Plymouth Argyle facing big decision on club legend – Home Park exit now feels right | OneFootball

Plymouth Argyle should make the difficult decision to not renew the contract of Joe Edwards next summer.

The dust has very much settled on the 2025 summer transfer window, and yet most clubs will now be looking ahead to next summer, forward-planning.

That is something Plymouth Argyle must do, and it may involve a difficult decision.

The Pilgrims were relegated from the Championship last season and now, under the management of former Watford boss Tom Cleverley, are looking to turnaround a woeful start to the campaign to ensure they put themselves into a position of contenders for promotion from League One.

Plymouth have experienced a lot of change over recent years with the squad that came down last season being almost overhauled, let alone the Argyle squad that initially gained promotion to the second-tier by winning the 2022/23 League One title.

One man that was, though, fundamental to that success under Steven Schumacher, and remained a key player throughout their time in the second-tier and even at the start of this season, is Joe Edwards.

Edwards has been a fantastic servant for the club and the type of player that many in the EFL would be envious of Plymouth for having, but the time does now appear be right that his exit is nearing.

Plymouth Argyle should make tough Joe Edwards decision

34-year-old Joe Edwards joined Plymouth from Walsall back in the summer of 2019, and he has gone on to make close to 250 appearances for the Devon-based outfit, even acting as a player-coach for a spell during the 2024/25 season.

Edwards, an excellent central midfielder for the vast majority of his career, has played in that role for Argyle, but has probably had more success as a wing-back for the Greens, particularly under Schumacher.

His quality was perhaps questioned and was in doubt at Championship level in the last couple of years, but Cleverley has sought to reignite his Argyle career back at on the right side of the defensive line.

Whilst Edwards is again putting in solid displays for Plymouth, there must now be a slight concern that is ceiling is much lower than it once was, and a player on that trajectory is never necessarily a major benefit to the club in the medium-to-long-term.

As he comes to the end of his contract, which is up in the summer of 2026, Plymouth will already be planning ahead and likely the emotional but correct decision to not renew that deal.

Plymouth must continue to evolve - that may mean moving on from Edwards

In recent years, since the departure of Schumacher, Plymouth have had to churn through managers and, as a result, also churn through a lot of their squad.

A lot of the players that signed for the club due to them being in the Championship have now departed and the overwhelming sense of fairly damaging short-termism is what has led to such a slow start to this season due to the mish-mash of a squad.

Whilst Edwards, in one sense, can represent a longer-term vision and goal, embodying the value of the club from a previous era, the fact that a 34-year-old is being relied upon having been previously out of the squad for large parts of the last 12 months isn’t the most progressive approach in terms of squad construction.

Plymouth’s versatile Colchester-born number eight has been a brilliant servant to the club and helped them scale heights they haven’t for a very, very long time.

However, with Cleverley seeking to put his own marker down eventually at Home Park, the summer of 2026 does appear to be the natural jumping off point for Edwards as an Argyle player.

Cleverley is going to want to install a high-energy approach at Home Park, particularly whilst the club are in League One, as they look to take games to their opposition in what they still hope will be a promotion-winning campaign.

As such, Edwards may simply no longer have the stamina and energy to be a viable starting option for Argyle, and the last thing Plymouth fans will want to see is their hugely popular and excellent servant struggling.

Therefore, this season feels like the right time for Edwards to call time on his Plymouth career, and he'll be hoping that if this is to be his final campaign at Home Park, then despite their early season struggles, he can still go out on a promotion high.