Neal wrote:"No manager ever, be it football or business, is going to get all their hires right. But I would go as far as to say Knill got them almost all wrong. That is unforgivable in any industry, the fact that Hawley, Tongue, Benyon etc had some pedigree but were terrible for us is Knills fault, whether it was because of the players or the way he managed them is up for debate, but who is to blame isn't."
Exactly my point!! Knill was paid to get these right, HE DIDNT, AND...... we still have the legacy today which is affecting the current squad. That's the point that many just cannot grasp!
Someone mentioned a director of football. Well the last one we had most of you moaned about! And, ok we can get one, but I would think that they would want paying, so that's 2 more players off the squad then.
It all sounds so easy doesn't it, just do x and it will be ok, but everything costs money!!!! Come on Thea put your hand in your pocket again because some of us fans know how to do it better. CH said in the Herald this week that if the truth was known how much she puts in we would be shocked, I believe that. AND without her we would probably not exist at all by now or be part time.
I grasp you Neal, although not physically obviously - that would be a scene. :Oops: But yeah, i totally understand where you are coming from re: Knill and how he failed.
I think Knill failed all ends up not just because of the calibre of player he signed but also because he also continued to include some of Ling's leftovers with alarming regularity, even when they were not performing week after week after week.
This was either because Knill had managed them appallingly or because they were quite simply not good enough and even when it was quite clear they weren't good enough or have never produced the goods they still got game time.
Players that were managed appallingly like Mansell who seems to have a new lease of life at Brizzle, a life sucked from him by the monotonous drabness that is AK Management. Nico the same, possibly his worst season last and now enjoying life away from the poison that is TUFC at Kiddy. The West Midlands side being 4 points clear of Torquay with a game in hand.
Damon Lathrope never got a look in under Knill and was farmed out to Hereford despite it becoming increasingly clear that he was urgently required in the middle of the park and despite the fact that he was one of the better more reliable players in the squad. He is now at Aldershot but i believe he is at least middle table league 2 quality.
Players who were not good enough and were often given game time despite previously offering nothing were players like Elliot Benyon who also was left over from the Ling / Taylor regime despite not being in form for the past 4 years. When he left Torquay for Swindon in Jan 2011 he had scored 46 goals in 88 appearances in all comps for Torquay. At Swindon, Southend and Wycombe he totalled less than 5 goals for those three clubs and then came back to Torquay on a full time basis where he scored 3 in 24 appearances in a side that badly needed goals. He is now at Hayes & Yeading on loan.
Tom Cruise, from Arsenal to Arse. Not me, the words of Father Jack. If i continued on that basis then it would be quite clear that the next word that would most aptly describe the feelings of Torquay fans last season whenever he was in the line up would be FECK.
One of the worst full backs i've seen and i think conference level is even stretching his levels of ability. Another poor player left behind from the Ling regime that AK continued to deploy despite him being consistently bad.
Obviously Billy Bodin was available to Knill despite showing absolutely nothing in the season before. Knill had to play him to be fair to see if he could find the magic formula with Billy. I get that. I don't get sticking with a player that had shown nothing the previous season and then begins the new season in the same vein. It is like playing with 10 men half the time and given AK persisted with other players who were poor week in week out (not just Billy) then i dare say in some games it appeared that Torquay were playing with 8 men or less on an all too regular basis.
So these are the players Ling left that AK had to work with BEFORE he signed his own. I can kind of slightly understand that to a certain extent that AK had to play certain players due to injury / suspension which he tried to address by bringing in loanees. Anthony O'Connor, John Marquis and Paul McCallum perhaps being the stand outs but offset by Callum Ball, Adebayo Azeez. AK didn't do too badly with his loanees to be fair. It was more his permanent signings that caused the problems.
Also AK had a small squad therefore if 4,5,6 players were not good enough or underperforming most weeks then it would be difficult and disruptive to drop them all. Not least because who would come in to replace them?
This is management though. Like Neal says, he was PAID good money to make decisions and to get results. The only management decision i saw Alan execute was to try and get out of a hole that he couldn't fill by bringing in loan players at a further cost to the club. McCallum helped get the win at Bury as well as notching a couple more and O'Connor shored up the defence a bit. He simply could not manage the players he had at his disposal and as Torquay aren't Real Madrid, the option to buy his way out of failure wasn't there.
During the summer Alan appeared to take an age in adding to the squad. Perfectly understandable given the pressure each prospective player is under to relocate such a distance for such little money. That said, hearing reports of what some of his signings were on may have made this decision a bit easier.
Courtney Cameron came in and although still a young lad, it was soon clear he was struggling to produce the standard required for league 2 football. Failed signing.
Jordan Chappell arrived with a promising reputation and an interesting future. A tricky little winger seemingly with an end product. Seeing him hit his brace up at Sixfields early on in the season excited me greatly. Sadly i can honestly say that that second half at Northampton was the highlight of the season. Torquay never again to my knowledge hit those heights or anywhere near again. Obvioulsy i missed the Pompey win so i guess that compared.
Chappell (the promising footballer) basically disappeared off the face of the planet after this and i have absolutely no idea why. Maybe AK knows? Failed signing.
Karl Hawley came in, a man with a once predatory instinct in front of the onion bag most notably at Carlisle where he banged them in left right and centre. Again like Chappell, i was lucky enough to witness the one decent thing produced in a full season and that was his curler up at Morecambe in the first away game. Again, after that, Hawley (the once prolific goalgetter) basically disappeared off the face of the earth. AK still carried on starting him for a long time before realising about 10 games after the fans did that he was never going to score again or never really offered any danger. Now at Alfreton. Failed signing.
Dale Tonge, a man with a pretty solid lower league pedigree. Got forward loads at Morecambe before getting sent off and after that i don't think he passed the half way line again thus always giving the opposition little option but to attack him at will as he sat deeper and deeper. Why didn't Knill tell him to overlap anymore? Has the turning circle of the QE2 and the awareness of a blind rabbit. Failed signing.
Ben Harding came in too having helped Northampton reach the play offs in his previous season. If this bloke was bald then Torquay would have been in business but spent half the game stroking his hair and the other half jockeying players despite standing 85 miles away from them. Started the season as though he was invisible and got worse. AK stuck with him and i believe he got injured. Sad that it takes an injury to improve the side and not a great managerial decision to change things. Failed signing.
The young lads like Sullivan, Yeoman etc were not given a fair chance either.
IMO Knill did make one decent signing and that is Krystian Pearce but even Knill tried to diminish his confidence by starting him then dropping him then starting him then dropping him and so on and so forth.
So Knill FAILED to manage existing players properly and FAILED to manage his own players properly.
Given this, the next decision was critical.
The board had to sack Knill surely?
They did so but IMO and many others i don't doubt far too late. It was obvious in October that he looked totally inept as highlighted by performances and results.
Having said that though, the decision to appoint CH was the one which relegated TUFC regardless of timing. If CH had of taken over in October then TUFC will still have been relegated IMO.
To be totally blunt, when Knill went Torquay needed to stick someone in the hot seat who knew what the **** they were doing from day one. Someone with experience and someone who had something about them to shake things up. It would have cost money for sure but like Dave (forever) said on another post - chucking money at staying up was essential. Now look at things. If TUFC had stayed up then any outlay would be easier to deal with eventually.
Obviously there was always the chance that the club could have chucked money at someone and Torquay would still have gone down. If that was the case then how would things be any different to how they are now?
As a consequence of all this, TUFC are now managed by a man who clearly, despite his rawness hasn't the nous nor man management skills to become a successful manager. That means that Torquay United cannot progress so how is that better than being in the same boat but with less money should it have been ploughed into trying to save league status last season?
I did have some sympathy with Chris at first but at the end of the day he made all the media soundbites, he convinced the board he was the right man for the job (not sure if his interview technique won them over or the fact that he wanted a weekly packet of skips as a salary) and he let down the fans.
If the board simply had NOTHING with which to appoint a new manager then that's fair enough. Knill AND Ling had to be paid off and contracts of players had to be honoured. They chose Chris as a cheap option and it went wrong. If they WERE in a position to find the cash somehow to get in a renowned old head for the run in then they have mugged the fans off true and proper. I simply do not know which is the case so i cannot comment either way on what was right or wrong. Only they know.
The point is that the club are struggling and have a man in charge who had nearly half season to keep Torquay up. I believe he signed up Shaun Cooper who was the footballing equivalent of the Marie Celeste, he re-signed Danny Stevens to what end i simply have no idea, he added Conor Wilkinson, Aiden O'Brien, Jayden Stockley and Enoch Showunmi and offered fans who had set off for Hartlepool at about 4am spending lots of cash..........................a free pint.
I saw worse performances under CH than Knill and his response to being backs against the wall was to do nothing. Now he openly criticises players in public and shows little sign of learning tactically or exercising common sense.
Like i said before, Knill, Ling, Hargreaves, the board, the fans, gilbert, a sausage roll, keith chegwin or whatever or whoever. I think everyone had a part to play in relegation, although not sure about the sausage roll. I know for a fact that Keith Chegwin was hired to fire off motivational speeches before matches as he had energy and positivity and didn't care what clothes he wore. Can't say the same about CH i'm afraid.
The TUST is a great thing and must be enquired about. Not just that though, a group needs to be formed to be in some sort of position to prop up the club financially short term if anything went wrong. It's not just about helping to sign a player but it's about having a short term back up for when Thea decides enough is enough.
I don't know the lady but i can imagine that chucking cash at nobodies for no reward could soon become tiresome and could soon become a thing of the past meaning the club needs a back up.
The TUST or any organisation created to secure the short term future of the club if anything went wrong is vital. The above highlights a lot of negatives but now is a time for moving forward that all yellows should embrace. Only you can make it happen.
Like Neal says, GRASP it and be proud and part of it. Do it for yourselves, your club and your town.
