Torquay in crisis?

[yellow]

Takeover expected to be finalised on Monday.

Thank god!

 

[DarkSithLord]

Takeover expected to be finalised on Monday.

Thank god!

Great. But havent you still got to convince the Conf that you can fufil your fixtures next season at Saturdays AGM?

 

[yellow]

Yeah, the new consortium have said they'll cover the bond to assure the Conference we can fulfil fixtures.

Next season is going to be horrible, but at least I'll still (hopefully) have a club.

 

[Sparrow]

Takeover expected to be finalised on Monday.

Thank god!

Fantastic news. Can't be letting 'clubs' like Alfreton back into this league.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Yeah, the new consortium have said they'll cover the bond to assure the Conference we can fulfil fixtures.

Next season is going to be horrible, but at least I'll still (hopefully) have a club.

Fantastic news. As I said previously I wouldnt feel comfortable benefiting from another clubs misfortune and we dont deserve a second chance based on last seasons performances.

 

[yellow]

Dean Edwards says it's '75% likely' we'll survive.

That 25% feels quite big though, not gonna lie. Fingers crossed.

 

[yellow]

Youth Academy manager Geoff Harrop has left. Reckon that's the start of the end for our youth system (again).

 

[DT-the-gull]

Yes, but when the club is losing £500k a year, and has football league standard level 3 academy believed to be costing £2,000 a week to run, with five full time staff, it becomes an expensive luxury.

It doesn't have to be closed though yellow, can scale it back to a level 4 set-up, or go to a community based set-up, charity funded, or self funding by charging a training fee.

 

[yellow]

Hmm, wouldn't surprise me to see it go though. I still have a horrible feeling about everything. Today was deadline day for the exclusivity period, hopefully we'll hear something soon.

 

[DT-the-gull]

You're not wrong yellow, there's plenty of water to flow under the bridge on this situation, and it could yet,still go either way, here's hoping.

 

[JE93]

Torquay allowed to play in conference next year, which is good news for everyone involved.

What sort of conditions are there going to be under the new board do you think Torquay fans? By the looks of it trimming down the youth system will save a fair amount so will this mean the first team budget will be around the same? Or do you think it will be cut more?

 

[yellow]

Pleased we appear to have overcome that obstacle. As for the budget, it'll be heavily reduced. It was £700,000 last year, think it'll be anywhere between £300-500k this year.

 

[genesimmons]

Should be enough budget to stay up. Best of luck to all at torquay

 

[Luke Imp]

Yes, but when the club is losing £500k a year, and has football league standard level 3 academy believed to be costing £2,000 a week to run, with five full time staff, it becomes an expensive luxury.

It doesn't have to be closed though yellow, can scale it back to a level 4 set-up, or go to a community based set-up, charity funded, or self funding by charging a training fee.

We went down the self funding route, although it's taken 4 years to sort out from what it was (ours was closer to £3k/week to run but that was covered by FL grants etc) but now down to around £1k/week.

They run separately to the Club and have a separate Board of Directors so they can apply for different grants etc but the main Club have given them, on average, about £25k/year but that stops next season because they now raise the required circa £50k through fundraising, holding sportsman dinners, race nights etc etc on their own without needing any monetary input.

Lots and lots of hard work from staff, parents, volunteers and coaches. One of my mates volunteered for the coaching for three years doing several age groups most weekdays.

 

[DT-the-gull]

Very much what I had in mind. or a youth academy run almost along the lines of a local youth football club, getting match's against Exeter, Plymouth, Yeovil who are re-starting theirs, and playing match's versus development academy's, possibly competing in the local Torbay Pioneer, or Devon and Exeter youth leagues as well.

Update on the current situation...http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry...-football-club-has-confirmed-a-deal-is-close/

 

[Habbinalan]

Good luck guys. I have zero pleasant memories of playing you, 60's or Conference, but I'd still like to make a visit for a competitive match.

 

[DarkSithLord]

Torquay have released another statement - http://www.torquayunited.com/news/article/a-week-of-decisions-2485564.aspx

 

[yellow]

He's off on his holibobs on Friday - that right there sums up everything at Torquay United right now.

What a complete and utter shambles we really are.

 

[yellow]

Takeover complete.

 

[1884 Belmont]

Congratulations on the Takeover. So, presumably you still have a club to support now. However, has this takeover given you more investment or do you expect a season of struggle against relegation? It wasn't too long ago we were playing Torquay in League 1 and now look where we both are. Good club Torquay, hope everything improves for you all now.

 

[yellow]

It looks like we're good to go now. I am expecting a year of struggle, as I highly doubt this consortium have huge levels of financial backing. We still have some good players here though - our young keeper Dan Lavercombe has recently spent a trial with Liverpool and looks promising from the appearances he made last year. Luke Young remains, and, despite not being his biggest fan, Ryan Bowman can be a handful at this level.

I also remember the L1 meetings, we got well beaten by Iain Hume I recall. Also still wonder what would have happened had you lot not put out a reserve side against the franchise on the final day, but hey ho…

Nice to get this finally sorted, the last few weeks have been agonising (as you can probably guess from my posts )

 

[JOHN.P]

The takeover is not yet complete, but is about to be, contracts due to be exchanged on Thursday with the new board formed on Friday. Some massive changes about to take place at our club, will the manager survive or won't he, that's the big question.

 

[genesimmons]

Good news

 

[DT-the-gull]

Finally, the soap opera is over, it's done, confirmed. http://www.torquayunited.com/news/article/the-deal-is-complete-2491837.aspx
Now us gulls fans can at least look forward now, and see just how drastic the changes will, certainly think the youth academy will close, and as said above, will Chris Hargreaves survive.

 

[yellow]

Thank god the most prolonged takeover ever is complete! Not getting my hopes up but, boy, am I glad we're still alive and kicking (for now).

 

[The_Boss]

Great news.

 

[JOHN.P]

Relief this is finally over. It appears Torquay United's youth academy is indeed the first casualty and it will announced soon that it has completely closed.

 

[SouthCarolinaStone]

I'm down for a trip to Torquay if Truro end up there!

I went in 1990 for a Stones away game and it was a miserable place. The tea was so bad the plastic stirring thing melted!

 

[GodsGift]

Chris Hargreaves placed on gardening leave.

 

[silvergull]

Happy that Hargreaves and hodges are gone. The scenario around it and money is a bit concerning. Next step part time I suspect