Friday 9 October 2009

Momentous week

This has been a momentous week for Pompey.

After 43 days Al-Fahim has sold 90% of Pompey to Ali Al-Faraj (prompting my coining of "Al-Faraj is no mirage"). Al-Fahim has retained 10% and the title of non-executive chairman for now. Apparently he sold for £2. He has put £5 million into the club.

Ali Al-Faraj is a very private man unlike Al-Fahim. This makes it difficult to work out his wealth but Peter Storrie, the chief executive, refers to him as a Saudi Arabian billionaire. Peter Storrie has been confirmed in his role under the new owner. Mark Jacobs, a lawyer, has been brought on to the board as the new owner's main spokesman and to lend his expertise to the board. It would seem the composition of the executive board (before take over consisting of CEO, Finance Director and one other) will be reformed as will the financial structure of the club. Apparently priorities are still the infrastructure, new training grounds and stadium. Fratton Park will probably be redeveloped into a 36K seater with the option of adding a further 9k seats as and when needed. The new stadium at Horsea Island is now firmly on the back burner although might re-emerge as an idea and as a fact as we approach World Cup time. I think the redevelopment of Fratton Park is a good idea but our current crowds are 17-18k which is still below the current 21K capacity. It seems the club have still some way to go to get that support figure up. What happened to all the Champagne Charlies who were queuing up for tickets for Wembley? A lot of debate is now taking place about season ticket prices for next season. Peter Storrie wants the club to be able to break even and the new owners to supply the money for transfers. I think this is how it works at Aston Villa.

The first action of the new manager was to bring in Avram Grant as director of football, which seems to have taken Peter Storrie by surprise. However there have been expressions of support for Paul Hart and reassurances that Grant is not a threat to the manager's job. I hope this is true as I think Paul Hart has done a terrific job under almost impossible circumstances. He has gathered together a team of players who want to play for him and the club. They need and deserve stability. I seen no gain to be made in managerial change now. I would hope to see Paul Hart see out his two year contract until the end of the 2011 season. I would hope that as technical director of football Avram Grant will be very helpful to Paul and to the team. Perhaps now we don't need an assistant manager but just a striking coach. Hiring Grant was certainly not a cheaper option.

As for the team, I am certainly impressed by the players collected together under the most difficult circumstances. Boateng bought from Spurs (and whose contract is probably about now being paid for) has proved to be a brilliant bargain and an eye opener for us. Yebda on loan from Benfica and Dindane on loan from Lens have proved to be good finds already. O'Hara, on loan from Spurs, has filled in the position at the base of the midfield diamond remarkably well. He won't be available for the next game, which is against Spurs, who rate him highly. In the January transfer window, they will probably want him to return to them but I think we should be prepared to make a firm bid for him and if necessary pay over the odds. If that proves impossible we have to find a replacement now and bring them in as soon as the transfer window opens. The replacement has to be able to offer the team exactly what O'Hara does now. The squad needs reinforcing in January but Pompey should avoid stars. They should follow the same criteria they used in the August transfer window to bring in quality reinforcements without upsetting the salary structure or the stability of the squad. We don't want anyone in the present team to feel unsettled but injuries have revealed some weaknesses and deficiencies in the squad.

I am hoping we can contain Spurs even with Defoe, Crouch and Kranjcar and the Spurs manager all wanting to prove a point. It will be tougher without O'Hara in that spot in front of the centre backs. If we had Ice Man and Diop returned from injury, I would feel more confident in playing for a draw by restricting the Spurs' scoring. We may have to settle for the same left back formation which saw us safely through the away game with Wolves, i.e. Wilson and Ben-Haim. I did wonder if there would be any merit in using a third centre back such as Mike Williamson in the hole in front of the centre backs. This would provide a five man defence and limit the ability to spring forward into counter attack that O'Hara provides. It would also throw a lot of weight and responsibility on to Brown, Boateng and Yebda if we keep Dino and Tommy Smith upfront. Of course we could revert to just one striker upfront but I think this is counter productive at home.

I would settle now for a 1 -1 draw but would love to see us pinch a 1-0 victory by some fluke of the game. We are owed a few and six points should see us climbing out of the relegation zone if other results go our way.

Thursday 10 September 2009

Pompey Gossip

I am the third highest poster on the Pompey Gossip website with 183 posts (hence a little drought on this blog) and have spent 1 day 13 hours and 21 minutes to date on the website, which makes me the 7th highest attender.

These statistics are just to show you that I have thrown myself with gusto into my hobby, which frees me from my other theatrical endeavours (itemised on my Boanerges blog). I love Pompey as my profile reveals and attend every home match that I can. I am not an away supporter as I tend to attend Hawks' (Havant and Waterlooville) games when Pompey are away.

Pompey Gossip have joined the Pompey Virtual Alliance, who are organising a meeting with Peter Storrie, Pompey CEO, just before the home game against Bolton. Pompey Gossip have asked me to go along to the meeting as their representative. To say I am chuffed is an understatement and I am thoroughly looking forward to the meeting and reporting back on it to the other Gossipers, who are worldwide in Canada, Dubai, Australia, Hong Kong and other places as well as Portsmouth. The meeting hopes to clarify the current position at the club and to find ways to help the club attract back the missing fans.

I think the club has to accept that the previous regime was built upon shaky foundations employing overpriced and overpaid footballers. This brought some success with high table finishes and of course the FA Cup. However it now transpires that this was at some considerable cost to the club and almost put us in administration. We were living in dreams and now reality has set in. We are a leaner meaner fighting machine. We have had a summer of uncertainty and upheaval, and have become something of a laughing stock in the football world. Pompey are now one of the favourites for the drop at the end of the season.

This is reinforced by four defeats in our first four games. However I now believe we have a squad of players, who are Pompey through and through, who are battlers and 100 percenters. Yes we have lost stars and glamour but I believe we are better for it. I also believe we may have shed some of the more superficial fans, who came along for the FA Cup and the stars and the glamour. This was inevitable and not altogether a bad thing. The club does need to build up its fan base. The first two games only had just over 17000 fans there and this in a stadium which holds at least 20000 (leaving aside the plans to expand the capacity to 28000). Pompey needs to win back those 3000 fans to just be within reach of breaking even.

The only way to do that is to start winning games here at Fratton Park. You can lower prices in order to tempt them back but you need to offer them a diet of attacking football and good results that makes them want to come back again and again.

The responsibility rests with Paul Hart, the manager. He is the bookies' favourite to be the first Premier League manager to lose his job this autumn. The chairman has moved to say this will not be the case. I am not a particular fan of Paul Hart as he did save us last season but by playing attritional football with a 4-5-1 system. It worked and kept us in the Premier League but the question this season is "Does he have other systems he can use? Especially with the players he has bought in?"

In the Fulham and Manchester City home games (this also applies to the away game at Birmingham) we were never over run or overwhelmed by either team. We held them most of the time.

In both games defensive errors let in a single goal. In the Fulham game Clint Dempsey should have been closed down before he let fly on the edge of the box. The fact that his shot took a wicked deflection off Zamora's arse just added salt to the wound. In the Manchester City game, Mokoena let Adebayor go at a corner and the prolific goal scorer had a clear header on goal. These defensive errors however were not what cost us the games.

The games were lost because we were toothless in front of goal. We had chances but either headers were muffed, or passes were delayed because of lack of support in the box, or shots were simply blazed over the bar or straight at the goalkeeper. David Nugent is now on loan at Burnley and complaining of his treatment at Pompey because he was played out of position. However he was guilty of missing chances galore in the box and even in the six yard box. He needed to score to be a goal scorer. I liked the lad but he could hardly be described as a goal scorer.

I believe Paul Hart has assembled a squad and team that can take the fight to the enemy. I agree with him in defending staunchly but would like him to assemble a team that can counter attack more efficiently and effectively. I think he has a squad to be able to do that as I explain below. Paul Hart also needs a more attack minded number two to counter balance his own thinking as an ex centre half.

At the moment our two backs are still on the recovery list, which means we are using two players who are a bit inconsistent as backs but who are versatile and probably better used as midfielders upon the return of Finnan and Hreidarrson. For the moment our back line will look something like: Borre, Kaboul, Ben-Haim and Belhadj. I would protect this back line with two defensive midfielders or stoppers in Mokoena (captain) and Brown. These six players would form my basic defensive unit.

The other four outfield players would form my counter attack unit. This would be a quartet of fast attacking midfielders and strikers, who are interchangeable. They would be able to keep the ball and use it to attack the final third and get into the opposing box.

The midfielders would be chosen from Boateng (Prince), O'Hara and Yebda. The strikers would be chosen from Smith, Dindane(Dino) and Piquionne (Fred). The Prince says he is an attacking midfielder and Paul Hart says Yebda is, and both should be given the chance to prove it alongside O'Hara, the sparky young midfielder on loan from Spurs until January. Dino is not yet match fit and needs to be gently introduced so in the meantime Smith should be played in that position alongside Fred.

All four of the counter attack quartet should be encouraged to go for goal themselves or at least be heavily involved in assists and seen frequently in the opposition box. I think Dino might be capable of 20 goals but if each of the quartet was given a target of 10 goals each, there would be our saving in the league.

There are other defensive midfielders that can be brought on to close a game down or replace tired, injured or suspended players ( I expect my stoppers to be earning yellow cards through robust but fair tackling). We have only the six players mentioned from which to choose the counter attack quartet. Utaka can possibly be used in there but Kanu would present a different way of attacking. One of the things I would be doing from now until January is identifying the players who can reinforce or even replace the counter attack quartet. I shall enjoy putting forward candidates for Mr Hart to consider over the next few months.

The first thing that has to happen to bring back those missing fans is to accept that the home game against Bolton this Saturday is a six pointer. Both teams languish on the bottom of the table. A draw is not enough but a win would lift us over them. We must make ourselves a force to be reckoned with here at Fratton Park.

Wigan and Burnley must be seen as possible wins with Everton and Spurs seen as not impossible but more likely draws. Hopefully we can win away at Wolves and possibly Hull and Blackburn. We must give a good account of ourselves against Man. U, Liverpool and Arsenal on our own ground and take any chances that come our way - at least make it very uncomfortable for them. If we could manage draws away at Villa, Stoke, Sunderland, West Ham and Fulham, then we will be in a good position at Christmas.

Hopefully the three newcomers to the league will also have found it tougher going after their initial honeymoon period. If we are sitting in amongst a group of teams on around the same points with another group safely below us, then the club will be doing really well and those fans will start coming back. Perhaps not the glamour seekers but real fans who support their team because it is their team.

Monday 24 August 2009

I have certainly learned more about the financial dealings involved with running a football club, especially Pompey, than I learned in the previous three decades as a supporter. The consortium take over is scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully it will be in time to allow some transfers to be brought in. We must be getting to a situation where Pompey is approaching financial stability with less and less being owed to banks and agents, and less being paid out in huge wages.That must be a good thing surely? My concern is that we need transfers coming in now. Dindane is definitely on his way and so it seems is Hamann and M'Bami. I am hoping that Zaki, Gutierrez and Thomert will be confirmed before the Manchester City game this Sunday. I have my ticket already and although I don't expect City to be the pushovers they were last season at Fratton Park, I do hope Paul Hart attacks them with a more aggressive formation.
There are several young attacking midfielders I would like to see Paul Hart have on his list and that will form my next post.

Monday 20 July 2009

Where will Pompey be next season?

I think next season is going to be a struggle but hopefully Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim means what he says and isn't going to throw money at the problem. We need to be patient and hold our nerve for the next couple of seasons or so.

At the moment Paul Hart seems to be lined up for the manager's job and I can understand the reasoning there. Hopefully though this will not detract from the Academy's future as outlined in previous post. Hopefully also there is someone lined up in the wings as I cannot believe that Paul Hart is the man to produce a new Pompey style of play. I hope that Hart is being reassured of the Directorship of the Academy and that he is in post for the next season only. The manager in waiting should be given the final say on purchases in the January transfer window so that he can take over in the summer of 2010.

If we can keep out of the relegation scrap in 2009/2010 that would be a major achievement and after the upsets of this season and calendar year that would be a welcome relief. It might not make for the beautiful game but savea lot of wear nad tear on supporters' nerves.

The infrastructure should be completely overhauled next season and the priorities must be the completion of the new training ground with perhaps even an upgrade from the present plans. The background staff at Fratton Park should be given better working conditions. The facilities at Fratton Park could be upgraded and even the upgrade already planned for Fratton Park could continue apace while designs for a new stadium are being developed (see future post).

Now we enter the realms of fantasy but my dreams of future advancement are fanciful but I have tried to introduce an element of realism.

In the second and third seasons of the new era (2010/11 and 2011/12) under the new manager developing a Pompey style of play our aim should be a comfortable mid table position and a chance at a piece of silverware, e.g. the Carling Cup or the FA Cup again.

In the fourth and fifth seasons (2012/13 and 2013/14) we should be aiming for the top half of the table and seriously challenging regularly for silverware and its retention.

In the sixth and seventh seasons (2014/15 and 2015/16) the top quarter of the table should be our target and a guaranteed European place.

From then we should be amongst the elite and trying to win both the Premier league and the European Champions' League.

I know this is too long term for some of my fellow supporters and I myself will be almost 70 by then, but I believe this low build will give us time to become a real giant of a football club with a stadium and a squad to match, the envy of others.

The Academy

I have been trying to get hold of a copy in any form of "Portsmouth:A New Era" by Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim, the prospective new owner of Pompey. This has been described as a 48 or 200 page book of proposals for when the good doctor takes over the club from July 24th onwards. David Kelly of the Talk Sport Show is reputed to have read it and said if the take over goes through we will be the luckiest supporters in the world. He described the proposals as "Simply amazing!"

Idly in the days leading up to the 24th, when I hope the takeover will be officially announced as completed, I have been thinking about what I hope the future will hold. I have gone beyond the short term of who will be the manager and who will be the players brought in for next season. Instead I have looked a little further ahead at the Academy and at a possible new stadium.

In this post I will try to deal with some of the ideas re the Academy. I don't know much about the Pompey Academy as it is presently structured except to observe that, according to the official website, another seven students have joined it this pre season. I also know that Paul Hart was appointed to act as director of the Academy. I believe the Academy should be the keystone to everything that Pompey does.

We should be competing with other clubs for the very best English players and we should be improving the standards of local Pompey players. We need to develop a Pompey style of play that informs every level of the club and its feeder schools and youth organisations and local amateur clubs throughout the city and Hampshire. We should build up European, African, South American, Arabian and Asian connections and feeder clubs as part of the Academy set up.

The Academy needs to produce players who can seamlessly step up into the reserves and the first team/squad, because all levels of the club play the same system. I would love to see the reserves top every competition they enter and to be considered the envy of others - scouts buzzing around at every match. I would love to see the Hawks as part of the bedding in procedure if the Blue Square rules permit.

The output from the Academy should replace the need to buy in stars generally. I concede that Pompey still need to be in the market for stars but only the ones who fit the Pompey style and who extend it. The academy output should be Pompey blue throughout so that the Blue Army rallying cry rouses their blood as much as it does ours.

I would love to see the Academy work with feeder clubs throughout all the continents but starting perhaps with Western Europe and moving east into Croatia for example. I am not advocating restricting our search for players to Europe (see above) but rather developing relationships with suitable clubs to bed in foreign players before bringing them into the Premier League.

I believe the Academy to be a bedrock for the future of Pompey Football Club and I believe that is what Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim believes as well.

Friday 10 July 2009

New Blog Page

I am indebted to my mate, Peter Hall, as usual, for pointing out that the link from my main blog page to here was at fault. I hope I have now rectified that mistake as I have plenty to say about Pompey.

At the moment Dr al-Fahim seems to have completed due diligence although there is no official confirmation. He is now undergoing the new and stringent FA test for a fit and proper person. The test has been upgraded since the disaster at Manchester City and the disgraced ex Thailand Prime Minister in 2008.

There was news that a business agreement was signed in Paris this week but that also hasn't been officially confirmed. SAF (the good doctor's initials used as a familiar nickname or acronym) and Peter Storrie, the chief executive and chairman of Pompey, are reputed to have met with Roberto Mancini in Paris although, guess what, that hasn't been officially confirmed either! He would be a great manager for the new Pompey having won three scuddettos with Inter Milan before being ousted by Mourinho. He has a smidgeon of PL experience with Leicester some time ago. However he is probably holding out for a guaranteed transfer budget - that's what all these managers do!

Crouch is getting restless and probably wants away. There are rumours that SAF wants to reduce the £60 million offered fir Pompey and I am not surprised after Glen Johnson was sold for millions and there is a £14 million bid in air for Crouch. These star players must lower the value of the club to a buyer. Who gets the money from these sales - the club or the current owner?

Anyway if Crouch was tempted to move away for £14 million I would accept the money as It would be a £5 million pound profit on what we paid for him last summer and that was probably paid off when we sold Johnson to Liverpool, Crouch's previous club. Crouch has done an excellent job for Pompey and if he wants away to a Champions' League side then good luck to him. However I think he and Johnson might end up regretting it especially if we do get Mancini and he is allowed to build a squad he wants.

Crouch joined us from Liverpool on double the wages he was getting there so he must be a top earner at the club and in the PL. This is one of the ways the previous manager but two helped get the club into financial difficulties - not by huge transfer fees but by inflated wages. Also the club seemed to have agreed to play Crouch in all games and at all costs. The entire system was geared around Crouch who is admittedly an excellent target man. However the club didn't have the attacking midfield or the wide players to give him the service and support he needed. He did well to score 16 goals and to keep us up last season. However I would like us to see us play better quality football with an attacking trio of pacy talented little midfielders playing with one or two speedy goalscoring strikers, and all four or five can interchange positions and roles. If Crouch can fit into such a set up then we should keep the current England striker but if not let's grab the money and start again.

Someone on Pompey Gossip suggested we could get Elano (Brazilian midfielder), Benjani (striker) and Dunne (defender) from Manchester City in return for that £14 million for Crouch. That seems like a bargain offer to me and would be a good start in reinforcing the present threadbare squad of 15 outfield players (including Crouch) and three goalkeepers.

Some else also suggested Klaus Jan-Huntelaar of Madrid supported by Aruna Dindane as his supporting striker. Huntelaar is 25 and his club have just accepted a £17.2 million offer from Stuttgart. The Dutchman is surplus to requirements at Madrid. This is another player we look like missing, although it is not yet a done deal as other clubs are reported to be interested and we might be one of them. Sky Sports only rate him as 5 or below average and out of touch. Aruna Dindane is 28 and the Ivory Coast team colleague of Didier Drogba. He is older than I would like but plays for Lens and is certainly in form.

Well back to waiting for confirmation that due diligence is completed, that SAF has passed the fit and proper person test, that SAF is now the new owner, that we have a new manager with a transfer budget, that we have new players coming in just in time to complete pre season in time for the new season on August 15th! Phew!