Why Plymouth Argyle should appoint Tony Mowbray
The 60-year-old's experience, youth development and contact book could help to establish the Pilgrims as Championship regulars.
For fans of the EFL, watching boisterous owners with deep pockets overpromising and underdelivering has become commonplace. In this climate, Plymouth Argyle’s Simon Hallett is a welcome exception - his 2019 plan to take Argyle, then a big fish in the League Two pond, into the Championship within five seasons showed the perfect blend of drive and realism. The target was duly met twelve months ahead of schedule, thanks to the combination of canny, data-driven recruitment and the astute management of first-time boss Steven Schumacher.
Life back in the second tier has not been without difficulty, but Argyle’s tally of 26 points represents a decent haul and has them positioned in 16th at the halfway stage. In November, a new long-term goal was announced - to establish the club in the top six of the Championship by 2028. The success of Luton Town - themselves in League Two as recently as 2018 - and the generous timeframe both give credibility to the plan but with the talented Schumacher having departed for Stoke City, it will have to be achieved with a new man in the dugout.
A club with such a solid off-field structure should attract plenty of applicants, but of all the potential candidates, Tony Mowbray is the one that the Home Park hierarchy should pursue. At 60 years old, he is at a different stage of his career to the managers previously appointed by Hallett and co, but would be a great fit to oversee the next stage of the project at Home Park.
Mid-season appointments leave little scope for any new manager to radically change the playing style and in circumstances where his predecessor was doing well, there is no reason to anyway. Argyle have been fairly uncompromising in the second tier; rather than tightening up, they have continued to create and concede chances almost in equal measure, in a set up very similar to the one Mowbray used at Sunderland.
His year in the North East boosted his reputation as an excellent developer of young talent. Jack Clarke kicked on under his management, finally realising the potential he showed as a youngster at Leeds, meanwhile team mate Jobe Bellingham has thrived since Mowbray moved him into a more advanced role. At Blackburn, Harvey Elliott registered 18 goal contributions as a 17-year-old under his guidance and was nominated for the Championship’s young player of the season award.
The likes of Morgan Whittaker and Bali Mumba could thrive under Mowbray’s management and for Argyle, increasing the value of their youngsters to sell on is the likeliest route to boosting the club’s relatively modest budget, especially in the context of the strict financial rules governing the Championship.
The need to maintain an attacking style with a young group would point to hiring somebody at the start of their managerial career but Argyle aren’t out of the relegation woods yet, which is hardly an ideal situation for a rookie to be thrown into. With maintaining the club’s Championship status of paramount importance, a more battle-hardened alternative like Mowbray could be the smarter choice this time.
At Middlesbrough, he took over a bloated squad, kept them competitive whilst trimming the wage bill and laid the foundations for Aitor Karanka’s promotion campaign a few years later. Next, he dragged Blackburn out of League One at the first attempt. While these jobs can be assessed as good rather than outstanding, they both represented the first phase of a long-term strategy, so even if Mowbray doesn’t oversee Hallett’s five-year plan in its entirety, he can get the ball rolling.
The current situation at Argyle isn’t entirely dissimilar to the one he inherited at Sunderland either, taking over from a promotion-winning manager with the remit of continuing the upwards momentum for the remainder of the campaign. By guiding the Black Cats to the playoffs, Mowbray more than maintained that trajectory.
Unlike Sunderland, Argyle’s status as a Championship club next season is still at risk though and whether they can preserve it will hinge largely on the January transfer window. Schumacher recently revealed that the budget had been “pretty much” spent in the summer and even if that statement was a clever negotiating ploy, his successor certainly won’t be given a deep warchest next month, so having a manager with an extensive contact book could help to get deals over the line.
Mowbray is still well-regarded at both Sunderland and Blackburn, so may be able to call in favours to pick up some experienced Championship veterans and balance out Argyle’s youthful squad. Some of his other friendships go back decades, like with Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson - a connection which could prove useful if Argyle revisit their summer interest in Josh Coburn.
Perhaps the most important question is whether Mowbray, with his strong links to the North East, could see himself making the move down to Plymouth. He was linked with the role at Stoke City and if he bides his time, he might find himself at a more established Championship club before the season is out.
However, at his age, entering a positive working environment may be of greater value to him than the short-term prospect of a Premier League promotion and Argyle’s USP is that they can offer managers the rare mix of an excellent structure without excessive interference. After the internal disagreements over team selection at Sunderland, where rumours about his job security began to swirl in the immediate aftermath of May’s playoff defeat, this may represent a welcome change change for Mowbray.
In all likelihood, the Argyle board will already have whittled the list down to a few candidates. The day of Schumacher’s departure was always going to come and whoever is chosen to replace him will be given every chance to achieve success at a club where succession planning has been outstanding in recent seasons. However, if Hallett manages to entice Mowbray to Home Park, it would rank as one of the best in a long list of shrewd decisions.