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I want us to comfortably avoid relegation, be in League two next season, chalk this season off as a year of consolidation whilst our off the pitch activities get set up and paid for. With that done I expect a pretty drastic turnover and investment in the playing staff given that many are out of contract at the end of the season. I then want us aiming for the top 10 of league two, playing a different brand of football that our slightly higher playing budget will allow.

I want and expect Martin Ling to oversee all of this. Just like i did last season.

yeah..................what he said

austrianandygull

Fair enough Chris. I probably just like to look for negatives in errr, negatives.

You're a master of the art Andy , but don't underestimate yourself, as you're a dab hand at trying to spin a positive into a negative also.

There have been plenty of people expressing their concerns this weekend that we are heading for a relegation scrap. I doubt they'll admit it, but I suspect a fair number of them having seen your comment:

We as fans can be understanding to a point and then if our concerns are not addressed or acknowledged then obviously the more reactive and impatient amongst us are are going to become frustrated and disillusioned.

Were secretly saying to themselves 'aha Andy will be pleased, Ling has come out and acknowledged our concerns that we need to start winning again if we're going to avoid the relegation scrap that worries us. That's the very thing he was asking for.

Ling:

" we've got to start looking over our shoulder a little bit if we don't start getting wins soon"

The sense of realism and acknowledgement of the fans concerns....just what you were calling for we thought....but no !

The way you've been able to then use those very words as an excuse to slate Ling certainly made me chuckle.

But my absolute favourite after all the 'why must he come out with negativities' and 'Why get bogged down by making negative comments' was when in the very next paragraph you do a complete U turn and criticise his postive message to the team, and claim it should have been more negative.

Let's just, for the sake of it , say that you are right and Ling is wrong, and that Torquay were not the better side on Saturday. What is wrong with him sending a positive message to the players in saying he believed they were the better team ? Why not give them a positive message to lift their spirits after a defeat even if he may be exaggerating slightly to boost their confidence ?

Don't feel for a moment that you confine yourself to looking for negatives in err negatives , as just judging by your posts today you're capable of so much more.
If anyone can twist a positive around and argue it should have been negative ,or perform the trick in reverse it's definitely you.

Stating the obvious but it really is football, through the dawns of time from the good old letters pages in newspapers and teletext to football phone ins and now this thing called the internet football fans have opinions and express them, when your team is at the top the manager can do no wrong say nothing wrong, when your getting beat and sliding down the league faster than a tarts thong the manager must watch his P'S AND Q'S because everthing he and says will be analyzed to it's every detail as will every team selection and tatics used. It is nothing new nor was it invented by fans Torquay United.

I have been critical through out the season of some of Martin Ling public comments at last I can applaud him, you cant fix a problem if your in denial, our current form and league position is alarming. After Saturday despite the improved performance we lost and are now in relegation trouble, I wanted the board and manager to understand this and get tp grips with it, this interview shows me Lingy does get it, now lets fix it.

In general this season has been pretty poor standard. Some of us have been proved right ie we have a squad load full of players who are not good enough. Our league position for much of the season has really been above that of our peformances. Ling has frittered 70k away on a player who has played well in about two games all season.
Our slide down the table isn't really suprising given the way we have been playing. We have gone out of each cup at the first time of asking including probably the worst result in our history agains a Harrogate team who were still playing at ten o'clock at night three days before they came to Plainmoor.
LIng's excuse for this was that we couldn't get motivated against lower standard teams (nonsense) and then repeated the dose on new years day against Wimbledon.
Ling then created an international incident out of a supporter reasonably asking him why the keeper didn't kick the ball down the opposite side of the field to that which looked like it had had a herd of cows grazing on it in the same game.
We have still shown no urgency in addressing the situation and getting in a player or two even though there is a player in Zebroski who is ready and waiting and despite his off field antics would improve the quality of the team no end.
We ship late goals in almost every game and when we do get in front it seems the manager's tactic is to try and win one nil. When this almost always comes unstuck Ling whinges that we managed to win by this scoreline in every game last season.
Full confidence in the manager? - no chance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20942556

"We need to strand up and be counted and be a little bit more professional. We'll need to be at our best against a good Exeter team."

Possibly a typo, or has Ling decided coastal puns are our path back to form?! Here's hoping we can turn the tide with a win tonight, although that will need a sea change in our ability to convert chances and defend in the closing minutes! Sorry, I'm blaming pre-derby nerves….!

brucie wrote: Full confidence in the manager? - no chance.

Brucie, when have you ever had anything approaching any sort of confidence in a Torquay United manager? You're the kind of chap who could fall out of a plane and land in the hot tub at the Playboy mansion and complain that water is too cold.

Chris B wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20942556

"We need to strand up and be counted and be a little bit more professional. We'll need to be at our best against a good Exeter team."

Possibly a typo, or has Ling decided coastal puns are our path back to form?! Here's hoping we can turn the tide with a win tonight, although that will need a sea change in our ability to convert chances and defend in the closing minutes! Sorry, I'm blaming pre-derby nerves….!

I would respect Ling so much if this is a genuine tactic. Sea you at the game! ^.^

Happytorq - so what am I supposed to say, why shouldn't I speak the truth. And what happened last night - exactly the same tactic as I said sit back and try and win 1-0. You may not like it but I was proved right again.

Brucie,

You and I often disagree, however I have a genuine question.
You say that you have no confidence in the manager, yet last night in the first half we outplayed a team in third position in the league.
We drew against a team that almost everybody predicted we would lose to by a considerable amount of goals - in fact you even told us on here that you were not going to go as you were certain that we were going to get hammered.
My question - given that we played well against Burton, albeit we lost (even Andy thought we were excellent!!), and also taking into account we got one point more than most people thought we were going to get last night, can you not see that we may, slowly, have started to turn a corner? That Ling may, finally, be getting the team to do what he is asking them to do?

Scott Brehaut wrote:Brucie,

You and I often disagree, however I have a genuine question.
You say that you have no confidence in the manager, yet last night in the first half we outplayed a team in third position in the league.
We drew against a team that almost everybody predicted we would lose to by a considerable amount of goals - in fact you even told us on here that you were not going to go as you were certain that we were going to get hammered.
My question - given that we played well against Burton, albeit we lost (even Andy thought we were excellent!!), and also taking into account we got one point more than most people thought we were going to get last night, can you not see that we may, slowly, have started to turn a corner? That Ling may, finally, be getting the team to do what he is asking them to do?

brucie wrote:Happytorq - so what am I supposed to say, why shouldn't I speak the truth. And what happened last night - exactly the same tactic as I said sit back and try and win 1-0. You may not like it but I was proved right again.

It would just be nice if there was ever an end to your pessimism. I think I've been seeing you write on this forum for just over 10 years now and you always seems to relish in the negativity. It's not specifically about your most recent comment, necessarily. I don't know if you have unrealistic expectations of a club like Torquay, or whether you genuinely are unable to be positive about anything. Often I'm not even sure why you follow the team, you seem to dislike it so much.

Martin Ling is a Torquay United legend in the making. He is a consummate manager who knows what he is doing, and despite severe financial restrictions, a poor pitch and ridiculously small crowds at matches, he is gradually building the foundations for success at this club, and the last thing he needs is empty-headed fans who think they know better than he does telling him what to do. Please, let him get on with his job and let's give him and his squad our full support.

Well said mate, couldn't be happier with the way he is doing his job.

Gullscorer wrote:Martin Ling is a Torquay United legend in the making. He is a consummate manager who knows what he is doing, and despite severe financial restrictions, a poor pitch and ridiculously small crowds at matches, he is gradually building the foundations for success at this club, and the last thing he needs is empty-headed fans who think they know better than he does telling him what to do. Please, let him get on with his job and let's give him and his squad our full support.

We may be suffering in the short term but you're exactly right. Our budget was always going to be tight this season following the building of the new stand and the ongoing development of training facilities plus our added focus on youth development. But with all this infrastructure work going on behind the scenes it actually looks like a fairly bright future in my eyes.