The problem really is one of ignorance and stupidity. We're a small island - this whole notion of being "out on a limb" is nonsense. But ask anyone about the geography of this country and you'd think that the south west peninsula was this freakish bit of land that juts out several thousands of miles into the atlantic.
As far as most people are concerned, the country stops at Bristol and everything beyond that is dragons, cliquey pubs, inbreeding farmers and people in smocks sucking on bits of hay going "ooooh-aaar". When people try to do a Plymouth accent (assuming they haven't mistaken Plymouth for Portsmouth) they do a sort of cross between a pirate and a farmer. They refer to Swindon as the "Westcountry". They look at train timetables and scoff at the idea of having to travel for a whole 3.5 hours, but they'd love to live in that America where everything is a 4-hour drive at least.
The last time I went to Plymouth, everything was fine. There were a few boarded up shops, but there's these things called "on-line shopping" and "the recession" which means quite a few cities have them, even the really posh ones. There wasn't too much vomit around the city centre, the locals pass on by without staring at you for too long, the buses don't spontaneously combust (*cough*LIKETHEYDIDINLONDONFORAWHILE*cough*), people don't get stabbed on a daily basis (*cough*MANCHESTER*cough*), the city isn't completely grey, depressing and rainy (Birmingham).
There's literally no reason why a footballer wouldn't want to live in Plymouth. If only they knew. That's always been Plymouth's problem - it just doesn't sell itself. If you don't shout from the rooftops about how ruddy great you are (like Newcastle did) then how is anybody supposed to know?
