TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive discusses the Gulls

THE RETAINED LIST

Depending on how old you are, “Supermac” will probably mean different things to you. For 70’s kids like me, Supermac was Malcolm MacDonald, the Newcastle, Arsenal and England Centre Forward. He was great in the air, knew where the goal was and was happy to give his opinion on just about anything. In the 1950s, “Supermac” was the Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan. Popular and pragmatic, he was also utterly politically ruthless. To get to the very top in politics, that is a necessary quality. He had the power to promote colleagues or to end their careers. One of his more ruthless cabinet reshuffles became known as “the night of the long knives”, and he was fond of saying that in politics: “You have to be a good butcher”.

I have never had to sack anyone, and I am pleased about that. I’m sure it must be horrible. But sometimes it has to be done, and clearly it’s a skill which many managers need. A year ago, my Gull’s Eye View colleagues made a Retained List Special, and adopted a Red-Amber-Green system for deciding which players they thought should be leaving Plainmoor, which they were unsure about and which should be offered a new contract. Former Torquay United Chairman Alex Rowe came onto the award-winning podcast shortly afterwards and told us that: “If you think it’s amber, it should probably be red.”

We repeated the exercise last week https://youtu.be/cVqszenb-EU?si=ggC1346BA0AtMUCz but we still had lots of players we were unsure about. Some of us were keener butchers than others. I was at the bloodier end of the scale. But of course, none of that mattered. We love chewing the cud about all things United, but the man with the responsibility of making the real decisions was Paul Wotton, a few days after the crushing disappointment of defeat in the Pay-Off semi.

In truth, there probably weren’t any huge shocks in Paul’s retained list, although it came as a surprise to many that a couple of players were actually under contract for next season when the received wisdom had been that they would be in the mix for the footballer’s version of Snog, Marry, Avoid.

I’m not going to continue with the snog, marry, avoid analogy. I’m not sure it really works, and in any case I don’t think many of our readers would be happy pondering Paul puckering up for Ed Palmer.

PLAYERS UNDER CONTRACT

This was quite reassuring. Assuming Matt Wonnacott’s second fracture heals properly we could, in fact, put out an Eleven from the lads who are already signed on for next year.

We’ve got Matt in goal, two left backs (Jay Foulston and Matty Carson) and possibly the best two centre backs in the division (Jordan Dyer and Sam Dreyer).

There is a potential midfield of Dan Hayfield, Dylan Morgan and Jordan Young (albeit Dan would be doing a LOT of running).

Upfront we could use top scorer Cody Cooke, his young apprentice Jadyn Crosbie and Truro’s nightmare Matt Jay.

I have tallied up Harry Salvidge’s end of season player stats. The retained players now have a total of 321 Torquay starts behind them. It’s obviously only one season’s worth of games, but it is very helpful to have that collective experience already in the building.

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PLAYERS IN CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

James Hamon, Finley Craske, Ed Palmer and Lirak Hasani.

I’ll be honest, I was surprised when I saw the names on this list. Obviously players are keen to get themselves the best deal they can. Many have families to support. It’s a short career and money nearly always talks. We will never know why negotiations haven’t been concluded yet. Maybe the club is driving a hard bargain. Perhaps the “talent” feel they can get more elsewhere. Perhaps there just hasn’t been time to dot I’s and cross t’s.

But, and this is of course just the personal opinion of someone who has never runs a football team, I feel that most or all of this quartet should be thanking their lucky stars and telling Paul Wotton (or asking their agents to say) the following:

“Yes Gaffer, if there’s any chance of coming back next year I would love it. Thank you so much. I know I wasn’t always great this season, but I would really appreciate another chance. Is there any landscaping work you need doing during the off-season? Or if you want to work on your golf swing please give me a shout any time?”

PLAYERS AVAILABLE FOR CONTRACT

Oscar Threlkeld and Ben Seymour.

This is perfectly normal. Happens all the time at most clubs. But it feels like a while since Torquay have been able to be clear that contracted players aren’t part of our future plans. It feels like we are in a stronger position than has often been the case in recent years. Rather than scrabbling around desperately hoping we can persuade players to stay we already have a reasonable core, and we have effectively been able to say “thanks but no thanks” to a couple who haven’t quite fulfilled last summer’s expectations.

PLAYERS RELEASED

Omar Mussa, Dean Moxey, Offrande Zanzala, Brad Ash.

We’ve come to the saddest bit. Social media isn’t always a fun place to be, but the overwhelming majority of messages I have seen about the lads who have fallen victim to Watton’s meat cleaver have been positive.

The Moose:

I expected it. Most people expected it. I think he expected it, and he may even have welcomed it. But the light has gone out, and our entertainer is no more. He was a cavalier in a team of roundheads. Our loss, I hope, is someone else’s gain, and I also hope whoever we pick at right back next year won’t have to mark him. My son wrote a Mussa Appreciation, and you could do worse than read it on your next coffee break: https://torquaytalk.com/2025/05/10/tt-blog-omar-mussa-by-matty-hayward/

The Mox:

My first exposure to Deano’s left foot was as long ago as 2004. He was a highly promising left back for Exeter City. They were non-league, and we were still managing to keep our heads above water in League Two. I assume (I can’t be bothered to check) that we had already been knocked out of the cup, because I dragged a five-year-old Matty to St James Park to watch what I hoped would be a comfortable away win for League One Donny Rovers. Deano had other ideas. He announced his fantastic career with a 45 yard screamer that was not dissimilar to Matt Jay’s effort at Chelmsford this season.

You can watch his goal (and his engaging post match interview!) here

Well played, Mox.

Offrande Zanzala:

I liked Ozzy. Better than “bustling” for me. Strong and intelligent. But he’s one of several strikers to be culled as we try to free up some budget and look for someone better.

Brad Ash:

He’ll score some goals next season, and good luck to him.