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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