There has been turbulent times in Britain's Ocean City of late, with financial crises and poor form meaning two successive relegations, and the potential of a third.

It depends who you ask at Argyle as to whether they tell you if the club are on the way back up, or whether more dark times lay ahead.

However, one thing that is definite is that the club's fortunes on the pitch have picked up from when they finished 21st place in the fourth tier for two years in a row.

John Sheridan led them to a tenth place finish followed by seventh, in which they were comprehensively beaten by Wycombe Wanderers in the play-off semi-finals.

Derek Adams took over for the next season, and Argyle ended up leading the league for more days than anyone else before eventually falling away to fifth place. They made it to Wembley, but were beaten in the play-off final.

The ex-Ross County manager will now be looking to get them back up a division this season, as their stay in League Two has been too long.

Over the last five years, Plymouth have finished in 21st position twice, followed by tenth, seventh and fifth.

Here, FootballLeagueWorld writer Ryan Evans identifies the THREE key mistakes that the club have made in the last five years...

1) Not making better use of the club's youth setup

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It’s been an issue that’s annoyed many Argyle fans, and especially under the tenure of John Sheridan, that the club haven’t used the talented youngsters coming through the setup.

Tyler Harvey is a prime example.

He's someone who could have led the line for Argyle, but was shipped out to Bath City on loan after not being given any game time. He came back to the club for the final game of last season, and scored twice. His contract expired in the summer, and is now at Wrexham.

Ben Purrington has sat on the bench for the best part of three years, and now has been given two games in the first team and looks a player that deserves more than that.

These are just two of many players who have come through the Argyle youth system that haven’t been given an opportunity.

The club have had financial issues which has restricted the amount of players they have been able to bring in.

But rather than putting the budget they have into signing loan players, perhaps they should have invested in its own.

2) Awarding key first team players one year contracts

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Perhaps limited in this respect by their finances but, after Argyle’s impressive first half of the campaign last year, they found that there was a lot of interest in their players.

Curtis Nelson, Peter Hartley, Carl McHugh and Gregg Wylde are all players that were first team regulars in their side last season, who ended up leaving on a free because their contracts were one or two years long.

Yes, the club can’t afford to be offering massive contracts to every player on its books, but key players who are pivotal to the club’s fortunes should have been given a longer deal.

Argyle will get a development fee from Oxford United for the transfer of Nelson, but not from the others.

3) Not winning promotion to League One in the last two years

derek adamsdd

Whilst the club have started this season well and look like they might be challenging for promotion come the end of it, perhaps they will regret not crossing the line in the last two seasons.

It was always going to be tough in the 2014/15 campaign, when they narrowly snuck into seventh place, but last season they led the league table for more days than any other team, and still didn’t get automatic promotion.

When it came to the play-offs, they lost out to AFC Wimbledon in the final.

Taking a look at teams that come close to promotion but then fail, it doesn’t look good.

Wycombe lost out in the final of 2014/15, then ended up finishing in 13th place the next season and are currently sat in 22nd place in this time round.

York City lost out in the 2013/14 play-off semi-finals, and were relegated from the Football League two years later.

Torquay United finished in fifth place in 2011/12, and were also relegated two years down the line.

However, there is still hope, as Burton Albion lost out in the League Two play-off semi-finals in 2012/13, and again in the final the next season, before winning the league in 2014/15, and winning promotion into the Championship the year after.

Plymouth fans... what do you think? Are these the three biggest mistakes from the last five years? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!