Torquay United manager Paul Wotton reflects on week one in the job

Torquay United manager Paul Wotton says his first week in the job has been a busy but positive one, after the 46-year-old was revealed as the new boss while sitting next to football advisor Neil Warnock last week.

Warnock was given a place on the board by Michael Westcott and the Bryn Consortium, who are still finalising their ownership of the club with its administrators, and the 75-year-old talked glowingly about the new manager, who left Truro last week to move to Torquay.

And Wotton said on Tuesday morning that he thinks he has been at Plainmoor every day since, and the ground is becoming more ‘homely’.

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Wotton said: “It has been positive on the whole. I have had a really busy first week and I think I have been in the club every day. It has been great to meet all the staff – and get a feel for the place. I feel like it is becoming more and more homely every time I am there.

“I have been tremendously busy really with nothing but recruitment, player wise and my staff as well, and we are hopefully very close to announcing something on that.”

With pre-season friendlies now lined up – against Buckland Athletic, Exeter City – Wotton is having to put together a whole new squad and that will be no mean feat. One moment Torquay were a club to avoid, now they are an attractive prospect – and after Westcott said the budget might be one of the highest in the National League South, there will be players who woke up on Wednesday morning with pound signs in their eyes.

However, Wotton will have to be cute as he brings ‘the right’ players in, and don’t expect the job to be done before the first friendly, which is against Buckland at Homers Heath on Friday, July 12. That Buckland game will offer Torquay supporters a first sight of the manager in charge though – and it is sure to be a busy evening, with the home club well renowned for putting on a good pre-season do, especially if the sun is shining.

The second pre-season friendly, scheduled so far, is at home against Exeter City on Tuesday, July 30, while a trip to Tiverton ’s Ladysmead ground beckons for Saturday, August 3 – with the first game of the National South season falling the following weekend, on Saturday, August 10. There are expected to be more announcements about pre-season friendlies soon.

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