Tom Cleverley has stated that Miron Muslic’s shock departure and the impact on recruitment have played a factor in Plymouth Argyle‘s failures.
The Austrian manager made an abrupt exit from Home Park in May of this year to manage Schalke 04, despite statements from the club that the 43-year-old had insisted on his commitment to Argyle. It took over 2 weeks to appoint his successor in Tom Cleverley, who has had a poor start to his reign.
Cleverley Suggests Reasons For Struggles
With yet another poor result under their belts after losing to Mansfield Town with some major defensive errors, serious questions were raised about whether Cleverley could continue in his post as Argyle languish in the relegation zone. However, the board has given their manager a vote of confidence, securing his future in the near term.
Now, speaking to BBC Radio Devon about the tricky start to his reign, the former Watford boss gave insight as to why he believes it has been difficult for Plymouth.
“There’s been a tough set of circumstances – when you go from one league to another that’s a big transition, and then you start recruiting towards that, and then a head coach leaves spontaneously and a new head coach comes in with half the recruitment done, that’s another big transition.
“It was never going to be easy. It was never going to be short, and we have to work our way through this to get on an upwards trajectory and start looking forward.
“We saw that half the recruitment was done before I came in and you saw the direction the club was going down, that it was going to be a younger age profile of squad, there’s going to be a lot of developing in that.
“I’ve been at a club previously where you suffer a little bit for that, we’re going through that now compounded with other things, but there are certainly things I can control to make it better.”
Does Cleverley Have A Point?
While Muslic’s exit was far from ideal, Cleverley had over 2 and a half months from his arrival to deadline day to get business done. Of course, coming into the club without any planning for the window will cause a certain level of disruption, and that impact has been seen in results this season.
Ultimately, it is up to the manager to deliver results from what he has at his disposal, and now it is up to him to deliver from the backing the board has given him, starting against Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup.
