Torquay United Fans Forum

regiment wrote: thanks for taking the time to come on here and give us your views. we've had a few orient fans on, and you all seem to be saying the same things about Martin Ling, which i'm sure has raised the spirits of some of the doubters on here. as you can probably gather, his appointment was a surprise, but we'll all get behind him and give him the support he needs. we're not paying any attention to those from Cambridge, they're still pi**ed off with us for ensuring they'll spend the next 'x' number of years in the BSP.

like Chris, i'd like to know what sort of person/character is Dean Smith, i'm not sure i know who he is (is he the guy who was/is at walsall ?).

and one final question - completely hypothetically of course, if you'd been looking for a new manager now, and Ling's name came up, how would you have felt about that ?

cheers cjp.

No problem... Yes Dean Smith is the manager at Walsall now and did an excellent job keeping them up last season.

I can understand your fans having doubts looking at Ling's recent history, but I think he is far better suited to League 2 management than he was to the BSP.

The last question is a good one! I like to think (without getting delusions of grandeur!) that we are a relatively established League 1 side now and I really want to see us build on our success last season, much like yourselves I am sure. Ling, probably by his own admission, took us as far as he could in League 1 and wouldn't right be for us here and now. If we were back in League 2, however, I'd be more than happy to see him back. I honestly think he is a good appointment for any League 2 side working to a tight budget.

Chris B wrote:Thanks for that assessment cjp.

Out of interest, you say Ling probably needs a character like Dean Smith in his coaching team, what do you think the respective strengths of the two men were during their time at Orient?

In my opinion Smith is a 'big' character, a no-nonsense motivator... That is certainly the way he always comes across, even in his playing days. Ling was the tactical one, who set up the team and was responsible for our (very good) style of football. As has been noted elsewhere Ling is a very highly qualified coach and this definitely helped the overall play of the team. I believe that Smith was mainly responsible for the defensive side of the coaching (having been a defender himself).

Lingy likes to think things through and take time to quietly reflect on decisions. There's nothing wrong with this, although it can be frustrating when waiting for signings, and it worked very well for five years for us, but he does need an assistant who is good at the motivational side and keeping the players 'up for it' to compliment him.

I also noticed a comment earlier about Ling talking down young players? I find this very surprising. He was our Youth Team coach before managing us and I would have said one of his real strengths was bringing through and developing young players.

Hi guys,

Orient fan here.

I am not going to comment on Lingy's time as Cambridge manager because I don't have any knowledge of what went on there. Equally don't listen to the Cambridge fans who have come on here and talked about his time at Orient. The idea that "everyone knows" Dean Smith was behind our success under Ling is a nonsense - I have never heard an Orient fan even suggest this. Ling and Smith were an excellent team - I do think it is important that Lingy has a character like Smith as his number 2, but to suggest that all the success was down to Deano is rubbish.

Ling was an excellent manager for us in League 2. I'd put him in the top three managers in my 22 years of supporting the club. He took over unquestionably the worst Orient side of all time - one that was bound for the Conference without a doubt - and in less than three years got us our first automatic promotion in 36 years. He spent very little money doing it and we played some fantastic football along the way.

Of course he made mistakes, of course he does things that frustrate the fans sometimes - what manager, particularly at this level, doesn't?

Lingy took us up, kept us up, and even had us top of League 1 for a while in the 07/08 season until we fell away after Christmas. It became apparent that he'd taken the club as far as he could and that's when he left but IMHO it's well worth a club like Torquay giving him a chance, whatever happened at Cambridge, and I think he could do very well for you.