It's hard to admit but 25/26 may already be a write-off

The rebuild could take three transfer windows – we should be ready for that.

I was out of the country working some frightful hours when Tom Cleverley was appointed. I could have burned the midnight oil for a newsletter, but after two years of drama and fatigue, the fact there was little original to say spoke volumes. It was overwhelmingly good news.

Tom Cleverley was the safest, most realistic appointment we could have made, given the names linked with the job. Personally, I can’t say he, or the football I saw him play at Watford, excites me. And you better believe I would have rolled the dice on another gegenpress merchant out of 2. Bundesliga.

But I’m so jaded from the previous rollercoaster, I’m happy to see him in the hot seat. If it all goes wrong, it won’t be on the board.

“Stability and loyalty”

“Stability” and “loyalty” were buzzwords of Cleverley’s interview and first press conference. It’s darkly hilarious when viewed against an exodus of such proportions, you’d think Argyle had contracted footballing leprosy.

Players new and old can’t get away from the club fast enough. And there are now two concurrent and irreconcilable Argyles existing at once.

The Championship-era one, afflicted by poor recruitment, bad eggs, derisory relegation release clauses that undermine years of careful and skilled recruiting, and players who signed to be in the Championship shop window, with no intention of seeing out their contracts in League One.

Then there’s this reformed, sensible, shrewd Argyle – building quietly in the background, back to making long-term plays, playing the free agent market and, perhaps, doing what we do best.

There are so many themes in this newsletter that I’m going to refrain from commenting on the quality of our signings until the window closes.

But the scale of the rebuild now seems so great, it defies logic to say that our (my?) expectations of bouncing straight back to the Championship are realistic.

A huge rebuild

A reset was needed, and I’ll drive any player who doesn’t want to play for the shirt up the A38 myself.

But I think what’s scariest about the exodus isn’t just the scale or the quite dreadful money that’s being recouped in an industry renowned for spending excess.

It’s that we’re letting an excellent League One team go and, right now, replacing them with demonstrably inferior players. That’s hard to watch.

Let’s have a look at the leavers:

• Grimshaw

• Saxon Earley

• Ben Waine (now signed at League One Port Vale)

• Ryan Hardie (for a pittance)

• Bundu (free)

• Randell (for a pittance)

• Houghton (free)

• Maxi (not confirmed but likely gone)

• Baidoo (record signing, so poor he’s been shipped out on loan)

• Ogbeta (loaned out to a promotion rival)

• Al Hajj (now strongly rumoured to leave)

• Katic (loan expired)

• Tijani (loan expired)

• Puchacz (loan expired)

• Gyabi (loan expired)

• Obafemi (loan expired)

That’s 16 players leaving the club in one summer, although arguably two were already loaned out and thus replaced.

It’s perhaps not unprecedented in scale, but I’d wager it’s unprecedented in terms of impact. That’s our entire forward and midfield lines departments, and the heart of defence. We’ve barely been able to sign a striker post-pandemic, and now we need three or four.

Now factor in that the head coach and his staff are all new to the club and relatively inexperienced.

The expectation that all this business gets done, that every player brought in is a resounding and immediate success, and that everyone gels to play a brand of football that only exists inside a new coach’s brain, seems wildly optimistic. And the fixture list offers zero respite in the first month.

So when I titled this newsletter asserting that the season is likely to be a write-off, it’s not to throw my toys out of the pram or spread doom. It’s simply to say that, for everyone’s sake, it might be healthier to admit that this rebuild will take longer than one summer window.

And that success in 25/26 might be a late-season push that requires serious patience.

I’d love to be wrong. But there’s a greater chance of collective success if we park the notion of bouncing straight back up at the first time of asking as an imperative.