Plymouth Argyle owner Simon Hallett urged to find new Pilgrims investor ASAP - "A lot of damage has been done" | OneFootball

Plymouth's owner has said that he'd be open to selling the League One strugglers, and FLW's fan pundit trusts him to do the right thing by the club.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

The 2025-26 season has been somewhat of a disaster so far for Plymouth Argyle.

Relegated from the Championship at the end of last season in second from bottom place, the Pilgrims hierarchy replaced the departing Miron Muslic with Tom Cleverley as manager during the summer, but Cleverley has been unable to get the Devon outfit challenging for promotion.

However, Argyle are struggling at the wrong end of the third tier of English football and while the pressure is now building on Cleverley manager, even though his job appears to be safe, it's also starting to get to the club's owner, Simon Hallett.

Hallett released a statement this week after a tense Fans Forum event confirming that he would be open to selling the club to the right party, though his preferred option would be a "phased process", in which a potential new owner first comes in as a minority shareholder and proves themselves as a careful custodian of the club.

Plymouth Argyle fan "faith" issued in Simon Hallett's attempts to change Pilgrims fortunes

Football League World 's Plymouth Argyle fan pundit, Luke Hodge, does not have doubts that Hallett wants to do the right thing by the club, but whether he'll be able to or not is a different matter.

"Do I have faith in him to make things better at Argyle? I have faith in him trying to make things better, but I'm not so sure it's going to go that well," Luke told FLW.

"I think a lot of damage has been done. He's been trying to put it right, but I think it's put us back a hell of a long way.

"But I do think he's the best person in charge until the right person comes along, and I do like the fact that he's talking about a phased process in which a new investor will come in as a minority shareholder so our values and vision are aligned and then takes a controlling stake. "

"Some people may think that's him just holding onto the club. They might be right. However, I just genuinely think that he doesn't want to throw the club into just anyone's hands and it could go pear-shaped very quickly.

"We could lose the club altogether. So I think he's being very careful in who he invests with and who takes on the club."

But ultimately, while Luke knows that mistakes have been made at Home Park, he does trust the current owner to do the right thing by the club.

"I've been very disappointed with the decisions made by him and Argyle over the last couple of years," Hodge added.

"However, I do trust him. I do think he has the club's best interests at heart. I hope he's looking for that investment, that it comes our way, and we can all move on."

It's been a disastrous twelve months for Plymouth Argyle - stability is needed ASAP

There's little question that something has gone very wrong at Plymouth Argyle over the last twelve months.

They slipped into the Championship relegation places this time last year and didn't get back out of them for the remainder of the season, ending up in 23rd place and with only Cardiff City below them.

That torment has continued into this season. With Tom Cleverley installed as manager they lost their first four games of the season, and although form did start to pick up in September, a run of one win in six has pushed them back into contention for what would be a second successive relegation.

The owner publicly backed Cleverley in his statement this week, saying that, "We have decided to back him and to support him."

He added that, "Changing Head Coach again would bring its own disruption and cost", although he did qualify that by saying that, "If we believed that making a change now would improve our chances of avoiding relegation, we would act."

Simon Hallett bought Plymouth Argyle in 2018 from James Brent, and Plymouth fans with longer memories will remember all-too-well that Brent bought the club out of administration, although his time in charge of the club was later described by Plymouth Live as being "as good an example as any in football that you cannot hope to please all of the people all of the time."

If Hallett continues to back Tom Cleverley, the pressure will continue to swell under him as well as the club's embattled manager. But Plymouth Argyle fans have good reason to believe that the owner genuinely cares about the club, and that even if he is to move away from it himself, he'll at least endeavour to do so in such a way that it ensures their longer-term wellbeing.