessary tackle and one player in particular was screaming swear words for most of the evening, and all of this made us look quite unprofessional as a club.

Levi has joined Bristol City's under-21 squad, he has not joined as their reserve fullback.

That is quite a big difference, I do not think you will see him feature in the first team for quite some time, if ever.

The good thing for Levi is that he is very much the same "natural" style as Bristol City's current fullbacks, but this is a club who have just spent over £2m on a virtually unheard of French forward and I would be surprised if Steve Cotterill has ever seen Levi play

Another good way of cutting costs.

brucie, hat's off to you, that is a good post

It is clearly the parent's dreams on here that have been shattered as much as the players. For 99.999999% of them the news that they would not make it as a pro footballer has just been bought forward, that's all

I've seen enough of academy football to understand how ineffective the whole thing is....the whole name of "Academy" or "Elite" or whatever name they give their teams puts these parents on a pedestal to make them truly believe their son's are going to have a career, and for them to happily subsidise the costs with travel, kit and monthly fees etc

...and yet the reality is few of these lads at 16 could get into the Teignmouth or Galmpton teams in the South West Peninsula league, the standard is just so much higher

For the cash laid out in the last few years, the academy has simply been a big white elephant and a drain of cash and time

I hope I am proved wrong, but I do not see Ives reaching heights above the Conference, maybe league 2...he's no Lee Sharpe