PSF: Weymouth v Torquay United : 7:45pm. - 29 July 2014

Rob - Mansell was an interesting case - link

Last two seasons haven't been good for anyone really and maybe his perceived decline due to more than advancing years?Agreed that the 11/12 season was his best by a long way - maybe the creativity of Eunan and the defensive qualities of Lathrope were complementary to his style of play raising expectations, also Ling got the best out of him - scored about half of his goals with us in that one season - were any better than scoring that winner against Argyle at Home Park right in front of 2000 Torquay fans? Funny enough, the young opposition player scoring his first league goal that day is now Mansell's replacement! Played at right back during our promotion season and had a lot of success but ultimately, three career relegations out of the football league is one heck of a millstone, two with us, might be some sort of record even?

I'm sure I've seen it mentioned that Justin Walker was involved in three successive relegations with Exeter, York and Cambridge. But check it out and it's not quite what it seems. York was a loan which finished before the end of the season. Walker was a regular for Cambridge but didn't play in the final games.

What three relegations says about Lee Mansell, I'm not sure. It's certainly - how to put it? - "unfortunate" and I'd imagine the third relegation, when he was captain, would rankle the most and portray him in the poorest light. He could, and I imagine he does, also point to being a member of fourth-tier play-off teams in successive seasons. That's not to be overlooked together with two excellent Conference seasons.

I sense the most this tells us is that Lee Mansell was a standard fourth-tier player who, after initially playing at a slightly-higher level with Luton, wasn't quite good enough to win a contract with a club that was likely to move upwards. Historically this makes him a pretty typical Torquay United player. The unusual aspect, in the modern context, is that he played for eight successive seasons.

This would have been unremarkable in the past and I note Alan Merson, writing on BTPIR, has made a comparison between Lee Mansell and Ian Twitchin.

That's an interesting one to ponder. Twitchin stayed the longer and played more games. He was probably a less demonstrative individual but arguably no better or worse a player than Mansell. Yet Alan Merson goes as far as describing Twitchin as the "forgotten man of Plainmoor".

Well, I'll declare an interest here. Ian Twitchin is four years older than me; he played for Torquay United when I was aged between fifteen and twenty-five. I watched the club frequently during those years but I'll admit that part of me (at the time) was trying to "grow away" from the idea of being a Torquay United supporter or even a Torquinian for that matter. I'm afraid I can hardly remember a thing about Ian Twitchin. Yet I know he was a versatile and dependable player who offered the club decent value over an extended period of time. He was a constant presence in an unremarkable era. He did a job for us but never seemed likely to play for another Football League club. Could the same, indeed, have been said later of Kevin Hill?

Now I'm sure there are those, maybe a few years younger than myself, who will remember "Twitch" more fondly and more vividly. Yet I believe Alan Merson is correct in stating that Ian Twitchin is somewhat forgotten and overlooked. I wish he wasn't and I'd like both him and Lee Mansell to be equally remembered by future generations.

The difference between Twitchin and Mansell may largely be the thirty years that separate their dates of birth. Twitchin played at a time when expressions such as "dependable" and "loyal servant" were very much in vogue. By Mansell's time the language was more likely to include words such as "legend" and "inspirational presence". To me there's a big difference in meaning and effect; to others maybe not so much at all.

So Ian Twitchin; Lee Mansell; Kevin Hill. What's the difference? Perhaps, in footballing terms, very little. How would you rank order them? At his best, I'd put Mansell to the fore.

But again, in terms of impact and visibility, Mansell played in a different time to Twitchin. Mansell was able to negotiate a decent financial package on the basis of dependability. Social media meant that - whether Mansell cultivated it or not - he could become a talked-about "personality" in a way that was probably only open to leading goal-scorers in Twitchin's day. Mansell also enjoyed the advantage of playing in rather more interesting teams and times - for all their ups and downs - than the dull 1970s when Ian Twitchin made the bulk of his four hundred-odd appearances. In this way I guess Mansell becomes, to use another contemporary expression, more of a "stand-out figure".

Like it, Alpine. I'll stand to your right with '....... You Judas' on mine. And, as you'd expect, I couldn't agree more regarding Ling and getting the best out of limited or inexperienced players. In time, I think that will be a key part of Hargreaves' armoury as well.