davie nine":3ipsca51 said:
We should be proud of our city and it’s location, MGM.
To suggest that we move the location of our training facilities further ‘up country’ is ridiculous.
It would not be Plymouth Argyle any more.
Do you really believe that is all we need to do to achieve EPL status?
If so, I’ll settle for our main aim that, currently, is to reach the Championship and consolidate our position there.
It’s got nothing to do with being proud of the city Davie. I’m from here and proud of that,
When your looking to bring in players and competing with the rest of the EFL with a similar budget then location is a huge factor.
So unless we think out of the box we are going to never become a premier league side simply because players will choose Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and London to be based near their families. Why would you choose to live away from your family if you don’t have to? Why would you choose to travel for hours upon hours every other match day weekend.
It’s not about not being proud of where we are from. It’s trying to find solutions to an issue that’s always held us back. We have to be honest with ourselves. We are a city on the backside on nowhere. Unfortunately, to ask a footballer to move and possibly his family when they probably are settled is a major ask. If it was so easy we wouldn’t of had the debate surrounding Lowe and his family.
Personally, l don’t care if he moves down. I just care about how he performs as manager of Argyle. The same goes for the players.
It’s going to get harder as we climb up the leagues. We already see a number of current Argyle players having to be away from their families.
Persuading top players on thousands of pounds per week to uproot their life, especially if they don’t have too, is going to be a huge issue. Plus the travelling involved. A number of players will not like it. It makes our job as a football club extremely difficult as the pool of quality players we choose from will be smaller than the rest. You only have to look at other clubs in league one around us like MK Dons, they manage to entice the young Man Utd right back, and l imagine location was a benefit when he choose a team to play for.
Most of us love this city. There is a reason why many who contribute on here don’t live here anymore. To be successful in their profession the opportunities simply aren’t here. Footballers want not only the platform, which Argyle can give them, but a certain lifestyle. You aren’t going to find that in Plymouth.
There are three reasons why Argyle have never been very successful.
1. They never had a rich chairman to bankroll Championship ambitions.
2. When they had a chairman who did have money they didn’t run the club professionally
3. Location
We are very lucky we have Simon Hallett now. Yet even he has stated his investments will only go so far. When/IF Argyle become a sustainable championship club unfortunately unless we find a solution to the location issue or a very rich benefactor who’s prepared to lose money our glass ceiling is mid table championship level at best.
Unfortunately, as a football fan we don’t do realism very well. We live in a fantasy bubble. That’s great but that’s why there is so much anger around when we don’t achieve high expectations.