Plymouth Argyle must resist Hibs advances after Home Park redemption | OneFootball

The Spaniard has been a fundamental piece of the Argyle backline after being bombed out earlier in the campaign

If you told Plymouth Argyle fans that they would be pleading for Julio Pleguezuelo to stay at the club a matter of months ago, there is a good chance you would have been left out of Jannerville for good.

The Spaniard barely got a sniff of first-team action in the first part of the season, with Wayne Rooney opting for a centre-back pairing of Lewis Gibson and Kornel Szucs more often than not, with Brendan Galloway and Victor Palsson also preferred across the backline.

But as injuries, departures and the strains of the Championship season took their toll, the former Arsenal man has worked his way into contention to be a regular starter at Home Park of late, with the 1-0 victory over Brentford at the weekend the crowning moment in his season so far.

Alas, transfer obsessive Alan Nixon has claimed that Scottish Premiership side Hibernian are keen to take the 27-year-old off of Argyle’s hands this month, but at this moment in time, he needs to be kept in Devon at all costs.

Hibernian tagged with Julio Pleguezuelo interest after Plymouth Argyle form

A couple of cup fixtures aside, it took Pleguezuelo until October to play his first minutes in the Championship this season, as he came on for a stricken Joe Edwards with Argyle 3-0 down to Preston North End, before the Greens rallied to rescue a point in a 3-3 draw at Home Park.

In many ways, that 90 minutes could encapsulate the ex-FC Twente man’s season; having looked down at out as things started to get underway, before coming back to prominence the later into the campaign we go, with three successive outings to start the year proving his importance on this Argyle side of late.

While Rooney may not have always seen the talent he possessed, the latest coming out of Edinburgh proves that the centre-back has caught the eye with his performances, and with six months remaining on his current deal, there must be some fear that a move north of the border could be a tempting proposition at this moment in time.

While results haven’t always been positive for Argyle of late - with the Pilgrims heading into 2025 rooted to the bottom of the table - Pleguezuelo could never be doubted in terms of giving his all for the Greens, with a well-deserved first goal for the club earning a vital point in a 2-2 draw with Bristol City on New Year’s Day.

With new boss Miron Muslic at the helm, what the Devon outfit need now is stability from now until the end of the season, with all players buying into the Austrian’s philosophy, and working together to get the club out of the mess they currently find themselves in.

The stewardship of Kevin Nancekivell and Joe Edwards has proved that the Greens can be a sterner proposition at the back than they have been at the start of the season, and Pleguezuelo has been a prominent force in that, having played all 270 minutes of the caretaker duo’s time in charge, and helping the side claim two valuable draws in the league, as well as that priceless victory at the home of a Premier League outfit.

Lewis Gibson departure piles more responsibility onto Julio Pleguezuelo’s shoulders

With Gibson jumping ship for Preston for a reported £1.5 million fee earlier this month, Argyle can ill-afford to let another centre-back head out the exit door so soon, especially with Pleguezuelo building an understanding with his teammates after his lack of game time at the start of the campaign.

On recent form, the Spaniard deserves to be starting alongside Kornel Szucs and Brendan Galloway at the back on a regular basis, although whether the tried and tested three at the back will continue under the new boss remains to be seen.

The Pilgrims have looked infinitely sturdier at the back with the extra defender of late, something which served them so well in their promotion season from League One back in 22/23, and has underpinned a lot of their success in recent times, before being thrown out the window at the start of the season.

Alongside the considerable upturn in form for Matty Sorinola, the redemption arc of Pleguezuelo has been one of the tales of the season so far for Argyle, with the pair staking their claim to be regulars in the first-team for the rest of the campaign, and are stepping up to the plate when their side needs them the most.

With that in mind, the centre-back needs to continue playing for the green and white side in England, rather than their Scottish lookalikes, for the rest of the campaign, with the feel good factor continue to bubble under the surface at Home Park after a tough 12 months for all at the Theatre of Greens.