Plymouth come out punching on Championship return - Interview Monday, 11th Dec 2023 16:47 by Clive Whittingham Plymouth's budget made them a relegation fav on their first return to the Championship since 2010, and they're yet to win away, but a fiery attack and great home form means it's been a solid start for the Green Army - @ArgyleLife1886 is our opposition focus this week. How’s the big return been? What have you made of Plymouth’s start to Championship life? It’s been nothing short of brilliant. Aside from the game away to Bristol City and perhaps the recent loss to Coventry City, I don’t think we can have many complaints. At the start of last season, we weren’t expecting to win the league. We’re more than holding our own and certainly don’t look out of place in the Championship. With that being said, there are moments when watching opposition clubs or individual players when you have to pinch yourself. The Championship has moved on a lot since we were last here and the standard is now very high. As the question alludes to, this is just the start though and whilst it’s been a fantastic start so far, there’s still a long way to go. We’re also going to have to maintain high standards consistently for a number of seasons to establish ourselves in the division once again. That’s exciting but also a little daunting. Clubs like Leicester City for example have seven or eight times our budget (if not more!) so whilst we’re enjoying it, we know it’s going to require a lot of hard work to remain here. Plymouth in the league so far… Manager looks terrific to me, how do you rate the job he’s done and are you worried about losing him (saw him linked to Sunderland)? Schuey is certainly one of England’s most exciting young managers. He’s intelligent, pragmatic, likes to play attacking football and he doesn’t come with an ego. He is very good at changing games part way through with substitutions or tactical adjustments, and it’s no exaggeration to say that in a short period of time, he’s in the discussion to be one of Argyle’s most successful managers. Inevitably, when you have the relative success he has had, given the context of managing Plymouth Argyle and the budget that comes with that, people will pay attention. It’s therefore somewhat inevitable that he will leave the club in the future. I think many fans have made peace with that and are enjoying the journey he’s taking us on. On the plus side, from what he says, it doesn’t look like Schuey has any intention of leaving us in a hurry. I think this will only be the case when a sensible option presents himself. I don’t see him leaping to a club at which he could be sacked six months later, or that has a history or erratic behaviour in the boardroom. I looked on enviously at your recently published five year plan, how far can this club realistically go under this ownership? When you look into the ownership under Simon Hallett, Argyle are one of the best pound-for-pound run clubs in the country. We’re living within our means, investing money into the club’s infrastructure and perhaps most importantly with all that’s going on in the world right now, becoming a huge force for good in the local community, all whilst being competitive on the pitch. This success has been built largely on pragmatism and common sense with experts being put into position of influence across the club. The only limit – money. Weirdly though, many Argyle fans are accepting of this. We’ve stared liquidation in the face, but have since won the jackpot when it comes to club ownership. Of course, we’d love to see financial investment that means we could compete at the top end of the league, and maybe one day even the Premier League, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find an Argyle fan that would swap that money for Hallett. Hallett is looking for investment but has been adamant it has to be from the right place, for the right reasons, so we’ll trust the process.
Why the struggles away from home? Have you seen how far away Plymouth is from anywhere?! In all seriousness, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why we’ve struggled away from home so much. We’ve rotated poorly in some games, not turned up to others and had some bad luck too. It looks like it may have become a ‘thing’ now too with our team looking completely different home and away. With that being said, Home Park has always been where we play our best football. It’s remote, teams don’t like coming here and it’s full every single week. Lots of clubs in the Championship get more fans than we do, but are rattling around in half full stadiums. A full Home Park gives us a great advantage and fortunately we have that to fall back on right now, whilst we adjust our problems away from home. Any January rumours? What needs doing? The club have set expectations early and made it clearly that most of the budget was spent in the summer. We broke our record transfer fee in the summer with two £1m signings. I know to many in the league spending £1m on a player is next to nothing, but to do that twice in one window was a huge deal for Argyle. We’re probably more fortunate than most that our main players signed this summer on long term deals, so I don’t expect our first team to get any weaker. Players may be poached in the future but it shouldn’t happen this January. If we can sign a striker and a centre back, I think we’d be happy. Realistically though adding depth to any position would be welcome, but without risking the budget. We’re in a good position and don’t need to throw everything at the January transfer window. We have a few loan spots available, so if we could add a few Premier League youngsters, too that would probably be an excellent transfer window. Ins >>> Morgan Whittacker, 22, AM, Swansea, £1m >>> Bali Mumba, 21, RB, Norwich, £1m >>> Conor Hazard, 25, GK, Celtic, £175k >>> Mustapha Bundu, 26, RW, Anderlecht, Undisclosed >>> Julio Pleguezuelo, 26, CB, Twente, Free >>> Lewis Gibson, 21, CB, Everton, Free >>> Kaine Kesler-Hayden, 20, RB, Villa, Loan >>> Finn Azaz, 22, AM, Villa, Loan >>> Lewis Warrington, 20, CM, Everton, Loan >>> Luke Cundle, 21, CM, Wolves, Loan >>> Kaine Kesler-Hayden, 20, RB, Villa, Loan >>> Outs >>> Niall Ennis, 24, CF, Blackburn, Free >>> Luke Jephcott, 23, CF, St Johnstone, Free >>> James Bolton, 28, RB, St Mirren, Free >>> Danny Mayor, 32, CM, Fleetwood, Free >>> Conor Grant, 28, CM, Port Vale, Free >>> James Wilson, 34, CB, Bristol Rovers, Free >>> Ryan Law, 23, LB, Truro, Free >>> Finley Craske, 20, RB, Torquay, Free >>> Will Jenkins-Davies, 18, CM, Torquay, Loan >>> Oscar Halls, 17, CB, Plymouth Parkway, Loan >>> Jack Endacott, 18, LB, Tiverton, Loan >>> Adam Parkes, 23, GK, Released >>> Brandon Pursall, 19, CB, Released Stand out players in the team? Morgan Whittaker is the one to watch and if you let him cut inside from the wing, you could be on the receiving end of an absolute belter. It’s staggering that Swansea couldn’t find a position for him last season and their loss has certainly been our gain. Finn Azaz, on loan for a second season from Aston Villa, brings yet more ability to our attacking options, whilst the pace of Ryan Hardie up front has caused many defenders problems. Goalkeeper Mike Cooper is certainly one I couldn’t leave out for a mention though. He’s been in the League One Team of the Year for the last two seasons, beating Gavin Bazunu and James Trafford respectively, both of whom have gone to play in the Premier League since. Cooper suffered a long term knee injury last season and didn’t start the campaign in goal, but has recovered well and has taken well to Championship football. With over 150 appearances for the club, he has a bright future in the game. Weak links? It feels unfair to label any member of the squad a weak link, given the start we’ve had. Trying to stay up in the Championship with the smallest budget is a huge challenge, and I think we’ve shown we’re holding our own to date. Nonetheless, it’s quite apparent that we’re better going forward, than we are at defending. In part, that’s due to our tactics. We try to go forward when we can, and we look to win matches, which inevitably puts added pressure on our defence. You also get very few second chances in this league. Any mistake seems to be capitalised on, whereas in League One, it didn’t always mean a goal. We’ve found that the quality in opposition attackers is certainly a lot higher than in the league below, and that too makes it more difficult to defend well. However, despite all this, if there was an area of the squad I’d improve collectively, it would be the defence. Revised expectations for the season? I’d be happy with survival by goal difference, alphabetical order or even the drawing of lots! I don’t think it’ll come down to that though. I think we’ll survive with a game or two to go. It’ll be difficult and I wouldn’t be shocked if we went down - the club with the smallest budget often does. However, given we’re almost certain to get stronger in January, as our best players have just signed long term deals, and as morale around the squad and Home Park is very good unlike most in the relegation battle, I think we’ll be fine. I’d also expect us to improve slightly away from home in the second half of the season, as we’ve been very poor on our travels compared to home games, and that too should give us the points needed to beat the drop. Links >>> Plymouth Argyle Official Website >>> Plymouth Herald – Local Press >>> Argyle Life/Green and White Podcast >>> Pasoti – Forum >>> Cornich Janner – YouTube Vlog The Twitter @loftforwords, @ArgyleLife1886 If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures — Ian Randall Photography The Twitter @loftforwords Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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