Barnsley and Bolton are by no means easy fixtures to have first up, but two defeats from two games and five goals conceded as relegated Plymouth already questioning a summer recruitment operation under new boss Tom Cleverley according to Argyle Life / Green & White Podcast (@ArgyleLife1886).

So, last season didn't go to plan - what went wrong (apart from Mr Potato Head)?

Well, that’s a bit like asking what’s wrong with Chernobyl except for the explosion. With apologies for the slightly tasteless analogy, it’s very difficult to break downs the ills of last season without honing in on ‘Mr Potato Head’ himself.

Rooney was quite simply a disastrous appointment from start to finish. His total lack of tactical acumen was clear and apparent with a truly dismal record of two points on the road during his entire half-season.

The home form was better but not nearly enough to stop discontent spiralling out of control. The squad honestly wasn’t even that bad- if you look at how many of them have gone on to better things this year, I firmly maintain a capable manager would have kept Argyle in the league. We didn’t, alas, hire one until it was too late.

Miron Muslic made a positive impact, but didn't stick around, what did you make of his reign and departure?

Miron Muslic’s regime could be said to be like marmite, as the old cliche goes - you either love(d) it or you hate it. In this case though, I find myself both loving it and hating it in almost equal measure.

In fairness, he inherited a complete shambles and it was always going to take him time to get it sorted. Clearly a very capable coach, he made us (eventually) a very well oiled machine capable of punching above our budgetary weight. He also gave me some my best ever moments as an Argyle fan with our extraordinary FA Cup run.

That said, the style of football was so mind numbingly dull it did what I thought was impossible and made me stop enjoying going to games. And the style in which he left proved him to be pretty cynical and self motivated - clearly giving false promises to our board.

Pilgrims so far this season…
Plymouth 1-3 Barnsley Watts 50 – Wiredu og 13, Phillips 30, Keillor-Dunn 86
Bolton 2-0 Plymouth Toal 20, Burstow 60

Thoughts on Tom Cleverley?

It’s still early but I think Tom Cleverley looks set to be a pretty good appointment for the club. He did a very good job at Watford by all accounts, hamstrung by a limited squad and appalling owners. The job he did was well perceived enough externally to earn interviews for Championship sides such as (according to the rumour mill) yourselves and even Southampton.

There’s no getting away from the fact that the first couple of games have been poor. A 3-1 loss at home to Barnsley was honestly a game that could have gone either way- we had a perfectly good goal disallowed and created a lot of chances. The 2-0 loss at Bolton showed the same defensive frailties without the positive signs in attack. I don’t think he’s really to blame though.

You’ve got the squad you’ve got and ours isn’t up to much. Which leads us nicely to…

What summer transfer business has been done? What still needs doing?

We’ve bought in a lot of players in terms of sheer numbers but still not nearly as many as we’ve lost (especially factoring in loan slots that we’ve failed to renew). There’s no way of dressing up that I feel this summer’s recruitment has been a complete debacle frankly. The club is more cash rich than it’s ever been and we’ve (thus far) re-invested only a fraction of it on transfer fees. It’s not even as if we are splashing out hugely on wages either as many of our targets have chosen other clubs. Our starting goalkeeper and striker are both Conference standard - we need to urgently do business late in the window

Ins >>> Aribim Pepple, 22, CF, Luton, £300k >>> Bradley Ibrahim, 20, DM, Hertha, £250k >>> Brendan Wiredu, 25, CB, Fleetwood, £250k >>> Owen Oseni, 22, CF, St Mirren, £50k >>> Jack McKenzie, 25, LB, Aberdeen, Free >>> Xavier Amaechi, 24, RW, Magdeburg, Free >>> Jamie Paterson, 33, AM, Coventry Free >>> Ayman Benarous, 21, CM, Bristol City, Free >>> Caleb Watts, 23, AM, Exeter Free >>> Luca Ashby-Hammond, 24, GK, Fulham, Free

Outs >>> Maksym Taloverov, 25, CB, Stoke, £1.5m >>> Ryan Hardie, 28, CF, Wrexham, £750k >>> Jordan Houghton, 29, DM, Stevenage, Free >>> Mustapha Bundu, 28, RW, Hannover, Free >>> Ben Waine, 214, CF, Port Vale, Free >>> Saxon Earley, 22, LB, Stevenage, Free >>> Will Jenkins-Davies, 20, AM, Bath City, Free >>> Adam Randell, 24, DM, Bristol City, Undisclosed >>> Rami Al Hajj, 23, AM, Silkeborg, Undisclosed >>> Dan Grimshaw, 27, GK, Norwich, Undisclosed >>> Michael Baidoo, 26, AM, Umm Salal (Qatar), Loan >>> Callum Wright, 25, CM, Wigan, Loan >>> Nathanael Ogbeta, 24, LB, Barnsley, Loan >>> Jack Matthews, 19, CB, Bath City, Loan >>> Josh Bernard, 19, CM, Released

Where is the team strong and weak?

I’ve partly answered where I think the squad is weak. To elaborate, our current keeper’s (Luca Ashby-Hammond) only regular season is where he conceded 74 goals for Aldershot. Our starting striker (Bim Pepple) has only ever had success in the national league, showing fine form for Southend but at least that’s better than nothing.

Where are we strong? I guess it’s true to say that both wingers are pretty good in the form of Bali Mumba and Xavier Amaechi. Kornel Szucs and Brendan Galloway should in theory be excellent defenders for this level not that we’ve seen it so far.

Will you bounce back first time of asking?

Not a chance quite frankly. As hinted with my previous two answers, I think the state of the squad is a hundred miles from being good enough. That fused with the injury crisis we’re having and a few big drops off in form… I honestly think it’s more likely we drop straight down to League Two than we go back up. Right now, I think a mid-table finish is probably the most realistic outcome.

Links >>> Plymouth Argyle Official Website >>> Plymouth Herald – Local Press >>> Argyle Life/Green and White Podcast >>> Pasoti – Forum >>> Cornish Janner – YouTube Vlog

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Pictures - Reuters Connect

TacticalR added 19:23 - Aug 12 Thanks to Argyle Life. This doesn't sound good. Plymouth seemed to be one of those clubs that had its own identity and style, yet seems to have got completely derailed by the appointment of Rooney and now doesn't seem to be able to find its way back onto the right path.
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