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.
Monday 20 July 2009
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.
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!
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!
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