5 year plan of action- The chairman speaks

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ARGYLE owner Simon Hallett has outlined his ambitious new plan for the Pilgrims to become a sustainable Championship football club within five years.

First announced to employees in an all-staff meeting last week, Hallett, the club’s majority shareholder, chaired a presentation which included input from CEO Andrew Parkinson, Football Manager Ryan Lowe, and Director of Football Neil Dewsnip, among others.

Simon’s bold vision for the club has hardly been a secret up until this point, with many changes – including a new footballing philosophy, a new Mayflower Grandstand, and a new Academy structure – all developed within the last six months. However, this is the first time that Simon has gone on record with a public objective for the Pilgrims’ short-term future.


“We have decided that we needed something more concrete – an interim goal that would communicate to our fans what our ambitions are,” said Simon. “We have said, and I am now saying in public, that we want to be a sustainable Championship club within five years.”

“The key word here is sustainable. I think the we have been transparent that the club is not currently financially sustainable, without my support and my family’s support.

“That is something that I think is risky, and a good steward of this club will make sure that if my support would diminish, the club will be able to continue.”

While the club continues to work towards its goal of being financially sustainable in Sky Bet League Two, Simon believes that this is not an unrealistic objective, even in England’s significantly expensive second-tier. In fact, the more research he and his team have done on the subject, the more confident he becomes that sustainable Championship football is a realistic, and achievable, ambition.

“We were able to do some work on the finances of clubs in the Championship,” explained Simon. “One of the assumptions is that financial resource is a key determinant of on-pitch success.

“It was a pleasant surprise to me. We know that the headline figures in the Championship are dreadful. On average, the clubs are losing £500,000 a week – but the range was much greater than we thought.

“If you ranked them by their financial resources, Argyle, even today, would have resources similar to that of a couple of Championship clubs, even in League Two.

“If we assume that as we move up the leagues, our revenues increase, and we assume that we get better at generating revenues, our resources put us somewhere around 15th, 16th, or 17th. That gives you a very good chance of staying in the Championship. It doesn’t make it 100% certain, of course, but if the club can deliver, we have a very good chance of staying there.”

But how does the club begin to work towards this objective, in reality? The club’s board, under Simon’s guidance, have identified four key ‘pillars’ which will be integral to the success of Argyle moving forward.

“We are looking at the pillars of the club as being ones that can help us generate more revenue. So, on the football side, they are charged with getting two promotions over the next five years. I am not the one to talk to about how they are going to do that, but there are some elements I can talk to,” said Simon.

“Another pillar is the Academy, where we now have Director of Football, Neil Dewsnip, in charge. He’s charged with making our Academy a more effective one. Effectiveness will be measured partly by getting people into the first-team squad on a regular basis. We want the Academy to be what Neil likes to call the ‘beating heart of the club.’

“We think that will be attractive to the fans. Certainly, as a fan, I have loved watching Luke Jephcott have such an impact in January – and going back a couple of years, Ben Purrington.

“I am speaking entirely as a fan. As owner, and Chairman, I like to see a flow of young talent that can hopefully operate at a higher level and generate us transfer fees.”

While on-pitch determinants are important, it is also crucial to the club’s ambition that it builds on a superb start to life in the new Mayflower Grandstand to increase commercial revenues, as well as recruiting more members of the Green Army.

“The third pillar is our commercial activities. Christian Kent, in charge of making this an attractive proposition, is doing a great job. We are stepping up our game, a bit, this year, we already have Little Mix and Westlife coming [to perform concerts at Home Park].”

“The final pillar is our fans, and what we’re doing for them. Providing a better match-day experience, more entertaining football. The response that we want from them is to recognise the direction we’re going; recognise there will be occasional slip-ups and that we won’t win every game but that we’re still worth supporting.

“Delivering high-quality product to our fans, and non-fans, helps our brand. Frankly, the Argyle brand has not been a good one since administration. It’s been associated with poor quality, the ‘same old Argyle’ nonsense.

“I can’t emphasise enough that this is not the same old Argyle.”

I think we would be in a far better footing financially and commercially in the championship now than we were last time but the main area of concern for me is once we are there we will need additional investment not just Hallett. Stil got to get out of league two first mind.

I think since we were last in the Championship, the gulf between League one and the Championship has got much bigger, especially financially. Charlton are doing the best out of the 3 promoted clubs, currently and they are 18th, 5 points above relegation. Charlton are a bigger club than us and have the benefit of picking up players released from Arsenal, Spurs, Palace, Chelsea etc. Luton and Barnsley look likely to be relegated and both are similar in size to us. Rotherham look to be yo-yo-ing between the Championship and League One like Charlton and West Brom used to between the Premier League and Championship.

To even compete for promotion to the Championship we'd need more investment, not sure if the Halletts could do that alone or with partners?

Our academy is going to take at least 2 years (probably more) to start to regularly produce players good enough for the first team. As we get promoted, the academy will have to improve. We're currently Category 3 rated, significant investment will be needed to get to the next level.

Don't want this to sound like a criticism of the Halletts as they've invested significantly more in Argyle than any previous owners and have improved the club hugely in the 18 months? they've owned the club. I just think being a sustainable championship club is a bit overly ambitious, especially as we're not guaranteed promotion this season.

Whoopee more jam tomorrow. Before anybody mentions it I'm not comparing Hallett to Brent we know there is a massive void in class between the two owners but why do we need to be "sustainable" in the CCC? I would say Halletts job is to get us there without being mired in debt but then the obvious thing to do then is look for an investor who could complete the job with an investment of real cash it's what virtually every other prem club in the land has ever done.
What he's really saying is get ready for another three or four years in the lower leagues.

Can part of the plan be to F*** Nool off ?

Punchdrunk wrote:

Can part of the plan be to F*** Nool off ?

Or to tell him to just F*** off.

Chemical Ali wrote:

I think since we were last in the Championship, the gulf between League one and the Championship has got much bigger, especially financially. Charlton are doing the best out of the 3 promoted clubs, currently and they are 18th, 5 points above relegation. Charlton are a bigger club than us and have the benefit of picking up players released from Arsenal, Spurs, Palace, Chelsea etc. Luton and Barnsley look likely to be relegated and both are similar in size to us. Rotherham look to be yo-yo-ing between the Championship and League One like Charlton and West Brom used to between the Premier League and Championship.

To even compete for promotion to the Championship we'd need more investment, not sure if the Halletts could do that alone or with partners?

Our academy is going to take at least 2 years (probably more) to start to regularly produce players good enough for the first team. As we get promoted, the academy will have to improve. We're currently Category 3 rated, significant investment will be needed to get to the next level.

Don't want this to sound like a criticism of the Halletts as they've invested significantly more in Argyle than any previous owners and have improved the club hugely in the 18 months? they've owned the club. I just think being a sustainable championship club is a bit overly ambitious, especially as we're not guaranteed promotion this season.

I agree chem and i assume hallett will be looking for outside investments in that 5 year unlike staplewallet did. Aslong as those investors he finds arent japanese con artists with american advisors , a lying bullshitter who claims to be a lifelong fan yet never been to a game then or now and an ex chairman of a plc board who has pipe dreams ad no common sense then we should be ok.

Rather a long winded way of saying "The gates we are getting are better than most Clubs in the bottom two tiers and better than one or two in the Championship, so we should give it a go!"

But then, I can remember Staplewallet saying "if we are there or thereabouts at the end of the year, we'll go for it" in reference to trying to get into the Premiership. Sadly this turned out to be more like "Stuff giving the Manager any money, lets flog anyone we can get a fee for" which in turn became "So we got £5 million in transfer fees and spunked it up against the wall, I don't give a shit, I'm off to Dubai"

The sensible thing of course, is for Hallett to say the aim is to be sustainable. Why would he say anything else?

But thus far his actions (from a monetary angle) have spoken waaaaay louder than his words if the last 18 months are anything to go by - and clearly in a good way.

What I like is his desire to try and rid the 'same old Argyle' mentality from the club and fanbase that all of us have lived through for all of our lives. It won't be easy for a lot to buy into. It is after all, engrained in our Argyle-supporting psyche. But I love the fact that the fcuker is trying.

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But on PASOTI Nickkkkkkkk is still loyal to Bent whatever the truth is.

“The key word here is sustainable. I think the we have been transparent that the club is not currently financially sustainable, without my support and my family’s support.
I think we all agree that without him pumping some money in things would be difficult at PAFC right now, given we are getting around 11k average crowds at home and a thousand  away to distant games. I'm still not sure why the club is still financially insecure.

Grovehill wrote:

Rather a long winded way of saying "The gates we are getting are better than most Clubs in the bottom two tiers and better than one or two in the Championship, so we should give it a go!"

But then, I can remember Staplewallet saying "if we are there or thereabouts at the end of the year, we'll go for it" in reference to trying to get into the Premiership. Sadly this turned out to be more like "Stuff giving the Manager any money, lets flog anyone we can get a fee for" which in turn became "So we got £5 million in transfer fees and spunked it up against the wall, I don't give a shit, I'm off to Dubai"

I cannot believe you are comparing Stapleton to Hallett, Total false equivalence.

Stapleton bought his shares for next to bugger all and squatted like a toad whilst the ground was rebuilt using someone elses money and the club rose through the leagues under a manager he didn't appoint. He stared at his feet whilst a fellow director wrote out a personal cheque to MacCauley when he was threatening to derail it unless he got his money. He then refused to piss off when it was patently obvious that he was out of his league financially only to sell up at huge financial gain to himself rather than the club, to someone on false premises who wasn't the slightest bit interested in the football.

The club is far from perfect under Hallett, the increase in the upstairs/downstairs feel to the club as Ears sagely put it is off putting and frustrating and quite why he perservered with Brents Mankover when it was clearly not fit for purpose I do not know. The big difference however is unlike Brent or Staplewallet he has paid for these things out of his own pocket, loans which he then converted to shares. He is subbing the clubs losses out of his own pocket. Yet bizarrely despite all he's doing he doesn't attract anywhere near the adoration of James Brent, even to the extent of that fucknugget Ollie Arsehole wanting him to give it back to him,

Agree with you there Hugh.

Simon Hallett is of course an Argyle fan from his earlier time of living here....so he gets a certain respect.

James Brent of course was in the right place at the right time and did the necessary to stop the club folding.....some will always be thankful to him for doing that whatever his future track record turned out to be like.

We've moved on thankfully from that era and look to a more positive future....Simon seems ok from the one time I met him at a PASALB meeting last year.....one of the lads as a fan....but with the business acumen to get us going the right way....and not looking to do it with other people money....more strength to his arm is my comment.

zyph wrote:

Simon Hallett is of course an Argyle fan from his earlier time of living here....so he gets a certain respect.

James Brent of course was in the right place at the right time and did the necessary to stop the club folding.....some will always be thankful to him for doing that whatever his future track record turned out to be like.

We've moved on thankfully from that era and look to a more positive future....Simon seems ok from the one time I met him at a PASALB meeting last year.....one of the lads as a fan....but with the business acumen to get us going the right way....and not looking to do it with other people money....more strength to his arm is my comment.

i disagree about brent, the gt's and the council saved the club not brent.

zyph, youve probably put more of your money into argyle than brent ever did. As have i and probably everyone else on this forum. At least with Simon he is actually invvesting in the club with his cash and not from fans .

Hugh Watt wrote:

Grovehill wrote:

Rather a long winded way of saying "The gates we are getting are better than most Clubs in the bottom two tiers and better than one or two in the Championship, so we should give it a go!"

But then, I can remember Staplewallet saying "if we are there or thereabouts at the end of the year, we'll go for it" in reference to trying to get into the Premiership. Sadly this turned out to be more like "Stuff giving the Manager any money, lets flog anyone we can get a fee for" which in turn became "So we got £5 million in transfer fees and spunked it up against the wall, I don't give a shit, I'm off to Dubai"

I cannot believe you are comparing Stapleton to Hallett, Total false equivalence.

Stapleton bought his shares for next to bugger all and squatted like a toad whilst the ground was rebuilt using someone elses money and the club rose through the leagues under a manager he didn't appoint. He stared at his feet whilst a fellow director wrote out a personal cheque to MacCauley when he was threatening to derail it unless he got his money.  He then refused to piss off when it was patently obvious that he was out of his league financially only to sell up at huge financial gain to himself rather than the club, to someone on false premises who wasn't the slightest bit interested in the football.

The club is far from perfect under Hallett, the increase in the upstairs/downstairs feel to the club as Ears sagely put it is off putting and frustrating and quite why he perservered with Brents Mankover when it was clearly not fit for purpose I do not know. The big difference however is unlike Brent or Staplewallet he has paid for these things out of his own pocket, loans which he then converted to shares. He is subbing the clubs losses out of his own pocket. Yet bizarrely despite all he's doing he doesn't attract anywhere near the adoration of James Brent, even to the extent of that fucknugget Ollie Arsehole wanting him to give it back to him,

exactly

The GT's saved the club by taking over the debt of paying off the staff and the council buying back the stadium. Brent was by far the biggest non productive owner a football club has ever had and he would never have been tolerated by other clubs if he tried half the shit he did here cause they wouldnt have fans who sold out to him running forums and fan groups striking down all who opposed brent. Seems retards like ollie are still loyal to a dead regime.

The GT's paying off the staff just reduced Brents liabilities. I don't know if they ever got their money back.

Ollie the arse licker is I'm sure bigging Brent up to get brownie points with the likes of Nikkk and Nool, how fookin sad is that?

Which is why the GT's deserve all of the plaudits they get in my opinion. Never understood the displeasure towards them from a small group of people.

PlymouthCasual wrote:

Which is why the GT's deserve all of the plaudits they get in my opinion. Never understood the displeasure towards them from a small group of people.

I accept what you are saying but you have to remember how much shite we (the Brent haters) got from certain factions of the fanbase. The GTs firmly sided with Nool and Brent and at no time tried to stay impartial. All I can say is that where the Gts and ATD are concerned the feeling is entirely mutual.

Earwegoagain wrote:

Ollie the arse licker is I'm sure bigging Brent up to get brownie points with the likes of Nikkk and Nool, how fookin sad is that?

yep very sad any mention of Brent on pisspotty then that little shit would steam in and give em all a wank under the top table pathetic little arselicker still got fattys and The speccytwats pubes stuck in his teeth the little shit

Earwegoagain wrote:

PlymouthCasual wrote:

Which is why the GT's deserve all of the plaudits they get in my opinion. Never understood the displeasure towards them from a small group of people.

I accept what you are saying but you have to remember how much shite we (the Brent haters) got from certain factions of the fanbase. The GTs firmly sided with Nool and Brent and at no time tried to stay impartial. All I can say is that where the Gts and ATD are concerned the feeling is entirely mutual.

Fair shout. Thinking about it, they could have came out and said anything they wanted about the club, there was no way on Earth that the goggle eyed skint boy was ever going to take away his free cash cow when they were doing such a good job at reducing his debt. Personally im glad they prosperred, even if some of their dealings were slightly suspicious to say the least.

Earwegoagain wrote:

PlymouthCasual wrote:

Which is why the GT's deserve all of the plaudits they get in my opinion. Never understood the displeasure towards them from a small group of people.

I accept what you are saying but you have to remember how much shite we (the Brent haters) got from certain factions of the fanbase. The GTs firmly sided with Nool and Brent and at no time tried to stay impartial. All I can say is that where the Gts and ATD are concerned the feeling is entirely mutual.

yep F#%K em them and the senior dribblers as well they all took the shysters side

RegGreen wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

Ollie the arse licker is I'm sure bigging Brent up to get brownie points with the likes of Nikkk and Nool, how fookin sad is that?

yep very sad any mention of Brent on pisspotty then that little shit would steam in and give em all a wank under the top table pathetic little arselicker still got fattys and The speccytwats pubes stuck in his teeth the little shit

careful! he's like beatlejuice is old nikkkkkkkkkk if you mention him three times he appears.

PlymouthCasual wrote:

Earwegoagain wrote:

PlymouthCasual wrote:

Which is why the GT's deserve all of the plaudits they get in my opinion. Never understood the displeasure towards them from a small group of people.

I accept what you are saying but you have to remember how much shite we (the Brent haters) got from certain factions of the fanbase. The GTs firmly sided with Nool and Brent and at no time tried to stay impartial. All I can say is that where the Gts and ATD are concerned the feeling is entirely mutual.

Fair shout. Thinking about it, they could have came out and said anything they wanted about the club, there was no way on Earth that the goggle eyed skint boy was ever going to take away his free cash cow when they were doing such a good job at reducing his debt. Personally im glad they prosperred, even if some of their dealings were slightly suspicious to say the least.

There is a lot good to say about them I'm not denying that, load of people got off their arses and actually did things in fact I've often wondered that despite Nools claims Brent was the only option the Gts could easily have achieved what he did and Tbf don't have the personal attributes of Bent ie being a selfish self serving parasite.