Player Recruitment - myths

[JannerinCardiff]

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.

We went European with our last manager ..

 

[Todric]

Some peeps think an African team will the World Cup quite soon.. anyone fancy a scouting trip to Timbuktu?

 

[JannerinCardiff]

Some peeps think an African team will the World Cup quite soon.. anyone fancy a scouting trip to Timbuktu?

Maybe our new head of recruitment has a list of names from outside the UK that he gained while being at Swansea.. for once maybe we can gain from another clubs investment.

Whether we can afford them? That’s another question.

 

[Guiri Green]

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

Fake News. Money solves all recruitment problems and garauntees success.

 

[justanotherfan]

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

Most interesting point which seems to go against popular belief.

 

[Quintrell Green]

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.

Just to put a bit of historical perspective on the apparent location issue, I took the opportunity to research perhaps Argyle's most successful team when they ended up 5th in the old Division 2, which was the second tier of the EFL in 1961.

Of the 11 players who made the most appearances for the team, 9 players came from clubs further north than Birmingham, and only one from Scotland, namely George Robertson, a former groundsman. Three players came from Leicester City by transfer.
Now, there were 2 local lads, one Peter Anderson transferred from local club Oak Villa and the other Johnny S Williams from EEM Dept a team based in the Dockyard.. These 2 guys were not apprentices but made the grade making over 680 appearances between them.

We can deduce from this that certainly historically Argyle could sign players from distance. It might be said that there is now so much money paid at Argyle's league level that players can be more sniffy / independent about moving to Plymouth.

We can also ask as to why it is that local gems like Johnny Williams and Peter Anderson are no longer found locally, or indeed developed as apprentices to such a skill level. The last were Wotts and to a lesser extent Steve Adams, but that is nearly 20 years ago. It easy to say produce our own players, but despite all the training schedules and aged competitions are they really good enough for the 2020's, and can that be laid at DA's door. Personally I think not. Certainly not at the moment.

 

[Bristol Rich]

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.

Just to put a bit of historical perspective on the apparent location issue, I took the opportunity to research perhaps Argyle's most successful team when they ended up 5th in the old Division 2, which was the second tier of the EFL in 1961.

Of the 11 players who made the most appearances for the team, 9 players came from clubs further north than Birmingham, and only one from Scotland, namely George Robertson, a former groundsman. Three players came from Leicester City by transfer.
Now, there were 2 local lads, one Peter Anderson transferred from local club Oak Villa and the other Johnny S Williams from EEM Dept a team based in the Dockyard.. These 2 guys were not apprentices but made the grade making over 680 appearances between them.

We can deduce from this that certainly historically Argyle could sign players from distance. It might be said that there is now so much money paid at Argyle's league level that players can be more sniffy / independent about moving to Plymouth.

We can also ask as to why it is that local gems like Johnny Williams and Peter Anderson are no longer found locally, or indeed developed as apprentices to such a skill level. The last were Wotts and to a lesser extent Steve Adams, but that is nearly 20 years ago. It easy to say produce our own players, but despite all the training schedules and aged competitions are they really good enough for the 2020's, and can that be laid at DA's door. Personally I think not. Certainly not at the moment.

Totally agree, long term the club has to be looking at developing players even if it's a 10 year project. The next star of Argyle could be a home grown player.

Our neighbours up the road have shown it's possible.

 

[crownhill pilgrim]

I don't want to belittle what was an interesting and well-meaning first post, but the survey is meaningless.... Of course the players we do manage to sign have to come from somewhere - either, local, national and international. A really useful survey would tell us how many players we've missed out on signing because of location or budget.

 

[Biggs]

I don't want to belittle what was an interesting and well-meaning first post, but the survey is meaningless.... Of course the players we do manage to sign have to come from somewhere - either, local, national and international. A really useful survey would tell us how many players we've missed out on signing because of location or budget.

Abso-bloody-xactly.

No-one is saying we literally struggle to sign professional footballers, the point is that we struggle to sign the ones we really want when we're in competition with other clubs.

I imagine we're on at least 5th or 6th choice when we do actually make a signing, and even those early signings like Conor Grant or Calum Dyson were only 'first choice' because we knew no-one else wanted them.

There are exceptions of course, I remember a story about Sylvan Ebanks-Blake being taken to the Hoe, given an Argyle shirt and generally being made to feel like a superstar, which is what swung it from other Championship clubs. We need to think outside the box or find ways 'like' that to compete, with the grandstand being a crucial first step to wow-ing players from lower clubs or abroad.

 

[Balham Green]

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.

What about Brexit?

 

[Quizmike]

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.

What about Brexit?

There'll may be an exemption for sportspeople. But if that doesn't happen, it will just be the same work permit system as non-EU overseas players use now