Plymouth Argyle saw manager Miron Muslic join Schalke 04 just weeks after their relegation and the side are still looking for a replacement
16:30, 10 Jun 2025
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The search for Plymouth Argyle's new manager continues after the surprise exit of Miron Muslic to Schalke 04 following the club's relegation from the Championship. The Austrian replaced Wayne Rooney in January but despite a near 40% win percentage - which is better than Millwall, Bristol City and West Brom's winning return over the season - the Greens were relegated on the last day of the season.
Whoever takes over at Home Park will be expected to put in a serious push for promotion with play-offs expected to be an absolute minimum if we base on the bookies expectations for the club. Judging by the market, the candidates include two former England internationals, a current Premier League coach and a free agent who secured promotion in their last job so plenty for the board to consider to succeed at Devon-based club.
Argyle, who return to League One after a few years in the Championship are currently best priced at 11/4 to secure promotion with William Hill and Midnite with fellow relegated sides Luton Town (11/10) and Cardiff City (9/4) slightly better priced to immediately return to the second tier of English football. The Pilgrims are also priced at 5/2 with bet365 and 9/4 with Sky Bet to secure promotion but with only two automatic promotion spots available, they might have a challenge given the talent before them in the League.
Bolton Wanderers, Stockport County and Huddersfield Town are all tipped to put up a fight for promotion and at this level we have seen some teams produce brilliant results from out of nowhere - case and point Plymouth the last time they were in this division.
Let's have a look at the candidates
The candidates
Brian Barry-Murphy
The bookies favourite is Brian Barry-Murphy who currently works for Championship-bound Leicester City as a first-team coach who is currently Evens with BetVictor. The Irishman has not had a lot of managerial experience with his one and only major role at Rochdale which he resigned from in June 2021.
The former Bury midfielder then joined Manchester City as part of the coaching staff over there and was the lead coach of their Elite Development Squad - succeeding now-Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca after the Italian left to join Serie B side Parma - where he lead the side to successive Premier League 2 titles before leaving the role in the summer 2024.
After a brief spell away from the game, Barry-Murphy joined Leicester City to work as part of Ruud van Nistelrooy's coaching staff from December last year.
The 46-year-old ex-Sheffield Wednesday player is no stranger to links to jobs in England either having previously been linked to the Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town's jobs in recent months too.
Tom Cleverley
Former Man United and Everton midfielder Tom Cleverley has also been linked to the job and is priced at 2/1 with BetVictor to succeed Muslic. The 35-year-old, who enjoyed the majority of his playing career at Watford for six years up until 2023 before becoming manager the following year, is currently a free agent after he sacked by the Vicarage Road club.
Cleverley, who had loan spells at Aston Villa, Leicester City and Wigan Athletic, took over from Valerien Ismael as interim head coach before he given the job permanently a month later after losing just once in his opening seven matches as Hornets boss. However, he was sacked after his first full season in charge after missing out on the Championship play-offs.
Des Buckingham
One manager who has experience of securing promotion to the Championship is Des Buckingham. The 40-year-old coach previously led his hometown club Oxford United to the Championship for the first time since 1999 after winning the League One play-offs in the 2023/24 season.
Despite his instant impact at the club and a reasonable start to life in the second tier of English football last season, Buckingham was sacked with the club 20th in the league in December last year following a run of poor results - a move by the board that did not resonate with the fans who were disappointed by the announcement.
Jack Wilshere
Another former England international in the mix is Jack Wilshere who finished last season as interim head coach of Norwich City with two games remaining before Liam Manning took on the permanent role.
The former Arsenal midfielder did not hesitate to jump into coaching when he retired back in July 2022 after an injury-hit career by becoming the new head coach of Arsenal U18s just four days later. In his first season in the job, he led the club to their FA Youth Cup final which they lost to West Ham 5-1 at the Emirates Stadium.
He then joined the Canaries in October last year as a first-team coach working under Johannes Hoff Thorup before his interim role following the Danish coach's sacking along with assistant manager Glen Riddersholm.
Next Plymouth Argyle Manager odds
- Brian Barry-Murphy - Evens
- Tom Cleverley - 2/1
- Des Buckingham - 9/3
- Jack Wilshere - 6/1
- Ian Evatt - 14/1
- Stephen Robinson - 14/1
- BAR - 20/1
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