'I’m not naive' - Tom Cleverley warned off leaving Preston North End for Plymouth Argyle | OneFootball

FLW's Plymouth Fan Pundit is confident Tom Cleverley will turn down a move to Preston North End if they do come knocking.

Tom Cleverley is beginning to make things tick at Plymouth Argyle and he been warned off moving away from Home Park to take on the Preston North End job.

Having replaced Miron Muslic last summer following Plymouth’s relegation from the Championship, former Watford boss Tom Cleverley endured a difficult start to life in Devon.

Fighting a relegation battle up until the New Year, Plymouth turned things around by collecting over two points per game in the second half of the season and launching themselves towards the play-off places.

Eventually finishing eighth, The Pilgrims again appear to be a very strong side once again despite the departure of top scorer Lorent Tolaj to Bristol City in the summer transfer window.

After coming from behind to win 4-2 at Bloomfield Road against Blackpool at the weekend, Plymouth now find themselves sitting third in the table with four wins and a draw from their opening seven matches in League One.

Confidence that Tom Cleverley stays at Plymouth amid Preston links

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The end to last season and start to this has begun to mean that Tom Cleverley is among the higher-rated managers in Leagues One and Two, and that has led to suggestions he is on the shortlist to replace Paul Heckingbottom at Preston.

Preston have won just one of their opening eight matches in the Championship and appear to be in a bit of a mess after giving up a 2-0 lead against ten-man Queens Park Rangers at the weekend.

For reasons of Preston’s issues as well as the strong position that Argyle are now in, FLW’s Plymouth Fan Pundit Luke Hodge is confident Cleverley will not prematurely depart.

“I don’t see Tom Cleverley taking the Preston job even if they do come knocking.

“I know that may leave me with a bit of egg on my face because there is often precious little loyalty when the phone rings.

“I’m not naive about that but I just don’t think this is one for him right now.

“He’s happy at Argyle right now, properly happy. That matters more than people sometimes give it credit for.

“We stuck by him last November when a lot of other clubs would have pulled the trigger. We were sat at the bottom of League One, results weren’t coming and it would have been the easy, popular thing to do.

“The club didn’t – they gave him time and that is what he likes: stability.

“The chance to properly implement his ideas, his structure, his philosophy; not just fire fight for six weeks and hope something sticks.

“You are seeing that come to fruit now.

“Third in the table after seven games, three wins on the spin, coming from behind at Blackpool with real character and then seeing the game out properly – that’s not an accident.

“That’s a group that are properly starting to believe in what he’s building.

“He said himself after the weekend that the mentality has got longevity. That’s a manager talking about a project that is landing, not one that is looking for the exit.

“I don’t think he’s desperate to get back up north just for the sake of it. Yes, he is from that part of the world and in football terms, a Championship job will always have a pull.

“If the right job came along, he’d consider it – he’d be mad not to.

“Preston, at this very moment, are a club that are six games into a slump looking for a quick fix after sacking the last man. That doesn’t feel like the natural next step when you’ve finally got your own side playing with some identity and sitting in the top three.

“Right now, I think he has his eyes firmly set on an Argyle promotion push back to the Championship. Get that done and it looks excellent on his CV.

“Working away mid-project with the thing actually starting to work go and inherit someone else’s mess up the ladder doesn’t feel like him to me.

“I’d back him to stay at Home Park. Not because football is loyal, it isn’t, but because the timing, the project and the way in which the team are responding all point the same way.

“He’s got unfinished business here and, for the first time since he walked through the door, you can actually see what that business looks like.”

Tom Cleverley should look at Steven Schumacher and Ryan Lowe examples

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Having led Plymouth to automatic promotion from League Two in the 2019-20 season, Ryan Lowe then earned Argyle a mid-table finish the following campaign in League One.

In December 2021, though, Lowe left Plymouth for Championship side Preston, ironically, after a three-match losing streak but that losing streak only saw them sink to fourth in the table, having previously been the pace setters.

At Preston, Lowe experienced a middling time of it before stagnation saw him eventually sacked. He moved to Wigan Athletic and endured another difficult spell and now finds himself without a club.

Steven Schumacher took over from Lowe and led Plymouth to a 100+ point season in his first full campaign at Home Park, delivering Championship promotion.

Then, again in December of the following campaign, Schumacher departed for a Stoke City side whereby plenty of managers have come and very much gone in the last few years – and Schumacher was one of them, lasting just nine months in Staffordshire.

On more stable footing, Schumacher has got himself back in the second-tier with Bolton Wanderers and that stability is something Cleverley should desire, and the former Watford boss should be wary of what has happened to Lowe and Schumacher immediately after leaving Plymouth.