FL2: Torquay Utd v AFC Wimbledon 1/1/13

Before I read Jon's post last night I was going to make the point that everything and nothing has changed about Torquay United since 2007.

"Everything" in the sense to which Jon alludes. We are now a far more plausible Football League club in terms of facilities, infrastructure, professionalism and outlook. When I travelled around to away matches 5-10 years ago I really felt we'd slipped behind other clubs. We were carefully managed but we were a diminishing proposition. Regardless of Chris Roberts, we were headed in one direction.

I feel that far less these days. Now I sense we could go up, down or remain constant in the way that football clubs have a habit of doing. That's actually a kind of progress to see things like that: it's about a football team after all.

Where "nothing" - or at least little - has changed is that we remain one of the smaller clubs in the division. And this, we must note, is at a time when there are 8-10 good candidates for League membership from outside. The attendance figures are illuminating as are Wildebeeste's historical points. And Jon, for his part, has previously argued that we're around the 17th or 18th (I think) club in magnitude in this league on various indicators. In fact, were some of the larger ex-League clubs to return, we could again find ourselves in Jon's bottom quartile of the division through no real fault of our own.

Which rather suggests that the club's owners have been able to vastly improve the club but not really - or yet anyway - "grow" it in terms of support, cultural importance and commercial activity. Perhaps that's a disappointment to them. I don't know the board members but I guess they're the usual mixture of dreamers, realists,optimists and pessimists. They may have shared a general initial vision but they probably each had a slightly different view of what could be achieved. Yet I'd imagine they all harboured a belief that crowds could be increased to a greater or lesser extent. I'm sure I would have believed similarly - however cautiously - if I'd been part of such an exciting and confident project.

You wonder how that "inability" - rather than "failure" which I think is too harsh a word - to grow has impacted on the board's outlook. Perhaps they always knew it would be "one step at a time". Or that there were limits. Perhaps it's still relatively early days or, more likely, a time for level-headed reassessment. We are, after all, in the sixth year of the venture; a time when equilibrium is reached after progress and effort?

But let's imagine that there is some disillusionment that more people aren't coming through the turnstile. If it were me on the board I'd share that feeling. I'd now be proceeding more cautiously whilst being immensely proud of our achievements to date.

Think about it and the board and their employees' achievements can be seen as taking the club through at least four stages from competitive Conference club to a plausible League 2 club. But the fifth stage (and possibly beyond) of really "upping the ante" looks a rather different proposition. This may remain on the books as an aspiration, it may be on hold or "reality" may have intervened. Indeed keeping pace at stage four may be a big and worthy enough job in itself. Holding where we are for another ten years - with improvements all the time in keeping with our rivals - would be a job well done for me. Others will disagree for sure. Indeed, such a view would have been an anathema for me when I was half my current age. But not now.

Yet you can only do so much as a director or administrator. Football is football and football is fragile. Managers and directors make bad decisions; players get injuries; the luck may run contrary. Relegation happens and not just to the poorly-run and inefficient. Likewise promotion can "sort of happen". We could have been promoted in each of the last two seasons. I sense we won't be going anywhere this year. Next season it may be up, down or no change.

My maximum aspiration - but not an expectation - for the club is a few seasons in League 1. I can't be greedy because, after a while, things would probably catch up with us. It would be nice to dream of the Championship but it's highly likely that would see expenditure (on wages in particular) outstripping income and a rather painful fall from grace afterwards.

My minimum anticipation is for Torquay United to be a decent Conference club with good facilities and a fighting chance of getting back in the Football League. That may appear small-minded but that's a kind of reality for a club of our scope and not something that should cast a sleight on our self-regard. A while ago James mentioned the possibility of Conference football within five years. I'm not sure if he said it "could" happen again or "would" do. Either way, the possibility can never be discounted. Name of the game, folks. It's about league tables. Yet, whatever happens in the long-run, this little period in our history - with the new stand, training facilities and the rest - needs to be seen as a significant spell in the club's story. In this way I believe future historians will set these times in positive light. But they'll know the next chapter and we don't.

And, of course, the club's ownership will change again one day. We can only hope it's left in a better state than it was found. Or, better still, an advance on where it was on returning to the Football League. The signs remain promising so far.