August 2009 - Front Page Articles

Four games in and zero points. Not a nice position to find ourselves in, but it could be worse, right?

Ironically I felt we had our best game for a while yesterday. Sure I didn't recognise half of those on the pitch, but the energy and commitment were old Pompey, even if Adebayor found an unchallenged hole in defence that hadn't been there for a long, long time.

Despite these improvements, the Negativos, of which I occasionally include myself, are calling for Hart's head again, but is it that simple? Convince me that any of the managers currently available for ‘selection' would have done any better and I'll send you a free screensaver.

Not that simple is it? Anybody can make hypothetical appointments, but I'll ask you this, how many of them would have done much better yesterday and more to the point, how many would even still be here given the crap that Hart has had to deal with over the past few months?

Don't get me wrong. I am not calling for a stay of execution, but neither am I clamouring for the scaffold just yet. Instead we should look to the Board to take a long hard look at the situation and dare I say it earn their keep and in doing so earn our respect.

The problem is of course that football, ironically, has taken backseat to boardroom manoeuvres over the past couple of months. Yes we have brought in some decent talent of late, most of which wasn't available to play yesterday, but I question how closely the managerial situation has been followed by those in a position to make a change.

Blue Herring

But it's not just the past few weeks. Our recent managerial track record isn't great. I wouldn't classify either Adams' or Hart's tenures as being successful, even including Hart managing to keep us up. I've always felt that to be a blue herring considering the talent we had available, even after the sale of Muntari, Diarra and Defoe. It speaks volumes for how poor Adams was that Hart was revered for ‘saving' one of the best squads outside of the top 6.

So now that the takeover has been ‘concluded', attention can turn back to the team and what's to be done to correct the situation. Last season we were told by the Clappers to judge Hart if and when relegation was avoided. Then, when nothing much changed the case for the defence told us to wait until he brought in his own players and now that's he's done that and delivered four and zero, I read in myPompey's own forums that we should give Hart ‘til October and then look at the situation again.

Where does it all end? The fact is, the Board have to choose the right time to replace the manager just as a manager has to choose the right time to bring on the subs. Too soon and you ignore the effects of the pep talk, too late and well, it's too late. Gekas anyone?

Great managers of which there have been relatively few, would change things minutes into a match if that's what the game called for. The ‘oh marmite' moment, as I like to think of it. But that's why they are great because their decisions are not influenced by their egos.

Mandaric

Ironically, It's Milan Mandaric who sticks in my mind most when it comes to subbing early. Probably the most hands on of any owner I can think of and not frightened to make changes to correct what he saw as bad performances or bad decisions on his part. Who else could watch Redknapp walk out and then appoint a pair of unknowns before swallowing his pride and reappointing you know who.

Milan has followed it up with similar behaviour at Leicester and who's to bet against the Foxes making it back into the Prem this year or next? Mandaric? A great hands on owner and not afraid to correct his own mistakes or those of others.

The point in all of this is that the manager of a team is just that. He has very limited but very important responsibilities. He can't appoint or sack himself, although he could resign. But as Mandaric has proved, you don't let the manager decide the future of the Club, although for a while you do let him choose the team.

Beyond that, it's the responsibility of the Board to be thinking one step ahead and in the position we are currently in, I'd be very surprised if other managerial candidates aren't being considered, just in case. I am not saying we need to change but I am saying that the board should certainly be considering it. And what's more the Board, manager, players and fans should be mature enough to recognise the position we are in and the consequences of remedial action.

But not until we're ready...

There's no questioning that this country is home to one of the most exciting football leagues in the world and by that I mean the entire league, not just the Prem.

But long before Sky and the Premier League got into bed into with each other in an incestuous back scratching marriage, the old ordinal divisions were doing just fine.

Anybody who thinks that the hype that surrounds today's game wasn't equaled or surpassed in the past, must be very new to the game. Yes there's no doubting that Ronaldo is an amazing talent and that some Arabs are very rich and willing to share it, but beyond that I struggle to see the progress.

I believe it's reasonable to conclude that with or without Murdoch's billions we would still have witnessed the same stars, perhaps not all of them in Blighty, but I can think of worse things than players generally playing in their own countries rather than chasing a foreigner's money.

It says much of this World that players can come here and earn more in month than their entire extended families can in a life time. And let's not even think about season ticket holders funding de-motivated, disloyal players, purchased on the back of some crackpot loan him, buy him, release him comedic merry-go-round.

Of course it wasn't all Roses and Quality Street when I was a lad and human nature hasn't just got greedy. It's always been there, it's just that these days the numbers are so big, that morals, ethics and olde-worlde principals just don't seem to matter.

Whereas 20 or 30 years ago a player might see his earnings improve by £50k a year if he moved to a bigger club, these days the likes of Johnson, Lescott and Barry can change their entire life by switching allegiances and moving to a club purely on the basis of how much they get paid.

And who's to blame. Well we all are. Just like we are all to blame for those retards currently in power or for that matter the even bigger retards that will probably win the next election. We sit by and we bitch and we complain about life and Lockerbie and we do nothing about it. Yeah let's imprison a guy who planted a bomb killing a plane full of innocent souls and then release him to a hero's welcome. We sit by and comment as our world implodes around us and it's no different in football.

Talking of which, I had an off the record conversation yesterday with somebody at the Premier League, meaning I can't quote them directly and even if I could I'm not sure I'd want to. As you may recall we published an update from the Prem a couple of weeks ago. They told myPompey that P.F.C. hadn't yet submitted any Director's Declarations regarding Alf or anyone else and as of yesterday I am led to believe nothing had changed. Which if you want to put 2 and 2 together you'll conclude that a few days before the window closes nothing has been presented to the League for ratification.

Quite big news I am sure you will agree and I have buried it deliberately deeply in this article because I am tired of the headline seeking, sound bite driven football world that we live in. Sure I could have given this article a headline grabbing title and then seen the adrenalin junkies flock in... but to what end?

The real news which no doubt some of you already appreciate is that we, the fans are being taken for granted and I said as much to the Prem yesterday.  Here we are on the wrong end of a season ticket bill and we get treated like very fat, yet ironically very underfed cash cows.

I've concluded that we are on the wrong end of a conspiracy which involves milking punters for every last drop of nature's finest - yet when it comes to recognising the unique role fans play in financing this wallet filling circus, everybody is strangely silent.

And what do we want? Respect and an acknowledgment that without fans this game is nothing and most of all we want to stop being treated like mugs.

Take the Premier League rule book and in particular Rule K8 which basically says tapping up is illegal unless it involves Harry Redknapp. So I enquired why Redknapp wasn't in the Premier League equivalent of the Scrubs and I was told it was because Pompey has never complained. Draw your own conclusions from that.

So, on the one hand you have club officials who actions sometimes can best be described as questionable and on the other you have managers and players that milk the game dry with their salaries and fees and bonuses. Ok, we'd do the same if it was offered, so there's no finger pointing from me but that's the point. My dog would explode if I let him eat what he wanted but of course I regulate him so he can't. So why then doesn't the League take a more proactive and regulatory role?

Simple, because it's not in the interests of the people that make the rules. But it is in the interest of the fans and the fans are citizens of this country and how long will it be before just 1 out of 600 odd MPs finally realises that this county's biggest pastime and one of its biggest industries is shafting  the very people that make it viable.

Don't hold your breath though. Most government rule makers are just as self serving as those that run football and won't do anything unless their career is on the line. Same too no doubt for those that run our national game.

But it won't always be this way. Sky can't continue to raise prices and feed ever more into the beaks of the Premier League chicks. And clubs can't continue to raise the cost of watching the game whilst they keep us in the dark about the very fabric of the team we keep alive with our support and our cash.

Eventually this money supply that is fuelling this greed and consequential self serving will come to an end, or at the very least will be cut back to more acceptable levels and the game that we love will return to being about football and not about the egos that jealously guard its self serving governance.

Until then I guess, unless we have a taste for a Bastille style revolution, we need to shut up and be the obedient paying fans that is expected of us. Which reminds me, I need to rush. I notice that Fratton Park is advertising for a Crowd Manager, which in case you didn't know, is the bloke who stands in front of a live studio audience telling them when to clap and cheer and ...

groan.

Starring Paul Hart & Peter Storrie. Directed by Sacha Gaydamak. Guest appearance by Sulaiman Al Fahim

If this were a big US sporting event we'd be contemplating what to cook on the Barbie in the car park of the stadium. But it's not. It's quaint old Pompey complete with some waste ground at the back and a few choice traffic jams.

Which is how we like it eh guys? Especially considering we might see Alf stuck in the glue on the Eastern road along with the rest of us. Keep an eye out for his car, especially imported for the occasion.

Al-Fahim reckon's he's coming to the match so that he can see the team kick off the new season with 3 points firmly in the bank. We will all drink to that, even if with all the new blood flowing through the team , we might struggle for cohesion in the early stages.

The team is largely as it was last year. Save the obvious omissions of Johnson, Crouch and Davis. Let's not lament them leaving. What will be will be and all that and when you take everything into consideration, putting a team out at all was a task of Apollo 13 proportions.

Besides there is much to be upbeat about.  New boy Piquionne is hoping that his 2 goal debut against Rangers wasn't a flash in the sporran and the Axe and Diop should prove to be a formidable barrier for opponents attempting to sneak through midfield.

Diop alongside new captain Distin may well prove to be the most important players in the team and with the midfielder being sorely missed for much of last season (Liverpool away being the exception...) his return is accompanied with a sigh of relief.

Personally I am looking forward to seeing Kaboul shine. He may not be as accomplished as Johnson yet, but he's by far the better athlete and unlike Johnson knows how to head the ball.

In the meantime, we are told other players are on their way and if we manage a couple in the Spiderman & Zaki mold as suggested here by Al Fahim, then we may even end up being stronger than last year and who'd have thought that?

But whatever happens it's great to be back at ‘work' and rubbing shoulders with the Fratton Faithful and for those myPompey members who can't make the match today, remember there's the live chat room available from the top menu.

Guys, my apologies to you all. We received a statement from the Premier League which should have been published by myPompey on Monday, but got lost in the ‘post' and only surfaced today.

We wrote to the League and explained the plight of the fans and asked them to comment on the situation with Al Fahim and the takeover. Their response follows.

Premier League Statement. 1:14 p.m. August 10^th

All we have had thus far from PFC/Al Fahim is the Fit and Proper Persons Test declaration, after which we made the statement you refer to. It's a very specific test relating to the individual only and not to any other aspects of the proposed purchase.

When PFC and Mr Al Fahim are ready to progress the proposed purchase clearly we will require further information - including the provenance of the money financing the deal, whether there are any other investors (anyone with a 10% a more stake would have to publicly declare, anyone with 30% or more would be subject to the FAPPT as would any proposed directors or shadow directors) - however we are awaiting developments and will act accordingly, as and when something moves, to ensure that our Rule Book is applied.

I hope this gives you some clarity regarding our position.

There is nothing really new here other than the League restating its intent to get to the bottom of takeover plus the timing, which as of Monday afternoon, meant Al Fahim hadn't submitted the rest of the information necessary to complete the deal.

We understand Al Fahim is the US this week. I wonder what the exchange rate is...

I didn't think I'd find myself writing this, but thank god for Paul Hart. Fair do's to the man, he kept us up in his own peculiar style and now as we embark on a season of doubt, he's the one we have little choice but to rely on and he's not shirking the challenge.

Ok, from a purely footballing  perspective, we could do better. Many of us are calling for someone with a little more ‘bite', but when everything is taken into consideration and by that I mean the situation at the Club, Hart's resilient approach to life is just what we need.

Look at it this way. Many a so called manager would have jumped ship long ago citing issues with the Club. Let's face it, would you or I want to be the manager of PFC right now, with no money at our disposal and a squad that looks much weaker than the one that struggled last year?

You'd be setting yourself up for a fall or should that be fool? One chance at the big time resulting in a management record to hide in the cellar.

But despite all the doom and gloom Hart may even surprise us. Assuming we lose no more of the squad and bring in at least one decent midfielder, we should win a few games between now and Jan and probably just enough to keep afloat for when the reinforcements arrive  ... courtesy of the new owner.

Do I really believe that? Well I have to. The alternative is to lash out like so many fans have want to do and blame anybody and everybody associated with the situation we find ourselves in.

Besides we all know Hart is a decent man, but maybe that's his problem. Perhaps that was Adams' problem too. Too open by half and consequently at the mercy of the carrion crows circling above Fratton Park. And not all of them working for the media, many fans included.

Being decent and honourable of course is almost a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Just like the bad boys who get all the (bad) girls, being nice in life, business or football is the just opposite of what is needed to get ahead. For example, with the exception of the recently departed Sir Bobby Robson, who else in recent times has excelled as a manager whilst coming across as thoroughly decent individual?

And that's our problem. That's society's problem. Nice guys don't cut it. Nice guys don't make it to the top, despite the smiles and charm that would suggest otherwise. So when we berate Hart for his tactics we do so because we can. Try the same thing on Clough, Souness, O'Neil, Moyes, SAF, Wenger, Redknapp, Brown, Bruce, Mourinho, Jol or Kinnear and you'd get your balls chewed off and spat back in your face. Immaterial of their ability, they take crap from nobody and they garner respect and a fair part of their success because of it.

Ha! You say, but all those managers were successful in one form or another. Well that’s true and that’s my point. But ask yourself this. Did they become belligerent after they became successful or were they successful because they were opinionated, over-confident and rude to begin with?

Benitez has made himself virtually unsackable in the short to medium term at Anfield. His transfer dealings have been bringing in annual profits which have gone some way to making Liverpool a viable business despite otherwise crippling debts.

The fact that he may or may not win any significant trophies in the meantime is neither here nor there. One well placed player sale can easily surpass the profits from a good FA Cup run and even if you don't win the Champions League, being there or thereabouts at the end is not so different from winning the thing itself. Unless of course you count shaking the sweaty mitt of Platini as being a bankable asset.

That's not to say of course that he'll make any money on the Johnson deal.  It's gets harder the more you spend. Take note Redknapp, whose spending at Spurs may well buy success, but will it ever turn in a profit?

Don't get me wrong. This is not a Redknapp *** fest. Just the opposite and should have all Pompey fans hoping that Al Fahim, or whoever is at the helm going forward, will recognise the need for a talent spotter come persuasive influence, enticing new, hopefully, young talent to Fratton Park.

Leaving the Paul Hart question to one side for now,  a/ because he's here at least for the short term and b/ I am bored stiff with the whole question of his tenure, we should be looking to bring in an additional member of the team whose sole job is to attract under priced talent to the Club.

We'd all agree that its no easy task. Just like picking ‘sure' winners on the stock market, it's an art as much as it is a science, but there's no doubting the difference picking a winner makes to an otherwise dark and dingy season.

There are those of you reading this who will be looking for the comment box so as to leave an anonymous  anti-Redknapp rant.  And for many reasons you'd be right. But if you are thinking of criticising the man's transfer dealings, at least at this end of the market, then forget it.

Without the profits from those that have left over the past 12 months we'd be dead in the water. "But it was him that got us into this mess in the first place" you cry.

Sorry, I don't buy that either. Manadaric, Gaydamak, Storrie, Perrin and Hotspur have all contributed to the good and the bad bits of the current situation, but only one of these names can lay claim to continually bringing in players that sell for multiples of their purchase price within a year or two of arriving.

Sure Redknapp bought some Donkey's too, but his account at this Club is firmly in the black and we should all be thankful that we had players to sell when the cash was needed, howsoever painful it was when they eventually left.

So for me at the least, the message to the Club is clear. If you can't or won't attract a top flight manager and you insist on keeping Hart in charge of the team, then you need to bring in an additional personality, perhaps a Director of Football, whose principle responsibility is raising the profile and attractiveness of the Club amongst the many players who otherwise wouldn't consider coming to the South Coast.  

Doing so would bring the obvious benefits of a better squad, but would also go some way to ensuring that Pompey continues to run a profit in its transfer dealings, essential in the absence of serious investment from the Club's owners.

We know it's possible. Redknapp brought players here that wouldn't consider joining the likes of Hull, Burnley, Stoke and all the other promoted wannabees.  These players came and mostly gave their all and when the time came to move on, they did so in many cases at a substantial profit for the Club.

Can we afford not to do this? To rely on Paul Hart as the coach is one thing, but to expect him to bring players here that can help maintain our Prem status and make a much need contribution when they leave, is another.

To be fair, our gentleman manager might have what it takes to keep a good squad from going down, but nobody that I've spoken to would argue he's the right man to be the public face of the Portsmouth Football Club.

And on that note, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Maradona story wasn't as far-fetched as people suspect, even if in practice the individual concerned may well been a little too OTT, even for Pompey.