Talking to the Herald Sport, James Brent the owner and chairman has admitted Plymouth Argyle's fans have "every right" to be frustrated by the League Two club's recent results. This has led to increased calls from supporters for Carl Fletcher to be replaced as Argyle manager. Brent continued...."The results that we have had have been disappointing but I think it requires careful thought to work with Carl on how to get ir right." Brent continued..." From my perspective, in the majority of games I have seen we have been the stronger side,but we have not been able to turn that into wins. That's the challenge for us all to work out." He said "We will be having a discussion with the manager well in advance of the January transfer window to see where he thinks the gaps are in the squad and what his recommendations are." Brent then said "The Board will then consider that." There must be many managers in the league casting their eye over the support that Carl Fletcher is getting and being very jealous at what they see. There are those fans at PAFC who are quite sure that they could tell James Brent where the gaps are in the squad.....and it starts with Fletcher not being up to the job. The gap is the management are,...tactics and game plan get blown away when ever something goes wrong and the dependence on their luck changing seems to be the big hope. So it is evident that Brent is planning into the new year with Fletcher still at the helm,will it then be getting to a unrecoverable state or will Fletcher start to get lucky on the pitch.........He has never in my mind been a man that has had the rub-of-the-green in his Argyle career.......remember he has the distinction of captaining Argyle to two successive relegations in recent times.....how can we believe that he can turn it around....there is no evidence to support that.
Delighted to see Brent is taking a calm, measured, objective and professional stance rather than the knee-jerk, cowboy panic so often seen in football.
Four wins in the league in nearly half a season........and that would be knee-jerk........holy cows.......we'll be six foot under soon.
And there speaks a man with both eyes on the balance sheet and there is notdistant instantly agreeing with him. I'm sorry but football is not only about balance sheets it is way more imotive than that. I'm glad to see that they will be looking at the "gaps" in the team to attempt to stem the tide of loss. That is at least a glimmer of some hope in what has become the most dreary of seasons we have had so far. I say this one is worse because the level of expectancy was more than a relegation dogfight this time around. Rightly so in my book. When Brent is the only one left sitting in the ground on matchday then perhaps the penny will finally drop. The customers don't rate the manager. Not the ones who are supporters without being customers as well. I don't know if it is the likes of Chris Webb and Ian Newell who are telling him the people will come no matter what but somebody seems to be telling him something and it is bollux. He should be doing what he would do in his other affairs. If something is broken then he would fix it by removing the problem and putting in a new part so that things improve. If he doesn't then he will be the man remembered for the death of PAFC.
Brent himself has admitted he knows nothing about football! My advice is that he should speak to someone who does...NOW because come January it may be too late. Ahem, I know bugger all about football but even Stevie Wonder can see we need someone with the ability to put the ball in the net. The "measured" approach is basically the same approach which was used when Sturrock wasn't shown the door sooner which in the end proved our downfall. Fletcher is not up to it and must be shown the door ASAP., he is the weakest link...GOODBYE!
I've just gone from here to the BBC football website and read an article on there regarding Argyle. This article astounds me even more. Apparently there is a lack of football experience throughout the club. No s**t Sherlock. The thought is to bring in a Director of Football to "support" under pressure manager Carl Fletcher. I can't believe what I'm reading yet again. Bringing in support for Fletcher is tantamount to saying that he is not good enough to stand alone and on his own two feet. It will cost money to bring this person in. Nobody is going to do it for nothing. This is supposed to be money we don't have if you listen to some people. If you don't think that somebody is up to doing the job they are paid to do then there is only one sollution. Not to bring in others to prop them up but to cut out and rid yourself of the person causing the problem in the first place. Replace them with somebody who can do the job and bingo there you go. I'm assuming the intention is to employ somebody with football knowhow and experience. If not then two halfwits do not make one intelligent person between them. It just makes two halfwits and the likelyhood of failure even more guaranteed.
In my opinion it's better to have people on the board who know business because it's clear there are plenty around the club that don't. You'd have thought the last 2 years would have made everyone aware what happens when you neglect the finances. Apparently not even that trauma got through some peoples's skulls. "Emotions" and "expectations" [when you're fresh out of administration] are the road to ruin. If the fans abandon the club, Brent will just let it die. He only bought it for the property deals and those are the only reason anyone would buy it: it's worthless at best and a liability at worst. You must get this through your heads.
Port Vale are going through administration at present....struggling in second place........of course it must be a totally different type of administration than ours.......maybe they have leadership in areas that we don't....but who the hell am I to understand one administration against a high flying type of administration.....it's all as clear as mud really.
Plym, They don't have the same Administrator as us.. tells you all you need to know. no one to give him a bung. What a waste of money bringing in a football Director? Its better to have people who know Football Distant than Business, or does Brent not know anything of either. Look at the last 2 Sturrock and Mariner. what happened there? Get Fletcher out the door and get some one in to try and get things improving. fans will not go if the crap persists distant. Think that Webb and the other goon have no idea also..
A Director of Football needed until the end of the season.......and then of course Fletcher will be fully experienced and will be an all singing all dancing expert that we will have to fend off all the other clubs from trying to steal him away from us. Didn't we have something similar for the latter part of last season to hold Fletchers hand, and then dumped him.......so we've found out that Fletcher hasn't learnt from Deehan holding his hand last season....why hasn't he learnt then ? It just confirms that Fletcher is here for the WHOLE season and Brent will give him crutches to carry on....so an extra wage packet to pay......an experienced manager could be paid Fletchers and a Director of Football's wages and that would attract a possible good candidate. Did it also say that Fletcher would help to choose the right man....good grief it gets more and more depressing each day.....how the hell can Fletcher know who the right man is, I'm sure notDistant can explain that conundrum to the likes of the disenchanted that most on this website are.
It just confirms that Fletcher is here for the WHOLE season So man up Plymborn, stop winge-ing and get behind the club. It's in your own interests if you want the club to survive.
I'll get the liferafts ready then. The ship is going down. Stop preaching and start showing some emotion notdistant. Football IS all about emotion for the supporters and it is for the others to worry about balance sheets. I do not believe there is no money and I do not believe that Brent has yet spent anything. You have yet to explain to me where the £1.7m went for a start. £0.007 in the pound multiplied even by £17,000,000 does not make £1.7m. Where is the money coming from to pay for a Director of Football? Does this not say that Brent doesn't think Fletcher is up to the job? Come on, wake up and smell the coffee. Don't make everyone else out to be some thick yokel who doesn't understand anything.
We do understand we are getting ripped off? Because what is being served up is rubbish. Brent has spent nothing and the 1.7 probably paid for a few other purchases away from argyle? Distant i suppose you know that as well. You know **** all. Sat there making up stats, stats are bollox ans the only way forward is to ditch Fletcher now, or doe Brent let him buy in January, could nd up with a lot of ****. just like sturrock bought in a panic.. Get your money out Distant and help the cause instead of shouting from your PC
Who the hell are you to tell others to get behind the the club notDistance.......you first do your management conclusions and work out the plus and minuses and make a cold blooded decision on the way ahead. This is a Football club....supporting doesn't depend only on a business plan........passion comes into it as well.....of that I see no evidence in your approach notDistant, just an arrogance of superiority that is also manifesting itself in poor government in Parliament by those with so called pedigree. , So if a Director of Football comes in and turns things around.....doesn't that prove that Fletcher is a loser and is unable to do his job. John Deehan spent the end of last season holding Fletchers hand.....the moment the club survives he is gone......maybe the wrong person left then ? Six months later we need someone again to hold Fletcher's hand......it makes me think that Fletcher is a liability and cannot be trusted to do the job that he is being paid to do. You wonder if Fletcher is Brent's love child....although Brent cannot surely be old enough....but he does seem to be untouchable and does not work under the constraints of having to know what he is doing like most employees have to do. Last season the two teams that were relegated could be pencilled in before the seasons end.......this season most of the teams below Plymouth (all four of them) are showing at times a bit too much life for my liking.....and we do seem to be able to lose to those bottom teams far to easily.....maybe they have better managers for a dog fight than we have, time will tell.
Sensible It is for those running the club to manage the finances to sustain it as a going concern. It's just as well as it's pretty clear even from this forum what unfettered emotions and ignorance amongst the fans would lead to in double quick time. I don't understand exactly who paid what and who received it and neither do you. I do know it was done under the supervision of the court and it was the Council that paid over the £1.7m. I can assure you that neither of those two bodies will have allowed anything they didn't think proper. That isn't the whole story anyway, as you'll remember that the thing which delayed completion of the rescue was Football League agreement that sufficient funds were left IN the club to allow it to fulfil its commitments. We know from recent events that the club is running at a loss and that Brent has had to put further sums in, so whatever was left in there has gone or dwindled significantly. In short, the club STILL isn't able to meet its commitments without subsidy from Brent. I will repeat and will continue to repeat, football clubs all over the land make losses in the current environment, there's hardly a one outside the Top 10 in the Premier League which aren't financial basket cases. Argyle are clearly one of these. How much money would you be willing to put into a business like that? Lastly, I presume the Director of Football will be a part-time position. That's going to be substantially cheaper than sacking Fletcher, taking on another manager and paying for two simultaneously. There may be arguments for and against the appointment in terms of football, but not financially.
I have never ever said that anything improper has been done with the £1.7m notdistant. What I'm saying and it is quite basic to understand is that only a part of that money was spent coming out of Administration. Even the back wages are current debt and not settled. Ergo if it wasn't spent then some of it remains. Ergo it is being used to "subsidise" the current expenditure. Ergo Brent hasn't spent anything from his own pocket he hasn't received whilst being the owner. To say therefore that he is personally subsidising the club now is not neccessarily true as in non Argyle money is being used. What you keep doing is blaming people who are customers for not paying him enough of their money. Sorry but life isn't like that is it. You cannot expect everyone else to fork out for an inferior product on sentiment alone. People have in pretty good numbers but are being short changed in that Brent appears to be ignoring the obvious, i.e. that Fletcher isn't up to the task and results are not good enough. Very few people expected the moon this season but they did expect more than this. They are disappointed and it is hardly surprising that they are feeling rebellious. No other business would have had so many put up with so little for so long. I read that Brent had set a break even figure at around 7800 in gates. If this guy is as astute as is being touted then who in their right mind would have set it so high in this league? Exactly what precedent was there for that number. Did he not look at the league in any detail? I simply do not believe it. I am not going to make the same mistake again to just blindly trust in anyone. Brent is not performing well in my opinion and until I see something positive that doesn't entail him making brass out of it and the club itself benefiting then I will continue to distrust and question.
