Jimmy Ball's Strategic Rebuild at Torquay United

Jimmy Ball is not scrambling around the market anymore. Not now. Not after the past week at Torquay United has finally given him something that looks like a platform rather than a patch-up job.

The Gulls have been busy. Plymouth Argyle prospects Tegan Finn and Caleb Roberts have arrived to inject energy and ambition, defender Oludare Olufunwa has come in to stiffen the back line, and winger Angelo Cappello offers fresh width and running power. Four through the door, all with something to prove.

And yet Ball still wants more – just not at any price, and not in any panic.

“There’s a couple of positions within the squad I’d like to strengthen,” he told BBC Radio Devon, before making it clear he now holds the one commodity managers in the sixth tier rarely enjoy: time. He can wait. He can choose.

He’s earned that breathing space.

Torquay have lost key figures in recent weeks – striker Jordan Young, defender Sam Dreyer and winger Dylan Morgan have all moved on – and a few months ago that kind of exodus might have triggered a frantic scramble. Not this time. The manager insists the players he has brought in were already identified, already tracked, part of a longer plan rather than a late reaction.

“I’m in a position now where I can take my time and make sure of the decisions that I’m making,” he said. The message is clear: the door is open for at least one more signing, but only on his terms. “I’d like to bring one more in for sure. But there’s no rush about it, it’s going to be a calculated one.”

That word – calculated – fits the arc of his short reign.

Ball walked into a club in turmoil in March after Paul Wotton’s sacking, inherited a side drifting, and still dragged them to third place in National League South. Torquay then fell agonisingly short in a dramatic play-off final at Hornchurch in May, a night that underlined both how far they had come under Ball and how far they still have to climb to escape the sixth tier.

The hangover showed at the start of this season. Torquay stumbled out of the blocks, their promotion push looking fragile before it had even gathered rhythm. The pressure could easily have spooked a manager still relatively new in the job.

Instead, the response has been sharp. Back-to-back wins have hauled the Gulls up to eighth, close enough to the early traffic at the top to keep belief alive and the dressing room buoyant. The mood has shifted: from damage control to controlled ambition.

Ball sounds convinced that the recruitment work now being done will carry them further. He talks about lists, about radar, about planning, but the underlying intent is simpler – to assemble a group capable of finally dragging Torquay out of a division they have been stuck in for four seasons.

One more signing, maybe two down the line, might make the difference. The manager is prepared to wait for the right one.

Promotion from National League South is not won in September or October. It is built in weeks like this, when a club stops reacting and starts choosing its own direction.