History and Development

A good youth policy is the lifeblood of all football clubs, providing a steady flow of players for the future as well as giving a great many youngsters an understanding of the game and healthy training.

Under Tony Waiters in the 1970's, Plymouth Argyle had one of the best youth policies in England and a first class hostel at Elm Cottage, where young footballers were housed.

The Vice Presidents Club provided much of the money for the scheme and, for several years, a steady stream of good players came through the ranks and into the first team, including Martin Hodge, Gary Megson, Leigh Cooper, John Uzzell, Dave Phillips, Chris Harrison and Kevin Hodges.

The football club owned Elm Cottage and when times got bad, it was sold to raise cash and the youth policy went into decline.

When Neil Warnock arrived with Mick Jones and Kevin Blackwell in 1995, the youth scheme was down to just fifteen boys at the Centre of Excellence, who trained at Marjons College once a week.

Supporters including Trevor Heayns, Chris Higgins and the late Tony Scowcroft set about persuading the supporters groups to work together to finance a new youth scheme which would have the benefit of Neil Warnock, Mick Jones and Kevin Blackwell working in their own time and without pay.

Letters of invitation were sent to all the supporters’ organisations asking for delegates to be sent to the meetings of a steering committee and the vast majority immediately wholeheartedly threw their weight behind the idea. Negotiations with Dan McCauley allowed the youth programme for youngsters under 16 years old to be transferred from Argyle to be run as a self-funding and self-regulating operation with the handover taking place at half time during the game with Exeter City on 1 January 1996.

PAYD immediately took over the running of Plymouth Centre of Excellence and subsequently took over the F.A. run Centre of Excellence at Bodmin as well, although these were returned to the club's control in the summer of 2005.

In the summer of 2007, Plymouth Argyle made the decision to rehouse the Youth players who needed local accommodation. Consequently, there was no longer a need for the Trust to continue to run the Argyle Hostel, the premises in Sutherland Road that had been their home for several years. As a result, the Trust has now sold the Argyle Hostel and is now in a position to grant funds to organisations with aims that are in line with the Trust's Constitution, which is simply defined as "to provide and assist in the provision of facilities for recreation and other leisure time occupation for the benefit of young persons under 18 and resident in the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset and in particular, to provide education and training in the skills and techniques in football, so that due attention is given to the education and development of such persons".