A full-time future at Torquay United

Despite the horrible uncertainty surrounding the club at the moment – and how worrying things must be for all the players and staff – there will be a Torquay United when the current crisis is overcome.

But, beyond the immediate crisis prompted by former owner Clarke Osborne’s sudden decision to pull his financial backing at Plainmoor, there is another concern over the future shape of the Gulls.

That is whether the team will remain full-time or part-time.

There have been plenty of people, including departed manager Gary Johnson, who have questioned the feasibility of running a full-time club in the National League South.

How quickly things can change.

Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that Osborne, flanked by Johnson and CEO George Edwards, were gazing out from an online fans’ forum, restating their ongoing commitment to TUFC and their continued ambition to do their best to return the club to the Football League as quickly as possible?

Now, in the wake of what seems to have been a pretty significant new-stadium meeting with Torbay Council recently, Osborne decided that the all-important numbers for his project didn’t add up any more.

He wanted out – and fast. We’ve all got our own thoughts about that.

But Torquay United’s position halfway down the NL South is not essentially a business or strategic problem – it’s a football one.

It’s remarkable that, even at such a low ebb, the best part of 2,000 fans – more than attend many clubs in the full-time National League – have kept walking through the turnstiles at Plainmoor.

And the extraordinary response of the Gulls’ fan base for last Saturday’s game against Aveley said it all.

If United were currently up with leaders Yeovil Town, almost certainly the only club in the division with a bigger playing budget, and vying for the title they won five years ago, the gates would more than justify full-time football.

And if/when United make it back to the National League, the only way that they’re going to have a chance of getting out of the hardest division in English football and returning to the EFL is if they stay full-time.

The fans who have stuck by the Gulls, despite last season’s ignominious relegation and this season’s mediocrity, have done so because they still have that enduring passion and a belief in better times ahead.

If the first thing that a prospective new owner does is say ‘United are in a part-time division, so they should go part-time too’, it will immediately do three things.

It will completely deflate the current playing staff at a time when the club desperately needs them to give 100%.

It will lessen the chances of attracting the sort of future manager and players to win promotion.

And, last but not least, it will floor the fans without whom the club cannot survive and flourish. Why has every prospective owner, every managerial candidate, every agent and every player wanted to come here for as long as most of us can remember?

It’s not because they were signing up for, with all due respect, a Taunton Town, a Truro City or a Chippenham Town. It’s because they were joining one of the ‘biggest’ clubs outside the Football League – a full-time Torquay United.

Perhaps the best demonstration of how Torquay United differs from most clubs in the National League system, both the fifth and sixth tiers, was the passionate response of the Yellow Army on Saturday.

Over 3,600 fans packed into Plainmoor on Saturday, young and old, and they were all there to support a club with a proud heritage dating back 125 years.

The Family Stand was crammed with boys and girls from the TUFC youth system, a poignant echo of the hope Torquay United brings to the next generation of football players and supporters. These Torbay kids wear the Yellow shirt with pride and they deserve a full-time future.