Plymouth Argyle have had a rollercoaster of a 2024/25 season, finally ending in relegation. But why did their season go so wrong? Here, I will list the reasons I think are behind their demotion.
Rooney’s Appointment
In the 2023-24 season, Plymouth Argyle survived by a whisker with a 1-0 win over Hull City on the final day, and went through three head coaches – Steven Schumacher, Ian Foster, and caretaker Neil Dewsnip.
In the close season, Argyle began looking for their next manager, and shocked the football world by appointing 39-year-old former Manchester United and England striker Wayne Rooney in May 2024.
On the club’s website, chairman Simon Hallett said: ‘His ambitions and aims match ours perfectly and we feel he is the perfect candidate to provide the exciting and attacking brand of football that we all like to see and help us achieve the club’s mission.’
Rooney set out his aims for his reign. ‘What we’re trying to do is build on what the club has done over the last five years, which has been rising and getting better,’ he told BBC Sport. ‘I think we can keep moving forward and trying to improve and certainly improve on last season. Hopefully at the end of the timeframe we have, we can get closer to that Premier League.’
That chimed perfectly with Hallett, who had stated in 2023 that his ambitions were to have the club competing at the top end of the Championship within five years.
The stars seemed to have aligned for Rooney and Plymouth. So what went wrong?
The first problem was Rooney’s style of play: possession based, with full backs inverting into midfield. It was the type of expansive football that the club wanted, but right from the off the players struggled. They weren’t great at dealing with a high press which put pressure on the defence, resulting in them losing by three goals or more six times during Rooney’s reign. They also struggled to score – their problems were epitomised by star striker Ryan Hardie who only scored twice in 21 games. When they went behind, Rooney was accused of having no plan B, and there were question marks over whether his players were good enough to play his system.
Their away form was also dire. Plymouth have always suffered on the road because they face the longest away trips of any EFL club, but it hit a new low under Rooney. Of his 13 away league games in charge, Plymouth managed no wins, two points, scoring just three goals and conceding 35.
After a 2-0 defeat away to Oxford on December 29, it was clear that Rooney was feeling the pressure. In his post-match press conference, he said: ‘You have to feel, “do we have the players to turn it around? Can I turn it around? Can the coaching staff turn it around?” I know the work we’re doing is good work. Unfortunately, we’re not getting the results.’
It turned out to be his final game in charge. He was sacked on New Year’s Eve after just seven months. He had won just four league games during his 25-match spell, and left with the club bottom of the Championship, four points from safety.
While there were high points for Rooney, including a 3-2 win over Sunderland and two 3-3 home draws, the erratic performances caused the board to dispense with his services. The feeling is that, despite Rooney and the club having the same ambitions and ideals, he was simply the wrong fit for Plymouth. Rooney himself was perhaps looking to prove a point after his nightmare stint at Birmingham and maybe underestimated the scale of the job.
It seems the stars weren’t aligned, after all.
Plymouth’s Defensive Injury Woes
After Rooney’s departure, Plymouth appointed Miron Muslic on a three-and-a-half-year deal in January 2025. A statement on the Plymouth website read: ‘Highly rated throughout Europe, the 42-year-old also has a reputation for a courageous football style and developing and nurturing young players.’
The Austrian also had a knack for getting teams out of trouble. In his two seasons at Cercle Brugge, he took the Belgian club from the relegation zone to the qualifying rounds of the Europa League, winning 43 of his 101 matches in charge.
Muslic’s playing style was different to Rooney’s. It was a conservative system with less emphasis on possession, and more on defence. One thing he hadn’t banked on, however, was a defensive injury crisis.
Plymouth’s poor defensive record was exacerbated by a lack of continuity in the backline, with injuries and transfers leaving him short of central defenders. Preston North End triggered a release clause to sign Plymouth’s highly rated centre back Lewis Gibson at the start of the January transfer window. Brendan Galloway suffered a season ending leg injury in January, Kornel Szucs suffered a muscle injury, and Julio Pleguezuelo sustained a couple of injuries that meant he was in and out of the team. On top of that, right wing back Matty Sorinola missed the last five matches of the season with an injury to his quadriceps.
The lack of numbers meant that Muslic had to fit square pegs into round holes, with one of his wing backs, Tymoteusz Puchacz, having to play in the unfamiliar left centre back position for a number of games.
Plymouth’s leaky defence meant they finished the season with the worst goal difference in the league, which gave them no chance of staying up. It was unlucky for Muslic, the injuries coming at a time when Plymouth seemed to be making progress.
Squad Depth
The poor goal difference wasn’t helped by a lack of goals. The strikers also suffered with injuries, which left them short up front. Ryan Hardie suffered a back injury in February and missed several games, and on loan striker Muhamed Tijani was on and off the treatment table, playing only 13 games all season and scoring two goals. Talismanic midfielder Morgan Whittaker was sold to Middlesbrough in January, and striker Ibrahim Cissoko had his loan terminated by his parent club Toulouse after barely featuring under Muslic. Despite this, they signed only one attacking player during the January transfer window: midfielder Michael Baidoo, from Elfsborg.
Muslic decided that a tactical tweak was needed to get the best out of Hardie, so he moved the Scottish striker to a number 10 role, behind Sierra Leonian forward Mustapha Bundu. This benefited both players as they hit a combined 16 goals, either side of Hardie’s back injury, which began to give the Plymouth fans hope.
Speaking about Hardie, Muslic told Plymouth Live: ‘I found him a new position because I simply realised that Ryan Hardie is not a clear number nine, back to goal. Ryan Hardie is a transition threat and maybe one of the best transition players in our competition. I just realised this is his biggest value.’
Plymouth brought in reinforcements in defence, including central defenders Maksym Talovierov for a record undisclosed fee from Austrian side LASK, and Bosnian international Nikola Katic, on loan from FC Zurich. Both were instrumental in the Pilgrims’ famous FA Cup fourth round win over Liverpool.
A bid for Sparta Rotterdam centre-back Mike Eerdhuijzen fell through, however, because according to the Dutch media, the player did not want to move to a club at the bottom of the Championship. Plymouth also had a £250,000 bid for Irish centre-back Paudie O’Connor rejected by Lincoln City.
Plymouth’s injury curse struck again during March and April – and this time it hit Talovierov and Katic. Talovierov suffered a knee injury in late March, meaning the Ukrainian missed the majority of the run-in, while Katic suffered a hamstring injury during the Pilgrims’ FA Cup fifth round defeat to Manchester City. He played through the pain, determined to help the team, but the injury got so bad that he was forced to miss a number of games, which left Plymouth short of bodies at a vital time of the season.
Conclusion
Muslic’s best efforts weren’t enough to save Plymouth, despite a series of wins that gave hope of an unlikely escape. Fingers were pointed at Rooney, but Muslic had some sympathy for his predecessor. ‘I think he [Rooney] tried his best 100%. He tried his best and I tried my best too, and unfortunately it wasn’t enough,’ Muslic said in the Plymouth Herald, just before the club’s relegation was confirmed.
This contrasted with his remarks a couple of weeks before, when he told The Mirror: ‘I think if I’m the head coach from day one, we will be far, far away from the relegation zone. We would be safe five games ago already. I truly believe if I will be here with my staff from day one we will be nowhere near where we are right now.’
The stats back Muslic’s view, because his record at Plymouth is impressive. Although he only won 9 of his 24 league games in charge, he amassed 32 points, compared to Rooney’s total of 18 points from 23 league games.
At the time of writing, Muslic had yet to confirm if he would remain at the club. If he does, Plymouth will be a daunting prospect for any team in League One next season.
