Plymouth Argyle boss Steven Schumacher has clarified that he and Ryan Lowe are still ‘best mates’ despite the move to Preston North End.
Lowe left Plymouth last week in order to take the Preston job, mere hours after Frankie McAvoy’s departure.
The move sparked anger amongst Plymouth fans, who can’t believe that Lowe has left Home Park for Deepdale.
Argyle fans may not be happy with Lowe, but it seems the relationship between Lowe and his former assistant Schumacher is still strong.
Some though Schumacher would head to Preston to assist Lowe again, just as he did at Bury and Plymouth.
Instead, Schumacher took over as Plymouth boss, leaving Lowe to appoint Mike Marsh as his assistant.
Some have wondered whether the parting of the ways would lead to a rift; a la Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.
However, Schumacher has now indicated that is not the case, and he and Lowe are still best mates.
Schumacher even talked up the idea of signing Preston players or training at North End’s Euxton training base when Argyle are up north.
Schumacher noted that he and Lowe will still need to help each other as manager and as friends, playing down any notion of a feud.
“If Ryan’s got any players that we could use to help Argyle, then yeah, obviously,” said Schumacher. “Ryan will experience now what it’s like to work in the Championship and obviously feed that back to me, what he’s experiencing, the places he’s going, so I will be foolish – I believe – not to ask for help or advice. Also, he’s sat in this chair so he’s gonna help me throughout my managerial career hopefully. If we can borrow his training ground every now and again then I’m sure he will do that as well.”
“We’re mates, we’re still mates. It’s football, it does happen. I’m going to need his help, and I’m sure he’ll pick up the phone to me every now and again if it’s not going so well and say ‘what about this?’ – even if it’s to go for a drink and not talk about football, that would be great as well,” he added.