Player Recruitment - myths

Vampires11 · Apr 24, 2019

trying to keep our current predicament out of my head, I thought I would look through where our players have been born.

Two myths have been shattered in my mind
(1) we never give local lads a chnace
(2) players won't come to Plymouth due to location

Scotland 14.1%
London 11.0%
Lancashire 9.3%
Plymouth 9.0%
Yorkshire 6.7%
Wales 4.7%
Cornwall 4.3%
Devon 3.1%
West Midlands 3.1%
Republic of Ireland 2.7%

Overall Plymouth/ Devon/ Cornwall has provided 16.4%, so local players are the largest single group, so myth 1 is not entirely true.

This also means that 83.6% of players have been from outside the local area, so myth 2 makes no sense

Herts Green · Apr 24, 2019

I don’t think it’s the case that players don’t come because of the location, it’s more that the better players who have plenty of options often don’t come because of the location.

Biggs · Apr 24, 2019

Yeah, it's a League 1 professional football club. Conference and League 2 standard players and free agents desperate for a contract from all ends of the country will bite their hands off to sign for one of them, no matter where it is. I don't think that stat displaces that myth at all. The location point is made because when we compete with a quality player against one of our rivals, he'd have to be mad to uproot himself and his family when he has an option to stay basically where he is.

Scott Wooton is from Birkenhead, I'm pretty sure he'd have signed for Tranmere if they'd offered the same contract. Same with Dyson and C Grant, probably Ryan Edwards too.

But honestly, I'd like to see the 'outside UK completely' column at around 25% or more.

There doesn't seem much point in concentrating on British players when we're all competing for the same ones, and we know they aren't keen on relocating. Foreign players are relocating countries anyway and it gives us a much wider pool to choose from, plus (most of) the pitches here are so good and passing football more prevalent it's not like the old days when lower leagues would have been a complete culture shock.

Shankster · Apr 24, 2019

Pay enough money and they’ll move to The Scilly’s, the difference is a player being offered more OR occasionally living in or near to the capital.

This is the one area you have to have sympathy with Adams on, despite his pleas I think his budget is probably poor, this is also when a quality manager shows his worth. Pigs ear- silk purse and coaching nous

Shankster · Apr 24, 2019

Pay enough money and they’ll move to The Scilly’s, the difference is a player being offered more OR occasionally living in or near to the capital.

This is the one area you have to have sympathy with Adams on, despite his pleas I think his budget is probably poor, this is also when a quality manager shows his worth. Pigs ear- silk purse and coaching nous

oldage · Apr 24, 2019

Biggest myth is that suddenly we are having problems signing anybody because of our financial situation and geographical position. We have never had much money and our location is the same as its always been.

Ross · Apr 24, 2019

At the risk of sounding like Mark Matthews it makes even more sense that we have a decent youth setup with a manager who would use it.

Guiri Green · Apr 24, 2019

I've mentioned it before, but in a Meet the Manager Session in the early days of Carl Fletchers reign, he did say that he was surprised just how much more some (the better ones) wanted added on to their salaries just to get them to consider uprooting and coming all the way to what they probably considered as Northern France.

Shankster · Apr 24, 2019

Youth set-ups are for the big clubs, generally. Yes occasionally you’ll get a gem and make a couple of quid BUT it takes huge investment for very occasional profit. The infrastructure needs massive investment which is purely speculative. Imagine how many kids fall by the wayside for the one that makes it?

IJN · Apr 24, 2019

Exeter do ok.

Grimes, Watkins, Lampadu and now another one on the go (plus I've missed one).

Shankster · Apr 24, 2019

Yeah there’ll be a run where it kinda works which is lovely, but there’s 92 league clubs who all think likewise.

Of course you should have a youth set up because it’s morally right to invest in your region and ensure you have a community impact amongst the kids BUT to make money out of sales and/ or bring them through, there has to be proper investment in the infrastructure which is speculative in the main

memory man · Apr 24, 2019

Vampires11":3k96xse8 said:
trying to keep our current predicament out of my head, I thought I would look through where our players have been born.

Two myths have been shattered in my mind
(1) we never give local lads a chnace
(2) players won't come to Plymouth due to location

Scotland 14.1%
London 11.0%
Lancashire 9.3%
Plymouth 9.0%
Yorkshire 6.7%
Wales 4.7%
Cornwall 4.3%
Devon 3.1%
West Midlands 3.1%
Republic of Ireland 2.7%

Overall Plymouth/ Devon/ Cornwall has provided 16.4%, so local players are the largest single group, so myth 1 is not entirely true.

This also means that 83.6% of players have been from outside the local area, so myth 2 makes no sense

What period does this survey cover?

Bristol Rich · Apr 24, 2019

In Adams 4 years at the club not kne youth player has come though to be a 1st team regular. Whatever the reason for that, it's a concern.

As Ian points up our neighbours up the road have rightly invested in this area and reaped the rewards.

If we can't afford to sign quality players let's try and create some.

Biggs · Apr 24, 2019

oldage":1kt02hdb said:
Biggest myth is that suddenly we are having problems signing anybody because of our financial situation and geographical position. We have never had much money and our location is the same as its always been.

No suddenly about it.

There’s a consistent factor in play while Plymouth Argyle hasn’t had any meaningful success and been the most under-achieving club in the country throughout its entire history.

What is different in recent times and what exacerbates the location even more is the TV money, foreign investment and off-field revenue streams pouring into English clubs in the last 25 years... of which Argyle have seen just about zero of, and has seen former equals accelerate away while we’ve stood still. With the grandstand redevelopment being a huge step in the right direction but our location still a hurdle we need to deal with.

We need to think outside the box with recruitment, because the way we’ve always done it isn’t working. I’d like us to really, really exploit the foreign market and also go European with the next manager.

IJN · Apr 24, 2019

TBF when Mc666 was throwing money at us, it was the first time in our history we went into the fourth tier.

Player Recruitment - myths

Vampires11

Herts Green

Biggs

Administrator

Shankster

Shankster

oldage

Ross

Guiri Green

Shankster

IJN

Site Owner

Shankster

memory man

Bristol Rich

Biggs

Administrator

IJN

Site Owner