Danny Salman: Your table position is a reflection of your quality

I PLAYED more than 500 matches in my football career and an important fact I have learned is that you get what you deserve out of the game.

Yes, there were times when I cursed our collective luck, knowing fine well that we deserved more from the match but didn't get it.

Then on the flip-side there were games in which I knew the team came away with a point or win they didn't deserve.

Overall, though, I came to realise the truism of the old football adage, that the table doesn't lie and where you are in the standings is an accurate reflection of your quality.

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So, for Plymouth Argyle manager Carl Fletcher to state that his club aren't getting the rub of the green, while also insisting he is not going to make excuses for their poor run of form is not only contradictory but also simply unrealistic.

Argyle are now in the fifth year of battling away at the wrong end of whichever league they happen to have found themselves in.

During that period we've gone from the giddy heights of the Championship to the verge of financial extinction and the dreadful prospect of non-league football.

Big thanks, naturally, to owner James Brent for rescuing Argyle from administration just over a year ago. Without his efforts, I shudder to think where the club would be now.

On the pitch, though, we're still at the wrong end of the League Two table and on a run of one point from a possible 21.

It's not exactly a shining example of success, is it?

And now I read in The Herald that Mr Brent and his board are set to appoint a director of football to help Fletcher and his coaching staff turn around Argyle's fortunes.

That's a workable plan if you're in the Premier League and dealing with multi-million pound deals, but in League Two, I don't think so.

The role would be a waste of valuable resources in my view.

I'm sorry, as we all want Carl and the team to progress and do well: we're all in this together.

But the fact of the matter is – Argyle, like a broken record, are stuck pretty much in the place they were this time last year.

Like Groundhog Day, the same deficiencies, mistakes, call them what you will, which cost us points in 2011/12, are being repeated this season.

Argyle are leaking far too many goals, while not scoring either and you don't have to be a football expert to reason that scenario is not a good recipe for success.

Far from it.

So, will a director of football help arrest that situation? I'm doubtful. Argyle have three coaches now – Fletcher, Romain Larrieu and Kevin Nancekivell – all trying their hardest to put the club back on a winning run.

That must come first, not a re-building programme.

I'm a firm believer that building a successful football team is more of a necessity than re-developing the grandstand and surrounding area.

First and foremost, football fans wherever they live aren't going to turn up in big numbers and watch a team that is unsuccessful.

That is the reality at Home Park – the performances and results have not been good enough – not bad luck.