Steven Schumacher, the current Plymouth Argyle manager has a long contract and penned a new deal seven months ago rewarding him for his work and success at Home Park. That deal which runs until 2027 leaves a four year shortfall for any club wishing to obtain his services. Swansea City have been linked with him for the past few weeks, but they remain on the look out for a quality manager and coach who is out of work.

Reports of Brendan Rodgers returning to Swansea can be dismissed at this time.

Schumacher is more than happy at Argyle, he has a competent team around him and has known nothing but success since he took over from Ryan Lowe who resigned in December 2021. Schumacher has moved Argyle up a level carrying on Lowe’s work and vision resulting in promotion back to the championship, and you get the feeling he has his sights set even higher. He is most certainly going to manage in the premier league in the future, and of course the Pilgrims will want that to be with them, but as we have seen with Russell Martin, money really does talk.

Speaking in December 2022, Andrew Parkinson, Chief Executive said. "When we moved to appoint Steven a year ago, we saw the potential he possessed and believed he had the ability to flourish within our structure. It was clear to us that Steven had the tactical and coaching acumen to thrive in this environment, and we are delighted to see how he has risen to the challenge of leading the team. He often talks about his achievements being the result of the culture across the club, and he is absolutely correct, but he has been a big part of helping us drive forward. The club and Steven have the opportunity to grow further together in what is an incredibly exciting time for Argyle. We are delighted to reward him for his efforts and look forward to building on an incredibly positive 12 months."

That most certainly is well on the way at Plymouth.

The current Plymouth boss thrives on a quick attacking style of play, but like Russell Martin can play the patient game when it is needed. They showed league one no mercy at times last season initially aided by Morgan Whittaker on loan from Swansea. Schumacher guided Plymouth to the championship as champions gaining over a hundred points, scoring eighty two goals and winning thirty one games from forty six. If there is a criticism of Argyle last season, like the Swans it was their goals conceded column. However, who can argue with the end result ?

Plymouth, like Swansea is a tough city with years of history to reflect upon, both have similar populations and are based on a coastline which has taken advantage of it’s location. Plymouth with a long sea faring history, Swansea with a rich history in copper smelting, and both cities traded throughout the Industrial revolution. The south coast club welcomes its football managers and becomes increasingly possessive of them, especially in the case of Steven Schumacher. He has brought hope and given the city a bounce, any club coming in for him will have a massive fight on their hands, not least for the finances involved. Swansea is similar, they too welcome visitors to the city, an initial arms length quickly changes to an embrace and many stars of the club have stayed in the area for years after their football careers have ended.

Some stayed forever.

Any club that wants to poach a manager with a near fifty nine percent win rate over one and a half seasons will still view Schumaker as a gamble. Like Martin his football is a joy to watch at times, but both are untested at the highest of levels. Similarities to age, Martin is thirty seven, Schumacher is thirty nine mean clubs are stepping away from the merry go round names of old. You can only reach the highest level by getting the attention of the biggest clubs. As we have seen Schumacher’s good friend Steven Gerrard went in at a premium level with little managerial experience. If any club was to have to choose between the two today you can be rest assured Schumaker would come out on top in many fans opinions.

If Schumaker is a gamble, then what about Gerrard or Frank Lampard ?

If any club approaches Argyle they will come up against Simon Hallett, in his time a ruthless businessman who took US citizenship in 2003. His family moved to Plymouth in the sixties and his past is green and white. He joined the Argyle board in 2016 for a then nominal amount of money compared to where he is today. He has a belonging in Devon, his family live there and he has a business history which has earned a net worth of multi millions. From fan who stood on the Devonport end at Home Park he is now the man you have to navigate as the gatekeeper of the club.

Schumacher may be high in the betting for next Swansea manager, a man who has the same principles as Russell Martin in his football methodologies. Both regard Pep Guardiola as the master technician in football strategy and application. Martin holds the highest coaching qualification in Europe with a UEFA Pro Licence, Schumacher an A licence holder enabling him to competently coach in the championship. Both come from coastal cities, Martin from Brighton, and Schumacher from Liverpool.

There are differences of course, Martin has often frustrated in his tactics whilst Schumacher has been braver in his selections and ambitions over ninety minutes. This backfired somewhat in last months EFL trophy final against Bolton Wanderers, Plymouth losing 4-0. However, Schumacher immediately faced up to his failings as he saw them post match. "Start games better. Decision making. I’ll obviously take responsibility for this. We’ve been really strong this season defending set-plays. We worked a lot this week on their combinations down the outsides of the pitch, but I don’t think today they’ve had that much possession — I haven’t seen the stats, I don’t know — but I don’t remember them penning us in our half that often. They just pounced on our mistakes and punished us. There were tough decisions to make with the team. People can look at that and say I should have done this or that, but that’s irrelevant, because today we didn’t do the basics right. We gave the ball away from our own throw-ins three times. Regards to the selection, some of it was out of my hands, it was the squad that was available”

Steve Schumacher is a wanted man, but as it stands this weekend no team has really got their claws in to Plymouth to ascertain what his services would cost. It will run in to the low millions surely ? A coach with four years of a contract to run, doesn’t come cheap.

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Photographs licensed from Reuters

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