Tom Cleverley handed Plymouth Argyle transfer blow as Leyton Orient twist emerges | OneFootball

Nathan Baxter is set to snub Plymouth in favour of a move to their League One rivals

One of Plymouth Argyle's main focuses this summer is to bring in a quality goalkeeper after their League One return highlighted a major weakness between the sticks.

The Pilgrims conceded 63 times last season, more than both Exeter City and Port Vale, who were both relegated, and at least five more than any of the sides who finished in the play-offs.

A lot of that was down to poor goalkeeping, with Conor Hazard's injury issues and a needless red card in the penultimate game of the campaign seeing him miss 17 league matches, and his deputy, Luca Ashby-Hammond, conceding 32 times in the games the Northern Irishman missed.

Both were released at the end of their contracts this summer, as was third choice Zak Baker, indicating a real changing of the guard in goal at Home Park this summer.

Wolves youngster James Storer arrived as the first 'keeper addition, and it was expected that he'd be playing back up to Watford shot-stopper Nathan Baxter, who was in advanced talks with the Pilgrims just yesterday.

But the 27-year-old has seemingly changed his mind, and Argyle boss Tom Cleverley will need to head back to the drawing board.

Nathan Baxter set for Leyton Orient in transfer u-turn

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In a turn of events, it seems that Baxter will instead be signing for Plymouth's League One rivals Leyton Orient, per Watford reporter Adam Drury, with the location of the O's being more optimal than the Devon-based side.

The 27-year-old expressed a desire to leave Vicarage Road this summer for regular game time, one year after arriving at the Championship club from Bolton Wanderers, where he was an established top third-tier goalkeeper.

The former Chelsea academy man kept 14 clean sheets for the Trotters en route to the 2024 play-off final, but would lose his place during the following campaign as Bolton fell out of play-off contention and underwent a transition from Ian Evatt to Steven Schumacher.

Baxter would have been a solid addition to the Plymouth side, bringing play-off experience in League One and is entering his peak years as a goalkeeper, too, but it doesn't seem like the Pilgrims are going to win the race.

Leyton Orient are set to benefit, as they look to put the disappointment of last season behind them, in which they followed up a play-off final defeat in 2024/25 by almost getting relegated in 2025/26.

O's boss Richie Wellens, who branded the campaign a waste of his time, had to play four different goalkeepers in league action last season, so will be looking to Baxter to add some stability in goal throughout the whole year, and it's seemed to come at Plymouth's expense.

Tom Cleverley will have to look elsewhere for a new starting goalkeeper this season

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Plymouth are going to be undergoing a real stressful summer in the transfer market, as they strive to keep their free-scoring frontmen, Lorent Tolaj and Bim Pepple, at Home Park, while also trying to upgrade the team elsewhere, too.

Ultimately, Argyle's main drawback is its location, and that can be off-putting to many prospective signings, as it seemingly has been for their number one goalkeeper target this summer.

Plymouth fans have urged online to put more effort into bringing players down to Devon and "give them the reasons to consider moving down," in response to Baxter snubbing them for a club closer to home, and that may be a smart decision.

Tom Cleverley can't afford to bring in any sub-par goalkeeper to start regularly for him this season, as it was some questionable goalkeeping which saw his side in the relegation zone early on in the campaign and subsequently fighting an uphill battle to get in the play-offs.

The Argyle boss will be hoping that the location is only an issue for Baxter, and the next goalkeeping target is keen to move down south to play for his side.