NEW GULL PROFILE

Sam Jones – @samuellejones

Sam talks about the returning defender

After eight days without an #incoming, the Yellow Army were getting worried that we would have to start the season with only 11 players on the books (not really, but I love to be dramatic). So, after a great announcement on the number of season tickets sold, the club treated us to the first of two incomings for the day. It felt like the worst kept secret in history, but Centre Back Ed Palmer officially re-joined the Gulls. Shall we take a look at our latest incoming?

CAREER SUMMARY

Ed Palmer seems to love two things in life. The South West and football teams who play in the South West. After being born in Torquay, at a very young age he joined the Gulls Academy. He went on loan to Tivvy for the first half of the 2010/2011 season before being released at the end of the season, without making an appearance for the Gulls, where he joined Weymouth on a free. After a couple of seasons for The Terras, he went down to Cornwall to sign for fellow Southern Premier League Truro in October 2014 and won the Southern Premier Play Offs with The Tigers in 2015. Spells followed at both Bodmin and Bideford before heading down the A361 to join Taunton Town for the 2016/2017 season. After one year at Wordsworth drive, he continued his tour of Devon and Cornwall by heading back to Truro where he stayed for the 2017/2018 season.

He then played the reverse Uno card and went back to Taunton Town in October 2018 where he stayed for about a year before driving back down to Cornwall to re-sign for Truro again. He stayed in Cornwall’s only City for a couple of years, playing under Wotton and winning promotion back to the National League South in 2023. He left them by mutual consent in the summer of 2024 and reunited with Wotton at Plainmoor. A real tour of the South West!

HIGHLIGHTS

Here is him scoring a nice volley last season at Farnborough, and looking majestic in the thumbnail:

And here is him scoring against us in our 2-1 win last season:

TALKING ABOUT ED

Delighted.#TUFC fans need to have open minds to this.

He's got experience. He is more well-rounded. He uses the ball better. He brings it out from the back. He has got himself into a much better physical shape. A very good CB.

Welcome back, @EdPalmer_25. https://t.co/aIkf3kYtav

— Off The Line Blog (@OffTheLineBlog) June 21, 2024

PALMER STATS

DATE OF BIRTH: 13TH NOVEMBER 1991 – 32 YEARS-OLD

HEIGHT: 1.86M

POSITION: CENTRE BACK

NLS 23-24 STATS: APPEARANCES 41, GOALS 6, YELLOW CARDS 6, RED CARDS 0

MOST LIKELY/LEAST LIKELY

Most Likely To

• Be an absolute monster in both boxes. Have you seen the size of him? The man’s a beast. He looks like he could be the type of commanding Centre Back we haven’t seen in years at Plainmoor, that will absolutely dominate while defending. He also looks handy in the opposition box, with 6 goals not being a bad return in a struggling side.
• Kiss the badge. He’s a Torquay boy, playing for his home town team again after being released 13 long years ago. If he scores, he’s very likely to kiss the badge in front of the Popside. And can you blame him?
• Make sure all the team look sharp. Ed is a hairdresser when not playing football, so he’ll need to make sure everyone is looking their best.

Least Likely To

• Panic with the ball. Based on some recent intel provided exclusively to TorquayTalk (meaning someone who saw Truro play this season) he’s much better with the ball at his feet than he used to be. Some composure would be nice to see after the nonsense that was Ross Marshall last season.
• Leave us to play up North. Based on his footballing history, I’m not convinced he’s ever more North than Birmingham, so I doubt we’ll see him play for Berwick rangers any time soon.

CONCLUSION

This signing fits the Wotton era mould down to a T. Local lad, who has played under Wotton before and has experience at National League South level. With the signing of Matt Carson, we now have six defenders on the books, which means our defence is complete (minus a back up goalie that is). Compared to the others, Palmer can be considered an OAP with the only one over 25. It’s the sort of experienced head that could be invaluable with the other players we have in our back line. I like the fact there are more incomings, but I would like to see some in other positions now…

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