We are a selling club

Brent accepts that some of the teenaged talent coming through the Pilgrims' ranks will move on to 'better' things with clubs higher up the Football League ladder.


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Nothing wrong with nurturing young talent and then cashing in on them for decent prices, and replacing them adequately.

What is wrong is how we have lost so much young talent for a pittance, with the transfer fees not reinvested in the playing side.

If some PL club wants to offer us £1 million for Matt Lecointe and let us keep him on loan for the rest of the season, as other clubs seem to be able to wangle, then I would say it's good business as long as a good proportion of the transfer fee is used for new players.

The only way a club can turn a profit is through transfer fees, the problem when we did it was. We sell our best players mid season totally disrupting the side and for pathetic prices with no sell on clauses or attempt to borrow them back for the rest of the season. Rather than scour the leagues for young hungry starlets we replace them with average mercenaries journeymen on crippling wages or barely bothered fringe players out to keep match fit before returning to their mother clubs.

We really are a feckin joke of a football club, worse we seem to wallow in being a feckin joke.

I think every club has its place in the food chain even Man Utd.

As mentioned, for a club to show a profit, players do need to be sold. Our youth scheme has allowed us to sell Mason, Gallagher, Stephens, Jones and the kid that went to WBA, but most of those sales were at pitiful 'plymouth prices'. We just need that conveyor belt of young talent to continue (although I'm hoping our youth scheme doesn't suffer with Gordon Bennett retiring) and that we sell for a decent price (GB said the Gallagher to Southampton deal was good for PAFC so perhaps things will change under JB).

We have also done well with picking up young players from Prem clubs- Nelson, Stonebridge and recently Berry and Hourihane (Ipswich). These players are a gamble but with the right nurturing (Berry) can be quite useful players. Given their age and talent, a healthy profit can be made on them (look at Torquay with O'Kane [Everton] and Olejnik [Villa I think]).

Every club at our level needs to sell players, we just need to improve how we market the club to get the better younger players- playing Lecointe, Nelson, Young etc. does show that we give youth a chance.

Think yourself lucky you are a selling club, we have never got anything worth selling

Fine,as far as it goes.In the past Argyle have sold players like Sullivan and Phillips and reinvested the money wisely to get promotion from the third tier-no problem with that.The "selling club" mentality MUST change if we should ever get back to the second tier though.So often in the past that particular attitude has proved to be the death knell for Argyle's chances of actually achieving something-you could probably go back to the days of people like Bowden and Jack for the first examples of this,the dumb acceptance of inevitable sales,rather than looking to build on exceptional talent as a big city club should.The "same old Argo" feeling is the result of this seemingly never ending cycle and the subsequent blaming of "apathetic Janners" is a misleading consequence.All ties in with the argument Tring put forward yesterday [and on a few previous days -should Mr Brent and associates not be capable of taking the club forward,then they must seek additional help and search far and wide for it in a committed and professional way.

Same old Argo, same old shite.

what always amazes me is southampton & watford (for example) get highly rated players they are sold for £3-8million quid.
yet when we get decent players we sell them for 750k if we are lucky.

maybe i should just enjoy the ride..............

GregCampbellFanClub wrote:

what always amazes me is southampton & watford (for example) get highly rated players they are sold for £3-8million quid.
yet when we get decent players we sell them for 750k if we are lucky.

maybe i should just enjoy the ride..............

In truth we have not had a Walcott or an Oxlade-C.

In fact, we have not had a player that really reached the heights since Paul Mariner and that wasn't our finest bit of transfer business or our biggest lucky break.

Im all in favour of bringing through young talent, but currently Im not so sure we are set up for it. We do not have decent training facilities for the 1st team let alone the youth. I may have missed it but have we replaced Gordon Bennett? Do we have high quality youth and kids talent spotters ALL over the south west? And do we have a similar quality in youth coaches?

Its the romantic option as all fans love local players (mostly) but it still needs investment from a very early age.

Don't forget that we got good money for Gosling when we sold him. Norris too. The difference between their sales was that we sold from a position of strength but for the later deals it was a case of beggars cant be choosers. The desultory fee for Mason sticks in the craw but every club is a selling club. Using this as a source for complaint is a cheap shot.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Don't forget that we got good money for Gosling when we sold him. Norris too. The difference between their sales was that we sold from a position of strength but for the later deals it was a case of beggars cant be choosers. The desultory fee for Mason sticks in the craw but every club is a selling club. Using this as a source for complaint is a cheap shot.

You never posted truer words than the "position of strength" bit.

Very, very disappointing comments from football naive and not that interested Jamesyboy.

Nobody needs to tell any person anywhere the rule of the food chain, humans are not stupid, let alone any football fan in these islands of late ... so I would suggest Brent's comments do nothing but pour water on the enthrallment factor as his reign turns to rain.

At least Mc666, with all his huge huge failings, had half an ego, and in his first years he tried a bit. He gave us Shilts, and yes, I did enjoy that particular ride ... I would pay £20 today to see the likes of Dalton again. And it didn't cost him anything and he got his money back.
This is competitive sport for gawd's sake that people pay good money to watch other people try their skills... not some boring property magazine. I don't get off on judging whether some rich person's pension business plan is being managed on an even keel ... I don't think that has become a spectator sport just yet, and I'm certainly not going to pay £20 to find out.

It takes all sorts of course, and if he were a normal fan spouting this sort of thing I would have no problem with his comments. but as the 'owner' of the £1 football club, don't expect my long suffering sort to take seriously any of these puritan anal miserly statements seriously and turn up champing at the bit. i have never advocated mad spending at the club and was one of the very first to question what on earth was going on with the old guard.

A totally counter productive statement and I guess just the forerunner to the news that yet another youngster or two is to be sold on for a Plymouth price... makes you wonder how this guy ever made any money. I guess he is the latest in a line of many many priveleged, connected sorts and just pressed the buttons put in front of him in the Wild west property bonanza. I don't think we're talking a genius here.

Yeah but he can't just sign loads of players because that would be 'cheating'.

It's all a bit remincesnt of when Sturrock kept us up in the championship by virtue of all the other teams round us being even more god awful, he came out with a statement telling us to expect more of the same shit next season. That did wonders for season ticks sales I bet.

Penz wrote:

Very, very disappointing comments from football naive and not that interested Jamesyboy.

Nobody needs to tell any person anywhere the rule of the food chain, humans are not stupid, let alone any football fan in these islands of late ... so I would suggest Brent's comments do nothing but pour water on the enthrallment factor as his reign turns to rain.

At least Mc666, with all his huge huge failings, had half an ego, and in his first years he tried a bit ... it didn't cost him anything and he got his money back. This is competitive sport for gawd's sake that people pay good money to watch other people try their skills... not some boring property magazine. I don't get off on judging whether some rich person's pension business plan is being managed on an even keel ... I don't think that has become a spectator sport just yet, and I'm certainly not going to pay £20 to find out.

It takes all sorts of course, and as a normal fan spouting this sort of thing I would have no problem with his comments. but as the 'owner' of the £1 football club, don't expect my long suffering sort to take seriously any of these puritan anal miserly statements seriously and turn up champing at the bit.
A totally counter productive statement and I guess just the forerunner to the news that yet another youngster or two is to be sold on for a Plymouth price... makes you wonder how this guy ever made any money. I guess he is the latest in a line of many many priveleged, connected sorts and just pressed the buttons put in front of him in the Wild west property bonanza. I don't think we're talking a genius here.

Yes but he clearly thinks most football fans are morons and just need a cause to rally round, a bucket to rattle and a flag to wave.................... now I wonder who/what gave him that impression ?

Bogsider wrote:

It's all a bit remincesnt of when Sturrock kept us up in the championship by virtue of all the other teams round us being even more god awful, he came out with a statement telling us to expect more of the same shit next season. That did wonders for season ticks sales I bet.

Well said Boggy, while we remember with fondness Luggy taking a 'big' club up through the lower leagues, who can ever forget his interminable CCC miserable "we're overachieving" routine that clearly was meant to imply that any failure was down to the nature of the food chain and global warming, and nothing to do with his skills as a manager. still, that old line worked for him, and it certainly worked on the ever so knowledgable Toddy, who kept him on as manager almost up to the very bitter end of his contract. He was another patient successful businessman as I recollect along with he doesn't do failure Gardner who sailed through many an executive year at the top table of open goal former public utilities .... what on earth are these people doing in football ?
where are all the REAL self made men ? the past mill ownwers ? at least they knew how to make it against the odds, and let's be honest, that's what is needed down here, not some personal pension fund cutting the grass.

GregCampbellFanClub wrote:

what always amazes me is southampton & watford (for example) get highly rated players they are sold for £3-8million quid.

That's because they are the products of genuine quality academies ~ in horse racing terms something out of Coolmore or Highclere not the pony sales up on the moors.

It's the same with Crewe Alexandra isn't it ~ £4 million for 18 year old Nick Powell, Torquay will get £175kc for 22 year old Eunan O'Kane who came through Everton's Academy but then released as not considered physically developed enough to carry his talent. The only question mark over Powell (I would suggest) is whether he contracts a serious injury or not, whereas O'Kane still has question marks over his lack of stature and strength.

When clubs spend big money they need to be sure that the player they are taking on can fit in with the substantially more demanding tactical appreciation and technical levels in place at those clubs.

I don't have a problem with being a selling club if done correctly. Historically we're crap at it.

What concerns me most is Brenty has already made it clear he wont invest in seasoned professionals. We'll never get out of this league gambling on youngsters coming good. We need a mix.

Penz wrote:

Bogsider wrote:

It's all a bit remincesnt of when Sturrock kept us up in the championship by virtue of all the other teams round us being even more god awful, he came out with a statement telling us to expect more of the same shit next season. That did wonders for season ticks sales I bet.

Well said Boggy, while we remember with fondness Luggy taking a 'big' club up through the lower leagues, who can ever forget his interminable CCC miserable "we're overachieving" routine that clearly was meant to imply that any failure was down to the nature of the food chain and global warming, and nothing to do with his skills as a manager. still, that old line worked for him, and it certainly worked on the ever so knowledgable Toddy, who kept him on as manager almost up to the very bitter end of his contract. He was another patient successful businessman as I recollect along with he doesn't do failure Gardner who sailed through many an executive year at the top table of open goal former public utilities .... what on earth are these people doing in football ?
where are all the REAL self made men ? the past mill ownwers ? at least they knew how to make it against the odds, and let's be honest, that's what is needed down here, not some personal pension fund cutting the grass.

I quite agree, the problem is that however much governments bang on about enterprise. The only way of maki g money appears to be money itself and it's derivatives. There's none of that altruistic spirit in which your mill owner who was canny to realise that you got more out of your worker if you gave them good housing and access to parks leisure activities.

Of course Penz, you're educated enough to know that most football pubs were founded by the Victorian church minister or factory owner as a means to keeping them out of the pub and physically active. That spirit lived on until the 80's when the mills were shut and sold off for studio accommodation and the Family Business is now an importer and wholesaler bringing in containers.

Ah well. We've got a big flag.