Plymouth Argyle Transfer Rumour Round-up

[Railway sleeper]

Not sure why people are banging on about getting loan signings in from big clubs.

As a general rule these have tended to be mediocre to poor in quality.

We generally seem to make our good loan signings from just one club- Bristol City. We’ve had a number of very good loans from them over the years .

We’ve also had josh grant and the outstanding Scott Sinclair from Chelsea.

There are others that have been good eg. Palmer ( wba)...

But generally my impression of the loans we’ve taken in from other clubs, particularly the bigger clubs, is that they’ve tended to be mediocre in quality- at best.

Argyle have also tended to specialise in being ripped off in their dealings with the big clubs for permanent signings - I’m thinking of nick chadwick ( nice guy, but not a very good use of £250k I’d say), and Tafari Moore and Ashley smith brown.

Many of argyle’s best signings over the years have been players hardly anybody has heard of from clubs that nobody much has heard of .... yannick bolasie, Craig no one, paul mariner, Ashley Barnes etc.....

 

[Tugboat]

Loans to enhance a team, not to be the spine of one.

 

[Nobby]

Paul Gallagher, Alan Judge, Craig Cathcart. Elliott Ward, Jason Banton, David Gray, Carl Fletcher, James Chester, Ben Gibson, Alex MacDonald, Antony O’Connor, Andy Kellet, Hiram Boateng, Oscar Threlkeld...

I could keep going, we’ve had lots of decent loanees for premier league / championship clubs. Not just Bristol City.

 

[Railway sleeper]

Paul Gallagher, Alan Judge, Craig Cathcart. Elliott Ward, Jason Banton, David Gray, Carl Fletcher, James Chester, Ben Gibson, Alex MacDonald, Antony O’Connor, Andy Kellet, Hiram Boateng, Oscar Threlkeld...

I could keep going, we’ve had lots of decent loanees for premier league / championship clubs. Not just Bristol City.

I take your point Nobby- and agree, that those ones ( not sure about Alan judge, at the time) , but generally my impression is that they’ve tended to disappoint over the several decades I’ve been supporting Argyle

My main point with Argyle is - as a generalisation the bigger the “fanfare” the worse the signing tends to be... eg. Taribo West

I would think we would be better off staying away from the bigger clubs( we don’t normally tend to do very well in our dealings with them eg. Peddelty and Austin, as another example), and look for rough diamonds from unfashionable clubs- this is where Argyle have mostly succeeded in getting their good players from ( eg. Jamie Makie and Dwight Marshall,).

 

[Pogleswoody]

Alan Miller :nworthy:

 

[Drake]

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

You made the point yourself here, Brexit. We could no longer look to exploit the ‘non-league’ foreign circuit thanks to the brains trust that foisted the ****show that is Brexit upon us. There was a time that any EU citizen could be plucked from obscurity and given the opportunity but that door is now closed and we need to keep focused on the well trawled domestic market for UK citizens. No more Friios or Larrieus. :doh: If we were ever in the fortunate situation to be able to make moves for players who are regular internationals then maybe we can once again see fans sporting Argyle shirts with Hungarian, French or Irish names.

 

[Joe Totale]

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

You made the point yourself here, Brexit. We could no longer look to exploit the ‘non-league’ foreign circuit thanks to the brains trust that foisted the ****show that is Brexit upon us. There was a time that any EU citizen could be plucked from obscurity and given the opportunity but that door is now closed and we need to keep focused on the well trawled domestic market for UK citizens. No more Friios or Larrieus. :doh: If we were ever in the fortunate situation to be able to make moves for players who are regular internationals then maybe we can once again see fans sporting Argyle shirts with Hungarian, French or Irish names.

Indeed, all foreign players aside from Irish ones now require a work permit which will only be granted for regular internationals who play for a nation ranked at least 70th in the world.
This should lead to more opportunities for young British players but it will also lead to higher fees and wages for average British players as there's now a lot more demand for them.

 

[WoodsyGreen]

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

You made the point yourself here, Brexit. We could no longer look to exploit the ‘non-league’ foreign circuit thanks to the brains trust that foisted the ****show that is Brexit upon us. There was a time that any EU citizen could be plucked from obscurity and given the opportunity but that door is now closed and we need to keep focused on the well trawled domestic market for UK citizens. No more Friios or Larrieus. :doh: If we were ever in the fortunate situation to be able to make moves for players who are regular internationals then maybe we can once again see fans sporting Argyle shirts with Hungarian, French or Irish names.

I don't even think Hungarian internationals will be an option anymore because they aren't ranked high enough for their players to meet the criteria (unless they were playing in a major league, in which case they wouldn't sign for us anyway).

Whatever your views on Brexit, it's quite a sobering thought that we'll never again be able to sign unknown foreign gems like Friio or Halmosi.

 

[xmastree]

What we should be keeping an eye on is British lads who have gone over to the US to play college football and graduate to the professional game. Many of these have not initially made the grade, but some are late developers who become serious players. I hope we use someone, on a commission basis, to tip us off about such opportunities.

 

[Kentishgreen]

Talking about fishing is quite adventurous at present since the only happy fishermen are those from Austria!

 

[Quintrell Green]

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

You made the point yourself here, Brexit. We could no longer look to exploit the ‘non-league’ foreign circuit thanks to the brains trust that foisted the ****show that is Brexit upon us. There was a time that any EU citizen could be plucked from obscurity and given the opportunity but that door is now closed and we need to keep focused on the well trawled domestic market for UK citizens. No more Friios or Larrieus. :doh: If we were ever in the fortunate situation to be able to make moves for players who are regular internationals then maybe we can once again see fans sporting Argyle shirts with Hungarian, French or Irish names.

I don't even think Hungarian internationals will be an option anymore because they aren't ranked high enough for their players to meet the criteria (unless they were playing in a major league, in which case they wouldn't sign for us anyway).

Whatever your views on Brexit, it's quite a sobering thought that we'll never again be able to sign unknown foreign gems like Friio or Halmosi.

There may well be a number of further exits from the EU in the future. The Eastern countries like Hungary and Romania are getting disillusioned, and should Madame Le Pen defeat Macron in the next French Presidential election re-run, I can see France going through a Frexit of their own. We could possibly see more foreign players than we thought, subject of course to UEFA / FIFA and UK protocols..

 

[WoodsyGreen]

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

You made the point yourself here, Brexit. We could no longer look to exploit the ‘non-league’ foreign circuit thanks to the brains trust that foisted the ****show that is Brexit upon us. There was a time that any EU citizen could be plucked from obscurity and given the opportunity but that door is now closed and we need to keep focused on the well trawled domestic market for UK citizens. No more Friios or Larrieus. :doh: If we were ever in the fortunate situation to be able to make moves for players who are regular internationals then maybe we can once again see fans sporting Argyle shirts with Hungarian, French or Irish names.

I don't even think Hungarian internationals will be an option anymore because they aren't ranked high enough for their players to meet the criteria (unless they were playing in a major league, in which case they wouldn't sign for us anyway).

Whatever your views on Brexit, it's quite a sobering thought that we'll never again be able to sign unknown foreign gems like Friio or Halmosi.

There may well be a number of further exits from the EU in the future. The Eastern countries like Hungary and Romania are getting disillusioned, and should Madame Le Pen defeat Macron in the next French Presidential election re-run, I can see France going through a Frexit of their own. We could possibly see more foreign players than we thought, subject of course to UEFA / FIFA and UK protocols..

But that wouldn't make any difference because the rules for signing non-EU players are just as strict if not stricter than for EU players.

 

[oddball]

France is a lot closer to Plymouth than Wales....it makes sense to navigate EU footy clubs rather than the British merry go round...we have done rather well over the years from signing players outside of England....

 

[jerryatricjanner]

France is a lot closer to Plymouth than Wales....it makes sense to navigate EU footy clubs rather than the British merry go round...we have done rather well over the years from signing players outside of England....

Not unless France has been moved recently. The nearest point in France is almost exactly the same distance as the nearest in Wales but the time involved to get from one to the other is 3 or 4 times quicker from Wales.

 

[slingsbypobble]

Is it just me or has Argyle's transfer scope narrowed significantly to UK-based players only over more recent seasons? I remember a time when Argyle signed Friio and Larrieu from French clubs, the Hungarian trio of Buszaky, Halmosi and Timar, and a Canadian player (Jason Bent) from a US club by way of Germany. With modern communications systems and data analytics software available to clubs, you would think that the transfer net would widen rather than narrow?

I don't know if politics and Brexit has had an impact on signing footballers as I haven't looked into it, but I would present Lewis Montsma (Lincoln City) as a case of what can be achieved if your scouting network is widened and is effective. Lincoln signed him from FC Dordrecht and he has been one of their standout players this season. Just some Tuesday afternoon musings with a bit of nostalgia...! :scarf:

Very true Boldman.

If your a fisherman , do you:
1. Fish in an area where there are lots of other fisherman- with the likelihood of a low catch of poor quality fish ........ OR

2. Fish in an area where there are very few other fisherman , with the catch likely to be large and high quality ?

I know where after footballers not fish, but the same principles apply I think.

Brexit has complicated things, but I still think we should be sending our fishing boats much further afield , if you follow my rather bizarre metaphor.

For example, the non- league circuit is heavily exploited by U.K. clubs , but I’ve never heard of an English club looking at the non- league circuit abroad ( although I’m sure there must be plenty of talent in these leagues)- might that be an idea for Argo ?

I've often wondered why we don't exploit the USA connection more. Specifically New England Revolution. We are Pligrims after all and the historical connection has to be worth something. More recently Simon Hallett's based in USA and could pull strings for us over there.

I know a lot of you are going to say, "yeah but US football is RUBBISH" but is it League One/Two rubbish? There have been a handful of US players in the Premiership and their international team always seems to do quite well.

There ought to be ways both clubs could benefit from a relationship, whether that's swapping players, fitness coaches or diet regime. On the wider point I wonder if there are players in the US who are good enough for us. And it might be a place that's mainly ignored by our rivals, allowing us to snap up players they'd otherwise miss.