Finally, after 2.5 seasons of sellouts, the thread I've wanted to write for months: why Argyle are ready to significantly expand Home Park, what I think is driving increased demand, how they could potentially do it, and the benefits
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In the past 12 months, our owner and chairman has seen increasing criticism (some of it fair, particularly r.e. Foster), but it’s important to remember that Argyle would not be in the Championship without Hallett. He was even more important than Schuey. Here’s why 👇
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Wayne Rooney has now won more Championship games with Argyle than his entire spell at Birmingham, despite managing six fewer games. His current win rate is also comfortably the highest in his managerial career (36% v 28%, 26%, and 13%)
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Worth remembering the age of the team that beat Luton last night
Grimshaw 26
Edwards (C) 33
Szucs 23
Gibson 24
Mumba 22
Gyabi 20
Randell 23
Al Hajj 23
Whittaker 24
Hardie 27
Obafemi 24
And, of course, Cissoko, the matchwinner who'd started every previous game, is 21
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It's been just over five years since the Hallett Era as Chairman truly began with the creation of Bury-upon-Tamar, which arguably could now be termed the Edwards Era. Through tactics, transfers, and unavailability, here is how Plymouth Argyle have evolved ever since
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Okay, it's time to address the elephant in the room. WTF has happened to Darko Gyabi?! Ever since Rooney's half-time team talk versus Sunderland, he has been wonderful. The reason? A tactical change is helping to emphasize his strengths and minimise his weaknesses
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Why am I seeing so many fans lose their heads over a narrow defeat to a relegated PL side that are second in the table, running down the clock against a weakened side? Do they not remember how awful the away games to Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton were?
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Small thing, but it dawned on me we barely seen Rooney wearing his cap anymore. Wore one his entire spell at Birmingham and the early weeks at Argyle, including in press conferences. Small sign he’s feeling confident and at home here, or just reading too much into a cap?
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Skipper
@Joeedwards10
scored for his sixth straight season at Argyle, joining Ryan Hardie, Paul Wotton, Mickey Evans, and David Norris as the only other Argyle players to achieve that feat this century. From RWB and RB. Legend.
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You know what was nice about this weekend other than winning? Watching Argyle's game back and really enjoying it. We played well & deserved to win. There were lots of positives (see below), but I think that's the biggest. That was possibly our best performance of 2024
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Trying not to weigh in on the second tier pod stuff, but while I could understand them being really down on us pre Sunderland, the signs we were doing much better and could beat Luton were there. If they did their research, they'd have known that
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Rooney: "I think Freddie (18), Caleb (18) and Tegan (16) are the three now who are ahead of the other younger players and all of them will get game time this season."
Love to hear it
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Highly-rated Argyle first-year apprentice Tegan Finn will be training full-time with the senior squad from next week, Wayne Rooney has revealed.
Read More: ⬇️
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We all know that Argyle are embarrassingly bad at set-pieces. But just how bad are we? Well, today, I finally finished watching back every corner Argyle took in the Championship this season and last. The data is as miserable (as am I) and unsurprising as you'd expect
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Al Hajj topped the league for assists, xA, chances created, and big chances created, second for completed dribbles, in spite of relegation, and seemingly playing with worse players, so I'm not fussed about the fact he was relegated tbh. Looks like an Azaz-style creator
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So yes, complain about Hallett if you like. But just remember that he, more than any other individual, was responsible for the transformation of this club in a period of less than five years
I desperately hope Joe Edwards retires at Argyle. What an atmosphere that's would be, at his last game, and how totally deserved it'd be too. Who'd have ever thought he'd come this far? What an absolute legend
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I love the ambition of some fans, but let's be real. The odds of us signing Cissoko are virtually zero unless we receive a £12.5m-ish bid for Whittaker to finance it, as it would surely cost over £5m, probably over £7.5m, to make the transfer permanent
First international break and my mind wandered into thinking about the progress of Argyle's Academy in the past few years. It's the sort of thing most fans miss in among the talking point of Brickfields versus first team investment
Metaphor alert: Joe Edwards is like a fine wine, improving with age. He's such an intelligent footballer, his reading of the game is outstanding, it's how he wins the ball back so much. I'm so sure he's going to be an excellent manager in future
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Fair to say, consider me triggered. The Whittaker is lazy narrative is just ridiculous. Yeah, he doesn't always run back. Neither does Hardie, or Cissoko. That might be to conserve energy, to be better positioned to counter, or because there are enough players already back
Loved watching back the Luton win. So many great things to highlight. So much that I'll have to skim over many of them, so let's start with a few shoutouts
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WBA had the extra quality to win the game and they deserved to, I don't mind that. What's important to me is that we followed up a good performance v the league leaders last week with another this week, this time away. I feel confident that we can beat Luton on Friday 🤞
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Little bit sick already of these pundits who can't fathom that maybe it wasn't the players failing him but an awful tactical plan on Sunday which he never changed at fault?!
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successfully implemented a more complex game plan last season, Rooney's was just shit
"These 11 or 15 or 16 players are not Wayne Rooney and he'll have to work hard with them."
Paul Merson on Plymouth's 4-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday 🔊
I don't get, at all, why so many of our fans are desperate for any stick to beat Whittaker with. He's*one of* the best players we've had ever. He fought to come back, and will make us a big profit, having been integral to keeping us up. Enjoy and celebrate him
People live streaming outside HP is weird, and it's mad that 5k people are watching
@ArgyleLife1886
's deadline day, but I absolutely love the level of engagement the fans have with the club now and over the past few years
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Vs WBA, Bali was tasked with nullifying winger Tom Fellows, who came into the game with only 4 Champ players having completed more dribbles, 1 having created more big chances or with a higher xA, and nobody with more assists. Fellows had his quietest game of the season
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Anyway, this is just the sort of thread I wanted to write becuase it's fun. Being an Argyle fan is just a fun place to be right now. These are the best years I've had supporting the club and it's fun to speculate about how we can grow even further as a club
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Comparing Argyle's past five games, since the tactical changes, to the rest of the Champ (all season), Argyle now rank in the top third of the league for acc. passes per game, top half for xG per game, and narrowly outside the bottom three for xC per game
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I've seen some interesting opinions on what Argyle need to do differently in the past few days, but I think Rooney needs to (and will) focus on doing the basics better. Evolution, not revolution, which we've seen in each league game this far
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What I think a few Burnley fans hadn't grasped was that Al Hajj isn't a Whittaker replacement, nor do we need to sell to buy. Even after Al Hajj, we've made a net profit it seems. Which, is frustrating because it looks like we're going to fail to spend a lot of available money...
On paper, this really isn't bad at all.
Few questions in CM. Also, not sure how that right side of defence will line up. Could be anyone.
Ogbeta pips Mumba to LB right now, but I hope he can find his place in the team. Will be tough for him this season.
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vs
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Random for a Friday, but for those wondering what the Brickfields development will look like, this is the CGI design published last year with the facilities for Argyle's academy and women's teams highlighted
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First international break and my mind wandered into thinking about the progress of Argyle's Academy in the past few years. It's the sort of thing most fans miss in among the talking point of Brickfields versus first team investment
I think the most depressing part of yesterday was that HP was so loud for so much of that game, but fell eerily silent after the goal. Stoke, quiet throughout, were all you could hear for the final 10. As if we all knew that the team wasn't good enough to get the equaliser
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Second Tier Pod post something negative about Rooney
>
Argyle fans overreact to a podcast trying to farm engagement instead of just muting them
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Twitter gives them increased reach because of all the extra engagement from baited
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fans
>
Wait three days and repeat
Shows just how good value Mumba was last year. Sure, his season wasn't amazing like Whittaker's, but he still had a good season aged 22, is worth plenty more than the fee we paid, and continues to get better
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Norwich and Hull have agreed a deal in principle for winger Abu Kamara. Worth £4.5m with Canaries also holding a sell-on. Not done yet as Norwich looking to get one in but it is edging closer.
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One of our best ever pieces of transfer business, and a reminder that we shouldn't fear player sales; Camara's sale helped fund the expansion of the squad in Jan 23 that saw us over the line. It's only the Championship, there are always replacements available
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I was wondering why Issaka wasn't on the bench v WBA after returning from suspension, but Rooney has confirmed they've got an minor injury and will miss Luton too. If you think of Mumba as a LB rather than WG, Issaka is now our third best winger imo
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Bit disappointed we didn't get more in today (save for some late transfer) but, even though it was at the eleventh hour, we have finally replaced Azaz (on paper, at least). That was the single most important piece of business. Now watch him tear his ACL in training
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Don't want to toot my own horn, but Argyle have played something pretty close to this since Sunderland (very close yesterday with Al Hajj finally starting) and I'd say it worked pretty well
After thinking about it for a while, this is probably the tweak I'd suggest for Rooney's formation. The most important adaptations for me are: the extra attacker committed in the attacking phase; CAM occupying the centre; concentration of players on either flank
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Long way to go but I won't be surprised if Edwards lifts the POTY award for a 2nd time this season, joining a select few to have done so. Don't forget, he's 34 this season and could retire. His contract is up and has an agreement to become a coach at Argyle if he does
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When
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won the league, our revenue was one of the highest in the league at £15m. Birmingham have just spent that on one player. Insane money. 50 goals a season money. Will Grigg to Sunderland levels of negotiating (on steroids).
Birmingham City have agreed an extraordinary fee with Fulham for Jay Stansfield. I’m told it’s a guaranteed £15m, plus £5m in add-ons, a 20% sell-on clause, and a £100k bonus if they are promoted to Championship. Absolutely smashes the League One record.
#BCFC
#FFC
Games I have watched live or in person this season: Wednesday (L), Hull (D), QPR (D), Watford (L), Stoke (L), WBA (L), Burnley (L)
Games I’ve missed: Cheltenham (W), Sunderland (W), Luton (W)
I can’t watch today’s game…
Almost hoping we don’t win, else can I watch again?!
Hatch, only at the start of his second year, with his 30th goal for the apprentices! He's one of the most exciting of this cohort. Exactly the physical profile you're looking for from a modern striker: tall, strong, fast, scores and assists
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People moan about Brickfields, but that £11m invesment could be covered in full by selling Freddie Issaka if he continues his development path (no pressure). The idea is that it will make generate more Issaka's and, for Argyle, a massive profit. It's aboslutely worthwhile
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Random point, but to deliver on this potential would require better transport infrastructure in the South West. Will avoid becoming political on this account, but one thing that frustrates me is that PCC couldn't successfully negotiate to join the Devon combined authority
In summary: Argyle have a potential supporter catchment area of between 700k and 1.3m. Sunderland and Newcastle, who attract a combined avg attendance of c.90k, share a catchment area roughly twice the size.
This Angel Gomez display is what I'm hoping Caleb Roberts develops into. He's a way off, but from what I've seen of him as a pro and apprentice, he's got the pressing, the passing, and the intelligence. Needs the strength and consistency to make it long term
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Jenkins-Davies back to
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should be a decent move, I think. His loan there last season wasn't as amazing as hoped, but it was his first season as a pro, had to navigate a 3-month injury, plus the disruption of Torquay's financial problems. Still got 8 goals and played well
Though Stoke were comfortably the best side for the first 20, Argyle played well after that and edged the rest of the game. And yet Stoke missed. what, four 1-v-1s? Lots of good build up but no big chances; generally look solid but give away big chances. Bad combo.
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Second, Cooper has 0 PL apps, 19 Champ apps, and only one year left on his deal, plus he wants the transfer. All these things depress his value. No Champ GK has ever gone for >£3.25m with 0 PL apps and <1 year left on their contract
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Am I surprised that reverting to 4-3-3 has led to improved performances? Not in the slightest. Quite why we decided to move away from it last Jan remains aggrivating to me, and then to have started this season 4-4-2, then 4-2-3-1... but at least we made it here quickly
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So, there was a formation change. We were 4-3-3, not 4-2-3-1. Randell deepest, Mumba often inverted to make a box. That benefited many, especially Gyabi (able to press more, push higher, less defensive responsibility) and Mumba (not having to travel between LB and LAM)
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Okay, it's time to address the elephant in the room. WTF has happened to Darko Gyabi?! Ever since Rooney's half-time team talk versus Sunderland, he has been wonderful. The reason? A tactical change is helping to emphasize his strengths and minimise his weaknesses
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I'm starting to get a bit wound up by Rooney complaining about us not being "clinical" or "ruthless". Guess which is the ONLY CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM TO HAVE NOT CREATED A BIG CHANCE? The next lowest, Preston, have 3. Maybe that explains why we're bottom of the xG table by a mile
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"Second half, I felt it looked like it was going to be us who scored. Again, I'm sat here talking about being clinical and being ruthless."
Wayne Rooney after Argyle lost 1-0 to Stoke to stay winless after four Championship games this season. ⬇️
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I know we've not signed Grimshaw (yet), so this is immaterial, but I've already seen a number of accounts questioning his passing because his passing success (62.8%) is too low. Well, this is a thread explaining how people misunderstand footballing statistics
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I would be very happy with Al Hajj, but we first expressed interest in July. I'm sorry, but even if we get this over the line, Argyle really need to think again about how they're conducting transfer business. And good to know we've got >£1m left to spend at least
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Rami Al Hajj er tæt på et skifte til Plymouth. Efter forhandlinger frem og tilbage nåede OB torsdag aften til enighed med Championship-klubben om en pris på cirka en million euro. Nu mangler svenskeren at få sine personlige betingelser helt på plads.
Just looking back through my thoughts last December, I think many of us thought the same thing: Stoke was the wrong club for him. Pressure to have them competing for promotion from the off this season despite a poor squad, poor recruitment record, high managerial turnover
WBA probably deserve to be a goal up, let's be fair, but Argyle are doing well here. Our season won't be defined by results away to sides competing for promotion, so if we take anything here it's a plus. We're well in this game and we've got Al Hajj from the bench too
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The referee has just given a free kick for offside (correctly) but allowed the free kick to be taken 5+ yards in our half. Then booked our captain for pointing out their awful mistake?
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Since Hallett took over, Argyle have recorded their highest ever 4th tier avg. attendance (19/20), highest 3rd tier avg. attendance since 1959 (22/23), and highest 2nd tier avg. attendance since 1961 (23/24). That didn't happen by accident
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Well, that's probably the final opportunity to shake the transfer committee into action before it's too late. Quality CM and CAM in the next 73.5 hours or it looks like we'll be quite a lot of trouble...
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Mumba probably needs a rest, that makes sense, but Ogbeta ahead of Galloway surprises me, hopefully there's improvement from Wednesday. Edwards presumably injured, now that's worrying. The bench looks particularly weak, however. TJ injured AGAIN?!
Except, Hallett isn't receiving that money. That money goes back into the club and the footballing budget. So, Hallett's £10m investment has already generated more money than had he spent it on the squad. And it will continue generating more money for the club every year
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I’ll be satisfied even if we lose today, so long as we aren’t outclassed. We came into this very tough run of games winless and impotent in attack. I just wanted us to avoid being cut adrift, which we have, and make improvements ahead of the easier run, which we absolutely have
Mentally debating how many points we need from these next five before the second intl. break. Given the fixtures, we'll likely still be in the bottom three, but shouldn't allow ourselves to be more than three points from safety before a kinder run of games, so probably 4 minimum
Personally, I like the look of Grimshaw. Areas for improvement, particularly attacking crosses it seems, but a good ball playing GK it seems for a £1.4m profit minimum (apparently)
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hopefully we see that money and remaining budget invested well over the season
Majority of whom have fewer than 50 careers starts at Champ level. This remains a very inexperienced team, hence the mistakes we've seen in games, but more gametime together and experience at this level should sort a lot of that out 🤞
Clearly a quality dribbler, but (like Tijani) thought they suit the tactics, he appears not to be the finished product, so hope to see them both grow throughout the season. One thing's for sure: we're going to have a lot more depth in attack this season than last!
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Finn's first start of the season after injury on the pre season tour. McCormick looks like he's going to be a Cooper regen at this point in time. Campbell one to watch apparently
So what if he would leave for the right club. So would most footballers. So did Cooper. Accept that loyal footballers can be ambitious too. Did our home-grown, title-winning keeper just pretend to care about the club all that time? No, he just had ambitions
Smart business, especially that it only runs until January, initially. No point committing that wage (a decent one, I’d imagine) for the season when they’re currently unlikely to start a single game
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The implication for the footballing budget? Well, Argyle went from having one of the lowest footballing budgets in L1 in 2017/18 to one of the largest (including promotion bonuses, albeit) in 2022/23, yet still the most sustainable in the league
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Expecting Waine to go out on loan (to L2 is my guess) this week, then gambling that at least one of Wright, Sorinola, Earley will also depart permanently
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In the context of his contract, recent injury record, and factors above, £2m rising to £4m and a big sell on % is good value for money. Like it or not, the club seem to have negotiated quite well given the circumstances.
Cards on the table, my prediction is we’re only getting one of Baidoo or Al Hajj (I do think both look good signings on paper), not both, and, if so, Argyle are best off pushing for just Al Hajj given how Elfsborg clearly don’t want to sell, spend the rest elsewhere
Plymouth och Wayne Rooney vill ha Michael Baidoo.
Nu väntar Elfsborgsstjärnan på samtalet från den engelske tidigare storspelaren.
– Jag vill gärna prata med Rooney, säger Baidoo som kan ha gjort sin sista match för Elfsborg.
– Jag har erbjudanden.
"Kornél Szűcs changed clubs for an amount equal to a new Kecskemét club record, so it was an offer that our club could not say no to". Appears their record sale was c. €500k, so we paid about £425k?
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Szűcs Kornél Angliába igazol 🏴
✍️A mai napon hivatalossá vált, hogy 22 esztendős védőnk, Szűcs Kornél az angol másodosztályban szereplő Plymouth Argyle FC játékosa lett, miután a felek mindenben megállapodtak a klubváltás részleteiről.
👉
From an outside perspective looking in, Evatt seems to have tried to copy Schuey's 3-4-3 strategy from our title winning season, but it's not working. Imo, wrong players for that system. Too many playmakers, not enough dribblers/runners. Just becomes static, and pressable
#bwfc
The £2m is just a rumour. One that, I should add, does not tally with weeks of rumours about a £3m transfer fee, so let’s not just take it as gospel and lose our shit.
Reminder, the press reported Ladapo was £500k+, but our accounts show £1.1m transfer income that year
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Honestly, I don't mind getting Devine back on loan. Primarily in CM, but also able to cover AM. Never thought I'd say that a month ago 😂 sure, why not recreate that incredible midfield of last season that nearly saw us relegated
After thinking about it for a while, this is probably the tweak I'd suggest for Rooney's formation. The most important adaptations for me are: the extra attacker committed in the attacking phase; CAM occupying the centre; concentration of players on either flank
#pafc
I've seen some interesting opinions on what Argyle need to do differently in the past few days, but I think Rooney needs to (and will) focus on doing the basics better. Evolution, not revolution, which we've seen in each league game this far
#pafc
Sidenote, I know it's not as simple as purely adding extra goals on per-season, but I just watched every Argyle corner for the past 14 months. Cut me some slack. I'm going to dream (nightmare) of Argyle's set pieces for weeks.
My main thoughts on this rumour are that a) O’Rourke is more accurate than many are giving him credit for, even if he’s got plenty ‘wrong’ this summer b) however, I would expect more authoritative sources to be tweeting this as well if it were imminent. Time will tell
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