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.