After a week of discussions with club stakeholders, James Brent is hopeful that a deal to save Plymouth Argyle can be done. Brent said “No red lights have been identified and I am more hopeful today than a week ago that the club can defy liquidation although there remain considerable challenges ahead“, which can only be seen as a good sign, read the full statement. Also Plymouth City Council’s leader Vivian Pengelley has indicated that the Council may buy Home Park and rent it back to the club after due diligence checks council approval. Although that is up in the air; I don’t see the people of Plymouth (non Argyle supporters) being happy with the council bailing out the Pilgrims while other council services are being cut. And to be honest as much as I love my home town club, I don’t believe public money should be diverted to prop up the city’s football club.
It seems that James Brent’s bid is the only bid on the table after initially hearing that Paul Buttivant has resubmitted a bid; but we have heard nothing further. Kevin Heaney’s Bishop International still had a bid on the table according to the Truro City FC chairman but it is widely believe that Heaney is potless so we can effectively ignore that bid, they’ve had four months to complete the deal and failed miserably. Joint administrators P&A Partnership and Brendan Guilfoyle have been ominously silent during the last week, probably hiding with their collective tails between their legs after the collapse of the Heaney/Bishop deal after four months of delays.
On the field, it was a third 2 – 0 defeat on the trot for the Pilgrims; this time to former Argyle manager’s [[Paul Sturrock]]’s Southend. To add insult to injury; both goals were scored by former Pilgrims, first came from the penalty spot in the 64th minute after [[Durrell Berry]] brought down [[Michael Timlin]], [[Liam Dickinson]] scoring the penalty. What’s more frustrating is that Dickinson could have been wearing green this season if the club had exited administration before the start of the season, thank you Mr. Guilfoyle. Then Argyle captain [[Carl Fletcher]] was given a straight red five minutes later for violent conduct which gave the home side the overlap. The Shrimpers made full use of the man-over, [[Peter Gilbert]] doubling the lead in the 80th minute, this goal was his first since 2003 while still playing for Argyle. Amazingly this loss hasn’t set Argyle further adrift at the bottom, a different team is immediately above but the gap is still at four points, Argyle are really riding their luck, after nine league games without a win, [[Peter Reid]]’s Argyle desperately need a win, the XI played better today but still nowhere near good enough at this level of football!