Plymouth Argyle – new readers start here

By: Jim | January 15th, 2008

If you’re an international reader, or simply subsisted hitherto on a milk-and-water diet of Prem and La Liga football, you might not know too much about my club. It’s even possible that some of you may never have heard of us. Just in case (and I hope more seasoned readers will bear with me on this), here’s a brief summary of who, what, where when etc.

Plymouth Argyle currently play in the Coca-Cola Championship. They’ve been in this division since promotion as champions from what was then called Division Two in 2004. They have a largely undistinguished history, being the second largest city in the UK never to have hosted top-flight football (Hull being the largest) and have never appeared in a major cup final (an FA Cup semi-final defeat in 1984 to Watford being the closest they’ve ever come). Most of their history as a league club has been spent shuttling between the second and third tiers.

Nonetheless, Argyle have a number of things that make them special. They are the UK’s most southerly and most westerly club. They are the only club in the League to play in predominantly green shirts (Yeovil Town, the only other club to have green on their shirts, play in green and white hoops). They are the only club to have Argyle as a cognomen. Their supporters (known as the Green Army) travel further to support their team than any other in the country – on average, 2,000 miles a season more.

Argyle are one of the poorest clubs in the Championship. Attendances at their ground, Home Park, currently average around 12,000; wages are among the lowest in the league (reflecting the poverty of the area generally); and the board of directors, under the chairmanship of Paul Stapleton, have little or no money available to invest. Despite this, Argyle are currently among the dozen or so clubs challenging for a play-off spot this season. Were Argyle to be promoted to the Premiership, it would be without question the biggest shock in the history of top-flight football.

The season so far has been marked by a number of triumphs away from home (the three relegated Premiership teams, Charlton, Watford and Sheffield United were all beaten), but the season was disrupted when charismatic and media-friendly manager Ian Holloway succumbed to the lure of Milan Mandaric’s millions to take charge at Leicester City. Argyle moved swiftly to secure the services of their former boss Paul Sturrock, then plying his trade at League One side Swindon Town. Sturrock is regarded by most of the Argyle fans as something close to a demi-god, having taken them from the bottom of League Two to the brink of the Championship in the space of three and a half years. Since his return, Argyle’s fortunes on the pitch have been mixed, and the transfer window has seen several key players leave Argyle while replacements have been tricky to come by.

Argyle’s strength on the pitch lies mainly in their midfield. Hungarian left-winger Peter Halmosi has pace to burn and bags of skill. He is attracting the attention of some Premiership clubs. Right-winger David Norris is currently being courted by a number of Championship rivals, with rumour and counter-rumour abounding as to the imminence (or otherwise) of his departure. French pair Lilian Nalis and Jimmy Abdou play in the centre, with Abdou’s pace and enthusiasm complementing Nalis’ experience, cool head and eye for a pass. At the back, the strong pairing of Dutchman Marcel Seip and Hungarian Krizstian Timar have made Argyle look more secure defensively than for quite a while. Up front, Argyle are currently seeking to recruit new forwards after the defection of leading scorer Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to Wolves (see other posts).

This Saturday, Argyle take on Southampton at Home Park. If their play-off ambitions are to be maintained, it’s a game they really need to win to stay in touch. There’ll be a proper preview later in the week: let’s hope we have some new players in by then.