Gary Owers

[Tamargull]

I am no fan of Nicholson and I accept as a football club, we have been in long term decline. However, Owers knew the brief when he arrived and for this reason, he has quite simply, failed. In my view he will not achieve promotion next season or get anywhere near it. I will only go to away matches.

[lucy6lucy]

Barrow, Owers first game was match 11 not 14, he had , will have had 36 games to improve things
Signed 22 players, failed. Yates hasnt had much trouble turning Solihull around or Edinburgh, Leyton
Orient, or Bates, caretaker at Hartlepool. It can be done

Either way 11, 14 games, to not win any of them in the national league suggests why we are relegated.

[kevgull]

We hired a National South coach and that is exactly where we find ourselves.

[Cruisinho]

Say we did get rid of Owers (which we won’t), who do you think we would get in for takeover? We would probably pluck someone from the southern premier.

It will be interesting to see who Owers can convince to join us.

[Scott Brehaut]

Owers had enough time to turn this around. He had money to spend, he brought players in and he still failed. His mission has ended in failure and his reward will be to carry on regardless.

An absolute **** joke, made by an absolute **** joke of a general manager and “owner”

Absolute cretins every single one.

[Southampton Gull]

And you conveniently forget to mention we struggled in the league under little Lord faunt!eroy & managed to learn feck all after 2 near disasters & still persisted with it & let him build a ' lottery winning squad ' before seeing sense & getting rid.
This club is a basket case.

I see what you did there, giving Nico your own nickname, very clever

[Dave]

Owers had enough time to turn this around. He had money to spend, he brought players in and he still failed. His mission has ended in failure and his reward will be to carry on regardless.

An absolute **** joke, made by an absolute **** joke of a general manager and “owner”

Absolute cretins every single one.

You really must learn to get things off your chest, not hold in the pent up anger, just let your emotions go..

[oldcommsboy]

In my view there is a very big issue looming before anyone can think about the squad next year. It's simply how much dosh there will be available to run the club.

It seems we will keep full time players and Owers will stay. But without doubt income will dive, so unless CO is going to fund an even bigger deficit, how will the Club be funded?

Is there really going to be enough money to fund all the existing management of Harrop, Owers and co? The first thing that should happen is for the cost-cutting knife to slice through that lot and if CO is first and foremost a businessman I'll be very surprised if that doesn't happen.

[IanGull01]

You really must learn to get things off your chest, not hold in the pent up anger, just let your emotions go..

that’s the 1st time I’ve smiled all weekend so thank you

[madgull]

It's very simple; if Harrop and Osborne want to prove that they have learnt their lesson from this season, then they have to sack Owers and rapidly hire a replacement. Immediately. Why?

[align=center]1) HE HAS FAILED.[/align]
Owers was brought in with most of a season to go, with one task: save us from relegation. Ignore all this nonsense about it not being his squad, he was hired as a firefighter, in other words he was hired on his ability to get the most out of what he inherited. He thought he was up to it. He was not. If we tolerate failure at one level in the club then we tolerate it at all levels.

[align=center]2) HE HAS NO QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB OF LEADING A SIDE TO PROMOTION. [/align]

At Bath City:
- In his first season, finished 16th when the top 13 teams out of 22 were promoted to the Conference North and South, also then failed in the playoffs.
- In his second season, finished 6th (one place outside playoffs) in a league comprising mainly of new teams from the previous division below.
- After leaving for Forest Green, the new manager of Bath guided them to 2nd, missing out on promotion in the playoffs, and then 1st.
> No success, the club did better after Owers left.

At Forest Green:
- His side only avoided relegation from the National League on the final day of the season, finishing 19th.
- He was actually hired when they thought they would be in the National South, only Northwich Victoria's ground kept them up.
- After leaving due to a poor start to the next season, the new manager of Forest Green guided them to 14th, and then 8th the next season.
> No success, the club did better after Owers left.

At Bath City (Take Two):
- Finished 14th in his first (half) season in charge.
- Finished 9th in his only full season in charge.
- Club is currently 10th.
> No success, remains to be seen how Bath do next season.

[align=center]3) THE RETAINED LIST. [/align]

It would be all too easy to wait til the end of the season, dither with performance reviews and suchlike. But let's consider if next season starts badly, we would be disposing of Owers anyway. Rather than yet another season of a manager being allowed to build a squad just to be sacked, let's get a new, qualified manager in NOW. He can have full say over who is retained and really build his own squad from the ground up. Hell, I'd have moved fast and had him in the stands tomorrow to have a look at the club and players to see what he thought.

[align=center]4) IT MAKES FINANCIAL SENSE AND WILL REINVIGORATE THE CLUB. [/align]

Yes, yes. Financial payoff blah de blah. However, weight that up against the possibility of failing in the VNS, and also against the general malaise surrounding the club. If we stick with the manager, there will be a lot of fans who don't want to go. If CO wants to prove that he is committed to this club and not just going through the motions, he should consider this and pull the plug. We cannot afford to linger in the VNS and see attendances fall further...and they will if we don't see immediate success.

Not that I expect any of this to figure in our owner's thinking, but we can dream, right? :}

[brucie]

Personally I would rather sack Harrop. The fat **** couldn't even be arsed to go to Hartlepool. Disgraceful.

[Arrywithnobrain]

It's very simple; if Harrop and Osborne want to prove that they have learnt their lesson from this season, then they have to sack Owers and rapidly hire a replacement. Immediately. Why?

[align=center]1) HE HAS FAILED.[/align]
Owers was brought in with most of a season to go, with one task: save us from relegation. Ignore all this nonsense about it not being his squad, he was hired as a firefighter, in other words he was hired on his ability to get the most out of what he inherited. He thought he was up to it. He was not. If we tolerate failure at one level in the club then we tolerate it at all levels.

[align=center]2) HE HAS NO QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB OF LEADING A SIDE TO PROMOTION. [/align]

At Bath City:
- In his first season, finished 16th when the top 13 teams out of 22 were promoted to the Conference North and South, also then failed in the playoffs.
- In his second season, finished 6th (one place outside playoffs) in a league comprising mainly of new teams from the previous division below.
- After leaving for Forest Green, the new manager of Bath guided them to 2nd, missing out on promotion in the playoffs, and then 1st.
> No success, the club did better after Owers left.

At Forest Green:
- His side only avoided relegation from the National League on the final day of the season, finishing 19th.
- He was actually hired when they thought they would be in the National South, only Northwich Victoria's ground kept them up.
- After leaving due to a poor start to the next season, the new manager of Forest Green guided them to 14th, and then 8th the next season.
> No success, the club did better after Owers left.

At Bath City (Take Two):
- Finished 14th in his first (half) season in charge.
- Finished 9th in his only full season in charge.
- Club is currently 10th.
> No success, remains to be seen how Bath do next season.

[align=center]3) THE RETAINED LIST. [/align]

It would be all too easy to wait til the end of the season, dither with performance reviews and suchlike. But let's consider if next season starts badly, we would be disposing of Owers anyway. Rather than yet another season of a manager being allowed to build a squad just to be sacked, let's get a new, qualified manager in NOW. He can have full say over who is retained and really build his own squad from the ground up. Hell, I'd have moved fast and had him in the stands tomorrow to have a look at the club and players to see what he thought.

[align=center]4) IT MAKES FINANCIAL SENSE AND WILL REINVIGORATE THE CLUB. [/align]

Yes, yes. Financial payoff blah de blah. However, weight that up against the possibility of failing in the VNS, and also against the general malaise surrounding the club. If we stick with the manager, there will be a lot of fans who don't want to go. If CO wants to prove that he is committed to this club and not just going through the motions, he should consider this and pull the plug. We cannot afford to linger in the VNS and see attendances fall further...and they will if we don't see immediate success.

Not that I expect any of this to figure in our owner's thinking, but we can dream, right? :}

Dream on, although you will get flak from the likes of Brucie and Teigngull, who are the kind of fans who deserve a manager like Owers. Regardless of the position that Owers inherited he still had plenty of time and opportunity to gain promotion, let alone avoid relegation, but two wins from his first twelve games (including the two lost Cup matches) was hardly the kind of dead cat bounce that many managerial replacements achieve: indeed it could be argued with some justification that, judging by the results during his tenure, a dead cat would be hardly less effective than Owers in terms of inspiration, tactics, contacts and other managerial/coaching qualities.
A good, balanced appraisal of Owers' achievements in non-league football, of the kind that Merse could have supplied if he had not been blinded by the glare of Nicholson's inadequacies, and you are right that the owner is probably not thinking along similar lines. CO's violent knee jerk reaction to the first four matches has presumably left him on the waiting list for a knee replacement, so it is very unlikely that he will acknowledge what disasters Harrop, Owers et al have been.
Osborne doesn't give the impression of being someone who is often prepared to publicly lose face by accepting that he has made a mistake (as he did by dismissing Nicholson) so Owers' continued employment is pretty much assured, irrespective of any hidden agendas that CO may have with regard to Plainmoor.One positive thought with Owers in charge: Tiverton, Weymouth and Frome are so much closer to Torquay than Barrow and Hartlepool ......

[uffculme1]

Considering the factual statements above regarding Owers lack of managerial success in any position he has held it is a surprise that he was ever appointed at all, the fact he was suggests he was well down the pecking order of preferred choices and he was a lot cheaper than the alternatives, I think part of the reason it took so long to acquire him was he was negotiating his exit from Bath where he was under contract, i.e. we were not prepared to pay what Bath wanted and in the interim far better qualified contenders turned us down and therefore we were compelled due to the time element to go back to Bath and offer them more severance money than we were first prepared to pay.
I think if there was a poll of torquay supporters we would undoubtedly vote for him being shown the door, I geniounely believe that no matter how much money Owers had as a budget he is incapable of success, he is just one of those journeyman who hop from job to job, if Osborne is to be taken seriously then I think he should seriously consider outing the man.
New season, new league new manager new players.

[Southampton Gull]

Owers wasn't the reason it took so long to appoint a successor to Nicholson. Westley was always Harrops number one choice, Osborne didn't fancy paying the medical bill that Westley was adamant would be needed to ensure a healthy vibrant squad. Owers was Osbornes choice not Harrops.

[Jerry]

Owers wasn't the reason it took so long to appoint a successor to Nicholson. Westley was always Harrops number one choice, Osborne didn't fancy paying the medical bill that Westley was adamant would be needed to ensure a healthy vibrant squad. Owers was Osbornes choice not Harrops.

Medical bill? What on earth was this for?