What has gone wrong at Plymouth Argyle?

In May 2023 Plymouth Argyle finished the campaign with a club-record 101 points as they beat Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday to the League One title.

It was the culmination of a dream to get the Pilgrims - the heartbeat of the biggest city in England never to have had a top-flight football team - back into the Championship after 13 seasons in the lower reaches of the English Football League.

But scroll on two-and-a-half years and Argyle are at the bottom of League One, on their fourth permanent head coach in less than two years and on a six-game losing streak.

So what has gone wrong?

"It's been two years of poor decision making," says Joe Bell, the host of the Green and White podcast.

When Steven Schumacher left his role as head coach to move to Stoke City in December 2023, Argyle were 16th in the Championship - four points above the drop zone with seven wins from 22 games.

They ended the season staying up by a point with just five more wins, three coming under caretaker management after Schumacher's replacement Ian Foster - a former England youth coach - left the club after an ill-fated three-month spell in charge.

"You can forgive them perhaps the Foster appointment," adds Bell, who had seen his side turn to the inexperienced Schumacher with great success.

"But to then turn the shotgun on ourselves the summer after survival, and to appoint Wayne Rooney was just a massive error on everybody's part really.

"It wasn't for the want of Wayne's best efforts, but for a data-driven club there wasn't a shred of data that suggested Wayne Rooney was the right fit for the role, or even worthy of an interview for the role frankly."

Wayne Rooney. The former England captain turned the spotlight on Home Park in the summer of 2024 when he was named as Foster's permanent successor.

That was despite having a torrid spell as Birmingham City boss the season before as they went from a play-off place to finishing a point behind the Pilgrims in the final relegation spot.

He won just four games and left on New Year's Eve as a club that had been hailed for their foresight and strategic thinking was castigated for what some felt was being spellbound by the lure of a big name and the prospect of a Netflix-style documentary that could propel the club to a worldwide audience.

"I think the last two or three years has really showed them reacting to situations rather than being proactive," says BBC Radio Devon's Alan Richardson, who has covered the club for more than 20 years across all three tiers of the EFL.

Since the start of this year Argyle have had two directors of football, are on to their second chief executive, brought in their first head of football operations and are looking for their third head of recruitment after Tom Randle left last month.

"Randle was someone Miron Muslic (Wayne Rooney's successor as head coach) had worked with at Bruges, and then it didn't work so the new head coach Tom Cleverley suddenly had a head of recruitment he wasn't particularly familiar with," adds Richardson.

"Neil Dewsnip (director of football) left, he was replaced by David Fox who had done well in a similar sort of role at Huddersfield but is not hugely experienced and the arrival of Derek Adams causes, in some ways from the outside in at least, quite a bit of confusion because who's doing what, who's reporting to who, who's in ultimate control?"

Former Pilgrims boss Adams returned to Home Park last week as director of football in the latest behind the scenes change.

"It's an interesting one," says Richardson, who covered the reign of Adams as Argyle boss from 2015 to 2019 which saw them win promotion to League One before relegation back to the fourth tier.

"Derek brings a large wealth of experience, he knows Argyle inside out, he loves the club, the club largely love him, so from that point of view it makes absolute sense.

"But who exactly is going to be doing what is the thing that I'm waiting to see."

The man ultimately responsible for making those appointments is owner Simon Hallett.

The locally-born businessman is based in the United States and has been responsible for a transformation at the club - especially off the field.

Since taking full control in 2018 he has rebuilt the Mayflower Stand, is constructing a new training ground, has led the club from League Two to the Championship.

He also oversaw the Pilgrims' famous FA Cup run last season that resulted in wins over Brentford, and more memorably Liverpool, before bowing out at Manchester City.

"When it comes to Simon, it's probably only really in 10, 15, 20 years that we will truly appreciate how good a chairman he's been," says Bell.

"Have we taken our eye off the ball?

"You look at the recruitment of this summer and it's very easy to say when you're four points adrift and 24th in the league that it's very easy to bash the club with a stick.

"But we all had serious doubts from almost the second or third signing this summer about what direction we were heading in.

"The mixed messages out of the club as well in recent months have been really frustrating.

"My support of Hallett hasn't waned. I think Simon's still doing a good job. Now does that mean somebody can come in and do a better job? No.

"The fear of the unknown is what will hold you back, and whilst yes, we should always be forever grateful to Simon for the body of work he's put in, that also doesn't mean we shouldn't be fearful of what could come after him."

Hallett is actively looking for new investment.

He sold a chunk of the club to a United States-based consortium in August 2022 only to buy back part of that stake a year or so later.

A deal to sell a stake to investors earlier this year fell through, leaving Hallett as the majority shareholder as he continues to look for "the right investor, not the quickest investor".

Hallett's aim to make Argyle sustainable has meant cutting their cloth to fit.

Earlier this month head coach Tom Cleverley talked about the Pilgrims recruiting from "largely League Two or the bottom of League One" while he felt sides such as Huddersfield Town are recruiting from clubs in the Championship and top flight.

"Development players are fine as long they've got players with more experience to work alongside, but they don't really seem to have that," says Richardson.

"They're regularly one of the youngest, if not the youngest starting 11s in the Football League and I think it's really caught up with them.

"They're very, very porous at the back, they just can't seem to keep clean sheets, I think they've only had two or three all season.

"Teams manage to find a way through them remarkably easily, often with direct play - we saw that at Exeter City which seriously damaged them and they've never really recovered from that defeat."

What about the head coach? When a side has lost six on the bounce many expect his head to be on the chopping block.

While there are those who think it might be time for Cleverley's job to be under serious scrutiny, others feel he has had his hands tied by poor decision-making above him and injuries to his playing squad.

Summer signings Xavier Amaechi, Caleb Watts and Jack MacKenzie have all been out long term while experienced players such as Julio Pleguezuelo, Conor Hazard and Joe Edwards are either still out, or have just returned to fitness.

"I don't think Tom Cleverley is solely to blame," says Bell.

"That's not to say Tom Cleverley isn't without blame, because some of the decision-making in games and how we're setting up and things are just so very wrong at times.

"But it almost feels like the situation runs higher than the head coach because we are disorganised off the pitch, we are without a bit of a structure.

"Do I think a change of head coach would necessarily change anything?" he adds.

"I don't know because I don't have a crystal ball.

"However, do I think from what I've seen in the last three, four, five games, Tom Cleverley's got the acumen to change it and turn it round? I have my doubts, as painful as that is, because I don't want us to become almost like a Stoke City of this division.

"But I'm struggling to see any signs of positivity moving forward with how we're setting up and how we're playing."

So how can it get better? How can a side that many fancied would push for a play-off place before a ball was kicked this season get away from the relegation places?

"It doesn't matter about performances, it's all about results," says Bell.

"If that means we have to go into every game with two banks of four and just win 1-0 every week with a goal from a set piece, then so be it, because performances aren't going to get you out the relegation zone, results will.

"It's about now rolling the sleeves up, digging in, fighting for everything, fighting for your brother who's next to you on the pitch."

Argyle's next chance to roll up those sleeves is a trip to Port Vale on Saturday - a side one point and two places above them and a result that could go a long way to determining the feeling and fortunes at Home Park for the next few weeks and months.