The relegation will not be televised

There's been questionable decision-making at every turn – are we about to make another misstep?

Sorry about the lack of newsletters. It’s just all a bit depressing, isn’t it?

I was looking to put pen to paper on a piece about the decision-making that’s led to Argyle’s relegation this season. Yes, I’m calling it – perhaps even hoping to tempt fate a little.

But new comments from, of all people, Ian Foster, could not have come in a more timely fashion, as I looked back on his tenure as a catalyst for the decisions made since.

The longer this slow car crash of a season goes on, the better Ian Foster’s tenure at Argyle looks. The football we’re playing now is largely the same, and mostly producing the same results.

Foster himself has been largely silent on his Argyle reign – until now.

---

In a Sky Sports interview about English football managers, he opened up slightly on his time at Argyle.

“I wanted to be a number one. I wanted to go into a club somewhere and be a head coach. The Plymouth thing came completely out of the blue. It's what I'd been planning for, you know, that opportunity. I had my eyes wide open. It wasn't the perfect club. They were in the Championship [but] were they ready for it? In terms of player personnel perhaps not. But you back yourself, you know. You look at the project, you listen to the plans of the owner, you hope that the powers that be can see the work that you're doing.

"But it just changes in a blink. I went in the first week of January. The end of January you're nominated for manager month, at the end of March you're out the door. That's hard, you know. It's hard emotionally, it's hard on your family, on your friends. You try and reflect on the whole process, on the decision-making. You challenge yourself. And then the other things. Your phone stops ringing. You go to the house phone and ring your mobile just to make sure it's working. I kind of fell out of love with it for a short time. Didn't want to watch it on TV, didn't want to go to a game, felt as miserable as sin. You beat yourself up [but] you turn the corner and you get ready to go again.”

I feel sorry for Foster, who faced many of the challenges of Rooney and Muslic, but without the patience given to either. And to go somewhat against the grain, it’s the post-Foster decision-making that has been truly problematic.

What happened next

But as written in this newsletter at the time and since, I believe the thought process for the Foster hire was correct.

We saw in the data that we were set to struggle without Azaz and Schumacher, and we made an appointment that suited that reality. That Foster was a rookie, wasn’t backed with players or backroom staff, and was entrusted to change cultural elements of the club and act unchecked was the real wrong step.

But then the thought process becomes hard to follow.

In the wake of Foster’s dismissal and fan anger, Rooney was hired as a “cultural” fit. We can criticise his previous managerial record (terrible), the underlying data (there wasn’t any), and the rumoured unprofessionalism from Birmingham. Those were all red flags that should have been enough to keep Argyle well-clear.

But the style of play is perhaps just as big a question mark. After making the pragmatic step to hire a counter-attacking and defensively-minded coach in Foster, we then flip-flopped back to a possession style with Rooney. There was a brief time (called by me too early) that we looked like we’d mastered Wazball, but tactically it was so one-dimensional that it took one international break to work us out, and we never recovered.

After Rooney was sacked (and Dewsnip removed) we still broke our transfer record for Baidoo, despite not being well-suited for Muslic’s style of play.

We had to rip up our transfer plans and start over for Muslic profile players, and we still exited the window with a half-baked squad, unable to implement his style effectively. Dire on-field performances, driven by an attack that is plentiful in numbers yet completely unable to function without Ryan Hardie, does not seem the result of joined-up thinking.

In three transfer windows, we have flip-flopped between two styles, and still not managed to assemble a squad fit to play either.

And it might not end there.

Next is the question about whether Muslic’s style of football can translate to League One. Performances against weaker teams in the division have been worrying. We cannot seem to perform when we have more than 25% possession. So how would that translate to League One, when we should, on paper, be one of the top teams in the league? Muslicball feels like underdog football – fine for the Championship, but what about trying to win League One?

And if it doesn’t work, and we make another change, will we be suited to the next manager’s style of play?

I like Muslic and everything he represents. I think everyone does. But when we’ve fallen into every seemingly obvious bear trap for the past six months – are we about to make another wrong step?