August 2009 - myPompey News

myPompey member BlueWhirly doesn't want his jam tomorrow..

"I'm sure I'll take you with pleasure!" Al Fahim said. "Two pence a week, and jam every other day."

Hart couldn't help laughing, as he said, "I don't want you to hire ME - and I don't care for jam."

"It's very good jam," said Al Fahim.

"Well, I don't want any TODAY, at any rate."

"You couldn't have it if you DID want it" Al Fahim said. "The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today."

"It MUST come sometimes to "jam today"," Hart objected.

"No, it can't," said Al Fahim. "It's jam every OTHER day: today isn't any OTHER day, you know."

"I don't understand you," said Hart. "It's dreadfully confusing!"

*This is adapted (probably inaccurately) from Lewis Carroll's book "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There"


It's never a good sign when a quote from an absurd fantasy makes sense to your current situation. But sadly it does.

For the last 4 months our club has been promised "Jam Tomorrow" while we watch the quality of the squad, the manager and our expectations sink day after day. As the takeover dragged on we listened to promises of better times ahead and slowly became disillusioned.

Well now the takeover has, according to the club, been completed and tomorrow is finally here. Only it isn't. What little we've heard from our new owner has suggested big money to spend in the January transfer window. But there is no mention of ANY money to spend in the last days of this window. Once again it's "Jam Tomorrow".

Disillusioned with the promises or not, it gives us hope. But man, or football clubs, cannot live on hope alone. If you're promised "Jam Tomorrow" for too long, eventually you will starve today.

And, Mr Al Fahim, we are starving. Only a fool could fail to see that we are in need of some "Jam Today" or we won't survive to get our "Jam Tomorrow".

It may now be too late to bring in major new playing talent before this window closes but that doesn't mean we cannot survive. Maybe you cannot afford to put your hand in your pocket right now, maybe it has to be "Jam Tomorrow" when it comes to a transfer fund. Transfers aren't everything though. Plenty of teams have (relatively) prospered in the Premier League with a worse squad than we have. Plenty of managers have got the very best from the playing staff they have to frustrate the big teams and beat the smaller ones.

They do so by creating a great team spirit, using the right tactics at the right time and grabbing every chance they can for a win. After all, 38 draws won't guarantee survival in this league, but only 14 wins will.

Paul Hart seems to be a good guy. A man who has stuck by our club in the hard times and done the best he can. Only his best doesn't seem to be good enough. He has played for a draw in four games and lost each one. You can blame the lack of talent in his team but there is an old truism that says, "A bad workman always blames his tools". Sadly, Hart does not seem to trust his tools enough to even try to win.

As I write there is just over 24 hours left of the transfer window. But there is no transfer window for improving the structure of the club. We are what we are and we have the squad we have. But I honestly believe there are 14 wins in that squad. We just need the right tactics and the belief that we can get those wins.

We need "Jam Today". We need to change our outlook in games. I'm not saying Hart must go but I am saying he must start to get the very best from what we have. And if he can't do that then the longer we wait to replace him, the further we fall into a deep, dark hole from which there will be no escape. There is an English phrase you may have heard, "A stitch in time saves nine". It has never been truer for us. A little money spent, a little care and a little forethought now will save us from devastation later. If we don't start to win now, January will be too late. Heck, October will be too late.

They say there is no such thing as bad news but trying telling that to the owners of the Portsmouth News, who today announced a £94,000,000 pre-tax loss amidst a severe downturn in advertising revenues.

Johnston Press own more than 300 local titles and enjoy one of the highest audited online readerships of any local newspaper group, but times are tough and the pervasiveness of the Internet has introduced literally thousands of online competitors covering everything from sport to local news.

With ad revenues down 24%, Johnston Press face tough times and recently released a statement denying they were in the process of selling the Scotsman amidst rumours that they needed to shore up their balance sheet.

We should all hope that these troubles are temporary. The Portsmouth News does a good job and for many is a valued source of information within the local community, especially for those that don't hve access to the Internet.

If we’ve learned one thing over the past 3 months, it’s this. Nobody but nobody other than Al-Fahim knows the true state of the takeover.

Peter Storrie has let it be known that he’s got no idea what’s going on, or at least he didn’t last week. Now it seems he’s found his faith again and is telling us “just wait and see, just wait and see”.

Gaydamak on the other hand has said little and let’s face it, what is there for him to say? He fell out of love with Pompey last year and made it clear he wouldn’t be back to pick up his stuff. As Peter Storrie has said, as a result it’s been a very difficult 9 months. Yeah too right, but spare a thought for the folks who give money to the Club rather than having us hear it from those who take it out.

So this past week or so we’ve seen Storrie playing the victim, Gaydamak playing it dumb and Al Fahim playing it close to his chest. And that just leaves Redknapp, one of the original Gang of Three and now adding his own very distinctive input, welcome or not.

What was it he said last week? He was shocked at the predicament the Club finds itself in. He should be ashamed of himself. Yes he delivered plenty of milk, but he never took the empties away. Leaving them to pile up on the doorstep of the Club, as rats gathered round to feed on rotting remains of his excesses.

Admittedly, we all make mistakes but most of us have to account for them. That is apart from those that live in an Orwellian world were what went before didn’t happen and what comes next is no more than a sound bite promise, designed to manipulate or at the very least to gain competitive advantage by the overuse of euphemisms rather than a candid appraisal of the situation.

There’s no doubting though that as much as the current cast frustrate us, we shouldn’t ignore their good points. As we said earlier, Redknapp brought success to this Club and between them Gaydamak and Storrie provided the platform for him to operate, even if the hangover has lasted a lot longer than we’d have liked.

But the question that remains on my lips is why don’t those at the top put their hands up and admit their mistakes? Their successes are celebrated on open top busses or with their big smiles in the director’s box or in the dugout, but when it comes to acknowledging their mishaps, their lips are firmly sealed.

This is a not a witch hunt, just a simple request for a little less hubris and a touch more humility. I think we’d all be a lot more supportive of the personalities at the Club and those that have left, if they acknowledged that they are not perfect and it’s not always the fault of others for this predicament we find ourselves in.

Play Up Pompey.

Pompey's Flight of the Phoenix

I loved that film. The original, not the remake.

The plot.

Plane crashes in desert (club loses funding) and one of the passengers designs and constructs a new plane from the ashes of the old (creates a new squad after all the good-uns leave).

Then days before take-off (new season starts) the designer reveals he's only ever worked with model aircraft (youth team).

The rest of the passengers (fans) riot then realise that the designer (Hart) and his plane (squad) made from the ashes of the wreck, is their only hope.

The tension is palpable as the take off approaches (pre-season). The plane's engine almost doesn't start and it fires on the last attempt. (takeover finally done).

They all cling on for their lives and survive a very rocky take off and against all the odds...

land safely...

Roll Credits

Audience, tears in their eyes, stands up and applauds. The Designer is a hero, the plane a triumph over adversity and the passengers proof that faith will prevail.