Gary Continues Rolling Back The Years To Keep Gulls Soaring

Evergreen Gary Johnson is gearing up for his 34th season as a manager.

Quite the achievement, considering the man himself stresses he finally turns 40 six days before the new campaign kicks off.

Torquay United’s boss continues to pour freezing cold water on the theory that it’s a young man’s game, this football lark.

He took charge of his first match in 1986, the smartly dressed youngster with big dreams prowling the touchline at Newmarket Town.

He desperately wants season number 35 to begin next August as a Football League manager again.

“We all think we are going to win the league by 20 points, and we all think we have the best team!” Johnson said in our latest special summer feature.

“We all have to go in full of optimism - or nobody would sell a season ticket!

“We think we can be competitive. I don’t think anybody will say we will win the league, or say we will be down the bottom.

“We have all got to get points early, just in case the virus comes back again and it’s done on points per game again - we could be promoted with five wins!”

Old school values sure, but the Gulls boss is always ready to adapt. That’s certainly good news for his football-starved players.

“I’ll sound a bit old here but we used to run them up and down the terraces in pre-season, up hills and not much else,” he adds.

“I remember as a player I didn’t touch a ball for four weeks.

“After 23 weeks of doing next to nothing we let them have a feel of the football quite early.

“I’m pleased with my lads, they look fit and they look sharp. It’s changed since my day, players keep themselves in very good shape during the summer.

“Lockdown was hard for everybody,” the 64-year-old told the National League’s Oliver Osborn in a Zoom chat.

“It would have been a hell of a run for us to get into the play-offs, but we had a little bit of form and three games in hand. I wanted to keep most of them. We only wanted to add only a few, we didn’t want to have to rebuild.

“Most of the lads agree with that. The players know my football language. If you only add four or five, they will pick it up quite quickly. We are confident of having a really good year.

“But you can’t just say that. You have to go out there and do it. You have to go and do the job.

“We had to change the mood and change the atmosphere when I got here. We won the National League South comfortably but so we should have, even if we were 14th when I came in.

“The period did change the mood. People weren’t reading their programmes during games anymore, they were enjoying watching the team play again.”

Johnson was a title winner at his beloved Yeovil in 2003 before going on to repeat the trick with Cheltenham Town four years ago - doing the rarest of rare things, returning a club to the EFL at the first attempt.

Maybe not too many are talking up Torquay’s title chances, but then again who had Barrow down to secure the championship last time out?

“To get promoted out of the National League you need that bit of luck,” he adds. “You need to stay injury free and your top players need to stay fit.

“You need belief too. You have to believe in the DNA of the club - even if you lose a few games.

“To win the National League now you have to have a very, very good season. Last year Barrow had a very, very good season. You don’t do that with luck, luck is with the injuries.

“If you do it you can be very proud. It’s League Three now. Only one or two clubs will not be training full time.

“What would it mean to me? So much. We know what winning the league can bring. Torquay United is a Football League club. It has been and should be.”

The Gulls have made a number of good summer signings - but have lost a key figure.

Top scorer for the past two seasons Jamie Reid has joined Mansfield, and that loss has been off-set somewhat by the arrival of forward Andrew Nelson, from Dundee, and Solihull Moors’ Danny Wright.

The hitman is a player who Johnson knows will produce.

“Danny is the evil I know,” he said. "He was a major player for me at Cheltenham.

“Of course Jamie is going to be a big loss. He scored 20 and 30 odd goals for the past two seasons.

“I got the best out of him - he didn’t score too regularly until he met me! But he felt now was the time to get himself into the Football League and he deserves that.

“We aren’t saying we need to get a replacement, but we are saying we need to replace his goals.

“We need that work rate. We scored a lot of goals and we think we now have the centre-halves to do something about that. We’re happy to get deals done for Gary Warren and Fraser Kerr.

“We had to shore the back up a little bit and hopefully we can do that. Hopefully we will be as good as anyone.”

There of course will be another chance to take on his former club Yeovil, a big match down in the south west even if Torquay had a rotten time of it against the Glovers last term.

For Johnson, any game with his old club is special.

“I had a fantastic time at Yeovil,” he adds. “They gave me my break when I came back from Latvia.

“We had a couple of wonderful years and some great promotions. We created a team of mates.

“Then all of a sudden 'little old Yeovil' as they call themselves found themselves in the Championship on a very low budget.

“It can only be happy memories. They will always have a big place in my heart.”

PICTURES BY PINNACLE