Kevin Nicholson sacked!

G.I don't make the rules, and while no one for decades has come along saying they view turning Torquay United into a successful football club, looks like a good investment and money making enterprise to them, then to his credit neither has Clarke Osborne. In his video interview and elsewhere, he's made clear his interest in football is negligible and it's the more diverse business opportunities associated with a new stadium that has enticed him to buy the club.

If a short term 'stupid decision' is the sacrifice you have to make in order to help achieve your longer term goal, then you bit your tongue, take the hit and do it.

Consider all manner of companies advertising, who include all sorts of guff about their concern for the environment and the occasional nod to green issues. Their executives and shareholders don't give a toss about green issues and are focussed on maximising profit and dividends. but they realise that it's good public relations to trot out what modern society wants to hear and spend cash presenting yourself in the right way. Similarly, if you're a local councillor or local MP, if you had no interest one way or the other in the selling of Plainmoor, or after careful consideration thought it rather a good idea to sell it, then you're not going to be daft enough to say so, given the hundred letters you've received opposing such a sale. You'd instead express scepticism, and at the minimum, mild opposition to the sale.  

Did Tesco or Sainsburys have any interest or belief in Gay Pride parades to the extent that they wanted to spend hundreds of thousands on advertising on telly in support of them recently?. Did the ITV corporate bosses pay for double deckers to be done out with the company logo in rainbow colours and send them along to the 'Pride' days for any other reason than they were advised it was good public relations by their marketing departments ?

And it's just the same for G.I. To get the new stadium, money has, and will continue to be spent on public relations. Illogical and stupid decisions have to be agreed to along the way, sometimes through gritted teeth if you're still going to keep your eye on the bigger prize and your eventual goal. 'Wah wah wah...we always have rubbish shirts made by manufacturers we've never heard of. And the new shirts are never on sale until September. Fuss, fuss, fuss, the Official website is no good and nothing gets updated very often'. These things may not have been much of a concern to G.I, or something they'd  prefer to be prioritising for expenditure, but they have to play the public relations game ahead of a decision on the new stadium.

Think back to the poll conducted by the Kiddies site only a few months ago. Overwhelming support for Nico. And a public relations disaster if he'd been sacked at the end of the season. But just say if he had been !  Let's say that Clarke Osborne had gone about things differently, given Nico the boot at the end of the season and brought in a G.I approved and selected new team manager instead. Not only do you have the fallout from that mostly unpopular (mainly unpopular in Torbay, if not in London) decision to cope with, but look at the new man's results: Losses at home to Tranmere and then away at Aldershot. Then a draw at Gateshead, followed by a draw at home to Boreham Wood, and then another draw at Guiseley on Saturday. But under this new man we've only accumulated 3 miserable points. And where do those 3 miserable points leave us ? Yes, in the relegation zone. Doesn't that prove G.I's intent ??. Jettisoned Kev who surely seemed all set to have a good season with better players, and brought in this new guy who is off to a bad start. Proof they want to get us relegated !!!









There's only one game in town for G.I at this crucial time, and that's public relations. It has to be at the forefront of their minds, and the basis for their decisions, up and until the new stadium decision is made. G.I may be just as stunned by the fickleness of public opinion whereby Kev clearly had majority support from the fan base at the end of last season, but within ONE WEEK  (Saturday - home to Tranmere, Tuesday - away at Aldershot, Saturday - away at Gateshead) of the new season starting, there was a clear majority wanting him sacked. G.I probably know they're spending stupid money short term following public opinion, but they'd be much more unpopular, I'm convinced, if we had three times as many points (3 pts) under a manager they'd brought in during the Summer, than they currently are, having let King Kev get things under way,with us currently having one solitary point.

Floridagull's assessment when applied to normal circumstances is exactly right. Letting one man spend all the money on the players he wants, and then before a fortnight is out, decide that a new man must take charge, for who there'll be little money with which to entice the players he'd prefer, and that's without factoring in the expenditure of paying off one manager and engaging a new one.

Whether it's keeping Geoff Harrop distant from team affairs for the match at Guiseley, or first retaining and then sacking Kev, G.I are willing to be led by the nose by public opinion if that's the price they have to pay for the time being. They probably know it's stupid (and expensive) without us pointing it out, but as I started by saying; they didn't invent the system or make it's rules.

I guess there were plenty who were persuaded that perhaps he should be given another go. People fell for the hype. They fell for the hype that a new efficient, effective team had been created but when it turned out to be exactly as ponderous, pedestrian and ineffective as before, there was simply no need to wait 20 games. We all knew where it was heading.

Club legend King Kev took a few minutes off from enjoying the sunshine to have a word with the BBC.  Nothing worth listening to for those who have allowed themselves to be conditioned by the 'everything was always Nico's fault' line, that has always been available and very popular with some.

link - King Kev -soon to rule again !

Whether Kev will be back this season, and sat in the opponents dugout, we'll have to wait and see, but obviously he will be hoping to secure alternative employment during 2017/18. Disappointment at building a play-off capable new squad, yet being forced to leave them within less that a fortnight of the Season's start is naturally a big regret for him. The guy who comes along and inherits that lottery winning ticket that Kev has left behind for him, will hopefully not squander the array of talent once some of those stars return to fitness.

With the sound foundations for a successful season being solidly in place, let's hope we see a capable builder rather than a demolition man appointed as Manager.