The falling stock of Plymouth Argyle FC: Where did it all go wrong?

Rewind the football clock just 30 months, two-and-a-half years, and Plymouth Argyle Football Club was arguably in its strongest ever position.

Stephen Schumacher had just led the Pilgrims to the Sky Bet League One title, battering the division with a total of 101 points, and taking Argyle back into the second tier of the English game for the first time in 13 years.

When Niall Ennis struck the only goal to confirm promotion on the penultimate day of a pulsating season, he celebrated in front of the superbly reconstructed Mayflower Grandstand.

Home Park was a sell-out every weekend and Schumacher was rightly lauded as one of the greats in Argyle’s managerial history. He had moved up from the role as assistant boss to Ryan Lowe, the man who steered the Greens to promotion from League Two a couple of years before.

Behind the scenes, Director of Football Neil Dewsnip was helping to pull the strings, and it felt like Argyle had a proper plan. Managerial succession was in place, player recruitment based on data and analytics working a treat, and both the Academy and Women’s team were flourishing.

Most of all, Argyle had the stability of chairman Simon Hallett, a boyhood fan of the club, and widely admired and respected by the Green Army.

Moving into the second tier was always going to be very tough and Hallett was transparent in his view that the club would need additional investment in order to achieve their ambition of becoming a ‘sustainable Championship club’.

The stable footing was then rocked by Schumacher accepting the manager’s job at Stoke City, a job that didn’t last long as it turned out. Argyle, meanwhile, turned away from their model of stability and succession with the left-field appointment of Ian Foster as boss.

Foster had a fine record as a youth coach with England but did he have the credentials, contacts and charisma to manage in the Championship? No!

Foster lasted just a few months and only a combination of Dewsnip and long-serving coach Kevin Nancekivell just saved the Greens from relegation on the final day of the 2023/24 season.

The Pilgrims had another huge managerial decision to make, and they surprised everyone by turning to England and Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, one of the greatest footballers of his generation, but his record as a manager was not so impressive.

Rooney had worked miracles at cash-strapped Derby County but struggled badly with Birmingham, following a spell in the States, and the Argyle experiment failed badly. Rooney was relieved of his duties at Christmas and Argyle appointed Miron Muslic.

In fairness to Hallett and his team, Muslic was clearly a good manager and he came so close to saving the Pilgrims from relegation again, and he did mastermind a famous FA Cup win over Liverpool.

The problem with Muslic was that he was always going to be tempted if a big fish came swimming, which they did in the form of German giants Schalke.

For the fourth time in 18 months, Argyle were interviewing for the role of a new manager. Tom Cleverley was the choice, and clearly a coach with huge potential, but he is young and, excuse the pun, green in this game.

Three months into the current season and Argyle are rock bottom of Sky Bet League One and serious questions are being asked about both Cleverley and the overall player recruitment strategy at Home Park.

Ultimately, managerial mayhem and new signings that have failed to click is a damaging combination. The stable platform of Lowe and Schumacher has been replaced by panic and pressure.

However, while things look bleak right now, Hallett is a man who loves his club, a rare attribute in the world of football ownership, and the Green Army are an extraordinary bunch. If the Pilgrims can rediscover the platform of careful planning, this great club will rise again.