Edwards hoping for a swift resolution to contract talks
JOE Edwards is hoping to get his Plymouth Argyle future sorted soon, with talks taking place over the next couple of days.
The Pilgrims’ skipper and 2020/21 player-of-the-year has a contract which ends this summer.
Edwards described Argyle as ‘a fantastic club’ and admitted manager Ryan Lowe had ‘been brilliant with me’.
The 30-year-old was the first signing made by Lowe after he was appointed by the Pilgrims in the summer of 2019.
Edwards said: “I love the club, it’s somewhere I have played my best football recently.
“We have probably got talks all this week and things will hopefully get sorted.
“There is no real news at the moment, but it’s a fantastic club and somewhere I love playing.”
Edwards added: “We need to sit down and talk, and go through things, but the Gaffer has been brilliant with me. I love playing for him. We will just see how it goes in the next couple of days.”
Edwards made a total of 41 starts and seven substitute appearances this season and was Argyle’s second top scorer with nine goals, a career best tally for him in a single campaign.
He won the club’s official playerof-the-year award and also came out on top in our Plymouth Live readers’ poll, receiving 40 per cent of the vote.
Edwards said: “I’m very proud. It’s a massive thing to win those awards on a personal level. Obviously, you would like the season to go better as a team but for me to win them, it’s a really proud moment.
“It’s something to cherish that people recognise that I am working hard and doing the best I can. It’s a great feeling for myself and I can only thank everyone who voted for me.”
Edwards has gained that recognition from the Green Army even though they have not been able to attend games this season due to Covid-19 restrictions and have had to watch via live streaming service iFollow.
He said: “It’s how good technology is these days isn’t it? They can still watch games or read reports and things like that.
“It has been different in terms of not having a crowd. Me personally, I have missed it massively.
“I think I play even better with a crowd behind you and that added push.
“It’s a different season to be voted (player-of-the-year) without seeing them there.
“We just hope they are back next season and it’s something they can really cherish, and we will do too.” When Edwards scored two late goals as Argyle came from behind to beat high-flying Lincoln City 4-3 at Home Park at the end of February a play-off push seemed possible. However, they picked up only eight points from their last 15 games of the season, winning only twice, as they ended the campaign in 18th, six points clear of the relegation zone.
Edwards said: “In most seasons there are ups and downs, but I think this season especially it has been a rollercoaster. It has been a mix of emotions.
“It has been tough at times and it has taken a lot of mental strength to get through a season where you haven’t had that camaraderie as much, being around the changing room, being around the fans.
“It has been a learning curve, and you have got the summer to sit back, reflect and move forward.
“It will be a season you won’t ever forget even though you probably at times would want to.
“We have achieved what we set out to do, to stay in this league, and from there we can move forward.”
Edwards added: “At times we have been brilliant this season and we have put on some really good runs, and you did fancy us to make a late push or be the underdogs coming through.
“Unfortunately it didn’t happen. There are many reasons for that. We have had a tough run with injuries and personnel, and not being able to stick to what we are very good at. So that has been tough but you have got to hold your hands up and say at times we haven’t been good enough.
“We know we need to work on that, we know we need to be better.
“No-one set out to finish just where we did but we did want to survive and be in League One.
“We had just been promoted. You see a couple of teams who came up with us have gone back down.
“It’s a learning year, it’s a year that we can put behind us now and really look forward to next season, and hopefully push a lot higher up.”