No excuses and no complaining will be the Jimmy Ball approach at Plainmoor

If one phrase shone through Jimmy Ball’s first press conference as manager of Torquay United, it was ‘No excuses, no complaining’.

Ball used it about the attitudes he expects from players, and also about himself as he tackles possibly the biggest job of his long and already successful coaching career.

The 50-year-old former AFC Totton boss may be the son of one of English football’s immortals, World Cup winner Alan Ball, but he’s built his own reputation far from the glamorous, well-heeled levels that his dad made his own.

When he spoke about the Gulls’ current injury problems, he didn’t belittle them, but he did stress: “We’re OK. There’s no room for excuses or complaining.

“That feeling of tiredness and aching and soreness is a privilege when you’re getting paid to play football.

“Don’t complain about it, because it doesn’t last very long.

“Expectation is a privilege – it’s because you’re at a big football club with possibilities.

“That’s not off-putting. It’s a challenge, and I’m really looking forward to it.”

And when Ball spoke about his own journey, through years of coaching young players at EFL clubs and then management briefly at Forest Green Rovers (2021), Stevenage (22022) and much longer at Totton (2022-2026), he was emphatic.

“I’ve been ready for a while. I was ready at Forest Green. But life sometimes sends you in different directions.

“No complaining, no excuses. Everything happens for a reason.

“Win games of football, and good things can happen.

“That’s what I’ve gone and done, and let’s hope we can do more of it here.”

Ball, whose time at Totton was packed with promotion and play-off seasons, knows what it’s like to work with limited finances.

He underlined the importance of not jeopardising United’s recovery from the depths of administration, but the prospect of exploiting the club’s full-time status energises him.

“If I got the Totton lads for three or four hours a week, it was a good week,” he said.

“I’ve already had the players here for two-and-a-half hours today.”

Ball plans to appoint his own assistant soon, plus a part-time fitness and conditioning man and a video analyst.

The length of his contract has not yet been revealed, but Ball and his wife – they have two daughters in their 20s – plan to move from Hampshire to Torbay in the summer.

It all represents a significant new investment by the United board after a spell in which money has appeared to be tight, on and off the pitch.

Ball insists that promotion is still very much the aim over the final eight games of this season and, with games at Dagenham & Redbridge and home to leaders Dorking coming up, he’s by no means ceded the title to the Wanderers yet.

“I believe that this squad, fully fit, is the best in this league on paper, but football isn’t played on paper, so that doesn’t matter,” he said.

Ball also reported that he already knows several United players personally, including Matt Worthington, whom he signed as a teenager at Southampton.

And after an open and candid first session in front of the microphones at Plainmoor, he headed back to the manager’s office to, in his words, try and tie up a new signing or two before that first match at Dagenham.