Martin Ling

[Scott Brehaut]

http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd ... bs=results

Cambridge's results last season. Some of the defeats are damn right embarrassing. The manager of this team is who our board think is good enough to lead our club. By only interviewing him today, did they actually get time to do any research on him? Or did he just do a very good interview?

Did the board actually consider the bloke's record?

Are you certain he was only interviewed today? How do you know he hasn't been down to Plainmoor on a number of other occasions? Or, perhaps, the Board interviewed elsewhere in order to stop people jumping to conclusions.....

[Jerry]

After the initial shock/horror of this appointment think i've calmed down now and woken up from what i thought was a bad dream but no it's reality in the words of Basil Fawlty 'maybe its a dream?....No, i guess we're stuck with it then'. He does have a good League 2 record, he does have managerial experience good and bad which i think was essential for us this time around with the job that needs to be done. Miniscule budget, we have 12 professionals left here, no keepers and one of those is out of contract in 15 or so days time also.

Simply got to hope Ling does what he did at Orient and does well for us.

I'm intrigued to know how everyone seems to know our budget will be "miniscule" next season. The statement from the club said that we probably broke even last year and are aiming to do the same this year. Logically then our budget should remain about the same shouldn't it?

[Jeff]

Just thought I'd post this from an Orient fan on another board:

He deserves a chance.

Personally, I don't know why the hell he went to Cambridge and into Non League Football, because Cambridge were and still are in a poor state and he'd never played or managed at Non League level, IMO he should've been more patient and waited for another FL job.

OTID, has given a pretty decent idea of what to expect. He trys to get his teams to play the ball on the deck in a 4-4-2, however if you do go on a winless run of games, my word you will know about it and it will **** you off. He also will not budge from 4-4-2.

You won't get dicked 4 or 5 nil, you will most likely lose 1-0 and never look like scoring.

He does **** about a bit too much in the transfer market as well, he can be very picky when it comes to players - particularly strikers. But he does pull a rabbit out of the hat as well.

He was able to turn us around and improved us every year for 5 years. His sacking came IMO a bit too late - And it nearly cost us. He took us as far as he could, he needed more money to take us further and he wasn't getting it.

For me, ignore his record at Cambridge because I don't think anyone stands a chance there at the minute. It may take 2-3 years, but he does have the knowledge of League Two, he may well get you out of it.

In his two full seasons in League Two with us, we finished 11th in 04/05 and then the following season (05/06) got promoted and in those 2 seasons, we topped the table a few times. In 04/05 if our strikers had stayed fit, we may have sneaked the playoffs.

He had a decent budget, but by no means the best budget in the division with us.

Good Luck Lingy, this is the sort of job he should've gone for 2 years ago.

Seems like a balanced view and one which is quite positive

EDIT - also have it on fairly good authority that he was not the cheapest option we had

[Alpine Joe]

Hector

By only interviewing him today, did they actually get time to do any research on him? Or did he just do a very good interview?

I sort of hope Hector has got his facts right. I've got this vision of Ling turning up to meet the Directors today, putting his feet up on the desk, ripping their short list up into little pieces in front of them & saying 'OK..what time shall we announce that I'm the new Manager?'

[northyorkshiregull]

If it gets said enough times on here then it becomes true :aww: I have been told that the budget this season is going to be the same as last

[ferrarilover]

Without wishing to come across as picking and choosing my history, in view of my last post in this thread, I think we can pay more credence to the views of the Orient fans, than those of the Cambridge fans.
In the views of the Orient fans, we are comparing like with like, a L2 side with a decent enough core, but no real hope of actually going up. As opposed to Cambridge, who are a Conference club who are in anything from "in a bit of a pickle" to "complete and unstoppable decent into the seventh layer of Lucifer's Hell".

For me, if he keeps Eunan and Zedders, he'll already be on a par with PB, anything beyond that is a bonus.

Matt.

[mlw]

Hector
I am assuming you do actually have a brain. If this is the case use it to think before you post such a load of ill considered twaddle

[Trojan 67]

We have some very talented young footballers at the club who can actually play football. Agreed ?

Regardless of whether "Dinger" (Ling) can change from plan A to any other plan, he does like his sides to play football. At Orient, apparently, he had players who could play. At Cambridge, apparently, he didn't.

If Dinger can bring in footballers who fit in with the footballers already here then although there'll be a bedding in process initially, we should see the passing football of which we have become accustomed.

I look forward to the new season.

[jwills61]

Hi , i'm a cambridge fan and just thought i would comment on your appointment. Firstly Ling did do a good job at Orient , and is probably a manager more accustomed to managing in the league. Secondly , his budget at cambridge was tiny , so he didn't have any real funds too work with. Having said that the signings he did make were very poor. They were washed up has beens. He built a team that looked unfit and unorganised. Defensively poor and tactically redundant. He insisted on playing long ball football but chose to use clare ( 5ft 9/10) for the flick ons rather than wright ( 6.ft/1). We played ugly football and conceded many in some very embarassing defeats. There was no passion and obviously fans got on his back. He did a very poor job. And i know your aware of that. But i wouldn't say that the same would neccesarily happen with you. You are a better club , with a bigger budget. ( you may feel you aren't well off , but you sshould see Cambridge's budget!) . You have a better team and Ling might find managing you easier. All the best , honestly hope it doesn't go wrong.

[ferrarilover]

Genuine question Wills, have you seen Cambridge's budget?

Matt.

[jwills61]

As was mentioned above , he probably should have waited for another FL job to be fair , it wasn't his cup of tea. It showed. But i still dont think it will go horribly wrong. Perhaps 9th or 10th imo. I would also not be too surprised if you signed Brian Saah our CB. Worked with Ling before good enough for FL and transfer Listed as we can't afford him

[jwills61]

to be fair i haven't seen our budget but i have to say we used many youth players last season and didn't spend very big at all. Our attenndances dropped which meant less money coming in and as we are trying to sell the club , we aren't in healthy financial condition. I would have said that our budget was small for our level and for the calibre of the club. We certainly didn't have money to splash around. We wren't the poorest in the divisiob but couldn't compete with Luton , Wrexham , Crawley , Fleetwood , Mansfiel , Darlo , Grimsby , Gateshead , Newport , York , Wimbledon etc and probably others. if i had too guess i would say it was 12th 13th in the league , could be wrong tho

[ferrarilover]

What did I ask?

I've already said about the differences between the football played 'down there' and 'up here'.

Now, Mr Wills, make with the numbers!

Matt.

[jwills61]

You asked if i had seen the budget , i said no , and took a educated guess... what more do you want...

[Fonda]

Cheers for the info mate, excuse Fiat, he has no table manners.