First of all welcome to the Gloucester Gulls blog and who would have thought that we would be launching at such turbulent times for Torquay United....

At the end of a "season horribilus" which saw Torquay United end their 80 year history as a Football League Club, who would have thought that the season could descend into even further farce ?

The events of the past week are still emerging but the timeline does seem to have been as follows:

Monday 14 May 2007

Mike Bateson, owner of Torquay United, decides that he is no longer going to be involved in the club on a day to day basis and appoints Mervyn Benney as the club Chairman. Supposedly within 10 minutes of taking charge of the club, Mr Benney announces that Coin Lee (Director of Football) is to leave the club.

Tuesday 15 May 2007

Keith Curle (Manager) is told that his contract will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the month.

Thursday 17 May 2007

At a press conference, Leroy Rosenior (former manager) is introduced as the new manager of Torquay United. Within 10 minutes of the press conference finishing, Rosenior receives a phone call from Mr Bateson informing him that the club has been sold and Rosenior was to be sacked. He had been in charge for a full 10 minutes !

It is no wonder that the national press have had a field day with this series of events "a Fawlty Towers-style farce on the English Riviera". Five days have now past and the situation is still no clearer. Leroy Rosenior has been interviewed by the national press and admits that he has been sacked, yet officials at the club are still claiming that this is not the case and that he is still manager.

Whilst it is important (particularly after the Chris Roberts fiasco) to make sure that the terms and conditions of any sale of the club are agreed, it is now crucial that the future of the club is resolved as soon as possible. If the much publicised consortium are to take over then let's hope that the deal is quickly completed, so that the time and money is available to start rebuilding not only the team but also the confidence of the supporters.