Plymouth Argyle: Season Five, Pre Season Report

Hello friends and welcome back to my Plymouth Football Manager Story which ended last time with The Pilgrims just avoiding the drop to the Championship in their inaugural season in the EPL. We pick up the story once more in June 2015 as preparations begin to consolidate and improve on last season’s performance.

June 2015

It was a slow and agonizingly painful start to the off-season but when things did begin to pick up for potential transfer targets a pattern began to unfold. Contract offered – Contract accepted – Work permit denied. Transfer bid – club triples the price of the player or the player wanted 4 times his current salary. I made one sweet bid for an Argentinean but his agent wanted close to £1million!!! Naturally then, lots of deals fell through.

Financially though things were going well as once again we were handed an exorbitant amount of money in TV rights which of course made the board and the bank extremely happy.

Speaking of the board I chose “avoid relegation” in my meeting with them simply because my quest to strengthen the squad was going so badly though this did cut my transfer budget by almost £7million from the initial one the previous month.

If June hadn’t been frustrating enough already with the British Government interfering with my transfer plans they really stuck in to me when Yu Hai, my only 7 + rated player last season was refused a work permit and so he will be leaving on a free even though he had accepted a new contract.

July 2015:

As the clock ticked past midnight to signal the start of July some familiar names over the last several seasons departed Home Park leaving my squad somewhat depleted to say the least.

With so many players leaving that created a lot of additional cash in my salary budget.

Finally some good news as things started to click in terms of rebuilding the team which I wanted to do from the back line through to the forward line. In all I brought in an astonishing 12 new players though 2 of which will be sent to my feeder club Brighton to being with.

I must admit I went back to old habits and over spent which is something I’ve managed to control over the past several seasons but hopefully you’ll agree it was money well spent when you see the players even though my financial report as of the end of July made terrible reading.

Well on to the squad, which this season will be lining up in a 4-1-2-3 formation with 1 striker and two out wide as inside forwards.

Goalkeepers:

I currently have four, but I’m looking to off-load Aaron McCarey which will leave me with Loris Karius whose been with Plymouth for a few season now, back up Ronald Plat (yth) and new signing Vladislav Stoyanov who has made 3 international appearances for Bulgaria and will most likely start as my preferred goalkeeper.

Central Defence:

Ryan Shotton ( Long Throws 17) and William Ekong are still major candidates in this position but needed better support and are joined by Kyle Bartley who was released by Arsenal and Mali international Mahamadou Sissoko.

Full Backs:

On the left side no change with Bruno Bertucci and Jamie Richards filling that role and on the right side Colin Watson will now become the back up after the arrival of Johan Kappelhof from FC Gronigen. Kappelhof has much better pace and will hopefully solve a problem area from last season.

Defensive Midfield:

Club captain Conor Coady owns this slot but will be supported by Jermaine Jenas who was very much a surprise signing for me as we got him on a free and for a relatively low salary. I was quite shocked that he would come to Plymouth. He’s more of a central midfielder but I feel he can re-train into that DMC role.

Central Midfield:

This area is made up of a Central midfielder and Advanced Playmaker though I feel that both the incumbents and the new players can switch between both if necessary. Still with the team are Brazilian Jaguare, James Wallace and Jake Livermore but have been joined by Mauricio from Atletico Mineiro and another coup for the club, Jonjo Shelvey who was realised by Liverpool. Both these players I’m thrilled to have at Plymouth.

Inside Forwards:

With the departure of Yu Hai, Marc Pelosi along with Shane Ferguson from Newcastle will fill the left side of the field whilst over the right there’s Javi Lopez and IIyas Zeytulaev. At 30 years old Zeytulaev could move on after this season so I signed Kostas Fortunis from Kaiserslautern who should do nicely for the next several years.

Strikers:

Chris McLaughlin and Iosif Baesu are both young and have been shown more than a passing interest by major European clubs and the offers are getting bigger each time so I’m not sure how long I can keep them. Federico Rodriguez will be my number 4 striker as new signing Fatos Beciraj will rotate in at number 3. I really want to showcase my two youngsters up front so Beciraj’s international experience with Montenegro will come in handy if things go south in the 18 yard box.

Feeder Club: Brighton

Here are a couple of players that I may send off to Brighton. The first a very promising defender, Marcao from Sao Paulo who could in all honesty go straight into our first team. The second, Jure Cucek will benefit from a season in the lower leagues and should do well even though he’s only 16.

Transfer Summary In’s :

Pre- Season Results:

The first three games were not that impressive and after the trip north to Morecambe ended in a 0-0 draw I felt a change was needed and sure enough that paid dividends with two impressive wins against European sides and poor old Yeovil were on the wrong end of an inspirational performance by Jaguare.

Premier League Fixtures:

On paper at least we may well be able to pick up some points as our opponents are teams that we could beat or even get a draw from so I’m optimistic about the beginning of the season.

Well that completes this pre-season report and I’m very excited by the talent I’ve been able to acquire based on the budget available which hopefully will lead to higher numbers in the win column over the months ahead.

Before I finish, this may be my last season at Plymouth no matter how the season plays out and I just wanted to alert readers in advance rather than at the end of the season. I’m feeling it’s time to try out something different and may return to the MLS as in FM2011 my Toronto FC game was killed off by my Dell PC right after winning the MLS Cup. Ana’s magical New York save got me thinking about that again and of course the MLS pre-season will begin soon over here in North America.

My main idea though is in fact to go “Down Under” to a team called Gold Coast United in the Australian A-League. I came across them by pure chance and the name has been stuck in my head since – I don’t know why? They have a terrific stadium and a cool looking club logo. Both idea’s I’m stewing over on the subway ride each day.

For now though I’ll be concentrating on Plymouth and look forward to your comments. Thanks for taking the time to read this update.