March 2009 - Front Page Articles

Spring is in the air. The clocks have gone forward and thoughts turn to the final few matches of the season and.... who’s going to win the coveted Players' Player of the Season Award.

Lots of contenders this year and here’s my shortlist.

David James for another year of age defying heroics. He gets better and better and has started every game under Capello. Awesome! Very outspoken but I guess that’s the price we pay for having someone of his stature. Of all the players currently at Fratton Park he is the one I will miss most when he eventually leaves to run Sky Sports ;)

Glen Johnson, the perfect pro and now an England regular. Best right back in England? Try Europe! He arrived at Fratton Park as a young kid from Chelsea and has grown at such a rate that he just doesn’t seem to make mistakes. Walks past defenders at the other end too. He plays the same old trick every time but it works. Good on you Glen.

Hermann Hreidarsson. Consigned to the scrap heap before being recalled to back fill left back. A real warrior and a threat at the other end too. His goal against City was brilliant and he’s probably only a few tight ligaments away from being a top striker, let alone a great defender.

Sean Davis. Still not signed on the dotted line, but that’s his prerogative. Mr Consistency and a work ethic that all other pros should model themselves on. Just the type of guy you need in a battle and he’s got the experience of the last relegation scrap to call upon. Sean is the type of player we are going to need next year and let’s hope he decides to stay on.

Peter Crouch, old school manners and proof that modern day stars don’t need to act like spoiled brats. Quite where we’d be without his goals doesn’t bare thinking about. He came through a barren patch and is now knocking them in again. On his day he is unplayable.

The Players' Player of the Season Award will be presented to the winning player at the
End of Season Gala Dinner to be held on Tuesday May 19^th 2009 at The Officer’s Mess, HMS Nelson.

For ticket availability and details of other Awards being presented by Fred Dinenage see the booking page here.

Mad Phil Brown versus Gentleman Paul Hart. Probably not the stuff of legends, but for the two teams involved, almost certainly the most important game of the season.

A win for either side should leave clean air between themselves and the ‘zone'. But defeat, leaving nails chewed, wives berated and far too many pints sunk at the bar.  A draw, the Mistress of 2 points lost.

Such is football. Is there anything else in our lives that swings so violently from joy to pain on an almost weekly basis? Euphoria followed by despair, cheer by groan and celebration by sorrows drowned.

Why do we follow this game with more passion and compassion than anything else? Wives left at the alter, girlfriends at the pub, families left to be with each other. The fan escaping the embraces of the ones he loves for his true love in Tiger's Gold or Pompey's Blue.

Whoever wins this weekend, don't waste those 3 points lads. More valuable than almost anything else we can imagine. Spend them well boys, whatever colour you wear.

And remember.  Tread carefully, because you tread on our dreams.

Carol,  busy this weekend?

How's it go? Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue..

Putting aside the doubt about our Premier League status and the uncertainty surrounding ownership, it's the time of year when focus starts to turn to next year's squad.

Only this year it's different. Not since our pre-HR days have the prospects for the squad seemed so unsure. Immaterial of our status, some players will be too expensive to pay and even if we could conjure up the readies on a weekly basis, one or two of our more marketable assets may well be leaving to bring in much needed cash.

Who from James, Johnson, Distin, Kranjcar and Crouch will still be here come August is anybody's guess. Mine is that at least one will be leaving, if not through necessity then certainly though ambition. Mentioning no names, Kranjcar springs to mind...

Both Kanu and Sol seem set to leave, both must be drawing a pretty packet and, even if we could afford them, they are unlikely to figure in next season's plan on the basis of age alone. But in saying that, if we do end up playing in the C'ship then who's to say whether one or both wouldn't be staying albeit at wages to reflect their and the Club's changing circumstances?

Many more have their contracts up for renewal and some like Lauren and Djimi Traore will finally be off the wage bill after having done nothing for months. It's a shame about them both. I don't agree with most of what has been said about them and they've suffered from being HR rejects more than most.

I don't suppose we will see many of the loanees sign up for another season. Gekas has made his feelings known. Apparently signed on the back of a video audition, he is destined to be another spouting anti Pompey feelings when he returns to the Continent. Pele too has made it known he is looking forward to going back to Portugal and that's putting it lightly.

And what of the young Traore from Arsenal? What a waste. Is it any wonder that we have struggled when such talent has been in and out of the team? Yes, he's been injured on and off, but how can you switch from playing the ball with breathtaking speed along the wings one week, to steamrolling through the middle the next? He and Belhadj tore through teams including the mighty Milan - then both losing their places, in my view to the detriment of the team.

Pennant too is on loan and I can't see him being here next season whether we stay up or not. Yes, he is tenacious, but I don't think he added much and was made to look good when compared against Utaka on the right. Was he really that much better than Little?

All in all we are going to see lots of players leaving for one reason or another but who will come in?

Peter Storrie has said we won't see any £15m players coming in during the summer which is no surprise because unless I am missing something, we have never signed £15m players. Unless we get a billionaire owner coming in, massive spending is no longer an option and neither is it desirable. Right?

We've had enough of seeing the Club and the fans struggle whilst a few on the pitch draw millions every year. Time to start spending within our means even if that does mean we will be buying from the classifieds rather than the glossies.

Shop window?

It's been a long hard winter as far as Pompey is concerned. First we sold our midfield, then our so called top striker - oh and in-between times, you know who went to you know where.

All of this had a near devastating effect on the team, not to mention the morale of the fans, who only months earlier had seen their heroes win at Wembley.

After much reshuffling of the pack things are looking up. One loss in 5 under newly appointed Hart & Kidd may not be reproducing the form of old, but neither is it being played by a team destined for relegation. We hope.

But hope is not enough when it comes to pounds, shillings and pence. Who knows whether the latest price tag of £35m for the Club is true or not? And even if it were, the headline sale price bears little resemblance to the value of the asset under consideration. Wasn't it Rover that was sold to BMW for £1?

Talking of silly money, lucky for Vega that the Club decided to reject his £1 offer. It was ludicrous even without his demands that the Club repay Sacha's loans out of the sale of players.

Regular readers will remember that myPompey was against the involvement of the Swiss chancer on the basis that his business activities had the ring of an asset stripper. And so it turned out. Had he managed to take over, you'd get the feeling he'd have been the first Portsmouth ‘owner' to need full time protection, save him ending up as decoration on one of the harbour's many yard-arms.

And where now? Peter Storrie has let it be known that January was a very dodgy month indeed as far as balancing the books was concerned. Consequently there are no guarantees that more players won't be sold in the summer.

It has been suggested that if we don't find a buyer soon then the situation may deteriorate which is very worrying considering we were running on empty during the January transfer window. Presumably the £12m that was paid out on player instalments at the beginning of the year will be a regular feature for the immediate future. Although on the other hand we too should be receiving money in from those we sold in the past.

But what if the amount due in will not cover those payments set to go out? In the absence of an owner with an appetite to invest, these debts will have to be met organically. Meaning we stop spending on players wages by not renewing contracts or we sell contracted players to make up the shortfall. Either way the current playing staff won't so much as be reshuffled, more likely we will get a new deck.

But let's end this on a positive note. Two wins and two draws from five games is bloody remarkable when you consider what the players must have been subjected to behind the scenes earlier this year. To say nothing of Tony Adams who had his wallet pulled from under his feet when he was planning on spending on the players he was promised.

Considering the players and coaching staff must have known exactly how delicate it was, it's a miracle they managed to turn out at all, let alone get any points, as few as they may have been.

We may not be able to alter the fortunes of the Club and despite feeling useless as we look on and observe the latest boardroom revelations, we can at least feel happy that on the pitch at least, the worse is behind us.

Keep us up lads and remember, however difficult it's going to be finding a new owner, it's going to be a darn site easier if we remain in the Prem.

Play Up Pompey

A few more of these won't go amiss.

Interesting times at Fratton Park. The old girl has been given a new lease of life and the Greeks have been getting all uppity about Pompey's selection policy.

Peter Storrie in a rare public condemnation of a fellow professional body has criticized the comments made by the Greek national football team about the treatment of Gekas and Basinas. For those of you who missed it, the Greeks are none too happy that two of their star boys can't even get a game in a team languishing near the bottom of the Premier League. Peter Storrie had this to say:

"I find it outrageous when I hear national managers of international sides trying to criticize what our managers are doing in terms of selections of players"

"Get on with your own organisation, please don't interfere with ours..."

That's all very well Mr Storrie and to some extent we can see your point but to quote Jeremy Paxman:

"Oh come on..."

The Greeks want the best for their boys for obvious reasons. I don't suppose I'd be too happy if two members of my squad joined another team under the pretense of playing, only to see them twiddle their thumbs losing match fitness and no doubt shed loads of confidence in the process.

But more to the point Mr Storrie, if you can get so outraged about someone just doing their job then what about the never ending comments of that carrion crow Redknapp once he'd flown to Spurs? Nobody is blaming him for leaving, that's his prerogative even if he had previously said one thing and then done the complete opposite.

For months the team and the fans endured his blatant rule 8 infringements and nasty self centred remarks that did nothing but damage to the Club, both on and off the pitch. His repeated public comments destabilised the team and quite possibly cost Adams his job.

Don't you think that Redknapp is the person you should have directed your outrage at? Friend or no friend?

Would it not have been appropriate for you to publicly denounce his actions rather than allowing him to comment for months, unchallenged about our finances and our players? Remember when he said that he wouldn't sell Defoe if he was in our shoes? Or the times he repeated that we needed the cash...?

Weren't these much more damaging remarks than a Greek trying to get the best for two of his own squad that he just so happens to temporarily share with PFC?

It strikes us that PFC occasionally gets its priorities wrong. When we needed someone, anyone, to stand up and defend the Club when Redknapp was at his most damaging to us, the Club did almost nothing.

Tempting to comment on the Greek situation beyond the abilities of the players in question, but ultimately it's what they can or cannot do on the pitch that counts.

Gekas is a difficult one, he was top scorer in the Bundesliga a couple of seasons back and that is no mean achievement, but does that mean he can still hack it here or there? No.

But we know the Prem and the Bundesliga are of similar quality and if a player such as Fowler, Cole or for that matter Beattie can walk straight into Premier league teams after a break or a drop into another division, why would you not try Gekas? Sure he may be unfit and he might need some sharpness but is the second string the place to get that or to evaluate a player's ability to hack in the Premier League. No.

Whichever way you look at it, the situation does seem a little strange especially considering far more qualified people than me, such as Whittingham no less, has sung his praises more than once.

In the meantime if the Gekas situation is difficult to comprehend, surely you can't say the same thing about Basinas. Rewind a few weeks and didn't we all applaud Adams for picking up an old master at poster shop prices?

The Greek Captain may be creaking at the knees but his quality is beyond question. No Diarra or Muntari that's for sure, but he must rank alongside Mendes and Diop as being one of the better midfielders in the Prem. So then why has he been dropped. Is it injury? Or are Davis, Hughes and Mullens really that much better?

The answer I fear is that given the choice of one or the other, but not both, Hart favours effort over ability. Whereas this time last year we had the two in the form of Diop, Mendes, Lass and Muntari, we now fill the midfield with carthorses in comparison. Ok even if Diop resembles one there is no doubting the bloke's ability to grab the ball and make 20 yards in the blink of an eye, demolishing opponents as he goes. Which reminds me, when is he back?

This reliance on effort, seen also with Nugent mad dogging it between penalty areas, appears to be at the root of Hart's philosophy.  Use the marines not the SAS, numbers not tactics, grunt before ability.

Isn't this why we struggled against hungry Boro? We should have put them to the sword, instead we put bodies behind the ball and relied on perfect defensive execution. By whom? Davis, Mullens and Hughes?

 Sure they are solid but why tempt fate? Isn't it better to make errors in their box not our own? On what basis would Hart assume we can keep opponents at bay by inviting them to attack us? Ok, last year we could do that as demonstrated at United, but this year we can't.

We have the look of a team that's always going to concede unless we are playing at home against over paid, unfocused Brazilians. Shouldn't we therefore be going for the win and make that 2 goals not 1? Inviting any Premier League team to pick you apart is risky.

It'd be risky with the team we had last year but this year it's suicide or at the very least it's going to lose us a couple of points when all three should've been in the bag and wrapped. And let's not forget, we aren't going to stay in the Premier League with the odd win surrounded by draws and defeats. Our survival depends on beating our relegation peers, not sharing the points and hoping for the best.

For those of you who couldn't spot John Westwood in the crowd at 'Boro, here's the reason why.

John was ejected at half time by Boro officials who refused to allow him to stand, even though his view from the back of the stand was blocked by other Pompey fans standing in front of him.

John pointed out to stewards that he had no choice else he couldn't see, but was promptly informed that his standing had been caught on CCTV and they were making an example of him because he was the ringleader.  A claim Westwood vehemently denies.

Although Westie's complaints about bias treatment met with no sympathy inside the ground, he did get some support on returning to his car. He was approached by an Inspector from Middlesboro Police who revealed that she felt his treatment had been inappropriate and had consequently filed a report to this effect during the post match debrief.

Westwood had this to say to myPompey today:

"Within minutes of the game kicking off I was approached by the Middlesbrough stewards and told if I didn't sit down I would be ejected because they had me on CCTV and I was  the ringleader"

"Nearby ‘Boro fans were standing for the duration but nothing was done."

"The same section had also been hurling sexually offensive abuse at a female Pompey fan whilst ‘Boro stewards stood by."

"The female fan and her boyfriend were later ejected from the ground for retaliating, despite no action being taken against the home fans"

"This is another example of away fans beings treated abysmally, especially when only a few fans have travelled"

"It doesn't make any sense. A couple of weeks back 4000 Liverpool fans were standing at the Riverside but nothing was done. "

"Surely from a Health and Safety perspective it's more dangerous if more fans are standing, yet they only seem to act if there are only a few away fans."

"I am gutted about being thrown out, I am victimised because I am different but that doesn't make me guilty."

"There's no common sense being used. People were thrown out with no warning after having spent all that money on tickets and travel."

"Some Boro fans that I know have even written to their Club to complain about how we were treated."

"Being a businessman myself, I cannot imagine any other businesses treating its customers with such disrespect."

"How does football get away with it?"

Mr Pompey in happier times