Winter News

In an attempt to corral my family and fellow season ticket holders into the fixture list, I keep a schedule of dates and times on the kitchen drinks cupboard. It's the ideal place because it's so frequently visited.....

In updating it for the rearranged Oxford Oxford game, I've come upon a question for you. Between today, the 16th January, December and the end of February, Argyle have 8 home games. Without consulting a fixture list, how many of those are at 3pm on a Saturday?

 

I think maybe FOUR.

 

Thank you Plym. There are 9 Saturdays during that period, so you might think 4 or 5 would be the natural guesses.

The third round of the FA Cup is on Saturday 11th January and theta date was always left blank. I should have mentioned that before I suppose. As it stands, we are kicking off at 3pm but at Brentford.

 

None at home park. I have been moaning for England about no Saturday 3pm kick offs.

 

None at all? That’s just silly. What reputable organisation would alienate its customers like that?

No, and so there being no other entries. I will reveal the answer.

{fanfare of trumpets}.

We have ONE home game at Home Park at 3pm on a Saturday,between now and the 8th of March! One whole game!

And that game is Middlesbrough at 3pm this coming Saturday and will be followed not-very-closely by Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 8th March.

From 9th March to the end of the season, we have 6 games at Home Park at 3pm on a Saturday!

On a cautionary note, the television schedules for the March to June period have I suspect not been finalised yet. A coach and horses in Sky Sports colours has been seen loitering outside the English Football League’s offices and is expected to enter the building soon.

 

PS on an unrelated subject, did you know you could sign up for Sky Sports for £20 per month (approx half the cost of an annual season ticket) and watch all of the Argyle games that AREN'T on a Saturday at 3pm, home and away.

For that sum, you could also watch the Premier League, Test Cricket, tennis tournaments, Formula 1, American grid-iron football, golf (and/or paint drying) etc etc.

I'm just saying.... don't shoot the messenger.

 

Not only am I not signed up for Sky but my calendar reads 16th DECEMBER right now. Between 16th January and end of February there are none. Step away from the bottle notdistant.

 

Now alcohol may make you forget what you did last night but it can't make you skip an entire future month. I did that all by myself.

 

Trust me it can.......

 

Is there a add on clause for Cooper if he plays in the Premier with Sheffield U ?

 

Don't think any of us know what the sale contract was BC. I do know that we should have gotten a lot more for Cooper but the days of the "Argyle price" have gone. We used to give players away for fun but I think there are a number of much wiser heads at the club now. If it turns out that there isn't a clause that pays us more for Prem playing then at least one of those heads should roll. No good asking Lyndie he won't say even if you torture him. Ex Royal Navy. Ships of wood and men of steel in his day.

 

Sold for £2million....plus add-ons potentially another £2million.....that's what we where told.

Could include ex-amount of games for Sheff U plus sell on clause plus promotion to the Premiership and maybe England Squad....totalling up to another £2million. ?

 

There's an interesting interview with Mike Phelan on Argyle TV.

You might have assumed he was retired before coming to Argyle: he's not, he's been running his own coaching company.

After only 4 days, including the trip to Sheffield, he sees a lot of enthusiasm on the training pitch but "it's all a bit 100mph". He sees a need to slow it down a bit and ensure the players realise why they're doing certain things - when to move forward, when to hold back etc. He sees individual talent and over the next month or so the task is to structure the team so the talent can show. Ultimately though, the fullest possible squad is needed through the return of injured players and some activity in the transfer window.

 

Correct, Saturday could be our last 1500 KO for a home match this season. Def nothing until end Feb and the Sky picks haven't been decided thereafter.

 

No heads rolling . The contract clauses are all as they should be.

 

Pleased to hear it Lyndie. As a green one gets a tad fed up with Argyle being ripped off by the City Slickers.

 

We’re owned by a one-time Chief Investment Officer in a major American asset management company with $80 billion under management, who's still Vice Chairman of that company, and who previously worked for such illustrious names as Jardine Fleming and Kleinwort Benson.

I'm not quite sure what your idea of a City Slicker is, it's probably closer to what I'd call a "crook". We at least don't have to worry on that score.

 

If I were to troll through the fixtures of all the other clubs, would I see the same pattern?

A standard set seems to be one game on a Friday, three at Saturday lunchtime and one on a Sunday crow-barred in between the two Premier League games. That's 5 out of 12 NOT at 3pm Saturday even in the week-end sets and 7 out of 12 that are.

There is then one mid-week set in a "typical" month starting from October through to April - 7 x12 games, excluding December and Christmas, which is a thing unto itself, having but still has three standard sets.


The 39% is the ratio of ALL Saturday 3pm kick-offs, home and away, to total games played. However, it should also apply to all home games. So 1 in 3 (or 4 out of 10 if you insist) of your home games should be Saturday 3pm kick-offs, another 1 in 3 weekend games (from Friday to Monday) not at 3pm and the other 1 in 3 mid-week evening kick-offs.

With travelling being of more significance to Argyle than most, those ratios must also to apply to away games.

This is all a bit convoluted and I'm not entirely confident in it, so if anyone can prove me wrong......

Because I've only gone up to the end of February, these numbers are AFTER Sky have had a go at the fixture list. So there's only a question to ask if we're getting less than 1 in 3 3PM's. From March onwards ALL games are scheduled for 3pm on Saturday which will change in due course as the TV schedules are set.

 

Sky need to.pay us more for the inconvenience.

 

Sorry I deleted the schedule in error and can't put it back in the original post, don't know why.