Torquay's Management Team On The Way Out.

ejh wrote:

Czarcasm wrote:

sufferedsince 68 wrote:

Les Miserable wrote:

17 pasoti fans

Will they have a half time auction?

Nool has demanded that the Argyle Superstore commission a truckfull of half & half scarves - One half will be a GT's coach, and the other half will be adorned with an image of Nool taking photos from the driving seat of a BMW, while Oddball gives James a hand shandy in the back seat.

Maybe KJN can donate the boxfuls of Bob Marley 'don't worry' mugs he had made, that didn't exactly fly off the shelves?

Dont forget the t-shirts too. Heck, why not donate all the pasoti merchandise too thats collecting cobwebs in the storeroom

Where's plebby..that bhey will save em for a few pictures in the herald..or plenty of room for him to climb up the torquay social ladder..the tosser

Interesting point...  Not so long ago Webb would have been all over this.  Now he doesn't even post on Pasoti.  Not a word about that from Nool.

... and not a word on the farm about the failure of the club president to currently fulfill his previous duties!

Will the AFT be bringing the situation up with PAFC?

Keep up Ricks. He's a hired gunslinger these days. Torquay can't afford him.

I clearly remember him making a specific point of finishing off his "unpaid work" at the club, as opposed to paid activities.
So, I guess it follows, Argyle can't afford him either.
He'll probably pipe up when Jimmy needs some fan back up over property development issues, if and when the price of blocks is favourable to " money coming out of London"

Rickler wrote:

Interesting point...  Not so long ago Webb would have been all over this.  Now he doesn't even post on Pasoti.  Not a word about that from Nool.

... and not a word on the farm about the failure of the club president to currently fulfill his previous duties!

Will the AFT be bringing the situation up with PAFC?

quite rite rickler..normally the tosser would be all over this like a rash you would catch down millbay!....LARRY-0 4 PRES I SAY

He was on the the Waterloo train going to the first Wimbledon match with Lee Jameson.

Any new appointment made ?

Elias wrote:

Any new appointment made ?

can they afford to make one?

Kevin Nicholson is the new boss..Being paid daily in cheese and ham sandwiches, a flask a tea and a bus ticket

Never heard of him

Elias wrote:

Never heard of him

he played for them till last year basically he is their carl fletcher

God its that bad !!!!

Kevin was a good quality player for the Gulls over several seasons and I wish him well, he may turn it around and of I course hope he does, but it is that difficult scenario of a rookie manager coming into a club who are basically at rock bottom.
Someone has already mentioned the Carl Fletcher comparison, but Kevin is not Carl and it is a different individual situation all round. Only time will tell if appointing a rookie manager than an established/experienced name was the right decision.
COME ON YOU GULLS!

How is Where's Webby's motivational speaking career going anyway ? I fought ee'd struggle .

akagreengull wrote:

Kevin was a good quality player for the Gulls over several seasons and I wish him well, he may turn it around and of I course hope he does, but it is that difficult scenario of a rookie manager coming into a club who are basically at rock bottom.
Someone has already mentioned the Carl Fletcher comparison, but Kevin is not Carl and it is a different individual situation all round. Only time will tell if appointing a rookie manager than an established/experienced name was the right decision.
COME ON YOU GULLS!

only difference between the two despite carl being the far better player is Kevin has at least started his coaching badges where Carl didnt even have 20 metre swimming badge. Im sure if kevin has an experienced assistant/coach alongside him it would make all the difference but his job is not an easy one given how skint the club and new owners are.

Tringreen wrote:

How is Where's Webby's motivational speaking career going anyway ? I fought ee'd struggle .

Tbf I doubt very much if he needs to work. The ex-Mrs Purse will have got a nice lump in the divorce settlement from Mr Purse, who was earning 8-10k a week for a fair proportion of his career.

In some respects, Webby ain't as silly as he looks (and sounds).

Tringreen wrote:

How is Where's Webby's motivational speaking career going anyway ? I fought ee'd struggle .

Think he's given up on that and is back working for the CWU, he could be a consultant possibly?

Angry wrote:

akagreengull wrote:

Kevin was a good quality player for the Gulls over several seasons and I wish him well, he may turn it around and of I course hope he does, but it is that difficult scenario of a rookie manager coming into a club who are basically at rock bottom.
Someone has already mentioned the Carl Fletcher comparison, but Kevin is not Carl and it is a different individual situation all round. Only time will tell if appointing a rookie manager than an established/experienced name was the right decision.
COME ON YOU GULLS!

only difference between the two despite carl being the far better player is Kevin has at least started his coaching badges where Carl didnt even have 20 metre swimming badge. Im sure if kevin has an experienced assistant/coach alongside him it would make all the difference but his job is not an easy one given how skint the club and new owners are.

Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson didn't have their badges either, I don't see the obsession with them?

Before Derek Adams was appointed I remember the majority of fans wanted the unknown, untested, inexperienced Brighton coach Nathan Jones for reasons I could never get my head around.

Jones had a job coaching england youngsters gained on the back of doing his badges to a high level. Adams had two division titles and took a club up two tiers using players of a similar standard to the ones employed by Argyle.

Which candidate was of more use to PAFC? I'm just glad the Board didn't blindly follow fan opinion on the 'badges' man and used the interview process to suss out the candidate who could walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

ejh wrote:

Angry wrote:

akagreengull wrote:

Kevin was a good quality player for the Gulls over several seasons and I wish him well, he may turn it around and of I course hope he does, but it is that difficult scenario of a rookie manager coming into a club who are basically at rock bottom.
Someone has already mentioned the Carl Fletcher comparison, but Kevin is not Carl and it is a different individual situation all round. Only time will tell if appointing a rookie manager than an established/experienced name was the right decision.
COME ON YOU GULLS!

only difference between the two despite carl being the far better player is Kevin has at least started his coaching badges where Carl didnt even have 20 metre swimming badge. Im sure if kevin has an experienced assistant/coach alongside him it would make all the difference but his job is not an easy one given how skint the club and new owners are.

Brian Clough and Alex Ferguson didn't have their badges either, I don't see the obsession with them?

i cut the rest out as its not needed at all. the answer to that is they didnt take coaching sessions hey delegated people. clough had jimmy gordon fergie had too many to count. where as kevin nicholson and carl fletcher do and did thats why its important in 21st century football.

TORQUAY UNITED: Cash strapped Gulls say 'more' over Seale Hayne Newton training base

CASH-STRAPPED Torquay United are giving up their Seale Hayne Training Ground near Newton Abbot, despite spending £200,000 on the site over six years under the previous boardroom regime.

Chairman David Phillips confirmed: "We have taken the decision with some regret, because there has been significant money spent there.

"But it's not a viable proposition for us any longer, mainly financially but also because we decided that it wasn't fit for purpose from a football point of view."

Long-serving former director Brian Palk, who had taken personal responsibility for developing United's first proper training ground, said he was "staggered and stunned" by the news.



Palk, who still attends most matches at Plainmoor, commented: "For any new investor, which is what the club desperately needs, not to have a training ground or a youth Academy on offer – well, the list of assets gets very short.

"I am sure, for the cost of one less player on the current budget, that would pay for the rent on the training ground."

Seale Hayne was levelled and improved over the course of six years, not just for the first team but also to meet the demands of United's former 'Category Three' Academy.

But the Academy quickly became a casualty of financial cutbacks after the Phillips-led board of supporters took over from the Thea Bristow regime in the summer.

In the wake of that decision, United's then director of football Dean Edwards negotiated a deal, believed to be for two years initially, which gave Plymouth Argyle's Academy, led by former Gulls player and head coach Kevin Hodges, the use of two-thirds of the Seale Hayne site.

United retained the remaining area, closer to the A383, Newton-to-Ashburton road, plus some of the changing and medical facilities.

Under the agreement United saved more than two-thirds of the rent.

But the Gulls' area is undrained and prone to waterlogging, and it has been out of commission in recent weeks because of the wet weather.

"We have found it quite frustrating at Seale Hayne, and hard to train there because of the conditions," said Phillips.

"We were facing the prospect of not being able to use that ground from two or three weeks ago until February/March time – it wasn't fit for purpose.

"There has also never been any lease signed – it was all done on verbal contracts – but I have spoken to the landlord out there, and he is quite happy with the situation."

Phillips added: "We are looking at alternative venues, but the manager (Kevin Nicholson) is quite keen on 3G (all weather) pitches anyway, and we'll be using those areas at Paignton Community & Sports Academy and Torquay Academy, as well as moving around a number of local grounds which have been offered to us."

Palk stressed: "I am staggered and stunned that they are just pulling out.

"It's such a backward step.

"We had spent most of the money we needed out there, and the fact that Plymouth Argyle are rubbing their hands at the thought of getting potentially a Championship training ground tells you everything.

"We have wasted all that money – Thea's money, which she sanctioned – for nothing.

"Many people aren't aware of the full facts about Seale Hayne – it's not a 'white elephant' and never was.

"There was no lease signed, because the landlord kept it that way to save us money in legal costs – it was a gentlemen's agreement and very solid.

"We spent around £200,000 over the last six or seven years.

"It wasn't just for the Academy – it was to help get Torquay United back into the League and further up the ladder, facilities-wise, and to attract better-quality players to the club.

"One of the reasons that Luke Young signed for us last year was that he was impressed with the training ground and could see the way it was going

Sounds like we've crapped on the Gulls, leaving them an unusable area on their set up.

What isn't clear is what happens next. Do Argyle carry on there? Any agreement appears to be with Torquay.

It all sounds a bit dodgy to me. And the very mention of "gentlemens' agreements", well, does England have anyone of that description any more ?
Brent did a wierd deal at Seal Hayne, that I just couldn't and still can't see any footballing logic in, and in very short time Torquay are left with no training ground, and he the sole user ? Very, very strange, if that is the case.
I might be wrong, and Brent might have been  used by Torquay.

But it could also look like Brent smelled an opening for something else unrelated to the original reasons given, and smoozed or did a deal with Torquay.
It all has the same feel of getting your feet under the carpet at yet another tranche of government/educational land assets in view of "a deal to be done" at a later date. Why would a Plymouth club train deep in the South Hams with all the facility they have at Harpers etc ? Especially with Jim's self admitted budgetary controls.

We've all seen the long term nasty planning of tenants Sutton Harbour up at the Derriford airport, so anything is possible with land banking vagabonds. They're not a new breed, but they see the whole current austerity climate in their favour, and are trying all sorts of ways to bag government/educational/MOD/Rail assets on the cheap in ways  they wouldn't have dreamed of 15 years ago.

I may sound like a broken record, but it's a process that is undoubtedly accelerating across the country. The "deficit" is being used as an excuse to steal back at huge discounts what was hard won by the taxpayer since the wars.
Brent's future at Seal Hayne will be fascinating. Especially given his University position.
I wonder how Oldway Mansion is coming along. Still squatting, watching the world go by I assume ?

Everything's dodgy in your world.

Having said that I agree with your Brent feelings.

He clearly knew TUFC were in trouble and the Seale Hayne deal was too good an opportunity to miss.

Torquay have paid for the improvements and he, like the true capitalist he is, has jumped in.

What to use it for is of secondary importance. The price was right. He can't help himself.

The Academy use is pathetic and probably temporary. His links with the university will come to the fore sooner or later.

''The Seale Hayne Country House Hotel'' has a certain ring about it.
If it's waterlogged then with the present cold snap = ice rink

TORQUAY United have confirmed that they are establishing a new training-ground link in the bay with nearby school Torquay Academy.

TORQUAY UNITED: Gulls training link with Torquay Academy is a 'positive association' says chairman


The Gulls recently announced that they were moving out of their Seale Hayne training HQ, near Newton Abbot, after setting up a share-deal at the site with Plymouth Argyle's Youth Academy at the start of this season.

United chairman David Phillips said: "The training set-up is paramount to the success of any club, and we feel now that we are resident in Torquay, just a few miles from the ground, this will be a huge step for the club, including time and financial savings.

"Well done to all involved in making this happen, and I look forward to a long-standing, positive association which can only enhance the Academy, the club and, most importantly, the community."

The facilities available to United include a full-size training pitch and 3G all-weather areas.

Player-manager Kevin Nicholson said: "To have those facilities in Torquay is what you really want and gives us a great opportunity to just concentrate on improving and training from a solid foundation.

"It's a win-win situation for all involved, and we are very proud to be associated with Torquay Academy going forward."

Torquay Academy principal Steve Margetts added: "We are delighted to partner our combined skills and community interests with Torquay United FC. Myself and my colleagues look forward to building a strong, ongoing relationship with the club."