Budget, location, facilities AND Adams transfer judgement

[up the line]

We know location is a factor but at the same time it doesn’t mean you have to sign bad player after player .
How do Accrington on their tiny budget get to find decent players at this level. They would have to use youngsters from clubs around them. Yet look at our youth policy. We can’t even ustlise some of the youngsters we have got at the club. Tuesday being a prime example against Swindon when Cooper should have played instead of Letheren.

Argyle have the advantage that if you play good football you can increase your gates. We have seen a rise in attendances with Adams style of football. That says it all. That even boring football will attract people through the turnstiles as long as we win.

Instead of moaning about location why don’t people sell the location to the players. Seems to me all we do is look for easy excuses when in fact l reckon people would love leaving down here if you actually tried to be positive.

You're last sentence is key.
The location never seems to get mentioned if we're doing well. But right now it's a nice little bit of cotton wool for some to wrap Derek in

 

[pedro91]

We know location is a factor but at the same time it doesn’t mean you have to sign bad player after player .
How do Accrington on their tiny budget get to find decent players at this level. They would have to use youngsters from clubs around them. Yet look at our youth policy. We can’t even ustlise some of the youngsters we have got at the club. Tuesday being a prime example against Swindon when Cooper should have played instead of Letheren.

Argyle have the advantage that if you play good football you can increase your gates. We have seen a rise in attendances with Adams style of football. That says it all. That even boring football will attract people through the turnstiles as long as we win.

Instead of moaning about location why don’t people sell the location to the players. Seems to me all we do is look for easy excuses when in fact l reckon people would love leaving down here if you actually tried to be positive.

Do you mean 'love living' down here ?

 

[Metal Green Mickey]

We know location is a factor but at the same time it doesn’t mean you have to sign bad player after player .
How do Accrington on their tiny budget get to find decent players at this level. They would have to use youngsters from clubs around them. Yet look at our youth policy. We can’t even ustlise some of the youngsters we have got at the club. Tuesday being a prime example against Swindon when Cooper should have played instead of Letheren.

Argyle have the advantage that if you play good football you can increase your gates. We have seen a rise in attendances with Adams style of football. That says it all. That even boring football will attract people through the turnstiles as long as we win.

Instead of moaning about location why don’t people sell the location to the players. Seems to me all we do is look for easy excuses when in fact l reckon people would love living down here if you actually tried to be positive.

Do you mean 'love living' down here ?

I did...thanks re-corrected..

 

[Biggs]

It’s not a case of looking for easy excuses, because the whole point I’m making is that Adams’ bad judgement in the summer is making the situation EVEN worse. And thankfully the board are building the new grandstand to alleviate two of the huge problems we face (disgraceful facilities and restricted budget).

The post was prompted by a very sobering look at the options other clubs have in this division. Rochdale can sign Clough because he doesn’t have to move, whereas he would instantly dismiss a move hundreds of miles away. As London, the North West and North East are typically the hotbeds of footballing talent, the location issue alone is a massive one. Then you might get lucky and convince a quality player to take a look down here, and at least half of them must have taken one look at the grandstand and training facilities (effectively their workplace) and done the Homer Simpson edging away thing.

They can sign a Clough, we have to take huge punts on Dyson and Ladapo because nobody else at this level wants them.

It’s pretty depressing when you very dispassionately look at the choices a player can make, and finding barely any positive reasons why you’d choose to join Argyle. Hopefully that changes for the better next season, but they have to be real issues for our current situation and historical under-performance (AS WELL as poor decision making from the manager)

 

[argobenz]

Exeter seem to find good players?

 

[Biggs]

Exeter seem to find good players?

Do they? They rely on their youth system partly because they can’t attract good enough players.

Anyway, they’re 50 odd miles closer to everywhere else than we are, with a motorway and airport on their doorstep.

 

[hoovermelon]

Exeter seem to find good players?

Do they? They rely on their youth system partly because they can’t attract good enough players.

Anyway, they’re 50 odd miles closer to everywhere else than we are, with a motorway and airport on their doorstep.

And they have also never been more than a basement league side bouncing between the bottom two divisions

Only difference is they sell their players for big money to survive, whereas we never sell anyone for big money as they always go for nothing, not that we have that many good players to sell

 

[nick_PASTIE]

On the basis of geography, Swansea is as much an outpost as Plymouth. What about Middlesbrough?

I don't buy this crap. It's nonsense.

 

[Biggs]

On the basis of geography, Swansea is as much an outpost as Plymouth. What about Middlesbrough?

I don't buy this crap. It's nonsense.

Swansea struggled as much as us until they got a new stadium (location was only one of the factors, facilities is just as important) and reinvented their philosophy under Roberto Martinez.

Middlesbrough is technically in Yorkshire, hardly isolated in football terms, and in a hotbed of footballing talent. And obviously they have the facilities as well.

There is no way on this planet that the combination of 1950s facilities AND being the most isolated club, hasn’t been a huge impediment. Obviously made even worse when the manager makes the wrong decisions as well.

 

[justanotherfan]

Must have mentioned it a million times today, but I was stunned when I saw that Rochdale had signed Zac Clough. An incredibly promising young player who scored consistently at Championship and League 1 level for Bolton and got a big money move to Forest.

Before I continue, I 100% believe that Adams has made big mistakes in the transfer market, so when you combine that underperformance with our pulling power as a club relative to other L1 sides it makes for a pretty ugly prospect.

Looking at it dispassionately, I’m not entirely sure why you would sign for Plymouth Argyle unless you had no other offers at this level. You have to relocate hundreds of miles away, you won’t be paid a massive amount, and until next season (and thank you James Brent and Halletts :clap: ) your day job takes place in either a crumbling asbestos ruin, or a bunch of portakabins. I’d be stunned if either of our striking additions received any other League 1 offers, or many of our other signings.

Adams hasn’t been able to pull a Carey, Jervis or Bradley out of the hat this time and he definitely deserves criticism for his judgement and our chronic displays on the pitch, but there are other issues that have hampered every Argyle manager and which go some way to explain how relatively bad we’ve been throughout our whole history.

Summary... same as the thread title. Average budget, distant location, terrible facilities and bad judgment by the manager adds up to a bit of a mess. Which makes these new grandstand facilities so utterly crucial as they go some way to solve two of those problems.

How does this marry into the difference in the display at Oakwell compared to today at the Kazzam.

 

[gaspargomez]

Two players Argyle could really do with right now are Nelson and Bradley. Both of these are playing for League One clubs that are certainly no bigger than Argyle. Yet they left for what appeared to be financial reasons.

Even in League Two, Adams seemed to think that Argyle were "punching above their weight" in terms of playing budget versus league position.

 

[oddball]

On the basis of geography, Swansea is as much an outpost as Plymouth. What about Middlesbrough?

I don't buy this crap. It's nonsense.

Swansea struggled as much as us until they got a new stadium (location was only one of the factors, facilities is just as important) and reinvented their philosophy under Roberto Martinez.

Middlesbrough is technically in Yorkshire, hardly isolated in football terms, and in a hotbed of footballing talent. And obviously they have the facilities as well.

There is no way on this planet that the combination of 1950s facilities AND being the most isolated club, hasn’t been a huge impediment. Obviously made even worse when the manager makes the wrong decisions as well.

Nobody ever said that........ when under Sturrock we went up through this league as champions.You are just making excuses for the present rubbish that is Plymouth Argyle....

 

[Deacster]

On the basis of geography, Swansea is as much an outpost as Plymouth. What about Middlesbrough?

I don't buy this crap. It's nonsense.

Swansea struggled as much as us until they got a new stadium (location was only one of the factors, facilities is just as important) and reinvented their philosophy under Roberto Martinez.

Middlesbrough is technically in Yorkshire, hardly isolated in football terms, and in a hotbed of footballing talent. And obviously they have the facilities as well.

There is no way on this planet that the combination of 1950s facilities AND being the most isolated club, hasn’t been a huge impediment. Obviously made even worse when the manager makes the wrong decisions as well.

Swansea's rise was started though by Kenny Jackett who kicked started their revival with Akinfenwa and Trundle up top, their philosophy of a football blueprint came later. The point being, maybe a pragmatic manager to dig you out of league 2 and then time to re-group and change direction to push on?

 

[crownhill pilgrim]

Exeter seem to find good players?

Do they? They rely on their youth system partly because they can’t attract good enough players.

Anyway, they’re 50 odd miles closer to everywhere else than we are, with a motorway and airport on their doorstep.

And they have also never been more than a basement league side bouncing between the bottom two divisions

Only difference is they sell their players for big money to survive, whereas we never sell anyone for big money as they always go for nothing, not that we have that many good players to sell

I agree. We've only barely been more than that. With some occasional, unremarkable spells in the second tier.

The youth system is an area where we're seriously underperforming and have been for decades.

 

[Since I Was 33]

Biggs - you've hit the nail on the head of a lot of things in this thread.