With many
football clubs, history has shown that many periods of great stability are
often followed by long spells of instability.
Take
Manchester United for example, when Sir Matt Busby retired in 1970 he had been
the Red Devils’ only post-war manager. However, by the start of the following
decade – in 1980 – four others had taken charge at Old Trafford, a list
featuring Wilf McGuinness, former Torquay manager Frank O’Farrell, Tommy
Docherty and David Sexton.
Between
the time Brian Clough called time on his 18-year stint in charge of Nottingham
Forest in 1993, during which time Forest famously won two European Cups, and
the end of the 1998-99 campaign – their last season in the Premiership to date
– a further four managers occupied the dugout at the City Ground.
They
included Frank Clark, Stuart Pearce, David Bassett and Ron Atkinson; and since
the turn of the century they have since been joined by another 13 names and
Pearce even returned for a second spell.
In both
cases with each club, the level of stability established by the aforementioned
manager all but disappeared; and that is the challenge facing Paul Cox as approaches
the start of his first campaign as Torquay United manager.
The former
Eastwood Town and Mansfield Town boss will be looking to bring the one thing to
Plainmoor that has been absent for a number of years: stability.
Since Paul
Buckle’s departure to Bristol Rovers in the summer of 2011, Cox is the fourth
man to take charge of the Gulls – following in the footsteps of Martin Ling,
Alan Knill and Chris Hargreaves.
During
Buckle’s four years in charge between 2007 and 2011, the Gulls re-established
themselves as the Football League club and even reached in the League Two
Play-off final prior to his move to the Memorial Stadium.
Ling
proved to be a capable successor to Buckle and led the Gulls to the Play-offs
again in the 2011-12 season, where they were beaten at the semi-finals stage by
Cheltenham Town.
However,
economic realities forced the sales of Bobby Olejnik and Eunan O’Kane in the
summer of 2012 and left Ling with a depleted side and Torquay began to
stagnate.
In January
2012, Ling was forced to stand down from his duties due to a stress-related
illness that later turned out to be depression, and Alan Knill was appointed as
interim manager in his absence.
After
leading the Gulls to safety, Knill was handed the job on a permanent basis as
Gulls’ Chairman Thea Bristow decided to dispense with the services of Ling.
Nevertheless,
Knill’s appointment didn’t turn down to be a successful one, as he was sacked
in January 2014 and the Gulls’ board opted turned to Conference promotion
winning hero Chris Hargreaves.
Unfortunately,
Hargreaves failed to replicate the glory of his playing days at Plainmoor as he
was unable to keep Torquay in the Football League; and in their first season
back in the Conference, he led the Gulls to their lowest ever league finish of
13th.
This is
where the Gulls currently find themselves under Cox; and if he can emulate the
success of his tenure in charge of Mansfield, where he led them to the
Play-offs in first season which he followed up with a title winning success in
the following campaign. If Cox is able to do this at Plainmoor then he would
have more than ensured that the Gulls were in a better state than they were he
first arrived.
