IT’S EASY TO TORQ, HARDER TO DO...
Low-flying Gulls in need of a regional reality check
WHEN Torquay United tumbled out of the Football League in 2014, owner Thea Bristow cut a chipper figure.
“We’re in a much healthier state than 2007,” said the lotto winner, referencing the Gulls’ previous descent into NonLeague. “I’m very optimistic – we’ll be great in the Conference.” Except, of course, they weren’t. Torquay stumbled to 16th, their lowest finish in 88 years. Bristow stood down in March, followed that summer by manager Chris Hargreaves. Subsequent years have brought only ownership changes, financial hardship and declining fortunes, culminating in last season’s relegation to National League South. As the dust settled, current owner Clarke Osborne was keen to dredge the positives from a miserable situation. “We will remain a full-time professional football club with aspirations on a national scale,” said the property developer, who assumed control of United in 2016 after the club’s supporterowners defaulted on a loan to his company, Gaming International. “We expect to be the best football team and club in the National League South, and we already know we have the best supporters.”
Such sentiments are worryingly similar to those expressed by Bristow – and a reminder that being a big fish in a small pond does not always lead to easy pickings. Especially when you are Torquay United.
As Hargreaves found in 2014, few players are willing to uproot to Devon, especially those with young families.
Largesse
Those who do often see the club as a last resort, or need to be persuaded with budget-busting wages and two-year deals.
Such largesse was a major factor in Torquay’s flirtation with bankruptcy in 2015, when historical contracts – like that of striker Elliot Benyon – blew a hole in the club’s finances.
Theoretically, current boss Gary Owers should have his pick of sixth-tier players. Torquay have the biggest ground, the best facilities, the most supporters. Trumping all of that, they are a full-time club in a part-time division.
In reality, however, the former Sunderland man will need to sell the club like Del Boy down Peckham market.
On the one hand, few full-time players will relish dropping into National South, despite Osborne offering contracts on a par with the majority of National League sides.
That much is illustrated by the reluctance of three current players – Vincent Durrell, Liam Davies and Sean McGinty – to sign new terms.
On the other, how many parttime players will risk steady jobs and settled families for the sake of a short-term deal at a Step 2 club? Youngsters with nothing to lose, perhaps, but not seasoned campaigners with mortgages to pay.
It is these players Owers craves, yet so far his summer recruitment amounts to a 21year-old defender, George Essuman, and former Woking winger Bobson Bawling, 22.
A third signing was en route at Plainmoor last week, only to turn tail when his agent called with a better offer – a frustratingly familiar tale for Owers.
“I do want to get a ‘spine’ of the team sorted,” he admitted this week. “I have identified two or three players who fit the bill there and I am hopeful of getting them, but it’s always harder with the older lads.”
With just six players on board, time is of the essence. Yet Owers and Osborne must resist the temptation to buy experience at any cost. Torquay have learned the hard way that using cash as a carrot is no guarantee of success.
Better, surely, to cherry-pick the best young players from the south west who would jump at the chance of playing full- time football. The time has come to abandon any notion of “national aspirations” and embrace what Torquay have become – a regional team, in a regional league.