Elliot Benyon?

[Dave]

Jeff, you are indeed welcome to dissargee with me.. I think you may have missunderstood where I was coming from with this post, and on the Atieno thread even though I will not respond on that thread.

I was not suggesting here for one minute that the club should try to sign Goulding , just have petty grip at the moment on every single thread that mentions any player, you have endless dripping on about how our poor little club can not afford that player this player or any other player, expect the odd has been or never been player that no else wants. Its just doing my head in.

Their are atleast 8 clubs in this division with lower gate figures than our own, it is likely that those clubs are working of smaller budgets than us, yet Morecambe can afford to pay Ellison and had Brodie on loan, again this not about players, it is about finance.

The reason I mentioned Downes is we also have a habbit of dripping on about location, our club managed to persuade Downes to come from Chesterfield with in our wage structure, also Bobby.O relocated here from Scotland with in our wage structure. And look at some of the players and where they have come from that have signed for us down the seasons with our wage structure and poor location.

Think I do have a good grasp on all things League 2, thats why I mentioned wages, Rochdale, Morecambe, Wimbledon etc are not paying £2k a week basic wages in fact I be surprised if many clubs were at our level, if they did those clubs would go bust very quickly, as would ours, some of these players are playing for a lot less in basic wages than many think across football forums.

I am not trying to get at what the right or wrong player for us to sign is, just saying we have to stop giving the, "oh that player will never come because of location", "oh only if we can afford his wages". Because down the years we have signed North and Scottish based players, and a lot of these players are not earning the type of money that many think they are.

[Scott Brehaut]

My take on it all is thus (and if you don't care what I think stop reading now!!)

Yes, all the clubs spent money and wages on players aside from us. I think other clubs have owners that either don't care that they are in lots of debt and try to "buy success" (in other words, they hope that by spending lots of money they will be able to get promoted and eventually make it all back), or they are willing to break the bank in the hope that they will get a small bit of success. How many clubs have we seen that have come sailing back down when then money runs out?!

I think we are fortunate that we have owners who want to run the club properly - that is they are investing in the infrastructure now, hoping the team will get by and will grow slowly....remember, the board HAVE invested lots in the early days - when we had Buckle we were spending money left, right and centre. We were the big spenders in the BSP and now we have to accept that, for this season at least, we will have to put up with what we have (and maybe bring in a loan signing)

[Jeff]

I know what your saying, but I don't think that Downes is a fair reflection of the norm. After all, he was a player who had a reputation as damaged goods with his history of knee problems. That's how we managed to entice him down - we were the first club to offer him a 1 year deal. The same could be said when we signed David Graham from north of the border - again damaged goods.

We do occasionally bring players in from further afield - Bobby I will grant you, and the likes of Morris, Cruise. But generally speaking players are either located nearby or have a connection with the manager.

Also, the clubs you cite as comparable examples have the benefit of being in "hotbeds" of football. How can Morecambe afford players like Ellison and Brodie? Because they are northern based! One of our greatest periods of recent times was when we were able to pick up all of argyles deadwood - the likes of Craig Taylor would never have signed for Hartlepool or someone like that, they came to us as we were local and offering ok money. Nowadays we don't have that luxury, and hence it is harder to recruit.

[Dutchgull]

Well said Jeff as always enlightened and well reasoned posts. It's hard being a realist but hey ho its one of the joys of supporting Torquay Utd !

I now see that Swindon are in deep do do.,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21300099

What does hack me off are these type of clubs who are not carefully run like our own and don't seem to give a flying fig for expenditure and carry on their own sweet way of spending money they haven't got but get bailed out time & time again.

It almost make me think bugger it spend what we haven't got and go out all guns blazing..........................Mmm is that what we all want ????

[Plymouth Gull]

Dave; the difference between us and others is that we're spending off the field at the moment. That isn't to say we've cut ourselves short on the pitch because we are still doing okay, but we are still paying off the new stand, we've got the training ground redevelopment too. With all that happening it was always going to be a year of 'consolidation', and I'm happy with that. I personally thought Goulding would be ideal when I saw his name thrown out, but teams like FGR can probably offer more than we can at the moment, in terms of first-team appearances.

I think the location thing certainly makes a difference, take Billy Kee for example. Strange case, but it worked against us. As Jeff says, we used to thrive off Argyle when they were in the Championship, but now we're better than them it doesn't work like that. I think we'll see a busy summer this year anyway with lots happening, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of tactic the club go for.

[Hubert Parry]

Re: Jeff Goulding.

I am one of the few Cheltenham supporters you will come across who thinks he is an excellent player for this division. However, he needs to be used properly. As we had no target man, Yates tried to adapt his game to play that role, and that isn't his game. He is very skilful on the ball and can score goals out of nothing - however, he is more of a link man between the midfield and forwards.

I think Darryl Duffy might be available for a loan move too - he is a finisher but I am not a massive fan of his. He is easily frustrated on the field and likes to moan with the officials rather than actually focus on his own game at times. However, if he had a run of games, he would score lots of goals (as he did for us last season). Yates' biggest flaw is that he rotates the team too much, so strikers struggle to get a continuous run in the team. I think Duffy would work well with Howe in a front two.

[jonnyfive]

Well said Jeff as always enlightened and well reasoned posts. It's hard being a realist but hey ho its one of the joys of supporting Torquay Utd !

I now see that Swindon are in deep do do.,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21300099

Swindon on the brink of administration. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the repeated stupidity exhibited by short-sighted football directors with dodgy calculators. Hope Crawley are next. So very very predictable, and a perfectly timed reminder to cherish what we have at Utd.

Also good to see the gumption shown by PDC, looking to jump ship immediately. What a trooper! Just illustrates what most people knew all along; that he is a loud-mouthed flake with no depth of character.

[wodger of awabia]

I know what your saying, but I don't think that Downes is a fair reflection of the norm. After all, he was a player who had a reputation as damaged goods with his history of knee problems. That's how we managed to entice him down - we were the first club to offer him a 1 year deal. The same could be said when we signed David Graham from north of the border - again damaged goods.

We do occasionally bring players in from further afield - Bobby I will grant you, and the likes of Morris, Cruise. But generally speaking players are either located nearby or have a connection with the manager.

Also, the clubs you cite as comparable examples have the benefit of being in "hotbeds" of football. How can Morecambe afford players like Ellison and Brodie? Because they are northern based! One of our greatest periods of recent times was when we were able to pick up all of argyles deadwood - the likes of Craig Taylor would never have signed for Hartlepool or someone like that, they came to us as we were local and offering ok money. Nowadays we don't have that luxury, and hence it is harder to recruit.

Yes! we have had loads of great players that have moved up the road from Argyle, I bet that if we all put our heads together we could list at least 20 since the 60's that have joined & been great favourites at Torquay.
Just think what could have been if Argyle had reached the Premiership / Div 1 during their heyday. I bet we would have been able to loan some great young players from them, similar to Bournemouth being able to loan Jermaine Defoe on a season loan from West Ham when he was a kid.
The way things look at the moment Argyle will be BSP next season & will want to sign or loan Torquay second string players. They have already signed Guy Branston & our ex. loanee Ronan Murray, neither of which I.M.O would get into our present team.

[Plymouth Gull]

Craig Taylor, Brian McGlinchey, Gritton to name a few from Leroys promotion year!

[hector]

Swindon on the brink of administration. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the repeated stupidity exhibited by short-sighted football directors with dodgy calculators. Hope Crawley are next. So very very predictable, and a perfectly timed reminder to cherish what we have at Utd.

Also good to see the gumption shown by PDC, looking to jump ship immediately. What a trooper! Just illustrates what most people knew all along; that he is a loud-mouthed flake with no depth of character.

PDC is probably justifiably angry that his best player was sold behind his back and the signings he had lined up were vetoed by the Football League because the takeover or whatever is meant to be happening fell through/was delayed. PDC is a fiery bloke who speaks out but I think he has every right to feel frustrated.

Mod edit: Fixed quote(Yellow4life)