The Serious Torquay Thread

[elginCity]

.....It's been painful to watch the hi-jacking of your club by a 'project' that looked decidedly dodgy at the outset........

That's the bit I really don't get. You needn't be a Poirot to discover the owner's consistantly chequered track record since Eastville, including my neck of the woods. Why do these chancers even get given the time of day ?

 

[Colesman Ballz]

Good point, probably not. You should be doing much better in that league when compared to the likes of Taunton.
I still can't see why a new ground seems to be a priority for the chairman though, didn't seem much wrong with Plainmoor last time I went, maybe just needs sprucing up. Unless of course the chairman has wider ambitions not necessarily related to TUFC..

Wish you all the best, there is still a chance though the playoffs

The whole reason the Chairman is there is to get his hands on Plainmoor. He wants the Council to give it to him for redevelopment, in return for moving the Club to a new stadium. There is no way that he will spruce up or adequately maintain it, as it goes against his narrative of it being unfit for purpose.

 

[denzel]

The whole reason the Chairman is there is to get his hands on Plainmoor. He wants the Council to give it to him for redevelopment, in return for moving the Club to a new stadium. There is no way that he will spruce up or adequately maintain it, as it goes against his narrative of it being unfit for purpose.

Well yes I suspected as much. Which is why I was surprised to see that the fans anger seems more directed towards Johnson than the board

 

[Colesman Ballz]

Well yes I suspected as much. Which is why I was surprised to see that the fans anger seems more directed towards Johnson than the board

Managers are always "first in the firing line" over results, just look at us this season. The vast majority of the anger has been directed at GC, the amount aimed at the Club Board whilst existing, has been far less vociferous in comparison.

 

[Granville Gull]

What are the Trust doing about it? Or other fans groups?

Why don’t Torquay follow what Blackpool did? I was amazed at how well respected that boycott was when we visited. Yes, you had a small group who still went (we can easily guess who would do the same on here in similar circumstances). But the ground was largely empty, a void.

They continued for a long period of time even though there were obvious risks

With Torquay now, what is there to lose? A phoenix club wouldn’t be too far off your level in a few years with 2k coming through the gate

The lack of action intrigues me

It’s clear as day what the ownership are doing, why are people still turning up for it and giving them money?

TUST are essentially a group of mild-mannered, well-meaning fans but they represent the best hope. They have tried to engage with the club but are treated with suspicion and disdain to the extent the club have tried to smear the chair and the actions they have taken. The club is even setting up what it is portraying as an ‘independent supporters club’ of course of which they’ll determine who is on the steering group. Classic divide and rule by attempting to paint TUST as hooligans and troublemakers.

TUST will probably only come into being in a significant way if the club folds or is moved somewhere ridiculous out of town. At the moment, some fans seem grateful just to have a club but I don’t consider we have anything to be grateful for. It’s a zombie club, as much “our“ Torquay United as the zombies in walking dead are the people they were, a club consumed by parasites, feasting on what they hope will be the corpse of Plainmoor, ready to build houses on it.

Some people turn up out of habit, misplaced loyalty, to protest, to see friends but increasingly for me, it becomes difficult to waste money on a club I don’t even feel I likes and just makes me angry and sad. What is the point? I’ll be there when we have new owners or things change or a phoenix club emerges instead but as it is now, I can’t bring myself to go; I have better things to spend my money on.

To form a phoenix team requires will and organisation and that is muddied while the club still exists. We just feel robbed of our club, standing by helplessly while they shaft it.

 

[Granville Gull]

thats a decent attendance !I can remember the Gulls getting that in L2!!! But you're right ours would be the same.

What's your observations in terms of what's gone wrong in the Bay as a whole in the last few years?

I haven’t lived in Torquay for over 20 years so rarely see it other than my family and Plainmoor. The main thing that has gone wrong is drugs and the severe inner city issues that beset the town. Whilst Plymouth and Exeter have the same issues, I doubt its to the same extent in terms of concentration per population. The town centre is dying, nothing to attract investment. Go along the seafront and it’s still stunning and there are plenty of nice areas but the levels of crime, especially drug-driven crime, poverty make the centre and plenty of areas, place best avoided.

 

[Granville Gull]

Good point, probably not. You should be doing much better in that league when compared to the likes of Taunton.
I still can't see why a new ground seems to be a priority for the chairman though, didn't seem much wrong with Plainmoor last time I went, maybe just needs sprucing up. Unless of course the chairman has wider ambitions not necessarily related to TUFC..

Wish you all the best, there is still a chance though the playoffs

A new ground is a smokescreen. Clarke Osborne preys on clubs who (in his words) are on their knees. He covets their land and in so many cases he has got it, leaving the clubs homeless going right back to Bristol Rovers. The bloke has to be some sort of sociopath to continually do this to communities and their sporting teams. To date, going back over 4 decades of him operating in this way, he has not built a single stadium.

 

[MJP_Exeter]

A new ground is a smokescreen. Clarke Osborne preys on clubs who (in his words) are on their knees. He covets their land and in so many cases he has got it, leaving the clubs homeless going right back to Bristol Rovers. The bloke has to be some sort of sociopath to continually do this to communities and their sporting teams. To date, going back over 4 decades of him operating in this way, he has not built a single stadium.

yet he is consistently allowed to buy football clubs and not prevented from doing so. So completely wrong.

 

[Super Ronnie Jepson]

TUST are essentially a group of mild-mannered, well-meaning fans but they represent the best hope. They have tried to engage with the club but are treated with suspicion and disdain to the extent the club have tried to smear the chair and the actions they have taken. The club is even setting up what it is portraying as an ‘independent supporters club’ of course of which they’ll determine who is on the steering group. Classic divide and rule by attempting to paint TUST as hooligans and troublemakers.

TUST will probably only come into being in a significant way if the club folds or is moved somewhere ridiculous out of town. At the moment, some fans seem grateful just to have a club but I don’t consider we have anything to be grateful for. It’s a zombie club, as much “our“ Torquay United as the zombies in walking dead are the people they were, a club consumed by parasites, feasting on what they hope will be the corpse of Plainmoor, ready to build houses on it.

Some people turn up out of habit, misplaced loyalty, to protest, to see friends but increasingly for me, it becomes difficult to waste money on a club I don’t even feel I likes and just makes me angry and sad. What is the point? I’ll be there when we have new owners or things change or a phoenix club emerges instead but as it is now, I can’t bring myself to go; I have better things to spend my money on.

To form a phoenix team requires will and organisation and that is muddied while the club still exists. We just feel robbed of our club, standing by helplessly while they shaft it.

Out of interest, why wait until the corpse of the current one is cold? Why not form a phoenix club now a la AFC Wimbledon?

 

[Rosencrantz]

yet he is consistently allowed to buy football clubs and not prevented from doing so. So completely wrong.

Not just football clubs but speedway as well. Some more background here. Is there anywhere he has bought into that hasn't involved selling or leaving a stadium to "build" a new one?