Wages could be the issue, The accounts stated wages were £8.3 million in the title winning League one season. Interesting what they were in the first season back in the Championship.
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- Thread starter Cobalt 60
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Saxon Earley needs more time. Waino and Callum Wright are definitely not championship standard. Miller has shown glimpses of ability but as others have said, end product is simply not good enough for this league . Houghton and Randell are borderline for me. (Randell’s delivery from set plays is poor) would much prefer Darko in there! Forget sentiment. You can just see what he brings to team with his ball skills, energy and better passing ability. The fact is we have to improve the squad. Otherwise relegation is nailed on next year. The club loves data analysis… let’s hope we secure some good young players. unfortunately Azeez contract extension has been triggered but he is the type (wee gem) we need to identify. Whittaker will go if we get right price (8-10m) and agree with Cobi, if we can spend this money wisely, get fresh energy and quality into the team, maybe some premiership loans as well, we may be ok next year but it will be tough !!
What a lovely, respectful and humble way to end his time here. Massive respect to the guy, hope everything works out for him and who knows, perhaps our paths will cross again in future.
Randells form in the latter part of the season was decent, I think he grew into being a Championship midfielder and become more positive and confident as time went on. Jordan started the season really well (he plays better as a single pivot in midfield rather than as part of two deep sitting midfielders - don't ask me why) but fizzled out a bit as the season wore on. He's a really good influence on the pitch, I really like him. I guess sometimes you may want players you like to play for your team rather than players you don't like who may be a bit better?
We seem to offer 4 Academy graduates a contract each year. That seems to be the norm for us, presumably to do with what we can afford. As a result of this are we letting other potential high quality players go because we don't have the infrastructure to develop them ? As mentioned Klaidi Lolos is doing very well at Crawley.
For the coming season, the Championship is no longer an unknown quantity for our players. Get the right Head Coach in, and with a good pre season, some good Prem loans I think we'll be OK. We must survive for another year. With increased revenue 25/26 increase the quality of our players?
We must also hang on to Morgs, Coops and Gibson for another year, their value will increase next year for sure.
For the coming season, the Championship is no longer an unknown quantity for our players. Get the right Head Coach in, and with a good pre season, some good Prem loans I think we'll be OK. We must survive for another year. With increased revenue 25/26 increase the quality of our players?
We must also hang on to Morgs, Coops and Gibson for another year, their value will increase next year for sure.
As someone who watches the U18 regularly I would say we have had a lot of talent over the years.
There are two main issues as I see it which are:
The physicality of the players, I’m not sure at 17/18 they have the physique to play against adults. We seem to produce tackers.
The main issue as I see it, is that at present there is no pathway from the U18s to the first team as Argyle don’t have a development squad or reserve side. So at 18 the youngster don’t have anywhere to play regular football and because of their age they have a limited number of clubs to be loaned out to.
Perhaps just coincidence but at 16 both Randell and Cooper were playing regular football against men in the Argyle reserve side in the SWPL and then the Central League and the Premier League Cup. It was in the Premier League cup match away against Everton where Cooper’s performance got him noticed by other Clubs.
It’s worth running an academy that has proper facilities and is properly funded. Something that hasn’t ever been the case at Argyle. You get out of it what you put in. Brickfields should address that hopefully.
Agreed - at u18 level they have done this season as much as they can . Once Brickfields done we can apply to be cat 2 and go up a level.
Pet hate of mine , youngsters being offered 1 year deal , surely if they are deemed worthy of signing a professional contract it must be worth 2/3 yrs , with a pathway and certain career points to meet along the way ?
I don’t think it’s a numbers game re there being 4 as I doubt they are paid much .
Re lolos he has had to drop down to come back .
Can’t see us hanging onto all of Cooper , Whittaker and Gibson .
We need to strengthen and salary increase and signing fees will need to be spent ,
The £8.3 included all staff wages plus promotion bonuses so the basic for the playing staff was probably more like £5M . I’d reckon this year for playing staff it will be more like £8M .
The population of Devon and Cornwall is about 1.7 million, nearly 3% of the population of England.
Argyle are the biggest club in the two counties and should have the pick of young players, so you could argue that proportionate to that, roughly one out of every thirty or so English footballers should be coming through the ranks at Home Park (meaning say, six or so players in every age group who go on to have a good pro career).
There are reasons why that's a bit simplistic, but we should surely be averaging a couple of pro standard players per year, and at least one of Premier League/Championship level. There are well over a dozen or so players from Devon and Cornwall playing in the top two divisions, which I think demonstrates that this is totally realistic.
As it is, since Adam Randell (plus Klaidi Lolos in the same cohort) we have now had three straight year groups go through without producing a single pro player.
It's massive under performance that costs the club a lot of good players and millions of pounds in revenue but because it's not really visible it gets overlooked. I fear there is quite a lot that we are getting badly wrong.
