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Bridportgull wrote:Iam glad this tread has generated a good discussion , from my perspective I really enjoyed the leroy era the football we played was a good as anything we played in a long time .Once we got promoted to league one I felt leroy was then out of his depth and we became a relegation team before we kicked a ball . That was the one only year I bought a season ticket so I did watch every game comuting from Ilminster for every match .

I also enjoyed Leroy's brand of football. He was fortunate in inheriting a good group of players. I disagree that we were relegation fodder. We fought against teams with higher budgets and only just failed at the end to stay up.

Knowles and Buckle did really well as managers when you consider their starting points.

Leroy got relegated from League 1 with, I think 52 points? It's almost unheard of and very unlucky. We battled in that division with a squad that simply wasn't competitive. Unfortunately at that time we didn't have lots of cash sloshing around to make the necessary changes. Quite apart from players, Leroy didn't have any staff either! He was a one man band, and it's 'miraculous' that we got as close as we did to staying up.

As for describing Buckle's performance as 'miraculous', I just don't see that. He gave us some fabulous, memorable moments, but it simply can't be denied the odds were stacked in his favour for a lot of the time during his tenure. We had new owners that literally couldn't do enough to help. Not only was there cash to spend, there were backroom staff and a real desire to succeed. I'm not surer any other TUFC manager has worked in those conditions.

I didn't like Buckle when he arrived and I didn't like him any more when he left. The style of his departure came as no surprise to me and I was amazed that fans can have been so naive about the man to have felt - and continue to feel - so betrayed. Glostergull speculates that Buckle may be a Grecian at heart but I always got the impression Buckle was primarily a Paul Buckle man at heart.

Having said all that, I would rank him as the best Gulls manager in my 35 years of support.

Buckle was and is an odious little twerp. We were promoted in spite of him not because of him. Player fallouts, endless signings of underperforming players and an unwarranted arrogance has put him where he rightfully belongs.

All this codswallop about doing well to get us out of the Conference so quickly is just taking the credit from the Board who provided him with an unparalelled budget and backroom staff, he also achieved his high percentage of wins at a lower level than the others mentioned. Taking over a club virtually wiped clean of players made his job easy, especially after being privy to the list of targets put together by Tisdale.

Credit Buckle? No feckin chance. Goodbye to bad rubbish.

Southampton Gull wrote:Buckle was and is an odious little twerp. We were promoted in spite of him not because of him. Player fallouts, endless signings of underperforming players and an unwarranted arrogance has put him where he rightfully belongs.

All this codswallop about doing well to get us out of the Conference so quickly is just taking the credit from the Board who provided him with an unparalelled budget and backroom staff, he also achieved his high percentage of wins at a lower level than the others mentioned. Taking over a club virtually wiped clean of players made his job easy, especially after being privy to the list of targets put together by Tisdale.

Credit Buckle? No feckin chance. Goodbye to bad rubbish.

I couldn't agree more. Had a huge budget and I actually think with the players we had we under performed.

Did you like him or not then SG? You really must make yourself clear!

I'm still undecided mate

Southampton Gull wrote:Buckle was and is an odious little twerp. We were promoted in spite of him not because of him. Player fallouts, endless signings of underperforming players and an unwarranted arrogance has put him where he rightfully belongs.

All this codswallop about doing well to get us out of the Conference so quickly is just taking the credit from the Board who provided him with an unparalelled budget and backroom staff, he also achieved his high percentage of wins at a lower level than the others mentioned. Taking over a club virtually wiped clean of players made his job easy, especially after being privy to the list of targets put together by Tisdale.

Credit Buckle? No feckin chance. Goodbye to bad rubbish.

Couldn't stand the bloke and you know what it's actually worse than that, he wanted to come back! cheeky git.

How on gods green earth he can be compared to likes of Cyril Knowles is totally beyond me. Cyril did the best with what he had, the true sign of a good manager.

Sussed in minutes at Rovers with his lack of respect of anyone that didn't think bucklespeak. Rovers fans wind me up with their "we hate buckle more than you" song, highly unlikely. He took the piss out of our club with his "unless you sign my player improvement programme you don't play" contracts.

Guess Rebecca Lowe married him for his body and sense of humour ha ha ha not for football nouse .

usagullmichigan wrote:
I couldn't agree more. Had a huge budget and I actually think with the players we had we under performed.

Should have gone up straight away IMO. The Exeter game still annoys me now.

Southampton Gull wrote:Buckle was and is an odious little twerp. We were promoted in spite of him not because of him. Player fallouts, endless signings of underperforming players and an unwarranted arrogance has put him where he rightfully belongs.

All this codswallop about doing well to get us out of the Conference so quickly is just taking the credit from the Board who provided him with an unparalelled budget and backroom staff, he also achieved his high percentage of wins at a lower level than the others mentioned. Taking over a club virtually wiped clean of players made his job easy, especially after being privy to the list of targets put together by Tisdale.

Credit Buckle? No feckin chance. Goodbye to bad rubbish.

One thing you have to thank Buckle for is your favourite player!!

As a outsider I thought Buckle did really well with you, as did Leroy Rosenior.

lucy6lucy wrote: One thing you have to thank Buckle for is your favourite player!!

Why? It wasn't his contacts that landed Poke

Nick wrote: Should have gone up straight away IMO. The Exeter game still annoys me now.

I agree. We had the best team in the league by a long shot.

Leroy was by far the best manager i can remember us having - I'm only 25 tho - i love reading the hate for bucks not popular anywhere it seems - i hated the way he would get on the fans for not creating the right atmosphere when things weren't going well - and i hate him for the league 2 playoff final when he was just stood there quite obviously thinking about what time his bus to Bristol is, but he did a job - i'm just glad we are a football league side.