JAMES BRENT is facing the first serious test

JAMES BRENT is facing the first serious test of his tenure as Argyle's owner and chairman.

Brent was hailed as a saviour after rescuing the Pilgrims from oblivion by buying them out of administration nearly a year ago.

Throughout that process, he received widespread praise from the club's grateful fans.

Despite a dreadful start to the season, rookie manager Carl Fletcher led Argyle to safety as the threat of relegation was banished.

The hope was the Pilgrims would make progress this season, free from all the distractions of the recent past.

But, despite some promising if inconsistent performances, Argyle find themselves in 19th position in League Two, after nearly a quarter of the campaign.

They are only three points clear of the relegation zone after losing 2-1 to managerless AFC Wimbledon at Home Park on Saturday.

There is already an increasing clamour among supporters for Brent to replace Fletcher with a more experienced manager.

Comments posted on The Herald's website, as well as elsewhere, have shown that.

Brent has been used to compliments from Argyle fans since taking his first steps into football by saving the club.

But now he is starting to witness the unrest that is caused when results do not meet the expectations of supporters.

There were loud boos at half-time on Saturday, for example, as Argyle's players made their way off the pitch after a woeful display.

And there were many moans and groans as the Green Army exited Home Park after the match.

Instead of praise, Brent will now be getting asked what he plans to do to make sure the Pilgrims do not get involved in another relegation tussle.

Brent has made a success in his business life of turning around failing companies.

So it will be interesting to see what approach he and his board of directors take in trying to ensure Argyle make progress on the pitch.

Brent wrote an article in the matchday programme The Pilgrim on Saturday in which he said: "We will always compete to win.

"We do not have the largest budget in League Two but we have one that we believe should enable us to compete effectively with other teams.

"We will not buy success. We will build it in a sustainable fashion and will do it playing attractive football and in a manner that develops our youth – our future."

Those are admirable principles and hopefully they will pay off, but, as we all know, football is about results and without them the customers get restless.

Last week, in this column, I suggested there were green shoots of recovery at Argyle.

I still believe that to be the case, but disappointing results against two struggling sides over the past seven days have demonstrated how fragile it is.


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How can Chris Errington believe there are "green shoots of recovery"??? The 'team' and 'manager' are easily by far the worst in this division and we're looking at certain expulsion from the FL next May.

In the grand scheme of things is not actually carl the clueless's fault. He's just a useless idiot who was appointed to a position that has left him way out of his depth. It's the cheap specky banker who is to blame. Maintaining clueless in his position becuase he can't be arsed to change it becuase it would cost money. That and only funding the signings of non-league shit.

BRENT OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Freathy wrote:

How can Chris Errington believe there are "green shoots of recovery"??? The 'team' and 'manager' are easily by far the worst in this division and we're looking at certain expulsion from the FL next May.

He another ones of the inner circle with the puppets and sparksy

"In the grand scheme of things is not actually carl the clueless's fault. He's just a useless idiot who was appointed to a position that has left him way out of his depth".

Coarse it's his fault, no one forced him to take the job let alone sign a new contract to do a job that is obviously beyond him.

Highwayman wrote:

"In the grand scheme of things is not actually carl the clueless's fault. He's just a useless idiot who was appointed to a position that has left him way out of his depth".

Coarse it's his fault, no one forced him to take the job let alone sign a new contract to do a job that is obviously beyond him.

What I mean is the bloke has been appointed/promoted into to a position but his ability glaringly falls far short of what's required for that position. The riddler appointed him as a caretaker when we were in administration and that's fair enough but it is a colossal failing and dereliction of duty on the part of senior management now (i.e. the specky banker and his useless 'board') a) to have made his position permanent and b) not to have sacked clueless last season when his incompetence was so apparent.

Brent, you win nowt with youths,be that their physical age or their experience.. get that into your head and take nool and webbs heads out your arse