Lowe targets a top half finish for Argyle in 2022
Pilgrims boss ready for a big summer of recruitment after letting ten leave Home Park
RYAN Lowe wants to make sure Plymouth Argyle are better equipped so they can challenge for a place in the top half of League One next season.
The Pilgrims’ boss is about to begin a summer overhaul of his squad, with the club’s 2021 retained list announced on Monday.
Lowe will not only look to add more quality to the ranks at Home Park, he also wants the players to be fitter and stronger.
“We want to be up the top end challenging, and that’s certainly what we will be recruiting for,” said Lowe.
It was the Pilgrims’ sixth defeat in their last seven games and saw them finish in 18th position, six points clear of the relegation zone.
At times during the season it seemed possible that Argyle could make a challenge for the play-offs.
However, they had a six-match losing run in November and December, and picked up only eight points from their final 15 fixtures.
So it is set to a summer of change at Home Park, as Lowe immediately looked to the future after the defeat by Gillingham.
He said: “I have just thanked them (the players) all in there. Some will be with us next season, some won’t, and that’s football.
“What I will say is they have tried. Has it been a lack of quality and decision making at times? Possibly, yeah.
“But what I can say is they have tried their hardest for this football club, so I’m pleased.”
Argyle released ten players on Monday, while Gary Sawyer retired and Luke McCormick was offered an alternative role. A further five players were offered fresh terms by Argyle, while five loan signings will also be returning to their parent clubs, so there is plenty of scope for Lowe to carry out a major overhaul of his squad.
All of the out-of-contract players were told their fates by Lowe before the game against Gillingham.
Lowe said: “They all know. Well, we wouldn’t just put a retained list out without them knowing. You have got to do it properly.
“We have said our goodbyes and our thank yous. I have wished luck to the ones who are moving on, and the ones who are with us, the hard work starts now.
“I have told them we are going to form a squad that we feel is capable of challenging in and around the top half of the table.
“They have got to come back fitter, stronger and the mentality has got to be right because it gets tougher.
“That’s going to be the key next season, to make sure that we work as hard as we can and train the lads as hard as we can, and put the patterns of play into them to make sure that we are better equipped for a challenge of some sort next season.”
One of the out-of-contract Argyle is versatile midfielder/ left wingback Conor Grant, who was absent from the squad at Gillingham.
Grant, runner-up to Joe Edwards in the Plymouth Live/Herald 2020/21 Argyle player of the year poll, was ruled out by a calf injury he had picked up in training last Wednesday.
The speculation about new summer signings has already begun, with the Pilgrims being linked with Cambridge United striker Paul Mullin.
Mullin scored a club record 32 goals for the League Two runners-up in 45 starts and one substitute appearance this season, and is out of contract, so is likely to attract significant interest from clubs across the EFL.
National football journalist Alan Nixon tweeted: “Cambridge. Could lose goal machine Paul Mullin. Plymouth Argyle keen. Bristol Rovers too.”