Argyle have appointed a new manager. It’s a former England international who’s also played for Man Utd and Everton whose wife lives in the Manchester area. He was sacked from a championship club last season. Does anyone have a bit of deja vu to this time a year ago? What could possibly go wrong?
I do, of course, jest. Although for a sightly more niche fact, I can tell you that our new head coach Tom Cleverley has precisely 13 caps for England. In the summer of 2010, the last time we got relegated out of the Championship, we hired Peter Reid who also played for Everton, was also a central midfielder and also had, remarkably, 13 caps for England. It was certainly unlucky for him and for Argyle as we made it shock back- to-back relegations to League Two.
But, ultimately these are nothing more than statistical quirks, as fun as they are (to a nerd like me, anyway). Tom isn’t Peter Reid, and he certainly isn’t Wayne Rooney despite the odd similarities. When you scratch below the surface, this looks like an incredibly astute hire for Argyle who seem to have done that rare thing. They’ve both maximised reward and minimised risk.
Tom Cleverley: The Return to ‘OneArgyle’ Football?
Before we go into it in too much details, it’s worth referring to my last article in the previous edition of the Chronicle and also online. I posted the notion that while Muslic’s departure was a blow, it could well prove to be a blessing in disguise in the long term. It did allow us to return to the ‘OneArgyle’ way of playing that got the club so much goodwill in the first place.
A style of football that is possession-based without being slouchy and is attacking without being reckless is exactly what we need to progress. From listening to fans regarding (and reading up on) Cleverley’s Watford side, it does sound like he might be just the ticket.
He always tries to play out from the back first and foremost and ultimately in this day and age that’s just the way football is going, especially when you have a dominant team and want to break down low blocks. It’s a tired old mantra but you can’t score if you don’t have the ball. The team that is without it has to chase it down and try to win it back and that does leave them open to mistakes being made defensively – which clinical teams can exploit.
He does tend, less emphatically, to try and dominate games. Watford fans described a high line and how he likes his full backs to overlap and (at times) to fill the wide area where his attacks drift into the middle. Sometimes, when the attackers go out wide, the full backs themselves can then invert. It’s about using the ball to create space from which his teams can score. It’s hard to pull off, but wonderful if you get it right.
Cleverley’s Impact: A Boost for Player Development?
Tom Cleverley is also great for player development which is another significant tick on my list of non-negotiable’s for Argyle head coach. If you didn’t catch it, take a look at our latest podcast after the Cleverley arrival.
The Watford fans who we invited on explain in great detail how players like Imran Louza (previously out in the cold) were revitalised under his leadership. This is clearly positive news for players like Michael Baidoo and Rami Al-Hajj who ended the season out in the cold, but will likely be more responsive to a better style.
Why Cleverley? Argyle’s Smartest Hire Yet?
So, we can clearly say that Cleverley is cut from the right cloth. However, why specifically him? What is it that makes this 35-year-old the best pick ahead of more experienced options? I think here, it’s important to return to the risk/reward question. Generally when making a hire of this nature, you need to prioritise either minimising risk or maximising reward.
Simon Hallett has previously spoken often about the need for Argyle to take big swings in order to compete. By making the same tired decisions as other clubs, we do nothing to differentiate ourselves and our weaknesses in terms of geography and (sometimes) finances become ever more apparent.
Argyle don’t have to take big risks to survive but we do if we want to thrive. We could so easily have appointed a lower league stalwart like Paul Cook or Grant McCann and they may well have got us up. But how high is their upside?
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Equally, there are some who’d argue not unfairly that we’ve taken far too many risks in recent times. Ian Foster was a disaster and Wayne Rooney was worse. In both cases, they were failed gambles and the high upside (if even possible) didn’t come to fruition. Miron Muslic was a far more calculated and sensible gamble, but too far to the detriment of our identity and was making enough calls to foreign clubs as to rack up an enormous phone bill.
In all honesty, I feel the Argyle of of two years ago would have gone for either Jack Wilshere or Brian Barry-Murphy, both of whom were far riskier than Cleverley but also potentially have a higher upside, stepping into management after a few years in coaching (BBM’s brief spell at Rochdale where they were the most erratic side in the 92 notwithstanding). Understandably they’ve had their fingers burned by such left-field appointments.
It seems that Cleverley as an appointment is, well, clever (someone had to make the pun). He’s proven to have done an at least adequate job in tough circumstances and could so easily have done far better if backed in January. Quite aside from which, he’s still learning and developing as a coach. He plays a mixture of 4-3-3 and 3-4-3 and sets out to both control and entertain. Dare I say it, more than anything else he reminds me of a certain manager in charge when we won this league three reasons ago.
The Cleverley Red Flags: What Should Argyle Watch For?
Are there any red flags? Not really. Maybe, at most, one or two amber ones. Cleverley did find it tough to address negative momentum at Watford, showing consistently poor form after Christmas. Yes, there are (many) mitigating factors including player availability, lack of funds and the small matter of the board briefing he was about to be sacked every five minutes. But still, it’s something to keep an eye out for if the form does drop.
The other factor is that his family remain based in Manchester, even when he himself was inside the M25. The Watford fans have assured us that he’s still very capable of spending all the time needed there and finding the work/life balance. However, these situations in the past have so often ended with a departure citing family reasons as a major factor. Again, nothing to raise alarm bells about but worth keeping in the rear view mirror.
Overall, it’s an exciting and ambitious appointment that leaves me feeling optimistic about our chances of promotion. The news is rolling in so fast at Argyle, next you’ll be telling me that our best striker of a generation has gone, but we’re being taken over by a consortium lead by Gareth Bale. Wait, what…
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