New Goalkeeper

[CP Gull]

Luke Daniels on a season long loan from West Brom?

Admittedly I have only picked this up from the notoriously unreliable football rumours site, but it's a decent shout I think. Good keeper, good height, good age, and plenty of experience at this level having been out on loan to several clubs - the likes of Bristol Rovers and Southend most recently among them.

He is clearly still rated at WBA as despite never having been near the first team in 8 years, they still keep offering him new deals and only recently (May) took up another years option on his contract. If he came here and did ok, I would imagine there would then be a possibility at least of securing him on a permanent deal if WBA didn't want him as he would be a free agent.

[Richinns]

Luke Daniels would be a great shout. Hope there is more than a made up rumour to this although if he had a 'Bobby' season then we would get nothing financial at the end of it as far bigger clubs than us would be scrabbling for his signature. Still would be an excellent addition though.

[royalgull]

Nah not for me. Keepers like this worry me where no one actually wants to take them on after a loan spell.

I think Nelson is the most logical shout so far.

[CP Gull]

Nah not for me. Keepers like this worry me where no one actually wants to take them on after a loan spell.

Not sure that's ever been the case with this fella to be honest. The fact is that he has always been contracted to West Brom and in his eight years there, despite never having played, he must have been re-engaged by them several times over (most recently just last month) and so financially he would probably have been well out of the reach of the likes of Shrewsbury, where I seem to recall he was very highly regarded in his season there, and more recently Bristol Rovers and Southend.

Not only that but probably the player himself probably hopes that he still has a chance of breaking into their Premiership side there, if he remains patient, and whilst he remains contracted to them he still has a chance of course.

[Glostergull]

Interesting bit of confirmation on the Herald Express site this morning (no name attributed, but presumably written by Dave Thomas) that, as well as an offer for Craig Easton and a bid for Billy Bodin on the cards, Michael Poke is one of the players under consideration for our new keeper. Really good to see us aiming high! Article is here:

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Now lads. I don't want to put too much of a hoodoo on this subject and please when I light the blue touchpaper please don't stand too close, let the idea sink in before we fly off the handle.
In my view if we get a significant amount of money for players should not the biggest portion be put aside to pay off our loan for the new stand.
As I can recall we got 75% in grants for the stand. Please correct me if I am wrong. We had to fund the rest.
Assuming the we had to find £500.000.00 quid (Or 1/2 million to those who can't be bothered to work out the zero's). In my view it would be better to get rid as earliest opportunity and possibly pay it off in it's enterity this season.
This would then relieve the budget for all the successive seasons.
There is absolutely no Guarantee that extra money now will get us success or higher gates. We would then open ourselves to increasing debt later on and, it would impinge on our budgets later on. witness the present Euro crisis. this present economy has now paved the way for a new type of thinking. (or a regurgitation of the old way) ie. Cash is King.
It's enough to have to pay for the stand, surely we don't need to pay extra interest as well. which on 1/2 Million is a lot of dosh. and the detractors who say we can claim back tax on that. True we can but we have to physicaly spend £1 for every 20p in tax reclaimed. Better have that £1 in the bank and be able to use it than pay 75p net in loan interest.
The potential ramifications for the future could be huge and Lingy could have a far larger budget in the future. If the Loan is paid off and money is still spare, then use it to finish off the trainging ground. Thereby relieving us of even more interest payments.
These are the thing that will cost in the future. Interest rates are soaring and it could upset the apple cart in the future.
Now let's see the fur fly. Over to you.

[CP Gull]

Perfectly sensible Glos, but like all things I think it's about getting the balance right. As far as I am aware, the only money we owe as a football club is to Thea Bristow through directors loans, now I don't know what arrangements are in place viz the repayment of these loans or indeed the interest(if any) being charged but as majority shareholder in Plainmoor Ltd I don't imagine she is too desperate for her money back at anytime in the near future. I would imagine that she is still very comfortably off especially given that she can apparently afford tickets for the Olympic Opening Ceremony!!!

We do have to do something with regard to the Training Ground though as if nothing else we have to have adequate training facilities in place for the Youth team in order to qualify for the larger pot of money(£200k+) that is coming our way from the EPL under the new scheme. The current facilities are not considered adequate enough it seems and rather than a temporary fix i.e. upgrading Seale Hayne which could just prove to be a waste of money in the end, it would surely be preferable to be investing the money in a permanent facility i.e. the Fotches Cross development.

I do also think it's prudent though to give some of the money to Martin Ling. If we lose all three of those players then we have by and large sold off the crown jewels as realistically there is no one currently left in the squad who would likely command the sort of fees these guys will and so if he can uncover some more gems he should be allowed to in my opinion. I'm sure the club are hoping that one or two of our youngsters might make the grade eventually but at the moment apart from perhaps Craig and Halpin who may have the potential to play at a higher level there would seem to be precious little else in the current squad as things stand. Furthermore, we cannot allow the squad to be weakened to the extent that our FL status us ever out at jeopardy again as that would ruin all the good work that has been done under the current regime.

Clearly though with all this money flowing through the club it makes sense to spend a fair chunk of it as we certainly dont want to start making huge profits and having large tax bills now do we! Therefore I think paying off some of the debt to Thea would also, like you say, make a lot of commercial sense. If we can do that, establish a new and permanent training facility and strengthen our squad prudently then I for one will be very happy at the health of our club, particularly when you consider where we were 5 years ago!

[dazgull]

Can agree what you are saying Glos. However you have to remember that although we are going to get 300k for Bobby it wont be one big cheque. Its in installments over 2 and a half years. If Eunan goes then another 175k in the kitty but i suspect that will be over two years too, same with whatever we get for Mark.

Thats the problem Ling will have now, although his budget will go up a bit, other clubs will think "oh Torquay have banked over 500k this summer" and push their prices up. Thats why I wouldnt be surprised if he goes for a loan keeper, Poke we all know is excellent but his wage would take a big chunk of Lings wages.

I think the only feehe will actually pay is probably for Bodin.

[SteveDeckchair]

Absolutely ridiculous Gloster!!

There are two glaring spelling mistakes in your post and didn't you ever get told to start every sentence with a capital letter? I mean, "Garauntee" and "potontial". Pah!

Good point made otherwise.

Today's Herald article talks about splitting the money between 'The Bench', Forches Cross and the squad. I make that a nice round £100k each.

So, Bobby's salary on another good player (freebie hopefully) plus £75k ish on another good player (also free) plus a bit extra for who/whatever else (fee/wages). Two for one, lovely jubbly!

Then, Gloster gets his financial prudence on 'The Bench' (I make it £666k = 1/3 funded by Thea). I'm sure if she got some money back so soon she'd be delighted. Not sure what they will do about the loan, but a standard borrowing rate on £0.5m would be c.5% p.a or £25k. A token gesture if you like.

£75k to repay Thea's loan and £25k to cover the interest. Better off repaying the loan than paying tax on a profit at the end of the season!

[diamondgirl]

Absolutely ridiculous Gloster!!

There are two glaring spelling mistakes in your post and didn't you ever get told to start every sentence with a capital letter? I mean, "Garauntee" and "potontial". Pah!

Good point made otherwise.

Today's Herald article talks about splitting the money between 'The Bench', Forches Cross and the squad. I make that a nice round £100k each.

So, Bobby's salary on another good player (freebie hopefully) plus £75k ish on another good player (also free) plus a bit extra for who/whatever else (fee/wages). Two for one, lovely jubbly!

Then, Gloster gets his financial prudence on 'The Bench' (I make it £666k = 1/3 funded by Thea). I'm sure if she got some money back so soon she'd be delighted. Not sure what they will do about the loan, but a standard borrowing rate on £0.5m would be c.5% p.a or £25k. A token gesture if you like.

£75k to repay Thea's loan and £25k to cover the interest. Better off repaying the loan than paying tax on a profit at the end of the season!

he has!!

[ROADRUNNER]

michael poke! thats all i will say

[Rach]

Olejnik £300,000 deal is fourth biggest windfall in club history.

THIS WEEK'S £300,000 sale of goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik to Peterborough United takes its place at number four on the list of Torquay United's biggest ever transfer windfalls.

Only St Vincent-born crowd-pleaser Rodney Jack, who cost Crewe Alexandra £650,000 in 1998, goalkeeper Matthew Gregg and promotion-winning striker David Graham have commanded bigger fees than Olejnik, who was a free transfer from Scottish First Division club Falkirk only a year ago.

So in case you were wondering (or trying to work it out), here's the top 10 as we have it...

10 - £100,000 shared between CHRIS MYERS (Dundee United August 1993), PAUL TROLLOPE (Derby County December 1994), ANDY GURNEY (Reading January 1999), SCOTT PARTRIDGE (Brentford February 1999) and MIKE WILLIAMSON (Southampton November 2001).

9 - KENNY VEYSEY (£110,000 to Oxford United November 1990)

8 - ELLIOT BENYON (£125,000 to Swindon Town January 2011)

7 - LEE SHARPE (£185,000 (plus friendly) to Manchester United May 1988)

5 - £250,000 shared between WAYNE THOMAS (Stoke City June 2000) and GREGORY GOODRIDGE (QPR August 1995)

4 - BOBBY OLEJNIK (£300,000 to Peterborough United June 2012)

3 - DAVID GRAHAM (£315,000 to Wigan Athletic June 2004)

2 - MATTHEW GREGG (£400,000 to Crystal Palace October 1998)

1 - RODNEY JACK (£650,000 to Crewe Alexandra June 1998)

[usagullmichigan]

I wonder where all the money went in 1998.

[northyorkshiregull]

Mmm,sure it was at that.time Mike Bateson started to get involved more with the club after having 2 years away and leaving Benney to look after things.If you look at the transfers between '98 and 2000 there was a awfull lot of money that came in

[robc]

David Graham was £215,000, not £315,000, if memory serves me correctly?

[Yellow Tree]

David Graham was £215,000, not £315,000, if memory serves me correctly?

Im glad u said that as I also remember it being £215,000 not £315,000!