F****** hell, what a load of s***. Plymouth Argyle's owner Simon Hallett has spilled the beans on why their manager Miron Muslic fuck** off to Schalke in an open letter to fans.
Muslic takes the p***
Their coach has legged it to the 2. Bundesliga club and the details from Hallett have left supporters fuck***g livid.
Muslic's a mug
According to the owner, Muslic, who rocked up in January to take over from Wayne Rooney, said he was never gonna come back to the club, even though the German side needed permission to chat with him.
Plymouth shafted
This forced Plymouth to let Muslic p*** off but at a lower compensation fee than they wanted as they try to get ready for the 2025/26 League One season, after getting relegated from the Championship.
Investor news is s***
The letter, which fans have praised for its transparency, also says that news about an investor in the club is unlikely to happen soon as the deal is stuck due to a lack of key info.
Hallett promises cash
Hallett, though, has promised dosh for the team as they look to become a 'sustainable Championship club'.
The letter reads:
"Dear Green Army, I'm sorry I didn't write earlier after relegation was confirmed, earlier this month.
"Jane and I had personal s*** to deal with in the US that made us cut short our visit to the UK, and we've been sorting it out for a few weeks. Thanks to those who sent best wishes, and all is ok now. We're planning to come back to the UK later this summer.
"We're fuck***g gutted at Miron Muslic's exit – not at him joining a club like Schalke, but the timing and the way he fuck** off.
"We hired Miron in January, giving him a three-and-a-half-year contract. After he joined, we also hired the staff he wanted, in an assistant head coach, head of elite performance, performance analysis and, a bit later, a set-piece coach. A recruitment team was in place for the season, helped by us getting Stuart Webber, a very experienced and well-regarded Sporting Director, to help with the post-season rebuild of our squad, along with Tom Randle, who has since joined us full-time as Head of Recruitment.
"After the season ended, and with rumours flying that Miron was attracting interest from other clubs, I called him myself and he told me that he was 100% committed to Argyle. So, Miron kept taking part in all recruitment meetings and was involved with interviewing and recruiting players until just last week. His colleagues had no idea he wanted to fuck off.
Hallett and Muslic's relationship turns to s***
"Last Saturday, Miron told the club that he wanted to speak with Schalke about joining them. Under his contract, a club wanting to speak with him needs Argyle's permission first. We didn't want to give permission, but Miron told us that under no circumstances was he going to come back to Plymouth. So, we reluctantly gave the necessary permission.
"By making it clear he was never coming back, Miron gave us no choice but to move on. We could have insisted on the full compensation and gone to court to enforce his contract but wouldn't have had his services as head coach, and progress on recruiting a replacement would have been blocked.
"Rather than get stuck in a long, disruptive process we settled for an amount of compensation that, while below the contracted sum, is a strong financial outcome for a League One head coach, letting us move on positively.
Investment deal is fuck**
"As you know, we've been in talks with a possible new investor in our club for over a year. Those talks led to an application for approval of that investment being lodged with the EFL in February.
"Unfortunately, negotiations have taken too long and the key information that both we and the EFL needed to complete the deal has not been provided. I don't believe that news of the new investor is imminent anymore.
Current shareholders will front the cash
"So, existing shareholders (me, Argyle Green and the Holliday family) will provide the funds to make sure we stay on track with our plans. This means making funds available to ensure we have a competitive football budget to aim to get us back to the Championship as soon as possible, as well as continued investment in Foulston Park. Our budget next season will be twice what we had the last time we were in League One.
"These extra funds are the same level of financial support that was written into the investor plan for year one.
"I completely get that this will be very frustrating for fans, as it is extremely frustrating for me and the rest of the Argyle Board. I've always said that my resources can make us a sustainable Championship club, but if we want to aim higher we would need new investment. I can provide some of that new investment, with the Holliday family's and Argyle Green's help, but not all.
"While progress towards a transaction in its current form looks to have stalled, we will keep looking at other options, including being open to revised terms with other investment groups.
"It's important that we get the right investor, not the quickest investor, and this may take some time. We are committed to this, but in the meantime, current shareholders can (and will) support the club through its next stage of development.
"This current situation is disappointing, obviously, but honesty and transparency are important to us. It's been a long, slow process, but one we thought would come to a successful conclusion. It hasn't, but we're still in a very strong financial position.
Argyle's long-term strategy
"Over the past five or six years, we've set out a clear path to achieving success at Argyle. In that time, we went from League Two to the Championship, where we spent two seasons, before getting relegated. Our mission has been, and still is, to be a sustainable and competitive Championship club, but some of the decisions we've made in the last two seasons haven't worked as we'd hoped.
"Those decisions obviously contributed to our relegation, but were decisions made by the entire board, and it's entirely unfair to blame any individuals. Unfortunately, in sport, as in life, decisions made don't always work out. We're sorry and will do everything we can to put it right.
"Argyle's long-term strategy is set by the board and executed by Andrew Parkinson, our CEO
