Has Ling pulled the wool over everyones eyes

[SBGULL]

I have to wonder if Ling really has got what it takes....his signings have hardly been inspirational and the lacklustre performance against a poor Tiverton side only makes me feel that he's goin to drag us back to the depths of the Bateson days. McPhee and Rice resigning is a complete joke as far as im concerned and takes us backwards.This club was moving forward rapidly last year and now we are in a "tranistional period" which to me is the get out of jail card because we havent replaced Paul Buckle with an influentional manager and gives Ling an excuse to sign, with the exception of Leadbitter, 3 very poor div 3 players. It just doesnt look good to me right now...we dont even have a full squad.... and with the players we have I cant see us finishing above the bottom 4. Fingers in Pies Mr Ling...right now its custard pie in our faces.

[bixieupnorth]

hmmm, i wonder which camp yr gonna fall into mate, go over to the corner and sit with brucie et al!!

give the poor bloke a chance please, one pre season friendly is not a pointer to the whole season! you may well be proved right, but lets give him ten games at least before we jump on him from a great height!

anyway, its all bloody buckles fault we're in this situation, hes the man we need to blame! ****!

[bobby93]

people need to chill out.

he's been in charge for what, a month? and in that time we've played one (pre season) game, in which two completely different sides were fielded. you can hardly base anything on that.

[HRG]

I don't know how anyone can decide how our season will pan out after one friendly game.

Give it time. We have a few new players who need time to adjust and find their feet amongst the squad which is exactly what these pre-season games are for, to see who fits best where, who works best with who etc.

Hopefully Ling's next signing makes you feel a little more positive about the immediate future. Whoever that may be.

[TUFC92]

Mcphee was a kid when he was here before, at his first club away from home, he is now a grown man who is settled in the area and a far better player than when he left.

Rice, ok so he wasn't great, but he certainly isn't as bad as everyone makes out. His weakness is that he isn't that tall so can't claim crosses as well as someone like Bevan, but that is why he is in the lower leagues. Plus, at the moment he is second choice, it isn't like he has come in as our only keeper is it?

As for you saying about with the exception of Leadbitter he has signed 3 very poor div 3 players, well surely that just shows you're talking out of your arse because how would you know how good Leadbitter is? If you're rating him as a good signing after one pre season game, just because he was at Newcastle, then nobody should take any notice of your massive over reaction at all!

[Warwickgull]

I have to wonder if Ling really has got what it takes....his signings have hardly been inspirational and the lacklustre performance against a poor Tiverton side only makes me feel that he's goin to drag us back to the depths of the Bateson days. McPhee and Rice resigning is a complete joke as far as im concerned and takes us backwards.This club was moving forward rapidly last year and now we are in a "tranistional period" which to me is the get out of jail card because we havent replaced Paul Buckle with an influentional manager and gives Ling an excuse to sign, with the exception of Leadbitter, 3 very poor div 3 players. It just doesnt look good to me right now...we dont even have a full squad.... and with the players we have I cant see us finishing above the bottom 4. Fingers in Pies Mr Ling...right now its custard pie in our faces.

See you joined this morning at 4am and this is your first post, mmmmm these gas fans are so sad it is untrue. If you are a Torquay supporter you need to up your dosage! :~D

[Dave]

If Paul Buckle had got the player budget amount agreed that he wanted,what club do you think he would now be manager of ? Simple answer,Torquay united.

The whole reason why Buckle left was because his player budget was being cut to a level he thought was not competative,what choice do you think the club had in cutting the player budget ? Simple answer,none.Us Tufc fans have to take some of the blame for that,what sort spending level do you think a poxy ave home gate of 2639 would support ?

Has Ling pulled the wool over everyone's eye's ? No ,not at all,it is rumoured that his player budget is in the around the £800k mark,how far do you think that is going to stretch ?,i think Ling has taken his time and spent what little money he has got wisely,i have to admit he has signed one to many players with apoint to prove,however if ling gets the man mangement side of things right with,Stevens,Macklin,McPhee and Howe,the team are going to do just fine.

Think what us fan's have to understand,is if we want our club to push onto the next level we need to our bit as well,instead of giving it,oh the same old,same fecking tufc,thats it i am never fecking going again,get out and support your team whether its just a handfull of games,or every game,all fans are needed and welcome.

[Father Jack]

Arse! Where did my 1st reply go?

Didnt there used to be someone on the old dot.net board with the initials SB who spent all their time slagging off (in no particular order) Bateson/managers/players?? Perhaps his meds have been cut back a bit and he's allowed near a keyboard now?

Drink!

[Trojan 67]

How can Dinger pull the wool over everyones eyes when the man has his hands in pies ?

[friendlygas]

Looking from the outside I don't think martin Ling has pulled the wool over antbodys eyes. In a way we were in the same positiuon as you just on a slightly higher scale due to the fact we are in Bristol and you are in Torquay.Your average gate 2700,our average 6300. Relegation has caused us to halve our budget. Mr Trollope had probably double the budget to get players and in my mind that can be a disadvantage because he looked on it that he would buy quality rather than quantity so he was looking all the time at top League 1 or Championship players,very rarely looking at League 2 players (Lambert was the exception) He didnt look for a bargain and we always ended up paying a fortune (in our terms) for quite often, journeymen who were interested in making their money and little else. Buckle is an ambitious Manager ,of that there is little doubt and the reason he came to us was because he saw it as the NEXT step up. I personally think he would have joined us even if he had been given an increased budget or had got you promoted. Very few Managers stay at a club more than three or four years as the stats show and the fact that Trolls when he left us after 5 years was the 7th Longest serving Manager!! When I say the next step up I am not talking about the ability of the playing side because I can tell you at the end of last season Torquay United were playing far better football than we were. Truth is we are not "too big a club" to fall into the non league and nearly did in 2002 but we also in opposite extreme have the potential to be in the Championship. My real points are that Budgets are mostly reduced this season which limits the players a club can be realistically looking at,but the art of being a successful Manager is to put together the best unit you can within the Budget you are given to get a squad that can play well "Together". technically we had very gifted and technically good players last season but as a team they were "bloody useless".
You wont know until Martin Ling has signed the final players of "his jigsaw" and they have played 10 or so games just how good or how bad they are. You might be pleasantly surprised and that is the joy of football and just remember the Supporters are NEVER to blame because they will be their LONG after the players and Managers have left. Your 2700 are as valuable as the 6300 to us or the 12000 to Bristol City or the 80000 to Manchester United!!
Keep faith. I always beleive that in the lower leagues the Board have always got the Clubs interest at heart.Why else would they do it? A reduced budget will amost certainly see that future generations of Torquay Fans have a club to watch.

[highweekgull]

I'm sure some people just "support" United so they can moan

I moan when a player/manager doesn't try hard enough or keeps making the same mistakes (Mr Buckle!!!) but how can we slag off people before anything has actually happened?

I am actually much much happier than I was a month or so ago, some very good (for this level) signings, some excellent support players and hopefully a manager and coach who will actually coach the players on how to play football at this level rather than just hoping it sorta works out - oh and will you play out of position please?

Get back to your sad life you moaning git and actually do something useful for a change!

[stratfordgull]

Yep nice first post.....wonder when you'll see your first Torquay game to match? In my opinion, the Rice signing for example is a great piece of business. We want our first choice keeper to play 46+ games this season ( cup runs will obviously make this 56+ ;o) ) so should we blow most of our massive budget on a top notch keeper to keep the bench nice and shiny with his hairy arse for all of these games, or should we take a player who is clearly a developing keeper with a keeness to fight for a place in the team, who will also help with the first choice keeper.....The other signings are interesting and doubtless one may not prove so great, others may work out well. I'm on the side of it tipping in our favour! YELLOW!!!!

[Fonda]

I think the OP makes a good point. I mean, Ling obviously has a hugely competetive budget, and has opted to bring in the players he has 'for a laugh'.

There is no wool present. We are not in a 'transitional period' because we have have a manager with things to prove and average signings. We have average signings and a manager with things to prove because we are in a transitional period.

If people are going to come on here all through the season making comments such as 'it was better when Buckle was here' or 'just look how well Buckle's doing at Rovers', it's going to be a very long, boring season.

Our budget is smaller now, and the manager has got his work cut out to create a successful team. How about we support him in that aim, rather than criticising him before a competetive ball has been kicked in anger?

[AustrianAndyGull]

Yeah you're right SBGULL, we're f****d. We can't even beat a poor Tiverton side convincingly and the players Ling has brought in are dire. Hey i'm not gonna support Torquay any more and maybe we should both start supporting Chelsea. Have a day off will ya mate. I've posted some tripe on this forum but at least i had the sense to not make such a shockingly negative and opinion what would appear to be based on no football knowledge whatsoever on my very first one! Even Brucie would have struggled to beat that one! We have got lots of new players bedding in, some with it to prove yes, plus Ling has to find out his best/preferred formation and style he wants to adopt. On top of that some players are trying to improve their fitness. This is what friendlies are all about. They count for nothing. Obviously if we had been battered by Tiverton 6-0 and looked completely disjointed then i would be scratching my head a little but not worried but we won! Ling knows what he is doing and lets all crack on and get singing!!!

[hector]

I feel that Ling's signings so far have been very mixed. I am hopeful that the keeper and Saah will be adequate signings but it is going to take time for me to be won over by the re-signing of McPhee. I don't think he would have been a first-team regular in last season's team and if he is is to be a key player it sort of demonstrates we better get used to the prospect of a hard season.

Hopefully, Leadbitter is full of potential but the re-signing of Martin Rice is a shocker.

It is amazing how many people want to re-write history, simply because Rice and McPhee have returned. This nonsense that Rice is a bit old so is bound to be better is ridiculous. He was out of Truro's team for a while last season.

As for Ling's role in this...well it sounds as though Rice, himself, engineered the move. Has Ling even seen him play?

Sign poor players and it means only one thing. Ling's signings for me so far are probably 4 or 5 out of 10.