Martin Ling

[royalgull]

Agreed entirely. Everyone deep down knows whats in store for next season and 14th place would be a good year. Just hope for no relegation battle, with the development going on, relegation would be an utter disaster.

[tommyg]

I would rather have a board in touch with reality than a gun-ho lose all approach. It will be a season for rebuilding and securing rather than pushing for promotion. If that falls out as a consequence then its a welcome bonus.

Perhaps I misinterpreted the following quote:

"Historically, clubs that lose in the Play-Off Final struggle the next year and that is something we have to consider."

Now if SB means struggle to get back in the play-offs then that is perfectly reasonable as I don't think anyone expects us to improve on last season's position. However, if he means struggle generally in the league then that is concerning. Just for the record, I'd be delighted with mid-table mediocrity, but that rarely happens down here.

[Regiment]

the reality is, we will always be a club with some kind of transitional process ongoing. such is the life of a lower league club like ours, that relies so heavily on loans to bolster the team/squad. there is always a degree of change, but this year more than usual because of the manager and backroom changes of course.

lets be honest, he's only said what the rest of us already knew. division 2 is going to be a very tough, competitive league this year, so some consolidation, building new foundations, is only to be expected. having said that, i'll be disappointed if we're not mid-table, holding our own.

[Fonda]

I appreciate the need to manage expectations, but seriously - we've just recruited a new manager and that is the speech to inspire everyone? We didn't only over-acheive last season, it was an 'extraordinary over-acheivevement'. Apparently expectation at the club is even lower than i thought. I can hardly wait for the season to start having read that...

Did enjoy the comments about 'respect' though. Wonder who that was aimed at?

[Scott Brehaut]

Good to see the club coming out with that statement - it helps us to explain the way that directors came to make the decision they did.

Lets wait and see what our new manager has to say when he is unveiled later today.

[Scott Brehaut]

I appreciate the need to manage expectations, but seriously - we've just recruited a new manager and that is the speech to inspire everyone? We didn't only over-acheive last season, it was an 'extraordinary over-acheivevement'. Apparently expectation at the club is even lower than i thought. I can hardly wait for the season to start having read that...

Did enjoy the comments about 'respect' though. Wonder who that was aimed at?

In fairness Shane, that part of the text is not what Simon Baker said, and therefore can't be attributed to him - I am guessing that is the view of the author of the piece (whomever that is!!)

Simon Baker states that last season was an over-achievement, and I would agree with him. Nobody here really expected us to be in the league two play off final last season did they????

[tommyg]

When's this press conference? I thought it was midday?

[Fonda]

In fairness Shane, that part of the text is not what Simon Baker said, and therefore can't be attributed to him - I am guessing that is the view of the author of the piece (whomever that is!!)

Simon Baker states that last season was an over-achievement, and I would agree with him. Nobody here really expected us to be in the league two play off final last season did they????

But there were bigger teams that under-acheived. So if we played at, or just above our natural level, and a few other clubs played below theirs, there was a chance we'd finish top-half/play-offs. I don't think it was a massive shock.

[tufcbrett]

I will happily take a season of a mid table finish, the clubs rebuilding and last season was amazing. Theres no reason if we can keep the players under contract and add well to them, then we could do well this season. Lots of teams have brought well and will be a tough league.

Were be the under dogs through out the season and i dont mind if little old torquay are not expect to do anything. Realisticly we just need to hope Ling can build something good over the next few seasons and do what he did with Orient.

The gulls are going up?

We can dream right

[ferrarilover]

I am very dissapointed to read so mnay negative posts about our new manager, even before he has had a chance to start his job.

Look, is anyone suggesting the board made this appointment becuae they wanted to p@ss the fans off, of course not, they made the choice becuase he was the best candidate.

NONE OF YOU KNOW WHAT WENT ON DURING THOSE INTERVIEWS, YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT DEMANDS, ABOUT THEIR AMBITIONS, THEIR PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR THE CLUB ETC ETC ETC.

The board however do know all that went on during the interviews, and I guess most of our board are successfull businessmen in one way or another so i doubt they are stupid either. More successfull than many on here I would guess as well!

I also remember many on here slating the fact we chose Paul Buckle as manager, some even carried that on for his entire reign, although he proved to be one of the most successfulll managers we have ever had.

The fact is, none of you know if Martin Ling will be successfull or not. I HOPE HE IS! Its eaasy to knock, very easy, could do it all day, but it doesnt help at all, not one bit. I really hope many of you see some sense and get behind him, and dont jump on him as soon as we have our 1st defeat, again not helpfull.

Welcome to Torquay Utd Martin. all the best, and hope you can prove some of these people wrong!

That's a lot of success!

Seriously though, (I only quoted this to make my joke, all other 'positive spin' comments are included in this, including the excellent contribution from Troj) let's give the guy a chance.
No, he isn't Alex Ferguson, but then, nor were any of those on the fabled 'shortlist', so let us not become too downheartened.
For a start, the guy, like for like, has a pretty good record with a club in remarkably similar circumstances.
Secondly, if he does do badly, then any genuine moaning and whinging about him will have zero impact and those doing the moaning will be labelled 'Ling haters'. Before you know it, we'll all be at it and it will be too late.

Save your nagging, good people of Torbay (or whatever the damn place is called), it may save your club.

Matt.

[ferrarilover]

What is it with 'overachievement' all of a sudden?

The table doesn't lie, we were where we were on merit and nothing else.

Not once did we come away from a game with the attitude that we had played badly and won.
We hit the woodwork a million and one times.
We scored 9 goals for no reward at one point.
We were even deducted a point and we still made the playoffs.

Teams like Bradford have no devine right to be at the top, based upon any factor you can name.
The final league position of a club is based upon nothing but the cumilitave effoct of everything and everyone concerned with that club, from their attendances, to the manager, to the training facilities and methods and everything in between.

There is no such thing as over or under achieving in league football, it's more a case of making the best of a bad lot, or a complete hash of things.

Matt.

[leetufc]

A thoroughly honest piece from SB about why they chose Ling and did not go with the likes of Forster or Hughes. They clearly wanted someone with experience, which ruled out a few of the applicants, and someone with good contacts, which seems to have been why they did not go with Hughes. He would have struggled to convince several scottish players to relocate to Torquay, even temporarily on loan as it's a big distance to move. Glad he's come out and said that.

Let's be straight as well, last season was an over-achievment, given the size of our club relative to others and the fact that the season before we were very much a bottom half team. Even by the end of january we were only looking good for mid-table so what we did was exceptional. If Buckle had stayed and we'd kept the squad we had together then maybe the board would be looking at progressing from where we finished and challenging for play-offs or automatic, but given our situation i think consolidation is a realistic aim. We've got a new manager in charge who's going to have to find his feet and barely enough players to fill a starting eleven let alone compete for a season. We need to get new blood in, give them time to gel throughout this season, hopefully get a solid mid-table finish without too much drama, and then see if we can push on from there next season.

Anything like last season is a bonus, but given the relative strength of some of the teams in our league, and the money some of them have to throw at achieving promotion, I'll be very happy with mid-table mediocrity this coming season and then pushing on once we have a more settled management team and squad the season after.

[Fonda]

A thoroughly honest piece from SB about why they chose Ling and did not go with the likes of Forster or Hughes. They clearly wanted someone with experience, which ruled out a few of the applicants, and someone with good contacts, which seems to have been why they did not go with Hughes. He would have struggled to convince several scottish players to relocate to Torquay, even temporarily on loan as it's a big distance to move. Glad he's come out and said that.

Let's be straight as well, last season was an over-achievment, given the size of our club relative to others and the fact that the season before we were very much a bottom half team. Even by the end of january we were only looking good for mid-table so what we did was exceptional. If Buckle had stayed and we'd kept the squad we had together then maybe the board would be looking at progressing from where we finished and challenging for play-offs or automatic, but given our situation i think consolidation is a realistic aim. We've got a new manager in charge who's going to have to find his feet and barely enough players to fill a starting eleven let alone compete for a season. We need to get new blood in, give them time to gel throughout this season, hopefully get a solid mid-table finish without too much drama, and then see if we can push on from there next season.

Anything like last season is a bonus, but given the relative strength of some of the teams in our league, and the money some of them have to throw at achieving promotion, I'll be very happy with mid-table mediocrity this coming season and then pushing on once we have a more settled management team and squad the season after.

Am i the only person that doesn't beleive this? Our squad always looked good enough for at least a mid-table finish. Thanks to a few of the more fancied teams in the division having a relatively poor season (Vale, Gills and others) we finished 3 or 4 places higher. Does that represent a huge over-achievement? It's no more than spin, eminating from our outgoing manager, trying desperately to persaude all who'd listen he'd performed a miracle of some kind.

EDIT: Having seen Matt's previous comment, i notice i'm not completely alone.

[Regiment]

no, you're not on your own fonda.

unfortunately, "over-achieved" can be interpreted differently, but i assume what Simon Baker is saying, is at the beginning of the season, the target given to Paul Buckle was a mid table finish, hence an improvement on the previous year. so, he has now said we "over-achieved". I at least HOPE this is what he meant, and not "our players aren't good enough, so we'll be happy with a mid table finish", so reaching the playoffs far exceeded anyone's expectations. and you're right, Buckle did like to harp on about how we were punching above our weight, but we all know that was just to inflate his own ego.

as Matt said, the season is played over 46 matches, if you're there on the final day, you deserve to be there, end of. i don't remember going away from a game last year thinking, "f**k me, we got lucky today", but i do remember driving home and thinking "how the hell did we not win that game" on quite a few occasions.

i do believe however, that this is going to be a tough season, there are a lot of good teams in Div2, but we're a good team, so lets see what new players we bring in, see how the season starts, and THEN look at realistic targets.

[Scott Brehaut]

So, at the start of last season you really thought that we would be in the play offs at the end of it?