Gary Owers

[dawlishmatt]

Anybody want to give me odds on shaun taylor becoming torquay's caretaker manager until the end of the season and Gary owers being sacked in the next few days ?

[Gloomy Gull]

I second ‘Flippers’ comment about Gary Owers.
I have also heard that the players don’t like him... so therefore won’t play for him/the club.
I have also heard that McGinty may be off to Scotland and that Luke Young will be off pretty soon too.

In other news I have also heard that Mark Ellis may be joining Crewe.

These are supposed to be "professionals". If they are deliberately "not playing" for their manager then all contracted players should be put on the transfer list immediately. Why bother trying with tin pot Prima Donna children who are not mentally strong enough, or too bloody spoilt to honour the commitment they made to this club in signing a contract AND for which they are still being paid. Surely this kind of approach creates some form of breach of contract.

I am so angry if this is the attitude of these "professionals" that I would rather we sack the lot of them , send all the "couldn't care less" loanees back to their own clubs and shut the f8Cking doors.

[DevonBee]

These are supposed to be "professionals". If they are deliberately "not playing" for their manager then all contracted players should be put on the transfer list immediately. Why bother trying with tin pot Prima Donna children who are not mentally strong enough, or too bloody spoilt to honour the commitment they made to this club in signing a contract AND for which they are still being paid. Surely this kind of approach creates some form of breach of contract.

I am so angry if this is the attitude of these "professionals" that I would rather we sack the lot of them , send all the "couldn't care less" loanees back to their own clubs and shut the f8Cking doors.

No respect for Owers...mmm.....but you have to gain respect.
All I will say on the player front is................. it is easy to be injured, when the team is struggling !!!!

[Southampton Gull]

Harrop needs to accept he made a shit appointment and get rid. Any other manager would of gone by now. It was easy to get rid of Nicho, even after what he did the previous 2 seasons because he was someone else's appointment, and probably because he truly cared about the club

His response when that was put to him was that Owers is like a racehorse and will come good. He's a carthorse that needs putting out of his misery just like Harrop himself.

[westyorkshiregull]

I'm just resigned to utter failure this season on the pitch. No amount of signings now will fix the issue. Moral must be rock bottom.
If I'm honest would be any worse under nicholson ? Maybe but i would see more fight.

[IanGull01]

Be interesting to see what the attendance will be next week.

[MellowYellow]

The Gulls are in exactly the same position as they were in 2016's 'Great Escape'. 12 points adrift of safety with 17 games to go. That season the Gulls staged an astonishing revival with an 8 match unbeaten run and stayed up under the stewardship of Nicho. In January he brought in Nathan Blissett, Danny Racchi, Toby Ajala and Josh Rees on a very limited budget.

Gary Owers is trying to pull off a similar January squad shake-up to the one which helped predecessor to spark his first ‘Great Escape’ but this time Owers has the benefit of financial backing. So with Owers feet now firmly under the table I think it is fair to say we can now make a fair comparison going forward as to whether Owers is up to the job and 'fit for purpose'.

Nicho was deemed by some as not a good manager and subsequently left. That is fair enough and whether Nicho was a good manager or not is not the debate. The issue is, if Owers cannot match what Nicho achieved in his first season should Owers go and be replaced with a 'fit for purpose' manager to take us out of the 'regional football' at the first attempt.

[SenorDingDong]

The Gulls are in exactly the same position as they were in 2016's 'Great Escape'. 12 points adrift of safety with 17 games to go. That season the Gulls staged an astonishing revival with an 8 match unbeaten run and stayed up under the stewardship of Nicho. In January he brought in Nathan Blissett, Danny Racchi, Toby Ajala and Josh Rees on a very limited budget.

Gary Owers is trying to pull off a similar January squad shake-up to the one which helped predecessor to spark his first ‘Great Escape’ but this time Owers has the benefit of financial backing. So with Owers feet now firmly under the table I think it is fair to say we can now make a fair comparison going forward as to whether Owers is up to the job and 'fit for purpose'.

Nicho was deemed by some as not a good manager and subsequently left. That is fair enough and whether Nicho was a good manager or not is not the debate. The issue is, if Owers cannot match what Nicho achieved in his first season should Owers go and be replaced with a 'fit for purpose' manager to take us out of the 'regional football' at the first attempt.

Not quite sure that Nicho had a 'very limited budget' for the second half of the Great Escape, he got a £100k+ injection of cash for the last six months....which resulted in us being owned by the current fantastic ownership group. Sure he wasn't spending FGR levels of money but that injection of cash probably pushed our half year budget to mid table levels.

[merse btpir]

Well let's cross one bridge at a time shall we..........

The argument against Nicholson as regards much of the dross he left behind is whether or not he did his due diligence on their recent track records for staying fit and actually playing some football and when you look at them they missed an awful lot of games wherever they were and before they came here and started their old nonsense again.

The argument against Owers is his failure to procure better and more fit for purpose players. He inherited a squad of some 27 players when he came in ~ ridiculous!

He was lumbered with taking a huge pruning tool to many of those and that was not conducive to a good atmosphere within the camp and of course that then leads to talk of him having 'lost the dressing room'. If only he could lose some of those blighters from the payroll!

If only he could extricate some ruddy productivity from people like Gowling, Kuklowski and Clarke. Pittman too could do with taking a good look at himself and what about the continuing drain on resources from the likes of Anderson and Chaney? They might be out on loan never to return; but are they off the payroll? I very much doubt it....and most of them are on a decent wedge and due to remain so for another 15 months yet!

[MellowYellow]

To try an put some balance on this issue, did not Nicho inherit much 'dross' in his first season that Knill and Hargreaves left him. So is it not equal in that both inherited other managers players and therefore both started on the same footing. Most will agree that Owers does have a better budget than Nicho to resolve this seasons relegation issue. However my issue is not one of direct managerial comparison but the managers ability to gather a group of new players in January transfers and leading Torquay to an unlikely escape from a near-certain relegation.

Nicho engineered two escapes but was not seen as good enough to manage the team (no complaints from me). So to this effect if Owers does not engineer an escape and we know for certain we are relegated before the seasons out then surely he cannot be good enough either and has to go! So the question is - should he go or should he stay.

[Yorkieandy]

If the club are relegated then he and his sidekick have to go.

I would still say that the club can survive if a new, experienced manager was now brought in short term but that's not going to happen so it looks like Owers and Kuhl have to be trusted until relegation is mathematically confirmed and then they both should be dumped out of Plainmoor asap.

Starting next season in the NLS with the pair still in situ would be suicide and send a clear message to everyone, as if they didn't already know now, all they need to about the owners.

There is of course still the remotest possibility that Owers and Kuhl could keep the club up and if they do so i think they will be lucky to stay in their jobs but i think it would be harsh to sack them.

They'd need to really hit the ground running next season in the NL (should the club survive) and if there is little change then sack them after 10 games but at least they will have had the opportunity to build a side over a summer and get them performing to an acceptable level and getting decent results.

[Arrywithnobrain]

Well let's cross one bridge at a time shall we..........

The argument against Nicholson as regards much of the dross he left behind is whether or not he did his due diligence on their recent track records for staying fit and actually playing some football and when you look at them they missed an awful lot of games wherever they were and before they came here and started their old nonsense again.

The argument against Owers is his failure to procure better and more fit for purpose players. He inherited a squad of some 27 players when he came in ~ ridiculous!

He was lumbered with taking a huge pruning tool to many of those and that was not conducive to a good atmosphere within the camp and of course that then leads to talk of him having 'lost the dressing room'. If only he could lose some of those blighters from the payroll!

[highlight=yellow]If only he could extricate some ruddy productivity from [/highlight]people like Gowling, Kuklowski and[highlight=yellow] Clarke[/highlight]. Pittman too could do with taking a good look at himself and what about the continuing drain on resources from the likes of Anderson and Chaney? They might be out on loan never to return; but are they off the payroll? I very much doubt it....and most of them are on a decent wedge and due to remain so for another 15 months yet!

Once again Merse the oracle - or should we say orifice - has spoken and as usual he displays a mixture of ignorance and prejudice.

Tell us Merse, what more productivity do you expect from Clarke? I doubt that many teams have room for two goalkeepers in their starting eleven so what can Clarke do to be more productive when he is a substitute? Would you have him rushing onto the pitch to fish the ball out of the net whenever Dorel concedes a goal or perhaps you feel that Clarke should be stationed in Marnham Road to return the ball more quickly after it has been hoofed to safety. Maybe you can petition the Football Authorities to give special dispensation to Torquay United to use two goalkeepers with full goalkeeping privileges at the same time, although even that kind of assistance might not be enough for Owers to be able to overturn the poisonous Nicholson legacy. If Clarke retains the goalkeeping spot that he reclaimed for the last match will you then be questioning Dorel's output (assuming that he remains with the club) or will you go the whole hog and suggest that all goalkeepers are unproductive because they only feature in about twenty seconds worth of the two minutes of highlights that you watch every week. A couple of goals conceded, one or two saves and a few goal-kicks don't really justify the need for a keeper do they Merse - just as a six second clip of Young being outpaced by an opponent makes him the biggest slacker in the world, n' est ce pas?

"Well let's cross one bridge at a time shall we..........": "The argument against Owers is his failure to procure better and more fit for purpose players". Which are the players that Owers has procured who in your exalted opinion are any more fit for the purpose of "actually playing some football" than the "dross" that he inherited?

If you are going to be crossing any bridges Merse, try the ones referred to by Paul Simon and Bobbie Gentry for starters - they are more relevant to Torquay United's current predicament than your opinionated bigotry.

[Teigngull]

To try an put some balance on this issue, did not Nicho inherit much 'dross' in his first season that Knill and Hargreaves left him. So is it not equal in that both inherited other managers players and therefore both started on the same footing. Most will agree that Owers does have a better budget than Nicho to resolve this seasons relegation issue. However my issue is not one of direct managerial comparison but the managers ability to gather a group of new players in January transfers and leading Torquay to an unlikely escape from a near-certain relegation.

Nicho engineered two escapes but was not seen as good enough to manage the team (no complaints from me). So to this effect if Owers does not engineer an escape and we know for certain we are relegated before the seasons out then surely he cannot be good enough either and has to go! So the question is - should he go or should he stay.

Please enlighten me with the dross Nicholson inherited from Knill & Hargreaves because I'm pretty sure he inherited Paul Cox's squad ?

[MellowYellow]

I bow to your knowledge. My point in the main is Nicho inherited somebody else's squad as do all managers (if they accept the post) when they take on a new club, it's not specific to Ower's.

[Scott Brehaut]

Once again Merse the oracle - or should we say orifice - has spoken and as usual he displays a mixture of ignorance and prejudice.

Tell us Merse, what more productivity do you expect from Clarke? I doubt that many teams have room for two goalkeepers in their starting eleven so what can Clarke do to be more productive when he is a substitute? Would you have him rushing onto the pitch to fish the ball out of the net whenever Dorel concedes a goal or perhaps you feel that Clarke should be stationed in Marnham Road to return the ball more quickly after it has been hoofed to safety. Maybe you can petition the Football Authorities to give special dispensation to Torquay United to use two goalkeepers with full goalkeeping privileges at the same time, although even that kind of assistance might not be enough for Owers to be able to overturn the poisonous Nicholson legacy. If Clarke retains the goalkeeping spot that he reclaimed for the last match will you then be questioning Dorel's output (assuming that he remains with the club) or will you go the whole hog and suggest that all goalkeepers are unproductive because they only feature in about twenty seconds worth of the two minutes of highlights that you watch every week. A couple of goals conceded, one or two saves and a few goal-kicks don't really justify the need for a keeper do they Merse - just as a six second clip of Young being outpaced by an opponent makes him the biggest slacker in the world, n' est ce pas?

"Well let's cross one bridge at a time shall we..........": "The argument against Owers is his failure to procure better and more fit for purpose players". Which are the players that Owers has procured who in your exalted opinion are any more fit for the purpose of "actually playing some football" than the "dross" that he inherited?

If you are going to be crossing any bridges Merse, try the ones referred to by Paul Simon and Bobbie Gentry for starters - they are more relevant to Torquay United's current predicament than your opinionated bigotry.

Ok, ok, we get it, you don’t like Merse.

Your crusade to pull apart almost every post he writes is, frankly, boring. Can you not just move on?