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SteveDeckchair wrote:Here's a theory.

Stress at work can lead to having the odd drinky poos in an evening to unwind (i've been there myself!). Staying away from family means freedom to have a drinky poos whenever the need arises. No family to offload problems onto and take your mind off 'work' stuff.

This could be described as being caused by stress. Stress related if you like.

Who knows if Martin Ling has had a drink problem in the past? I certainly don't, but if Premiership footballers can function with one, I'm sure a league 2 manager can. Differences between the Torquay job and other jobs that Martin Ling has held? He is not living at home with his family.

I am not saying that any of this is fact (I have no idea) but you can even take drink out of the equation and the hyposthesis still stands. If nothing changes (ie in the manager's personal life), then our (the supporters) concerns are that he will relapse. That would be a disaster for our club and this is why we need to see leadership in dealing with the situation. I hope this is happening, but in the background as quite rightly, the club MUST be seen to be doing right by their employee.

My fear is that the Chairman is doing jack diddly squat and we will bumble into next season with a manager who has half a mind on the job and half a mind on trying overcome his personal demons.

austrianandygull wrote:In terms of whether Ling will have a 'relapse' should he come back then I fully agree with Dave (ForeverTUFC) and what he posted above. It's all might's and might nots and we'll never know what might happen if Martin returns until he has done so but all i'm saying is why take that risk? When there is a probability of the issue / issues recurring then why would the board want to put our club and it's fans through the ringer again for something that can be avoided by using their brains for a change? Martin may not encounter any more difficulties but if he does then we are left with another problem to deal with. We could still lose our league status because of how all this has been dealt with and associated delays and dithering and should we survive then to risk it all again is simply insanity in my book.

On the subject of the stats Matt posted then on the face of it Ling has a decent enough record and nobody can argue with it but IMO the most important factor is how those results were generated. We got to the play offs last year with a rigid gameplan which paid off. To go out, see if we could nick a goal and hang on. We did it well and regardless of how we managed it, some say it was because of O'Kane, some say our defence was better than this season, to me it's all irrelevant. The football i saw last season was also truly awful but successful. It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if this weekly gameplan of Lings suddenly began to go t*ts up then the backlash would come fairly quickly, even from fans as patient as ours.

The signs were there at the back end of last season when the gameplan deserted us at the crucial stage and we didn't have any answers. A few striking additions at that stage would have got us over the line i honestly believe but for whatever reason Ling didn't bring anyone in. In some ways i'm really glad because if we had been a league 1 club this season we'd have been down by Christmas playing the same way and with the same players and it wouldn't exactly have been a barrel of laughs, even less so than this year.

I went to Fleetwood on opening day and although it was drab and we only really had an Ian Morris shot late in the 2nd half which he should have scored, i didn't think anything of it. I then went to Vale Park and got a shock 1-1 draw after taking the lead through our only break away, Howe squaring to Morris to score. We got battered but i commended that result and playing that way as we had young Kirtys MacKenzie making his debut and he was immense. We were battered and Saah nearly scored another OG which hit the post.

After that it was Rotherham on a beautifully sunny day, a perfect opportunity to come out all guns blazing at this brand spanking new stadium. We created nothing and put in the worst performance i had seen from a Torquay side since we regained our league status. We lost pitifully 1-0. Then Chesterfield, we started brightly for the first 10 minutes and had a few half chances and then that was it, again, another breakaway goal for Howe capitalising on a defensive error on the halfway line and getting a goal from nothing. We created nothing else, 1-1. Then onto Wycombe which saw a performance even worse than the Rotherham game, we went a goal down, Howe levelled before half time with another goal from nothing, we created nothing else and they won 2-1 and we made a then struggling side look like Barcelona.

You see where i'm going with this? I said just as much at the time and was ridiculed. It soon became apparent that this 'style' of football if you pardon the totally inappropriate word used to describe it was to be Ling's preferred tactic every week. The alarm bells perhaps didn't ring for some of you because generally we had some good results at Plainmoor in between shocking away performances but gradually even these became a hoof it to Howe policy and results stopped coming. I don't know when Ling's illness began but what i do know is that had he been able to carry on we'd be down by now.

So stats or no stats, i'd rather see us mid table and enjoying the kind of football Knill promises to bring than be in the hunt for a play off spot being comatosed each game under Ling. All you would need to to is leave the ground if we scored first as you'd know that would be the end of our attacking intent and we'll either win or draw and if we went 1-0 down you could leave knowing we'd never get back into it. The thing is that we played crap and won last season but this season we are playing crap and not winning and that will lead to fans voting with their feet and i can't blame them. I personally would want to go every game i can because i love going but this season i've enjoyed 30 minutes or so away at Burton where we played really well and nothing else. Each car journey home from such places as Accrington, Bradford, Rochdale etc has

left me desolate and isolated as a Torquay fan.

i happen to think that overall Ling has done a decent job and generally his signings have been amazing for us. I want him to get better and get on with his life but there is simply no excuse for him exposing us to such atrocious football jus about EVERY week and there is NO WAY ON THIS EARTH that i want thatweekly feeling of dread to return next season whatever league we are in so pay the bloke off or move him upstairs for God's sake otherwise the words SHOOTING and FOOT and CAN and WORMS spring to mind. Why take the risk?

Sorry for the long post i just began waffling! I just cannot comprehend how anyone would think it's a good idea to have him back. If Knill stayed i reckon we'd be at least mid table and be entertained. That's all i have ever wanted.

the absence of any definitive information from the Club could indicate a lack of clarity about how to resolve the situation with serious implications for our future as a league outfit.

stevegull wrote:I perfer GurneyGibbs' post over Andy's. Took less time to read.