FAN’S VIEW 22/23 – No.11: PLYMOUTH AWAY

No Shrewsbury

Since I wrote the last FV our country not only has a new Prime Minister but also monarch with the sad passing of Her Majesty the Queen on Thursday 8 September. I don’t think you have to be a staunch royalist to greatly admire her and to have had a tear or two in your eye on hearing the news. It was no surprise when the weekend’s football was called off.

Hopefully when the fixture is re-arranged we’ll have more fit players to choose from.

OUFC AGM

The date has been announced: Tuesday 27 September. There hasn’t been one for a while. Shareholders received this information and hard copy of two sets of accounts, to y/e 30/06/20 and 30/06/21. They were lodged at Companies House on 15/04/21 and 20/03/22 respectively so have been in the public domain for quite a while.

To y/e 30 June 2020 – profit of £1.49m

To y/e 30 June 2021 – loss of £3.74m.

Our turnover is well under the limit of £10.2m which triggers the need to provide full accounts. We have no information on wages. There is no strategic report which many clubs, including some smaller than ours, produce.

Perhaps we may verbally be given a clearer picture at the AGM but being honest I’m quite disappointed that shareholders and supporters are largely being kept in the dark. I fully understand that there’s likely a lot of fairly sensitive negotiations taking place regarding Stratfield Brake but we know very little of where we’re at, what the next steps are and the full road map with time scales to the completed dream. The club (owners/executives) need to carry the fans with them as we strive for success on and off the pitch. That’s being very competitive at L1 level/making it to the championship and ending up in a new ground that is not owned independently of the club and can therefore generate vital commercial income. Or am I deluded? What actually are our short, medium and long term goals? We’ve heard it said that the aim is to be in the top 30 in the country but is that a clear target? Perhaps I expect too much. I just travel the length and breadth of the country to watch my team and only hold a few ordinary shares. Perhaps I’m getting twitchy because of the state of play on the pitch.

There is of course the mission statement on the club website: “Provide a world-class permanent home for OUFC to meet our on-pitch ambitions, provide an unrivalled match day experience and ensure our off-pitch offer expands in line with our long-term vision.”  Including “securing the long term future of the club”, being “sustainable”, having “an environmentally and ecologically sensitive stadium” and “having fans and residents at the centre of the club”. Very laudable but how are we going to achieve these things and how are they going to be measured? How far are we along any paths?

Balance sheet as at 30 June 2021 is £17.4m in the red which is basically covered by “group undertakings”.

As we know the company is controlled by Oxford Investment Holding PTE Ltd, with “the ultimate controlling party of the company being director Mr S Thanakarnjanasuth.” As Oxford Investment Holding is registered in Singapore information on them is not readily to be had. However the £17m was due to be paid within one year which will now have passed as we’re well into 2022. I suspect it’s just been rolled over. Is it interest free?

We know that between them Sumrith Thanakarnjanasuth, Horst Geicke, Supranee Piamph, Erick Thohir and Anindya Bakrie who are all listed as owning more than 10% of Oxford United Football Club Limited shares, have significant wealth between them.

We’re paying Firoz Kassam £547,683 p.a. Only three years left on the lease now so let’s hope someone influential is getting a wiggle on with regard to Stratfield Brake. Time moves quickly. How long ago was it we were first told that the takeover, i.e. transfer of shares between the current directors, was about to happen and that we need to be a little patient? And how often have we heard, when someone asks what’s happening, “these things take time”?

Under “Events after reporting date” the accounts note a net profit of £1.19m on player purchases/sales to y/e 30 June 2022.

Our opponents

Their accounts to y/e 30/06/2021 are another example of being so much more informative than ours. The directors have included a strategic report, including a detailed review of the business.

They note that the period was one of the most unpredictable in the club’s modern history with no match-day income due to Covid but nevertheless they made progress on their publically stated aim of “becoming a sustainable Championship level club.” I would like to think that is our aim too.

PAFC made a profit of £376k during the period but they explain that this only came about because of a grant from the Premier League (£1.2m), insurance policies along with the generosity of their commercial sponsors and season ticket holders not wanting refunds and purchasing them again when the likelihood of attending in person was very unlikely. Let’s not forget many season ticket holders at Oxford and most other clubs did the same. They also received £310k in furlough payments.

My understanding is that very few football clubs had business interruption insurance coverage. I think Plymouth were probably the only team in L1 to have had it. Their successful claim on the policy saw them get around £2.5m. Well done to their risk management team although I suspect the cost of premiums of such cover will have put most off.

Without all this they’re very clear that they would have made a substantial loss on the year.

Plymouth are owned by Simon Hallett whose family moved to the city in 1966 and he saw his first game at Home Park that year. He moved to Hong Kong in 1981 and ten years later to America where he joined the Harding Loevner investment management business where he is now Vice Chairman. His net worth has been estimated at $80m. An aside, he met his wife at university in our fine city.

He joined the Argyle board in 2016 when he invested £500k and later became vice-chairman. In 2017 he donated £4.1m to the club. In 2018 he invested a further £3.25m.

Hallett now owns 98.5% of the Argyle shares and is chairman. Being a rich man he has a property in Devon.

Back to the accounts. “In July 2020 at the peak of the uncertainty Simon Hallett injected £3.5m to provide security against a worst-case outcome.” That was initially a loan but was subsequently converted to shares. Now here’s something of interest, “Simon has said that this will be his final cash injection into the club”.

The review goes on to mention having a competitive budget (whatever that means), investment in their academy, improving the floodlighting and introducing Argyle TV. I assume they’re one of the clubs that have opted out of iFollow.

This makes good reading for the Green Army: “We are in a strong financial position; we own our stadium and have virtually no debt aside from an interest-free loan that will be repaid through deductions in the basic award payments we receive annually from the EFL.”

They have a risk register which is reviewed, discussed and updated regularly. Do we?

Their non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs) include: divisional status, league position, number of season ticket holders, attendances and the number of social media followers. Do we have such KPIs?

Finally, their balance sheet stood at £15.5m and staff costs for the period were £4.8m.

For a place the size of Plymouth and with the catchment area they have considering there’s only Exeter and Torquay down that way and nothing over the border in Cornwall, it is perhaps surprising that they’ve never experienced top flight football. Not so much a sleeping giant more like a giant of sorts that has never fully woken.

After six years in the Championship Argyle were relegated to L1 in 2010/11 and went down again the following year. At the sixth time of asking they went back up, came seventh in 2017/18 then went back down. An immediate return to this level was achieved. In 2020/21 they finished 18^th and last season in seventh position four points and one place above us.

They’re currently third, two points behind the leaders, having won all three home games thus far without conceding a goal. The teams they’ve beaten in these games are Barnsley, Peterborough and Bolton – all in the top ten.

The evidence tells that we’ve very much got our work cut out in this one. A win would put us just two points behind our opponents. A defeat would drop us down to below half way.

Plymouth Argyle 1 Oxford United 0

For various reasons my usual travelling companions didn’t make it to this one so for the first time in a few years I took the LRC coach to Devon. It’s a marvellous facility provided by the football club. Great value if you’re travelling on your own and it gave the opportunity to have interesting chats with fellow Yellows I wouldn’t normally converse with. There was also plenty of time for sleep, listening to Podcasts, catching up with music I’d not listened to for a while on my iPod (yes I know I’m a Luddite) and reading the When Saturday Comes magazines I’m so far behind with. I’m still reading May’s and that came out in April.

I turned to pages 36 and 37. “Santos clause.” One of the pictures was of Pele. The article tells of a match on 14 March 1973. A friendly between Argyle and Santos. Hastily arranged, a fee for the Brazilian team of £2,500 had been agreed but when the visitors saw a packed ground of nearly 40,000 they refused to play unless that was doubled. The club secretary had to rush around getting £1 notes from the gates and the match kicked off later than advertised. Plymouth won 3-2. Pele scored a penalty.

Other pictures accompanying the article are one of the programmes autographed by the famous Brazilians and another of a photograph taken in 2013 of the referee that day and two of the Argyle players. One of those players was John Hore who went on to manage the club. I’m sure it was him I had quite a chat to a few years back when we played down there. He’d been the guest ex-player interviewed at their Fan Fest and when he found out I was an Oxford supporter started talking about the old days, the Manor and Ron Atkinson. I’d like to think that playing on our slope meant as much to him as taking on Pele.

View from the Green Taverners Suite first floor

The Fan Fest, which doesn’t usually happen for mid-week games but did on this occasion, now resides in the Green Taverners plush new home. As I was about to enter the huge upstairs bar I noticed a display cabinet to the right and behind the glass was a pristine copy of the Plymouth Argyle v Santos of Brazil programme.

The Tribute at £3.80 a pint was probably the best I’ve ever had. Clearly Karl Robinson had pissed them off with his comments after we lost there last season when he said their celebrations in the changing rooms afterwards had been disrespectful. Should have kept his mouth shut. Best to get your team sorted so they do the talking for you. Trouble is we’ve gone effing mute at the moment.

Whilst talking to my Argyle contact I was told that Hallett has previously said he wouldn’t put any more money in then did but even if he doesn’t there are other Americans who will.

Every time I drink before a game there I’m envious of their club.

They seem to be doing most things right there but I thought the body scanning of everyone entering the ground was OTT and it made no sense when there was a barrier sending away fans to the left to be scanned separately only to then re-join the home fans again before entering the ground.

Inside the ground the pasty was tasty but that was it as far as any enjoyment was concerned.

Plymouth still have a 100% winning home record and again didn’t concede so the more blinkered of our followers may argue that makes us just the same as all the others who have tried and failed at this particular location. Then there’s Robbo saying we matched them for 70 minutes. That’s utter horse shitty bollox. (Yes, I’m starting to lose it).

I have to say that Argyle were the best L1 team we’ve played so far. From the off they oozed confidence and had many players who were beating ours with ease. We had not one player doing likewise to them.

If the standard of the shooting of the men in green had been at the same level as the rest of their game we could easily have been three down in the first period. I counted six half decent chances that they should have done better with. They were a lot more than just speculative efforts.

Given that it was goalless at the break there was, I suppose, a case to say that our back line had done quite well. They were giving their all to keep Argyle out, were winning headers and coming up with a last ditch block or two and to be fair, did so for the entire game but yet again we didn’t keep a clean sheet. Also our attack is now so utterly lacking, one breach is likely all it takes, as was the case here.

We’ve only kept one clean sheet this season. 18 of the 24 in L1 have kept more. Ipswich, Plymouth and Wednesday have a 62.5% success rate at achieving this. They’re first, third and fourth in the table.

Before the second half started my mate Steve said, “I can’t see them not scoring”. I had nothing to convince either him or myself that this wasn’t the case and all I could do was add, “And I can’t see us scoring” which made the outlook even bleaker.

The biggest surprise of the night was that it took until the 70^th minute for the goal to come. We were rocking. When we’d been getting the ball away it had been in scrambled fashion not controlled passes out and neither were we winning clearances to turn defence into attack.

I don’t think at any stage in the game did we get anywhere near stopping Plymouth play the way they wanted and had done from the first whistle.

James Henry in the right wing back position was facing two opponents. The over-lapper wasn’t used but there was still no pressure to stop the cross coming in. Stuart Findlay and Ciaron Brown were close to Niall Ennis in the box but the Plymouth man took a couple of quick steps away. That created space because our reactions didn’t match this. When Findlay spotted this his movement to adjust was that of a drunk whose brains and limbs were giving different signals. Face down on the turf he went. Okay, I’m being unfair. It was very wet. Could have happened to anyone. Wasn’t a Plymouth player doing it with us putting them under pressure though was it?  To be fair we did quickly crowd Ennis out but not before he had managed to attempt a shot which was well blocked by Brown.

The rebound fell nicely for Morgan Whittaker who did the scoring from just outside the area. Simon Eastwood should have saved it. To date Easty hasn’t been playing badly enough to be dropped but he was very poor here. There was one good first half save but in the second before the goal he fumbled a backward header from Ryan Hardie on to Bali Mumba and it went just wide. After the goal he hopelessly spilled a shot from distance that he could see all the way. We nearly let another in from the follow up. But it was wet. Plymouth of course were having no such issues.

Rain = difficult conditions for some 

As I’ve said many a time the goal-keeping situation is one of the many things that Robinson and co, (if there is a co. involved) have screwed up by not addressing properly. My view is that they should have brought in an experienced reliable keeper who is proven at this level even if it meant spending a few bob. Then have Easty or Jack Stevens as the number two. What I’ve seen of Eddie McGinty he looks nowhere near. JS has kept two clean sheets for Vale so far and like Easty averages one goal a game conceded which in itself isn’t bad at all.

All the things that we’ve seen wrong with the 2022/23 version of our football club were there again. Absolutely sweet F.A. to address them it would seem. So a bit of repetition to come.

We have no pace. We have no width. We have no-one to bring the ball out from the back in effective manner. We did last season. Findlay did this once, beating a couple of men, then the pass was, well it went astray just like our season seems to be going.

Once more I feel sorry for young Joseph. He’s got that thankless task but if a manager has set a team up properly why would there ever be such a role? No denying he put the work rate in but he looks no more than a journeyman to me so far. He doesn’t look dangerous in the air, appear to have much trickery on the ground and whilst certainly not weak, can hardly be called a physical handful when up against seasoned centre-halves. Very little is created for him but ffs why didn’t he put away that wonderful chance Sam Long laid on for him? One crossbar away. If an inch or two lower would I still be writing what I am? I’d guess quite possibly but toned down somewhat. That said I have a feeling if we had equalised we’d have felt the full force of the Green Army bearing down on us and likely have crumbled again.

Long’s ball to him was screaming “bury me” and Henry’s ball to Long was of a high quality. Nevertheless I’m not sure of JH’s role in the team. What was he here? He’s never been quick but when the team as a whole is lacking speed it is even more noticeable. Our wing-back system isn’t working to any great effect but mind you none of our formations seem to be. From the terraces (seats) there’s no discernible game plan. As a fan I don’t understand what we’re trying to do and hence have no belief. To me it looks like the players might be of the same thinking.

Billy Bodin is another I’m very disappointed with. In all this it could be that the players are not as bad as they’re currently coming across but just look like this because the manager has not got the organisation of his team and tactics right and thus has not instilled belief in his troops.

As I’ve said before though for me one or the other of a Bodin or Henry would do as a squad player if we were really serious about a promotion challenge this term.

So far I’ve not mentioned our midfield three. There’s some talent there no doubt but surely it’s not being utilised in a way to get maximum benefit. Whose fault is that then?

Lewis Bate again looked tiny but there was a short spell when his undoubted ability on the ball was evident. Great control, poise and passing but all in areas that didn’t hurt the opposition for a team that was going nowhere. Ninety minutes is made up of many short spells.

Cameron Brannagan must be wondering if he made the right decision. It wasn’t his best night. He’s better than that.

If there’s not one of our defenders that can be picked out as our best player, that worthless accolade will fall to Marcus McGuane. Until the other Marcus came on he was our only player who looked comfortable going past opponents and carrying the ball although at times I wish he would move it on quicker. But we do very little quickly now do we?

Marcus Browne replaced Bate with just over 20 minutes to go. Now you’re talking. A glimmer of hope. Some attacking potency at last. He’s a class above much of our mundanity. At last we had a player on the pitch that Plymouth couldn’t cope with without fouling him. Other than the Joseph effort, Browne’s instinctive volley from a long way out after a free-kick had been headed away was the closest we came. Michael Cooper saved it but truthfully it was probably going wide anyway.

This is the most disillusioned I’ve felt since our return to tier 3. I’m getting no joy from watching Oxford Utd at the moment. Not only are we losing lots of games we’re no longer good to watch. One of the tracks that came up on my iPod on the return journey was the Ruts “In a rut”. I don’t think there could have been anything more appropriate.

I thought I’d got home gone 3 in the morning but Mrs FV informs me she heard the garage door shut at ten to. Whatever, it was very late. Why do I do it? Well obviously because OUFC are my team and I bleed yellow. (Not effing blue – crap kit on the night. The contrast to Argyles green would have been more marked in yellow wouldn’t it?)

There’s absolutely no question that if we keep serving up this sterile stuff those less committed than I will drift away and the chances of attracting new fans will be that of the combined number of goals we have scored at Derby, Bristol and Plymouth.