greybeard-kernow":1r16ultk said:
Like you, i have sixty years of watching Argyle with their ups and downs, and never having the money to do any better than getting to the second division (or Championship as it is known these days) and then falling back down again.
Our trips down to the bottom division have only been recent events, in relation to the whole 100 years of existence. The very fact that we nearly went out of the football league and even out of existance was disgusting and should never have been a possibility had the Club been run in a sensible manner.
However, it has taken a long time to recover from that but we are now back where we belong, albeit just escaping the drop this term, after a satisfactory first half of the season, but we are where we are.
That was all we could do with the money that we had. Exciting moments of promotion followed by dismal tears of relegation.
Our profit has always come from the gate money, although there was always profit from the commercial side of the club, but the bulk of the money has come from the attendances that Argyle have had, which also went up and down according to how we did on the pitch.
And if Hallett had not come aboard then that is the most we could have afforded to do - top half of this division and bottom half of the division above, yo-yoing up and down as we have in the past, although it has to be said that the competition has been fiercer than ever, and the leagues have grown stronger all the way down to the bottom leagues and the ability to get promotion from this league has been made far more difficult as bigger, and more financially able clubs have been relegated from the Premiership and then also down to this league, as their finances have had to be restructured from the millions that they were provided for from Sky tv, to a big drop which some clubs have been unable to deal with.
The only way we can break free from our yo-yoing is to improve our income so that we can spend more in order to compete with the bigger, and larger funded, clubs in the league.
Hallett has a plan, actually it's more of a vision. He has introduced big (for Argyle) money into the club in order to improve vastly the infrastructure, and in particular, the grandstand. This money has improved the value of the Club's assets and should allow him to get a return on his money when he finally decides to sell.
In the meantime, these improvements to our grandstand should allow it to be used more than once every two weeks, and will allow him to increase profits, and therefore release some extra money for the manager to increase his budget. If spent wisely, the extra money may well see us being able to compete at a higher level, and the intention is that this money should keep us in the Championship, probably bottom half.
However, should we get a manager who can provide us with a better than expected (with the budget he has been given) return on the playing budget then we could well be in the top half or higher, and then anything is possible. This is not inevitable but it is a possibility. If a manager like Dave Smith,
In the meantime the probability for next season will be consolidation, yet again, with the hope of building the spine of the team for a forthcoming look at attempting a promotion in the very near future.
I say that because the full profits from the grandstand may not be readily available until the season ends, especially as covid is still on the horizon, and may well interfere with the day to day running of the Club, and the full impact of the grandstand may not be realised until the season ends.
However, I am looking forward to next season, knowing full well that with a reasonable transfer window, we should be looking to improve greatly, as well as keeping the best of what we still have, and bringing on a few of our youngsters, if they are up to standard, and am looking forward to a season with great anticipation, but knowing full well that we cannot possibly expect anything better than a higher finishing position at the end of the season, wherever that may be.
Reach for the stars by all means, but be realistic enough to know that the team will take a while to gel, the new incoming will take a while to get the style of play that the manager wants, the young ones will improve but must be given time, and with a fair wind, we could be looking up throughout the season, rather than looking over our shoulder and down towards those below us.
Come on you Greens.
