Lowe - "We're overachieving ...............

[JannerinCardiff]

At the risk of turning into a stats bore for the second time on this thread, this statistic is true but also slightly misleading, and perhaps overstates Argyle's true 'potential.'

Plymouth is 17th biggest city in England, but if you look at the population of 'built-up areas' - which includes the urban sprawl that extends beyond cities' official boundaries, it's 30th and is smaller than places like Bournemouth, Southend and Newport. The South West is very undeveloped/unspoilt compared to the rest of the UK.

List of urban areas in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you were to measure the number of people living within 30 minutes travelling time of particular clubs, those from ostensibly similar size cities like Portsmouth or Sunderland would have knocking on double the potential fanbase of Argyle to draw upon, and this is why they get bigger crowds.

Obviously our catchment area extends to well beyond 30 minutes away, but the further you get, the more difficult it becomes to attend games.

I would love to see some research on what affinity people have with Argyle in places like North Devon and West Cornwall, where we're the local league team but still a very long way away, and what could be done to draw more support from these areas. In my experience Argyle don't really register there in the way that they do in Plymouth.

I think having with Argyle having academy hubs now in Cornwall might potential attract more fans from the Duchy, here's hoping... 👌😊

Didn't we get 40,000 crowds years ago tho??

 

[Railway sleeper]

That is why Plymouth are going to be different. Hallett has identified how the club will evolve and has put in place the necessary requirements in order to get us up to the Championship and to stay there.

It isn't always down to the Club as to when a manager leaves, Knibbs, especially if we appear to be successful with him in charge.

Think back to Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. and you'll get some idea of what Hallett is trying to do. The manager changes, but the style remains the same.

There’s loads to like in that analogy. Hopefully Argyle will also follow Liverpool’s recruitment strategy at the time - buying good players from several leagues below, with the aim of initially putting them in the reserve side ( unfortunately no reserve fixtures at our club ATM 😐) I’m thinking of players like Phil neal ( Northampton) , Ray Clemence and kevin keegan ( both Scunthorpe).

 

[Sainghin Green]

What is the point of changing manager if tactics and personnel are not to be changed?

Tony Pulis didn’t come in and do everything Bobby Williamson’s preferred way.
Straight away it was Nick Chadwick in midfield and Akos Buzsaky to the bench.

I struggled to identify BW's 'preferred way' unless it was 4-5-1 for home games against Championship giants like Gillingham in the game David Friio rescued