'History' doesn't pay our players wages Balham. Decent wages are what good seasons are usually built on - that's why you never see Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal ever in a relegation scrap. It's also why you don't hear many Nottingham Forest fans wanting their manager sacked because he's not competing enough in Europe. History offers little on the pitch.
Our main new signings this season were signed from Exeter, Morecambe and a player released by Scunthorpe. These are the players Derek Adams is required to apparently deliver top half with. It's bargain bin stuff.
Portsmouth signed their new forward from the Championship. Derek Adams is using a forward he found in the bottom half of the Conference.
Comparing us to the likes of Oxford last season, who have invested continually for successive seasons, or Bristol Rovers, who had a free scoring striker for most of last season, doesn't really work. Our team has been put together using freebies, scraps and favours.
Our CBs were signed from Crawley and Morecambe.
Our best forward is injured, our best player is serving a suspension, our CB partnership disrupted by suspension.
Why on earth is this team meant to finish top half? Our attendances may be fifth in the division but our budget clearly isn't. The whole lot from Fox to Sarcevic, Bradley to Lameiras and Taylor Sinclair were unwanted by their old clubs. These are undeniably cast offs at League Two level.
Adjust your expectations and embrace reality.
DA will keep us up I am sure but why the likes of yourself and Phil Sloggett expect us to be competing for promotion is beyond me. Adams clearly has not been given the tools to achieve what you expect him to.
Adams has discussed his given wage budget in the same breath as Walsall's. That's a club surviving on attendances of 4,000-5,000. You can forget Argyle's attendances as Adams clearly doesn't get the full whack of the gate money in his wage budget.