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great post. Pretty much summed up what I was planning on saying.

If we had appointed Leroy would we have said great he did a good job before or he was crap last time he managed a club(brentford).Ling must of impressed the board enough to get the job ahead of everyone else and thats good enough for me.Everyone one can say how much they wanted Forster but we dont really know what he is like,he didnt get the job for a reason(may be the same reason why he didnt get the Brentford job?)

Some of the negative crap i've read on here this afternoon and evening makes this club's supporters look like a laughing stock. Some people should take a long hard look at themselves.

Disgraceful way to treat our new manager and I hope he makes you all choke on your own drivel.

Disgusted to be a Torquay fan tonight as some people don't realise how lucky they are.....

totally agree stevedeckchair

When a club achieves brilliant results, it isn't just down to the ability of the manager. The budget he was given, the quaility of his staff, the structure of the club - all these things play a part. In the same way, when a club struggles for results, it's not necessarily just down to the manager. If Ling was doing such a bad job at Cambridge, why didn't they fire him sooner? Is it perhaps because the chairman feared nobody else would want the job, and if they did, would struggle equally badly - or perhaps worse?

I think for many fans we have had the unexpected euphoria of the playoffs abrubtly ended by our manager leaving and taking players with him. More players have since left and the fans were left in the dark about the new manager and the procedures surrounding an appointment. As a consequence, unrest and frustration was allowed to flourish over a two week period when the club let us know **** all, so we were left to discuss amongst ourselves who the next man may be. People were excited about the prospect of Forster or Baraclough or Hughes and then out of the blue the club announce it is Martin Ling. All in all it is understandable that many gulls simply blew their tops on hearing this after all that has happened to us in the last three weeks and i will support the manager but to all you do-gooders who never complain apart from complaining about others complaining, just understand what we've all had to endure these last 3 weeks and have a bit of sympathy.

andygull wrote:I think for many fans we have had the unexpected euphoria of the playoffs abrubtly ended by our manager leaving and taking players with him. More players have since left and the fans were left in the dark about the new manager and the procedures surrounding an appointment. As a consequence, unrest and frustration was allowed to flourish over a two week period when the club let us know f**k all, so we were left to discuss amongst ourselves who the next man may be. People were excited about the prospect of Forster or Baraclough or Hughes and then out of the blue the club announce it is Martin Ling. All in all it is understandable that many gulls simply blew their tops on hearing this after all that has happened to us in the last three weeks and i will support the manager but to all you do-gooders who never complain apart from complaining about others complaining, just understand what we've all had to endure these last 3 weeks and have a bit of sympathy.

This is exactly how I feel. Was I wrong to read into the Heralds shortlist, yeah probably. But the last few weeks have been so stressful for us as supporters.

Did I over-react to the new appointment, yeah probably, but that is my opinion and I will be glad when I'm proven wrong.

We all have different opinions, I respect those who think Ling is a good signing, and I respect those who think he isn't.

at least the wait is over and at last we can now get on with keeping the team together and strengthening the team.....i for one will be supporting the new manager....

COYY

andygull wrote:I think for many fans we have had the unexpected euphoria of the playoffs abrubtly ended by our manager leaving and taking players with him. More players have since left and the fans were left in the dark about the new manager and the procedures surrounding an appointment. As a consequence, unrest and frustration was allowed to flourish over a two week period when the club let us know f**k all, so we were left to discuss amongst ourselves who the next man may be. People were excited about the prospect of Forster or Baraclough or Hughes and then out of the blue the club announce it is Martin Ling. All in all it is understandable that many gulls simply blew their tops on hearing this after all that has happened to us in the last three weeks and i will support the manager but to all you do-gooders who never complain apart from complaining about others complaining, just understand what we've all had to endure these last 3 weeks and have a bit of sympathy.

I am not diss-argeeing with you,i along with many other fans have felt frustrated over these last few weeks,and began to feel negative about the club in ways i had never before.

To me it is not about being a do-gooder,rose tinter, or dark sider and it never has been, personaly if i see something the club are doing which is good i will praise them for it,or if i see soemthing bad i will citise the club, and that is the right of all us fan's.

What got to me,is us as a fans group have largely slammed to club sidways over the appointment of Ling with out first seeing /hearing what Ling is going bring to the club,in terms of signings , style of play , results ,etc ,etc.

Come August I'm sure everyone will back the new gaffer, but the hard work starts here. I think it's key ML is able to get a decent assistant on board. From what I've heard from Leyton Orient fans he is good at identifying players and building a team but perhaps is a little lacking on the motivational side, I really hope he is given the support in terms of assistance and also in putting a side together. This appointment really has come from nowhere and it is going to take us time to get used to it but now we have to look forward. I was disappointed like a large number were when the announcement came but I think that's the result of waiting a couple of weeks and speculating having lost our manager and a lot of good players as well as having lost the playoff final. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, we all pay our money to travel and watch games and this is the place to vent your spleen. I'm sure ML will be well supported by us and I hope by the first match we will have a decent team to compete in league 2.

Fair enough forevertufc

I think if individuals had a negative reaction to the appointment that is absolutely fine. No manager was going to be the choice of everyone, and it's everyone's right to express their concern. What i can't fathom is the exaggerated nature ot the reaction to the news. As MLW alluded to earlier - there were toys everywhere! It was a like a play-school full of kids that didn't get the presents they wanted at xmas. The decision was made for a reason - it wasn't to annoy as many people as possible. Let's give him a little chance before writing him off completely. Alex Ferguson was a pretty unpopular choice amongst the Old Trafford support to replace Big Ron Atkinson some 25 years ago...

Could not agree more with the OP. I understand many fans are disappointed, and I was too, and that this frustration has come from having had a very stressful last few weeks and also losing Branno earlier today, but some of the comments have been absurd. Martin Ling hasn't even been in the job 24 hours yet some fans are saying he's rubbish without any evidence of what he's going to do to the club. Yes he had a bad spell at Cambridge, but equally he had a good spell in charge of Orient, but we should not judge him by either. We need to wait and see what he can do for us, whether he can keepwhat we have and add quality to it. At these tough times we need everyone rallying together, not turning on the new guy in charge.

The board have obviously taken their time to make an appointment, and would not have chosen Ling without doing the necessary research. People keep saying he wasn't on the shortlist, but no-one other than the board know exactly who the shortlist was. It may be that he was cheaper option than others, and that others priced themselves out of the running, but equally he could simply have been the best candidate. Its all well and good us fans saying we'd have done this, we'd have done that, but we don't have the same information that those in charge do. It's in their interests to make the best appointment they can, so they would not have done anything they believe would put our league prospects in doubt.

We need to support the new man and the team. Let's give him a chance to prove himself, not jump on his back when he's done nothing wrong.

leetufc
An incisive and accurate assessment - its a pleasant change to see a balanced and positive view being taken - good on you.

Southampton Gull wrote:I was backing the wrong man with a hefty little wager but aside from losing my cash I'm not too unhappy.

I'm not sure he's the right man but he's now our Manager and I hope the Board prove me wrong yet again by backing him up with some cash to improve the squad.

If he can reproduce what he did for Orient then we'll all be happy, first step for me now though is to make sure we stay up.

me too dave..........

great OP from forevever. nice one dave!