Firstly though I agree mostly with what JWills is saying his info on the budget side is wrong. He his correct in saying we had a smaller budget than Crawley, Fleetwood and the other huge spenders, but Ling himself admitted he had a top 8 budget. When you think that, AFC aside, the top had massive budgets that dwarf most clubs in L2 and in Crawley and Fleetwood's case most L1 sides then this is a poor comparason. Cambridge are not a poorly supported team and though the club is cutting budgets at the moment, this did not really effect Ling. The year we lost to you guys, at the time, was the largest budget the BSP had ever seen spending £22,500 a week on wages. Halfing this would still field a strong BSP team, and Ling had much more than half! I was lucky enough to speak to Ling on many occasions due to my job and he spoke quite openly about the budget being smaller than the top 5 spending teams, but more than enough to compete. Ling also had a team that was more than good enough to be challenging in the play offs. Alot of the names you guys will recognise from your time in the BSP - Carden, Clare, Naisbitt, Gleeson, Crow etc In his second year here we had a few injury problems and had to fill in with our young players. Far from being a disaster our youngsters are fantastic players with more passion and skill than most of the first team. The problem is Ling couldn't get it out of them. His motivation skills are poor, he is tactically useless and used to blame the youngsters when they slipped up. On the upside he is a great bloke and can spot a good player. If I was a Torquay fan I would be extremely underwelmed of the appointment. Its common knowledge that Dean Smith was the brains behind Orients success and this is mirrored by the fact that Smith is doing well at Walsall and Ling was sacked by a BSP team. I know that the old land of the BSP was a horror to you but the league is 10x harder than it was even last year, let alone a couple of years ago and Ling couldn't cut it. I would seriously doubt that Ling will get you relegated, thats usually reserved for clubs in financial difficulties, however he will not get you promoted.
Very good luck in the next year to you
