47-year-old flew to England for Plymouth Argyle talks – Was on verge of being club’s sporting director

Prior to their abrupt withdrawal from the agreement, Ola Larsson, a former technical director at IFK Göteborg, was in the running to become the new manager of Plymouth Argyle.

Expressen claims that the 47-year-old was among the last applicants for the position of sports director in Plymouth and had been in the race for the position himself.

According to them, Larsson has had a quite peaceful time since departing IFK Göteborg at the end of 2023.

Despite being involved in multiple hiring processes and having a few positions in the works, he has not been able to land any of them.

An example of this was Plymouth. He was one of the last applicants to be hired by the Championship team as their sports director.

The 47-year-old travelled to England and visited the club, where he participated in the last round of the hiring process, increasing the likelihood that he would be selected. Then, they were for someone else.

Nevertheless, Plymouth has not had a replacement since this candidate was also not appointed.

Miron Muslic, the manager, has even publicly voiced his concerns about this, asking why the team still lacks a recruitment manager and sports director in response to enquiries regarding his own future.

Despite Larsson travelling and being in the last stages of the process, Plymouth has now signed David Fox as Head of Football Operations and Tom Randel as Head of Recruitment, but the sporting director position is still open.

In other news:

Plymouth Argyle make their first big summer addition, Leicester City will not be happy

Position	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Diff	Points
20	Preston	46	10	20	16	48	59	-11	50
21	Hull City	46	12	13	21	44	54	-10	49
22	Luton	46	13	10	23	45	69	-24	49
23	Plymouth	46	11	13	22	51	88	-37	46
24	Cardiff	46	9	17	20	48	73	-25	44

After falling to the third division, there are concerns over Muslic’s future at Home Park. In response to a harsh board evaluation in April, efforts have been made to try and retain their manager this summer.

Nonetheless, Leicester City has suffered a setback, and there might be a sense of shock at King Power Stadium after losing a senior member to a team one division lower in the EFL.

Plymouth Argyle poach Leicester City loans manager in Home Park return

Two weeks after taking over as the Foxes’ loan manager, David Fox will soon be named the Devonshire team’s new head of football operations, according to BBC Sport.

After spending three years at Home Park, the 41-year-old former midfielder made 142 appearances for the team after joining from Crewe Alexandra when the Greens were in League Two. He concluded his playing career at Plymouth in 2019.

After only recently hiring Fox, Leicester now has to find a replacement after this dismal setback, while the Pilgrims are already displaying ambition by aiming to return to the Championship at the first attempt.

A new head of recruitment is the next problem Simon Hallett has after Jimmy Dickinson left for Bolton Wanderers, who are overseen by former Plymouth manager Steven Schumacher, so it’s not the only opening on the south coast that needs to be filled.

The addition of David Fox is a roll of the dice to keep Miron Muslic at the club

While trying to hold onto Muslic will be difficult for Argyle over the next four weeks, this is a positive start.

While teams like Bolton and Peterborough United will be strong once more, Plymouth has been predicted to be promoted, but that is not a given because those moving down to League One will also be fighting for the top two.

Therefore, keeping Muslic around will be crucial to success as losing him provides another challenge for the board to complete.

Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction for Plymouth Argyle, and if they are to compete in League One, then they need the right footballing people around the club to ensure that they do miss out on promotion.