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Don't think you can say he was naff, he may not have been your style of manager but at least he got points and as stats show he was quite successful compared to others which have been published on this forum of late.....

We are in a far worse position with Knill than we ever were with Ling. The club should sack Knill, apologise to Ling for the way he was treated and beg him to come back. Just to remind you:

"Torquay United Board have terminated the contract of manager Martin Ling with immediate effect. A shocked and disappointed Martin Ling made the following statement: “After all the assurances during my illness and full recovery that I would be returning as manager of Torquay United, I was amazed to receive a phone call from Thea Bristow at 7 30pm on Sunday night to say that my contract with the club was being terminated.”

LMA Chief Executive Chief Executive Richard Bevan said: “We have been in close communication with the Club throughout Martin’s absence and there has never been any suggestion that he would not be welcomed back to resume his duties after making a full recovery. We now expect the Club to honour the provisions of the contract without delay and the LMA will be supporting Martin throughout the process.”

Thea sacked Ling. She can sack Knill. For the sake of the club's future in the League.. For footballing reasons..

I think he was about to take us down last season wasn't he? By not realising he had to attack teams when it became apparent that we couldn't keep clean sheets like the season before?

We can't keep taking retrograde steps. Ling is old news now and bringing him back would be a total disaster for all sorts of reasons.

Given a choice between Ling and Knill I'd have Ling all day long but we need to look forwards.

Ling is fully recovered from his illness.

Gullscorer wrote:Ling is fully recovered from his illness.

So?

For peats pity furking sake, can't we stop banging about Martin football management genius Ling, after all I am sure Cornforth and Lubos are feeling pretty smug as well. He's gone, he's in the past, what the club did last week, last month, 10 years ago what ever doesn't matter one jot right now, what matters right now, is what the club does today, tomorrow and the next day.

LEROY!

Why Leroy ? He inherited great players from Roy McFarland admittedly got them playing a great brand of football BUT could not sustain it. He didn't last long at Brentford either but people tend to forget that !!

In any case why would he give up a cosy job in a T.V studio for the madness of football management ?

GET REAL !!

AustrianAndyGull wrote:I think he was about to take us down last season wasn't he? By not realising he had to attack teams when it became apparent that we couldn't keep clean sheets like the season before?

We can't keep taking retrograde steps. Ling is old news now and bringing him back would be a total disaster for all sorts of reasons.

Given a choice between Ling and Knill I'd have Ling all day long but we need to look forwards.

Ling was still a better manager and got the best out of his players. When substitutions were made you could understand his logic. He was his own downfall in the end as the club had no choice. If you can't look forward there may be no choice!

AustrianAndyGull wrote:No way. Neither are good enough imo. This current situation only serves to highlight just how incompetent AK is as when compared with another naff manager he comes out a million miles behind.

As Rooster suggests, Ling has been our best manager in the last decade. Yeh the football was dour in the second season at times, but we were still ticking along in midtable. How I'd take that now.

People tend to forget that before Martin got ill, we were a few points off the play-off positions. Before that we showed that we can compete with anyone in the division, by winning againts the future champions (Gillingham) and drawing away to the second best team in the division - Port Vale. After he got sick, we started falling down the table, for which he could not be blamed. Nobody can convince me that it is his fault that the team got 7 straight losses in his absence. Why did the fans care so much that we were not playing entertaining football when we were still picking up points. Point is all it comes down to...I understand that if you have travelled a long distance to watch the team you expect some sort of return in terms of enertaining football, but the bottom line is that if Torquay can get the a few wins and a few draws away from home and wins the majority of the home games (which was the case) then we would never get in the position we are now - the 92nd best professional team in the country (out of 92 professional).

I can understand why people look back on the Ling episode considering the position we're in, but that was then and this is now. Although the club made a complete mess of it I still think they took the right decision at the time, I can't work out why people think he could simply walk back into the job in which nothing had changed - i.e. his personal circumstances and working conditions. In my opinion his position was untenable and he had to go, although results can't get any worse to sack Knill and bring him back would be suicide and would completely defeat the purpose of making a change. Would anyone say the stress of the job has reduced since Ling was last here? I certainly wouldn't. I was happy like most for the board to give Knill a chance but in retrospect it hasn't worked and the club has to bring in someone else or face certain relegation, but that person can't be Ling for me.

taunton_gull wrote:I can understand why people look back on the Ling episode considering the position we're in, but that was then and this is now. Although the club made a complete mess of it I still think they took the right decision at the time, I can't work out why people think he could simply walk back into the job in which nothing had changed - i.e. his personal circumstances and working conditions. In my opinion his position was untenable and he had to go, although results can't get any worse to sack Knill and bring him back would be suicide and would completely defeat the purpose of making a change. Would anyone say the stress of the job has reduced since Ling was last here? I certainly wouldn't. I was happy like most for the board to give Knill a chance but in retrospect it hasn't worked and the club has to bring in someone else or face certain relegation, but that person can't be Ling for me.

That is a fair point you are making however that is making assumptions as to the cause of his stress related illness which don't necessarily have to have been caused by managing a football team..........but obviously that is not our business

I agree nobody knows the exact specifics in relation to the cause - but it is known he had suffered depression, couple that with undertaking one of the most stressful jobs anyone can have I cannot see a positive outcome.