A neighbouring view on Torquay United's plight

We sent David Fitzgerald to talk with Exeter City Club President Julian Tagg and gain his insight into the current plight at Torquay United.

It would be fair to say that Julian Tagg is Exeter City football club. I have known the man for most of my broadcast career yet know little about his background, so I took the opportunity to track him down at the Cliff Hill training grounds of the club on the Sidmouth Road.

“I am Exeter born and bred, in fact in the little village of Ide, said Julian sat in the canteen of the purpose-built facilities. “I went to Exeter School, and Ladysmith School, then onto Exeter College and university and then back to the college where I worked.”

It is fair to say that you have done everything at Exeter City?

He nods and smiles. “I started out as a ball boy, became a player and then player manager, admittedly for the reserves, ran the academy, became director, vice chairman, chairman, CEO and now president, so I am on the way down now… That is 27 years of my life, I am looking at spending time doing other things. I do have a family who have suffered.”

Exeter City have the nickname ‘The Grecians’ … where does that come from?

“Nobody is really sure; some say that it was a name given to those who lived outside of the Exeter city walls. It referred to the Greeks and the Trojan Horse story…outside of the walls of Troy. Others point to the fact that we as a club are based in Wells Street which was the old place that the city’s washing used to go… and thus anyone in Wells Street were the greasy’ ans. I like that one but how true it is, is questionable.”

Does anyone realise what you have to do to run the club?

‘I don’t think anyone has any real idea. It has come as a great surprise to some of my fellow trust members. It is definitely not for the faint hearted. It’s not just picking the team, there’s accommodation, nutrition, communications, social media, physio, commercial and hospitality and checking that everyone else knows what to do. You need a really good set of people around you who know what they are doing. It is spinning plates, and sometimes those plates get dropped. It is a 24-7 job.”

What was your lowest point within the club history.

Julian thinks long and hard on this. “Relegation. We have been in this league before and then took the drop. That was tough after all the hard work. As long as the club is moving forward little by little, step by step, that’s fine by me. The problem is that people want instant success. We have always moved slowly and methodically. Look… fans get frustrated when things move at a slow pace, I get frustrated! But when talking to staff who say ‘we have a mountain to climb’ I always say, just look back at see how far you have come.”

What advice would you give to anyone looking to take over Torquay United?

“Someone sent me a quote that I apparently came up with about the Exeter City. ‘I didn’t know how I was going to do it but somehow, I will find a way.’ I have always dealt with challenges like that. The problems and situations change on a day-to-day basis. You can’t set out a ‘five year’ plan, life has changed for us so quickly over the years. It is always good to have an end in view then find your way to get there. So many people point out the Manchester United draw in 2005 which went our way and earned us a lot on money, it was huge. I think the quote that was floating around at the time was … Exeter City, the club that owed a lot of money and went to club with no money,’ he giggles.

I pressed him on the advice he would pass on.

“It’s not for the faint hearted. Financially there are a ‘few’ downsides. You are not going to make a lot of money out of this… or anything in fact. So many people do this for love, not for the money… like I did for many years. Get the right people around you with the right intentions. The fastest way out is to find someone with an awful lot of cash. I used to see people go past us and that disturbed me but then again, I saw them coming back the other way. But things have changed in football over recent years, and there does seem to be always someone who will come in and pick it up. Someone wrote to me the other day saying that leagues one and two have become the playthings for American investment companies. There are an awful lot of Americans getting involved for reasons I do and don’t understand.”

Clubs in your league are selling but how are you going to make money especially if you don’t own the ground?

He shrugs. “We don’t own ours which I think is a good thing, actually. We have a great relationship with the city council, the county council, and the university. There are some really unpleasant people in the world of football, but we get on with everyone, especially our fellow Devon clubs, Simon Hallett in Plymouth has put so much into the club. I did meet the ‘man’ in Torquay (Clarke Osborne) he didn’t seem to be into what was happening on the ground, but Simon from Plymouth is in the middle of everything. All the same problems just a different number of noughts.”

If Torquay came to you and asked for players, would you offer help?

“Of course we can always offer players, why wouldn’t you. I remember in the darkest days, Mike Bateson, then Chairman of Torquay gave us the whole gate money after a match, it should have been split 50/50. But we were in trouble, and I will never forget that. Torquay weren’t a big club, didn’t have the money themselves but that was a lovely gesture. It is not the survival of the fittest, it’s the survival of the adaptable. Torquay will have to adapt and go through a series of phases, just like we did.”