Recruiting for Now

ARGYLE manager Ryan Lowe insists his summer rebuild will focus on acquiring quality players, rather than just adding a plethora of new faces.

The manager believes there is already quality within the current crop of players, some of whom have yet to show their full potential.

“We’re not here just to say ‘we have to sign players’, we have some fantastic quality in the group, people who haven’t performed to the levels they know they probably can for the past year or two years,” said Ryan.

“We are going to give them a chance and make sure the games are coming thick and fast.”

In terms of additions, Ryan hopes others will follow in the footsteps of Joe Edwards, Danny Mayor and Will Aimson. One of them could be in the last line of defence and 22-year-old trialist goalkeeper Jordan Holmes will play some part in the upcoming friendlies against Truro, on Tuesday, and Plymouth Parkway, at the weekend.

“He [Holmes] will get a run out tomorrow and Saturday,” said the manager. “We don’t want to keep him too long if he’s not for us, but he’s fit and he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.

“It’s okay in training but we have got to take a look at him in games; we’ll get a good look at him tomorrow and Saturday. We don’t want to bring trialists in for the sake of it; they need to fit what we’re about.”

The manager was also realistic in terms of his recruitment strategy, feeling that it is wise to build for “right now”, as opposed to two or three years in the future.

He said: “Are we going to recruit a 16 year-old that we’re going to sell for £5m? I don’t think so. I don’t think the club has sold anyone in that region for years, so the recruitment is recruiting for now.

“We felt that, to help us challenge, we don’t want to recruit 15, 16, 17 year-olds, We want to be recruiting people to play first-team football.”

That task will be undertaken by Ryan and his backroom staff following the release of previous Head Scout Ian Roscrow.

Ryan said: “We have a lot of know-how in the league and a lot of contacts. We felt it was best that our recruitment came from in-house.

“We’ve been inundated with calls for players to come in on trial but the group is big enough at the moment. We have got some fantastic talent; some of the young lads are really shining for us, and we won’t bring in numbers for the sake of it.”