With Wayne in Spain
Piña Coladas, 39 degree heat and chats with Wayne Rooney. The inside track to Argyle's trip to Marbella.
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By Sam Down
It’s been a while since I last wrote for Argyle Life. Despite my many appearances on podcasts and Twitter spaces, it’s been some time since I put the metaphorical pen to paper. To be more precise, it’s about three managers (depending how you count the two caretaker spells of Dewsnip/Nancekivell), a promotion, and about the same number of Prime Ministers ago.
To say that a lot has happened since then puts it mildly. When the season ended in the jubilation of the Hull home game, I don’t think anyone foresaw that Argyle would be going into the new season with Wayne Rooney of all people as our new manager. The news broke to ribaldry and mocking from opposing teams - we ourselves had recently thanked Rooney (with no small amount of sarcasm) for ensuring our survival after his frankly disastrous spell at Birmingham City.
Many people have written about the merits or otherwise of the Rooney appointment and I don’t propose here to cover all the arguments for and against. What I can offer, is the experience of having spent three nights in Marbella in line with the team’s pre-season tour and some tentative insights as to how I feel we might set up accordingly.
There’s no getting around it - for it to awaken me from my prolonged writing stupor it must have been a pretty good trip, and indeed it was. The party of four set off from Gatwick Airport on Wednesday afternoon. Our podcast host Aaron (and the real star of the operation despite what the People’s Podcast voters may think) managed to successfully cajole me into going alongside two good friends George and Lou, who have made fleeting podcast appearances before without ever becoming regulars.
After we’d booked the flight, we realised we’d overlooked something quite important. We landed at 19.30 (local time) and the England semi-final against the Netherlands started at 21.00. After a mad dash through customs to get to the arrivals side of Malaga airport (and with apologies to anyone who may have incurred damaged ribs in the process), we met our airport transfer company driver and headed for Marbella. Following a slight confusion over the price where they tried to add an extra 30 euros to the initially quoted price (more on that later), we finally arrived and legged it towards the nearest bar we could find that was showing the game.
By chance, this turned out to be an Irish bar. Their delight when Netherlands went 1-0 up was matched only by ours when Torquay’s finest (that’s the only Devonian settlement I like to associate him with) Ollie Watkins fired home a shot on the cusp of 90 minutes. It was slightly ruined however by *someone* getting a text alert from their partner notifying them of the goal seconds before it went in on the clearly delayed television screen in the bar. I won’t say who it was, but the text came from the Norwich area.
A few more drinks and a kebab shop later, we were back off to our AirBNB to sleep and refresh ourselves ahead of the open training session at the Atalaya Football Centre.
On arrival, we were immediately greeted by Charlie from the Argyle media team and given an invite to the Q+A event later that evening at the Marbella Clubhouse.
And then out of nowhere came the man at the centre of all the intrigue, Wayne Rooney, with a spring in his step walking back towards the changing area after setting up the pitch for the various training drills to come. He was immediately very receptive to a word and a chat as well as a picture with the entire travelling party. He expressed his delight at being in Plymouth and his excitement ahead of the season to come - all fairly standard stuff at that stage, but still surreal to see it coming out of the mouth of a childhood footballing icon.
Training itself began. At first, the drills were fairly basic with a ‘piggy in the middle’ format clearly designed to prioritise ball retention skills. Engaging as it was to watch, it was tough to gain any insight from.
What followed after that was a set of 7-a-side games. There were three teams (white, green and orange bibbed) who would face each other on a constant rotation, one team resting at all times. Stand out stars of training were Nathaniel Ogbeta, Bali Mumba and Ibrahim Cisshoko.
Obgeta was a real talker on the pitch and even a training format, was absolutely rigorous on positional discipline and displayed clear signs of leadership - something encouraging for when the real games start coming thick and fast. What was encouraging with Mumba (usual caveats notwithstanding) was how much he embraced the attacking side of the game, fearlessly running with the ball towards dangerous areas. With Rooney seemingly favouring a back four, Bali needs to adapt his game away from the wing-back role he is most naturally comfortable in.
However, Cissoko looked (to put it mildly) absolute dynamite. The way he kept the ball glued to his feet whilst charging forward was reminiscent of Arjen Robben of old. This particular Dutchman may not have such a good career in the end, but he certainly has the potential to light up the Championship if his game can translate to competitive matches.
Credit must be given to a few others. Saxon Earley has clearly used his time injured to work on his upper body and is all the more viable a Championship player for it. Zak Baker, the academy graduate goalkeeper, made some tremendous saves and Michael Cooper was his normal vociferous self, leading from the goal line and ensuring his defenders didn’t put a step out of line. If it’s true that he’s stalling on a contract, I don’t doubt that he’ll put in anything other than the utmost effort whilst he’s still with us. He doesn’t know any other way.
Training was wrapped up by pass-and-move one vs one drills (in which Baker once again excelled) and finally free-kick drills. A Ryan Hardie belter nearly beheaded a mannequin that was used in lieu of a wall before the gaffer himself had a go and ended up finishing the job. Adam Randell was the stand out performer of this little routine, however, with an impressive four in a row curled into the top corner. As he said to us afterwards ‘I just need to do a few more in the actual games’.
After the session, Aaron and George lingered to get their bucket hats signed by Rooney and the lads. I, being considerably above such childish activities, simply got them to sign my Q+A invite card instead. Incidentally, that card later got lost in the clubhouse so if anybody sees a Wayne Rooney autograph emerging from the Marbella area on eBay in the coming weeks, don’t be surprised.
We moved on to the clubhouse which can only be described as an extremely fancy sports bar. There were numerous visitors from patrons over the years and they clearly hosted the event in the hope of a new scalp. The staff were absolutely delightful and the Piña Coladas were exquisite. The costs were very much what you’d expect from my description mind, and if not for the free drink vouchers by the club (who will be the first to admit they perhaps slightly overbooked) it would have been a very expensive night indeed
As the club staff filtered in, two stalwarts of the promotion season were up first with Joe Edwards and Bali Mumba relaying their memories of an emotional two years for the club. Nathaniel Ogbeta and Brendan Galloway came up next and quite surprisingly, we were treated to a rendition of Ogbeta’s initiation song which can be found on Argyle’s social media platforms and on ours.
After a brief interval for food, Rooney came on to the stage to rapturous applause. Some of the questions were very much what you’d expect (best goal he’s ever scored and the like) and Aaron ventured a question about Cooper (and by extension Morgan Whittaker who’s also been linked with a move away). Rooney’s answer was interesting – he said that whilst of course we’d listen to ‘silly money’, he was firmly of the belief that both of them would be with us for the season to come.
I got the last question of the night – in all honesty, I didn’t really want to ask it but would have felt worse if somebody didn’t address the elephant in the room of Rooney’s past record. I asked, given his relatively poor form with DC United and Birmingham, why he felt Argyle was the right club for him to succeed. His answer surprised me and in a good way.
In truth, I was expecting the standard answers about difficult environments and mistakes being learned from. What he gave was a far better answer. He actually defended his record at DC, having taken them from a rock bottom side to one on the cusp of the play-offs. And as he rightly noted, DC are hardly pulling up trees without him. He handled what was a more difficult question superbly and gave me a little more faith (if not total faith) that his record is not as bad as it’s painted.
After the session, a few of our party had extended chats over drinks with a number of the Argyle management and media teams including but not limited to Neil Dewsnip, Wayne Rooney and new assistant head coach Pete Shuttleworth. I don’t propose to relay these chats in any great detail as private conversations should remain private in situations like this.
What I will say is this: these people are serious, passionate and enlightened football people who are absolutely desperate to be the best possible custodians of our great club. Rooney and Shuttleworth are acutely aware that things at Birmingham didn’t go as they planned and are determined to learn from it and put it right. They have ideas of how to play that are positive and driven tactically, aimed at getting the fans off their seats. We may not quite see a return to the ‘Schueyball’ of the first half of last season but it will certainly be closer than the Ian Foster borefest.
On Dewsnip, what can I say? I’ve been critical of the man in the past and I would still maintain that he has made some mistakes over the past year. What I absolutely can’t deny is that he wants the best for Plymouth Argyle and is absolutely determined to make that happen. He appreciates the honesty of an honest critic and I can say that I appreciated his honesty in return.
The narrative that’s emerged that he is some sort of octopus wrapping his tentacles around all aspects of the club at the expense of its success is categorically wrong and if I’ve contributed to it in any way, even inadvertently then I apologise and retract it. He will admit himself that he’s got some things wrong but ultimately, his track record of improving this club from League Two to the Championship speaks for itself and I firmly believe that any mistakes that were made were made for the best possible reasons, wanting to stand by a man that he himself put his faith in.
Is that a guarantee of success? No, it is not. Mistakes were made and they may be made again. But I’ll put here in writing what I said to each of the three men named above. If it goes wrong this season, it won’t be for lack of trying.
Home to bed after a long day two and day three was the main event of the trip – the game itself against South African side Orlando Pirates. We eventually arrived at the Banus football centre (after a SLIGHT diversion via the Marbella football centre, see our vlog for more hilarity) and this, I’m afraid, is where I will have my first moan.
The security on the gate going into the football centre was ridiculously heavy-handed and the ‘rules’ (which I half suspected were made up on the spot) utterly absurd. You could (apparently) have any liquid you like (including beer) in an open cup but plastic bottles (even with the lids removed) were not permitted at all for any drink aside water.
This would have been acceptable if there was anywhere in the centre to actually buy drinks – surprise surprise, there was not. There was a bar open about 100 yards up the road which we were helpfully directed to, which was not even serving at time of entry. So in sweltering 38 degree heat, without shade, there was no way to take on any liquid unless you had the foresight to bring either bottled water or a plastic cup to decant other drinks. A logistical failure, and the way in which we were virtually frogmarched out of the ground as if it was a nuclear facility at full-time (when kids were waiting for autographs, I might add) was just as bad.
I’m not someone who likes to whinge for the sake of it but hopefully this can be fed back to the security team ahead of any future visits. I felt brilliantly looked after at all times by the Argyle staff and the Marbella Clubhouse. I did not feel at all well looked after by the Marbella Football Centre and hope that they can take this on board.
As expected, Argyle named two teams, one for each half (with Bundu, Issaka and Cisshoko playing 30 minutes each in the wide areas). Interestingly, we seemed to play a 4-4-2 formation which merged at times into a 4-2-3-1, with the second striker dropping into an attacking central midfield role.
In the first half, Waine and Tijani were industrious in their pressing but both unfortunately missed good chances in front of goal that would have put Argyle ahead. The midfield battle was very sluggish but that can perhaps be explained by the stifling 38 degree heat, neither side really covering themselves in glory.
Pirates too had chances but the game was fairly dull until around the 35th minute when there was a flurry of activity. The South African side took the lead after a rebounded chance and a matter of mere seconds after the restart, Freddie Issaka bundled home our first goal of the Wayne Rooney era. Less than a minute after THAT restart, the Pirates got a corner from which some sloppy defending saw them take the lead into the second half.
Despite his short length of time on the pitch, Issaka was Argyle’s best performer and he won the penalty shortly after the interval that Ryan Hardie missed. Interestingly, it was Callum Wright who played as the second striker after half-time and he really made the role his own. He scored the second goal after a fine cross from Ibrahim Cissoko with his first action and could really could have scored another, having got in a good position to get one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The game loosened up and got more entertaining as the sun set, but neither side was able to find a winner.
As we made our way back to the apartment for a few late night drinks, we got a notification that the previously mentioned transfer company were ready to collect us to take us to the airport. The trouble is that they let us know this at 2am rather than the actually agreed time of 2pm. The next day we simply booked an Uber to the airport and got home without too much further event.
Despite the string of administrative errors (some our fault, some very much not), it was a greatly enjoyable trip. It’s always been a bucket list item of mine to see Argyle play abroad and it was a pleasure to have it ticked off. I came away from it a lot more positive that we really do have a decent chance of improving this season. And if we don’t, I’ll still be tracking every step of it following Argyle around the country (and outside it). Truly, nothing beats it.