Southern Discomfort

Plymouth Argyle’s slide towards financial peril has been at times more dramatic than events on the pitch for the Pilgrims. A combination of a misguided push for the Premier League, dodgy Japanese investment and banking on England’s success in bidding for the 2018 World Cup has brought the Green Army to its knees and the 10 point deduction for going into administration leaves them staring at a return to the bottom tier of the Football League for the first time since the heady days of 2002, when Paul Sturrock guided them to the Division Three title.

Rewind a few months and fellow South Coast club Portsmouth were also teetering on the brink of financial oblivion, from which they somehow managed to escape. A little bit further along the coast, Southampton have also had major financial problems which has left them in the third tier. Bournemouth also spent time in administration, suffering points deductions in consecutive seasons that left them facing the Conference for a time. Exeter City spent time in administration shortly before being relegated out of the Football League in 2003, while Torquay United followed them in 2007. And of course not forgetting that for some time Brighton & Hove Albion were also close to going out of business in the 1990s, although their recent fortunes have been somewhat better than the clubs to the west.

So why is it that the last 10-15 years have seen so many financial problems for South Coast teams? If you look over the period as a whole, it does seem to have been a cursed period for them. 2010-11 is the first season since 1977-78 that there is no representation in the top flight for the South Coast. If you look on a map at the location of the 20 clubs in the Premier League this season, you will notice that they are all very agglomerated – London, the West Midlands, the North West, and the North East. None from East Anglia, none from the East Midlands, and none from further south than Greater London. This may change next year, with the possibility of promotion for several clubs from outside these areas, but again, it is still highly unlikely that there will be South Coast representation in the top flight come August.

It is fair to say, though, that the financial problems of each individual club are of their own making rather than down to a particular trend. Take my team, Torquay, for instance – the club, run prudently by long-time owner Mike Bateson and debt-free for many years, was taken over by a group led by Chris Roberts. The disruption Roberts caused, including replacing manager Ian Atkins with his mate, former Czech international Lubos Kubik, was shown on the pitch as the Gulls slipped to the bottom of League Two. By February, Roberts was gone, and the club and its finances were in disarray. After a succession of managers and chairmen, Bateson was soon back in control, but by then, Torquay were doomed to relegation to the Conference.

It is the same for most of the other South Coast clubs. Mismanagement, and overspending to push for glory, has been a consistent feature, and it is something that has become a regular occurrence in the British game as a whole. Nowhere has this been more obvious, and nowhere have the consequences been as dramatic, as at Plymouth and Portsmouth. But perhaps there are reasons why it is the South Coast in particular. These are generally clubs that have never been particularly successful – the South West remains having never had a top flight team, and Plymouth is the largest city in England with a similar status. So there is not the reputational draw for big name players – they have to flash the cash to attract them. And of course it is the big name clubs that also attract the fans – while the Manchester Uniteds, Chelseas and Arsenals continue to sell out their stadia week in week out and simultaneously draw vast audiences on TV, some of Torquay’s home attendances this year for midweek games have been as low as 1,500 – very small, even for one of the smallest clubs in the Football League.

But if there is optimism for Argyle fans, it is that all of the clubs that have suffered financial problems are now seemingly on the road back to normality. Their fellow Devonians are now back in the League, with Exeter achieving back-to-back promotions under highly-rated young manager Paul Tisdale, and Torquay pushing for the play-offs under Paul Buckle. Bournemouth are back in League One as well but are looking for more glory with a potential promotion into the second tier for the first time since 1990, although they are unlikely to catch Brighton, another South Coast club looking for another return to the Championship.

And for those great rivals Southampton and Portsmouth, things aren’t looking too bad either. The Saints could also return to the Championship this year, despite numerous off the field troubles including the death of their owner Markus Liebherr and the controversial dismissal of Alan Pardew as manager, while Pompey, who until recently were looking at a second consecutive relegation, have seen a miraculous turn-around orchestrated by Steve Cotterill and surged into the mid-table to retain an outside chance of a play-off spot.

So it’s not all doom and gloom for Argyle fans. Recent history tells us that it won’t be long before the Pilgrims will be heading in the right direction again.