Stevens off....NOT CONFIRMED

[Gulliball]

Also quite important to consider that he's 24 now. At 20 there was a lot of room for growth (no jokes please), but at his age it's very unlikely that he's going to suddenly raise qualities of his game. Personally, I don't think he'll ever be a regular starter here and wouldn't be sorry to see him move on.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Agree with many of the posts here. Danny has been a good servant to the club doing his best whenever he had the opportunity ( which wasn't too often) however he has been here 4 or 5 years now and it is obvious that he isn't good enough for league football. He has ability but just hasn't progressed into the sort of player i thought he could be. His pace and directness would scare any defence but for me it is what he does with the ball when he finds himself in the most promising of positions that lets him down frequently. He either fails to control the ball properly, never gets to the byeline and whips in dangerous crosses nor never seems to beat anybody and get a shot in when on a mazy run. In short he has NO end product. I personally would like to see him move on because he's nowhere near the quality Torquay are looking for and i also feel it would benefit him to drop down a division as he obviously has ability and enjoys his football so he may feel more at home in the BSP. Anyway i thank him, as i do all Torquay players who deserve it for representing us and giving 100% to the club.

[kevgull]

Danny needs to be given the same treatment as Kevin Nicholson got.

Kev's attitude was " f*ck you Buckle , I'll show you that I'm good enough for this league!

[brucie]

He is conference standard. Buckle is signing decent players right left and centre and Ling is running after Danny Stevens. With Bristol Rovers and Crawley to play in our first four games this has all the potential to be the most depressing start to a season ever.

[yellow]

He is conference standard. Buckle is signing decent players right left and centre and Ling is running after Danny Stevens. With Bristol Rovers and Crawley to play in our first four games this has all the potential to be the most depressing start to a season ever.

That's the bit that I find perturbing too.

Is it a lack of options/finance or a lack of judgement?

[Fonda]

Lack of knowledge i imagine - of Stevens i mean. He doesn't know the player, and he's a player that has been at our club for 3 years. It's understandable he's reluctant to show him the door straight after walking in himself. It's a tough call. As i said elsewhere, Stevens is fortunate our manager changed, because i don't think Bucks would have offered him a new deal. But Ling is in an awkward position voer this.

[cambgull]

To be fair to Ling, he probably won't know Stevens and if you look at stats alone, Stevens probably has one of the highest appearance records of all the squad players. Therefore, it would seem very harsh from Ling's point of view to get rid of him and would only add another hole in the squad which needs filling.

Our team sheet does look very poor at the moment and losing another squad player really wouldn't do us any favours. I'm happy for Danny to warm the bench and make the odd appearance as long as we have someone of quality on the pitch for the rest of the time.

[yellow]

Good shouts from Fonda and Cambgull, however you could say that chasing individuals with a lack of knowledge amounts to the same thing as lack of judgement.

Dinger needs to work out that the PB “success story” that has been marketed is not all that it first appears.

Come to think of it,.......... so does PB himself!!

A spell in the spotlight at Bristol Rovers should do the trick on that score. :devil:

[brucie]

Well if its lack of knowledge what hope do we have. Ling is the bloody manager FFS. So it appears that he is trying to sign a player who is patently not good enough. Suggesting that Ling signs him on because he doesn't really know what Stevens is like, is nonsense.
Bloody hell if Ling doesn't know anything about our players he is going to have a big shock when he sees the likes of Rowe-Turner and Macklin in actiom.

[Fonda]

So if you'd just taken the reigns Brucie, and you had this player that you'd never seen play but who's contract was running down, would you automatically show him the door? All he can do is ask the honest opinion of those already at the club, and i wonder who there would be brave (and nasty) enough to say 'bin him, he's not up to it'. The ideal scenario would be to offer him a trial in the summer - but i doubt he'd hang around for that if he does have other irons in the fire.

[brucie]

i probably wouldn't have appointed a manager who appears to know bugger all about league 2 in the first place, and probably would not have hired one who could not apparently name his number 2 at the time of his interview.
Ok it is early days but already the signs are looking less than promising.
Ling does not appear to know whom he wants as his assistant, we are desperate to sign Danny Stevens (whom the manager knows nothing about) and we are being linked to a couple of Cambridge United cast offs. Half our squad of 14 players are not up to League 2 standard.
Things can only get better...can't they.

[Fonda]

Have to say i've not seen anything to suggest we're 'desperate' to sign him. It's reasonable that Ling mentioned him, because as a player already at the club without a contract, it's good manners. But if we were 'desperate' to sign him, he'd have signed by now. There are a lot of players out of contract, so i'd be surprised if Stevens was looking to take his chances elsewhere. I personally think Ling is loathe to show him the door, but by the same token is reluctant to sign a player he doesn't know.

[Jeff]

Its possible that Ling has offered/is offering Danny fairly reduced terms on the strength that he knows little about him.

That way he's doing the honourable thing of offering one of our longest serving current players a contract whilst not breaking the bank to do so. If Danny decides to go elsewhere, no great loss. If he signs, we've got a player who CAN (albeit inconsistently) produce the goods at L2 for a reduced salary.

[CP Gull]

Actually I'm not even sure that Ling had any option with regards to Danny Stevens.

The Herald Express gave the impression a couple of weeks ago (well before Ling was appointed) that all the out of contract players (Branston, Bevan and Stevens) had all been offered new terms. Now I'm not exactly sure how these contracts work but is it not possible that the offer of re-engagement is legally binding? In other words once TUFC have made the offer, the player probably has 28 days to accept/decline it .... but I'm not sure that TUFC have the right to withdraw it? Even if they do, it would have put Martin Ling in a slighly akward position if he came in and withdrew it, presumably without ever having seen him (Stevens) play other than maybe 10 minutes at Old Trafford.

[Warwickgull]

i probably wouldn't have appointed a manager who appears to know bugger all about league 2 in the first place, and probably would not have hired one who could not apparently name his number 2 at the time of his interview.
Ok it is early days but already the signs are looking less than promising.
Ling does not appear to know whom he wants as his assistant, we are desperate to sign Danny Stevens (whom the manager knows nothing about) and we are being linked to a couple of Cambridge United cast offs. Half our squad of 14 players are not up to League 2 standard.
Things can only get better...can't they.

1. Get over it and support our new manager

2. How the hell do you know what Ling knows about players playing in and around league 2 level. Do you think after setting up a scouting network for a Scottish premier league club he may have watched plenty of football and promissing players at league 1, 2, and conference level. There is also the small fact he got Leyton Orient out of league 2!

3. How do you know Ling doesn't know who he wants as assistant. Maybe the board wanted a say on who was going to be number 2 (Alex Russell/Chris Hargreaves etc) and Ling has to speak with them both and his own candidates before making a final decision.

4. Who from the club said we were desperate to sign Stevens, and how do you know Ling knows nothing about Stevens.

5. We are been linked with no Cambridge players, just people guessing who the manager may be looking at from his previous clubs.

A masterpiece of taking rumours and guesswork to come up with a load of negative twaddle that has no fact or substance. :slap: