Fleetwood

Argyle can only get better but can Torquay get any better than this? Torquay's squad will be picked clean if they don't get promoted and it might if they do. Our squad on will be stripped out and with high earners being shed we'll have far more leeway when it comes to recruitment. All we have to do is get over the line and ensure that we are in the same division next year. If we manage that we'll improve. Which all seems churlish because Torquay deserve nothing but respect and credit for what they have achieved this season whether they go up or not.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Torquay's squad will be picked clean if they don't get promoted and it might if they do.

Some would say that happened at the end of last season ~ it made them better! I think the best example I can come up with to illustrate my point about so called "big" clubs with large fan bases was to be found with Bradford City who trebled Guy Branston's wages and Preston North End who paid £65,000 for Chris Robertson. Branston couldn't hold his place down for more than the first 6 weeks of the season and got bombed out on loan to Rotherham whilst Graham Westley clearly got the wrong man when he came calling with that barrow load of money................he should have bid for Brian Saah!

Working a miracle is tough. Working it twice is tougher. I genuinely hope you do well but I suspect that you won't. Not as well as you have this season.

merse wrote:

Iggy wrote:

The difference between us and the majority of teams in this league is that we have a much bigger fanbase and bums on seats equals income, on that basis we should really be one of the bigger fish in our small pond.

A modicum of awareness of what happens beyond Marsh Mills would make you realise that the further down you get from the Premier League the less so called size of club or fan base are an advantage.

In my opinion YOUR club and too many of it's supporters are still to realise this, that is why YOUR club currently lays some thirty odd points adrift of one of the Football League's smallest and least supported set ups which happens to be just up the road from you.

Had Plymouth Argyle been properly stewarded in the board room and competently managed on the pitch, they would not have spent almost the whole of this season contemplating their third successive relegation.

Your "much bigger fan base" did feck all for you this season did it, or last season for that matter as neither has Luton's in The Conference either; so why should it in the future?

It's competence in the board room and in the technical area you need, resilience and ability on the field and a sense of humility and realism on the terraces as we used to call them.

I am afraid that it all boils down to simple maths at the end of the day, of course you need the club to run correctly, but a team who has double the amount of fans on the terraces should have double the cash flow to play with. If the board and management team fek that up, that is too bad but you cannot argue that a team with cash flow of say £1m is at a distinct advantage to a team with half that to play with, and at the end of the day (and the reason you are sniping about it) we are a BIGGER club.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Working a miracle is tough. Working it twice is tougher. I genuinely hope you do well but I suspect that you won't. Not as well as you have this season.

I suspect you're right Franny, but with Exeter all but down, I'd love it if Torquay went up. As would pretty much every Argyle fan I know. One less local derby yeah, but for the annoyance it'd cause City fans, it'd be worth it.

It's good that the underdog triumphs occasionally. With Exeters budget being slashed again, there's probably a fair argument that Torquay & Exeter are pretty evenly matched when it comes to budget and footballing potential....

...I just hope we can get a proper manager in next season so we can try and fulfill ours.

Iggy wrote:

.....a team who has double the amount of fans on the terraces should have double the cash flow to play with. If the board and management team fek that up, that is too bad but you cannot argue that a team with cash flow of say £1m is at a distinct advantage to a team with half that to play with, and at the end of the day (and the reason you are sniping about it) we are a BIGGER club.

I've never argued you aren't a bigger club than Torquay United (Luton are bigger than you and they're not in The League anymore)~ Jesus nearly EVERY club in the Football League and few in The Conference are bigger than The Gulls. Start looking for the bigger clubs in League 2 and you'd be better off to start looking from the bottom, Aaaaarghnil, Bradford City, AC Northampton (the self perceived "too big for League 2" giants) Bristol Rovers ~ need I go on?

None of those could hold a candle to the efficient, sensible and accomplished manner in which Torquay United have conducted their affairs for the past 5 seasons which is the whole of the time this current administration has been in situ.

So you get double the cash flow, put an idiot in charge of a gold mine and he'll dig up the dirt and try to sell that.

What are you going to claim next, that having the biggest goalie means you will let less goals in? ..........might as well put Fatty Arbuckle in there then.

What's that I hear you say ~ "but he's dead isn't he?" Well so might Larrieu be for all the use he was to you at Plainmoor!

I've never gone along with big club little club arguments. Personally I hope Torquay go up as they have been one of the better sides in this league all season and deserve something out of it. But, I do not agree with budget being the biggest single factor in the lower league to chances of promotion. There are exceptions to every rule pretty much. The higher you go in the leagues the more budget comes into play but not so much in leagues one and two.

There is no reason why if Torquay manage promotion why they cannot stay up and there is no reason despite a bigger budget why Argyle should necessarily go up. If you look back on our two promotions in three years period, it does seem forever ago now, we didn't have a big budget and we didn't have any stars in our team either. What we had in my opinion was the right blend of players with the right attitude who developed a close knit group who played for each other and got results. The right results bred confidence and the rest is as they say history. Torquay have a squad who are similar to the Argyle of then. It does not take mega money to produce a squad like that it takes a bit of luck in signing the right players and moulding them into a winning combination. Same applies to league one in my opinion.

When you get into the Championship however and if you ever have ambition to move on from there then money talks and if you don't have the turnover to produce the money or a backer to give it to you then that is about as good as it will get. There are exceptions to every rule as I've said and Blackpool was one. Back in the Championship again however and nobody was surprised at that because they did not have the turnover to keep them there or a backer with the clout to gift them sufficient to compete with even the worst sides.

Getting the thread back on track, I'm looking forward to the opportunity of going to Fleetwood's ground.