One mission: immediate promotion

Argyle begin League One campaign

Plymouth Argyle entered the 2025/26 season with one goal; get promoted back to the Championship.

Following a nail biting finish to last season's campaign, Plymouth found themselves in the relegation zone meaning after just two years in the championship, they were back in league one. However, no one in the Argyle camp wanted to make this a permanent place in England’s third tier of football. 

As new signing Caleb Watts put it: “It’s a club that wants to be in the Championship” and alongside veteran winger Jamie Patterson, leftback Jack Mackenzie and Matias Ross from champions league side Galatasaray, Plymouth's latest signings were looking to make this dream a reality. 

Not only are the Pilgrims bringing in quality players, they’re also signing them on the cheap! With seven of the eleven permanent signings made being free transfers, everyone can see owner Simon Hallett’s ambition coming into the new campaign. 

Perhaps, however, the biggest change occurring at Home Park was the change in manager. Following the undesired departure of Miron Muslic to Schalke, Plymouth were in desperate need for a new manager. After a month of searching, negotiations and rumors, former Manchester United and Everton player Tom Cleverley put pen to paper and signed as the new Argyle boss. 

Cleverley's managerial career started following his retirement from playing football at Watford, where he went from Under 18s' manager, to caretaker manager, to permanent manager before he was relieved of his duties at the end of last season. While some fans criticized Cleverley's lack of experience, many saw this as yet another step forwards in their quest for promotion. 

All this movement came to head in Plymouth’s first two preseason games in England as they beat Truro in a close fought 3-2 victory with new signings Pepple, Amaechi and Watts all getting on the scoresheet as well as a 6-0 thrashing against Torquay United, with Pebble finding himself back on the scoresheet alongside Bali Mumba, both with one goal. Ameachi found the back of the net not once but twice and skipper Joe Edwards closed the game out scoring two of his own. Two well deserved victories following lots of strategic reinforcement.

But that is not to say that relegation doesn’t have its drawbacks. Despite all the exciting players coming into the club, many crucial players from last season have left this summer.

Not only were backline partnership Nikola Katic and Tymoteusz Puchacz loan moves ended, meaning they have made the move back to their original clubs, but club record arrival Taloverov has joined Stoke City for the same price he joined the club for the season before (£2 million). On top of this, fan favorite Ryan Hardie has made the move to Wrexham for £825,000.

Further departures from Houghton, Bundu, Randell, Grimshaw and Al Hajj gave fans something to worry about especially as their last preseason game against Bristol ended in a 2-0 loss. 

However Cleverley assures everyone that “the quality and intensity will certainly be there with the players” for their opening game against Barnsley. 
While departures may have hit Plymouth Argyle this summer, their goal of promotion is very much alive thanks to a new manager and exciting new players leading the way back to the Championship.            
 

Hear the audio version of our student reporter Tal Pearson's pre-season analysis.