After four years at Plainmoor, one-time Plymouth Argyle starlet Luke Young will be leaving Torquay United to join Wrexham in a move that contains a number of similarities to the departure of another United playmaker Alex Russell.
Like Young, Russell, who left the Gulls in 2005 to join Bristol City, had spent four years with United and had proved to be a big hit with the Plainmoor faithful.
Both players also saw the manager who brought them to Plainmoor (Chris Hargreaves first brought Young to Plainmoor in 2014 and Roy McFarland signed Russell for United after previously working with him at Cambridge United) depart the Gulls after the end of their first full season with the club.
Nevertheless they both stayed for a further three years to become a key component in the United side under the successors - Young under Kevin Nicholson and Gary Owers and Russell under Leroy Rosenior.
The pair's popularity was reflected by the fact that they both won the club's Player of the Year award - Russell received the award in 2003 whilst Young bagged a hat trick of awards in 2015 and 2017 before retaining it in 2018.
However, there is one major difference between the duo's spells at Plainmoor as Russell's stint with the Gulls coincided with one of the most successful periods in the club's history.
He was, of course, part of the United squad who won automatic promotion under Leroy Rosenior in 2003-04 and - on a personal level - he was named in the PFA Division Three team of the season in 2002-03 and 2003-04.
Unfortunately for Young his own time at Plainmoor came during one of the Gulls' most forgettable which culminated in relegation to the National League South last season. But Young has the chance to start afresh in North Wales with Wrexham who recently appointed former Swansea City and Wales defender Sam Ricketts as their new manager, following the end of the 2017-18 campaign that saw them miss out on the play-offs.
One of the ironies of his move to the Racecourse Stadium is that arguably his finest moment for the Gulls came against Wrexham on October 4th, 2014 when he scored with a stunning 35-yard volley which secured a 2-1 win for United.
If he can help the Red Dragons win promotion - as Russell did in 2006-07 at Ashton Gate - then he will be back in the Football League where many feel a player of his ability belongs.
