From here to where?
I was going to start this post with an amusing story about Saturday evening; about the Liverpool girls on a hen night in Pompey; about the pint of 7% ale that did funny things to my head. I was going to reflect on the Pompey fans interviewed on Match of the Day 2 last night, who referred to Harry Redknapp as "Jamie's Dad" rather than use his name. Laughing in the face of adversity seemed the right response.
However, as the dust settles on Tony's dismissal, reality really is hitting home about the mess Portsmouth Football Club are in. Even Newcastle fans are mocking us. THAT is how bad things are. So how did we get to this low point, and how do we move forward?
According to the 2001 census, Portsmouth is England's 11th largest urban conurbation, its 22nd largest town or city, and the most densely populated city outside of London. Taking this into account, I think it is fair to say that the area is big enough to sustain a Premiership football club. People often criticise teams like Blackburn or Wigan for taking the places in the top flight of larger towns/cities like Sheffield, Derby or Leeds. However, such criticisms of Portsmouth would be unfair.
The problem is that a Premier League club needs Premier League facilities. It needs an attractive training ground. It needs a stadium with a capacity that can sustain the wages of star players. It needs a youth system that can nurture talent. Without a doubt, in my mind the architects of our current plight are Sasha, Peter Storrie, and Harry Redknapp. Between them they ignored the need for this off-the-field infrastructure, and focussed on short-term success.
I am not suggesting that by building a new ground, all our problems would be solved - we only need to look 20 miles down the road to see this isn't always the case. What I am saying is that the money we have spent on players, more in terms of their wages than their initial fees, would have been better invested in matters off the field. Our tiny ground just can't sustain the money that our players are on.
It's easy to point at Redknapp, blame him for bringing in star names and then moving on when the going got tough. I've been guilty of that myself. But while he may have thrown his toys out of the pram and demanded money for transfers, it was Storrie doing the deals and Sasha signing the cheques. PFC have been living beyond their means for some time; the success we've had was bought on credit. Of course, it's all worked out just as Harry wanted it: he won silverware on someone else’s money, and in the process put himself in the shop window for a move to a bigger club.
Ultimately, Tony Adams has been the fall guy for the mis-management at the club. In his short time at the helm he made some poor selection/formation/substitution choices. But he was on a hiding to nothing from the start, expected to pick up a team of players gutted that the man who had brought them to the club had left. And he had to do this with his best players being sold from underneath him, and little money being made available to bring in replacements. I can't imagine anyone else doing any better in the circumstances.
And let's not forget the part the team on the pitch has played in all of this. We've lost 12 out of 24 games this term, and Adams wasn't in charge for all of them. Towards the end of last season we lost our way in the league, with a succession of defeats. Winning the FA Cup was a massive achievement, but the victory masked a poor run of form which should have served as a warning that things weren't right at Fratton Park. Arguably, we won the FA Cup at Old Trafford and perhaps deserved it on the back of that outstanding performance. But for me the way we limped our way to Wembley took some of the shine off of the achievement: the Swansea game this year mirrored those tepid showings against Plymouth, Ipswich, Preston, West Brom and Cardiff. We rode our luck big time, really, and this year against Swansea we got found out.
In recent games, certain players who have a LOT to say for themselves off the pitch haven't walked-the-walk on it. You can point the finger at the manager for selection, formation and substitutions; but no coach can account for the kind of schoolboy errors that our players have been guilty of all season. If there is one overarching theme, it's lack of concentration - throwing points away in the final minutes of matches. There have been exceptions, of course. David Nugent at last discovering his shooting boots in recent games has almost brought a tear to my eye. And the passion in the Herminator's face as he headed past Reina on Saturday can almost make you believe everything will be OK.
So, that's how we got here: lack of investment off the pitch; over investment on it; and not enough commitment or accountability from the players on the pitch. So... where do we go from here?
The owner's primary concern is to protect his investment. He knows that a Premiership Club is more saleable than a Championship one. He clearly believes that getting rid of Tony, and getting a new manager in, will help us stay up, and help him sell the club. I hope he's right. I hope he sells us to someone that can afford to deliver a new stadium. Without a bigger ground, our revenue stream is forever going to be limited.
If Sasha can't sell us, or he sells to someone who can't deliver a new ground, then we need a clear out of players on massive wages. We need to be a bit more humble, and live within our means. I want to be in the Premiership, I really do, but only if we have a team of players who are up for the fight and want to play for Pompey. I don't want to be typing the same post on this blog in a couple of years time about another false dawn on the South Coast, or about how we have to sell our best players because the wage bill is too high. I want a bit of stability. Most of all, I want to watch a team that wants to play for each other, the manager and the fans.
Who should come in as manager? Some are calling the job a poisoned chalice, but surely whoever takes over is in a win/win situation. They keep us up, they are a hero. We go down, and who can blame them given the circumstances? Avram Grant is the obvious, early frontrunner. I wouldn't be overjoyed at the appointment. Sure, he did well under difficult circumstances at Chelsea, but how much of this was down to Steve Clark? And has he got the relevant experience of winning a relegation battle?
Some favour Curbishley, but would the rebels in the dressing room respect him? In terms of other names that are being linked, all the usual suspects are in the mix. A lot of Pompey fans are calling for Bilic but that's surely a dead end: if he turned down West Ham, he's not going to come to us. One cheeky bookie has given odds of 100/1 for Jamie Redknapp...
It does make me laugh that when a vacancy comes up, every name under the sun gets thrown around about. There is a vast, gaping chasm of difference in terms of quality between the likes Eriksson or Bilic, and the likes of Roeder and Jewell. In no other walk of life would you talk about people of such differing ability/status/experience going for the same job. It's like suggesting Bill Gates will be joining the queue for a cashier’s job at PC World!
Hark at me though, eh? Turning my nose up at the mention of certain names. What's that saying about beggars being fussy?
However, as the dust settles on Tony's dismissal, reality really is hitting home about the mess Portsmouth Football Club are in. Even Newcastle fans are mocking us. THAT is how bad things are. So how did we get to this low point, and how do we move forward?
According to the 2001 census, Portsmouth is England's 11th largest urban conurbation, its 22nd largest town or city, and the most densely populated city outside of London. Taking this into account, I think it is fair to say that the area is big enough to sustain a Premiership football club. People often criticise teams like Blackburn or Wigan for taking the places in the top flight of larger towns/cities like Sheffield, Derby or Leeds. However, such criticisms of Portsmouth would be unfair.
The problem is that a Premier League club needs Premier League facilities. It needs an attractive training ground. It needs a stadium with a capacity that can sustain the wages of star players. It needs a youth system that can nurture talent. Without a doubt, in my mind the architects of our current plight are Sasha, Peter Storrie, and Harry Redknapp. Between them they ignored the need for this off-the-field infrastructure, and focussed on short-term success.
I am not suggesting that by building a new ground, all our problems would be solved - we only need to look 20 miles down the road to see this isn't always the case. What I am saying is that the money we have spent on players, more in terms of their wages than their initial fees, would have been better invested in matters off the field. Our tiny ground just can't sustain the money that our players are on.
It's easy to point at Redknapp, blame him for bringing in star names and then moving on when the going got tough. I've been guilty of that myself. But while he may have thrown his toys out of the pram and demanded money for transfers, it was Storrie doing the deals and Sasha signing the cheques. PFC have been living beyond their means for some time; the success we've had was bought on credit. Of course, it's all worked out just as Harry wanted it: he won silverware on someone else’s money, and in the process put himself in the shop window for a move to a bigger club.
Ultimately, Tony Adams has been the fall guy for the mis-management at the club. In his short time at the helm he made some poor selection/formation/substitution choices. But he was on a hiding to nothing from the start, expected to pick up a team of players gutted that the man who had brought them to the club had left. And he had to do this with his best players being sold from underneath him, and little money being made available to bring in replacements. I can't imagine anyone else doing any better in the circumstances.
And let's not forget the part the team on the pitch has played in all of this. We've lost 12 out of 24 games this term, and Adams wasn't in charge for all of them. Towards the end of last season we lost our way in the league, with a succession of defeats. Winning the FA Cup was a massive achievement, but the victory masked a poor run of form which should have served as a warning that things weren't right at Fratton Park. Arguably, we won the FA Cup at Old Trafford and perhaps deserved it on the back of that outstanding performance. But for me the way we limped our way to Wembley took some of the shine off of the achievement: the Swansea game this year mirrored those tepid showings against Plymouth, Ipswich, Preston, West Brom and Cardiff. We rode our luck big time, really, and this year against Swansea we got found out.
In recent games, certain players who have a LOT to say for themselves off the pitch haven't walked-the-walk on it. You can point the finger at the manager for selection, formation and substitutions; but no coach can account for the kind of schoolboy errors that our players have been guilty of all season. If there is one overarching theme, it's lack of concentration - throwing points away in the final minutes of matches. There have been exceptions, of course. David Nugent at last discovering his shooting boots in recent games has almost brought a tear to my eye. And the passion in the Herminator's face as he headed past Reina on Saturday can almost make you believe everything will be OK.
So, that's how we got here: lack of investment off the pitch; over investment on it; and not enough commitment or accountability from the players on the pitch. So... where do we go from here?
The owner's primary concern is to protect his investment. He knows that a Premiership Club is more saleable than a Championship one. He clearly believes that getting rid of Tony, and getting a new manager in, will help us stay up, and help him sell the club. I hope he's right. I hope he sells us to someone that can afford to deliver a new stadium. Without a bigger ground, our revenue stream is forever going to be limited.
If Sasha can't sell us, or he sells to someone who can't deliver a new ground, then we need a clear out of players on massive wages. We need to be a bit more humble, and live within our means. I want to be in the Premiership, I really do, but only if we have a team of players who are up for the fight and want to play for Pompey. I don't want to be typing the same post on this blog in a couple of years time about another false dawn on the South Coast, or about how we have to sell our best players because the wage bill is too high. I want a bit of stability. Most of all, I want to watch a team that wants to play for each other, the manager and the fans.
Who should come in as manager? Some are calling the job a poisoned chalice, but surely whoever takes over is in a win/win situation. They keep us up, they are a hero. We go down, and who can blame them given the circumstances? Avram Grant is the obvious, early frontrunner. I wouldn't be overjoyed at the appointment. Sure, he did well under difficult circumstances at Chelsea, but how much of this was down to Steve Clark? And has he got the relevant experience of winning a relegation battle?
Some favour Curbishley, but would the rebels in the dressing room respect him? In terms of other names that are being linked, all the usual suspects are in the mix. A lot of Pompey fans are calling for Bilic but that's surely a dead end: if he turned down West Ham, he's not going to come to us. One cheeky bookie has given odds of 100/1 for Jamie Redknapp...
It does make me laugh that when a vacancy comes up, every name under the sun gets thrown around about. There is a vast, gaping chasm of difference in terms of quality between the likes Eriksson or Bilic, and the likes of Roeder and Jewell. In no other walk of life would you talk about people of such differing ability/status/experience going for the same job. It's like suggesting Bill Gates will be joining the queue for a cashier’s job at PC World!
Hark at me though, eh? Turning my nose up at the mention of certain names. What's that saying about beggars being fussy?
posted by Gliiitches at
Monday, February 09, 2009
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5 Comments:
Pete Winkleman took bankrupt Wimbledon to MK built a stadium and is closing in on the Premiership, that is the difference between somebody with passion for football + business acumen + people skills, all of which have been lacking at Pompey since 1951.
It has been all grandiose schemes and no delivery, I think the present owner may have thought he could make a quick buck and is now trying to dig himself out, at least he gave us 1 season of glory!!
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment, but I couldn't agree with wanting an MK Dons style reinvention.
We would end up with a new ground, but following the MK Dons model we would also end up with a new club name, and a home that is about 60 miles away from Pompey!
MK Dons are, for me, an example of all that is bad in the modern game.
If Winkleman is so passionate about football, and wanted to have a club based in Milton Keynes, why didn't he take over non-league Milton Keynes City and save them from going out of business?
I think you make the argument of a new ground in too simplistic terms. Pompey have wanted and have been planning and spending LOADS of money on that exact thing. If you knew anything about the history of pompey you would know they have had many many application for a new ground refused on many many grounds (no pun) canadian geese being one frogs and butterflies and god knows what else. Then they got permision to expand fratton park but along came sasha and he wanted a totally new ground this time at the hard, money was spent doing all the applications, then the navy objected now it on waste land further north near the M27 still on the table still going through the application process which as we all know can take years. So ever since pompey were promoted they have been looking for a new ground. Then to say more money should have been spent on this instead of class prem players is rubbish because then you wouldn't have survived the prem so you wouldn't need a new stadium. Pompey are having to do a fine balancing act between expansion and consolidation any business man will tell you that if you expand too quickly it can all go boobs up.
PUP
Pompey_nomad
Cheers for reading and commenting, PN. I understand the history of the many failed planning applications. However, call me a cynic or a conspiracy theorist, but I think the applications being refused has been convenient for owners of the club who don't have the cash, or don't want to risk investing it.
In terms of the environmental concerns at Broadmarsh... well, money in these situations always talks. Where there is money, there is always a way. I am pretty sure other clubs have found a way round these kinds of concerns (whether you are comfortable with the methods is another question, of course...)
With regard to the proposal at The Hard, I am confident this was a decoy. I did my own consultation with a number of architects/planning officers when that plan came to light. The overwhelming view was this was a red herring so that the club would have greater weight on subsequent applications (i.e. "you have turned down 'X' proposal for 'X' reasons; our new plan addresses these concerns.")
My favourite of all the reasons/excuses for not building a new ground, however, is the Fratton Park redevelopment. If I remember correctly, the club stated they wouldn't start work because a section of fans had complained their view wouldn't be as good due to the pitch being turned. Thats right, the club blamed the fans for halting progress... you could not make it up.
I lived in Newcastle in the early to mid 90's, and saw the changes at St. James' Park. That ground is slap bang in the middle of the town centre, with a massive residential area around it. They closed sections of the ground off in order to get the work done. No doubt they had to refund money to season ticket holders, and limit their income at the gate. But they did it because it was for the greater good.
Where there is a will, or sufficient money, there is a way. I feel PFC have been lacking on both fronts. I could accept this IF the club was honest about it. I don't believe that they have been straight with fans on any number of issues over the years; so why would I believe they are being honest about the ground?
In terms of the players, obviously you need to bring some in to survive in the Prem. My point is we have overachieved on the pitch my spending too much money on players, and not enough on the off-the-field infrastructure. Look at our league placings; finishing in the top 10 season after season. If we hadn't bought Muntari, Diarra, Defoe etc. we could have still finished, say 15th, we could still have been in the Prem. But we could have invested off the field as well, or at least not have been in so much debt.
As you say, it's a fine balancing act, and I would argue we haven't struck that balance because we've spent too much on the field. It is going pear shaped because of expansion too quickly: expansion on the pitch and expansion in the pockets of our playing staff.
A very well put argument Gliiitches and I have to admit I agree to a certain degree.
However without the players that you mentioned playing for us, we no longer seem to be a team that would finish 15 in the premiership.
I also believe that if Tony had maybe had a bit more experience, where he ran the clock down and made certain subtitutions at key times, we could have been in much better position than we are now, with Adams still in charge.
Harry definitely knocked the wind out of our sails by leaving and has to take the credit for the disruption this caused to the team.
I totally agree we should be investing in a new larger ground to try and get a sustainable income, but looking around Fratton Park at some games there are several seats empty. This would indicate that even with a bigger stadium there would be even more seats empty unless there was a successful team fighting for a top 5 premiership position. Here we are, back to spending more money to buy better players with higher wages! It's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.
kind regards
Stuart (Reading)
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