Paul Hart Named Portsmouth Boss

Posted on | July 22, 2009 | No Comments

So, Dr Al Fahim’s takeover is all but complete. Despite this, Peter Crouch is still set to leave and we have Paul Hart as our new (old) manager. Forgive me for making the most obvious comment you will find on the internet today, but this is hardly what we expected back in May when the takeover was announced!

To be fair, Al Fahim has never committed himself to anything in terms of player purchases etc. (probably partly because of his experience during the Manchester City takeover), instead limiting himself to statements about building up the club in the right way. But I think we all know that the deal has not gone to plan. Don’t get me wrong, I am still right behind him, but I now feel scepticism about the future rather than the excitement I expected. It is of course still possible that he will succeed in stabilising and developing the club off the pitch whilst gradually improving stature and reputation on it, but the fact that I feel it is such an awfully long way from here to there (before the takeover is even formally completed!) depresses me.

First look at the players we have signed. Sorry, player. Aaron Mokoena. I’m not going to discuss his strengths and weaknesses, but the fact that he couldn’t get into the Blackburn Rovers first team tells you all you need to know. Then just look at the trialists. Eugen Bopp. Released by Crewe Alexandra last season! Also have a look at our targets. James Perch of Nottingham Forest. Look at a player we reportedly missed out on. James McCarthy has just joined Wigan Athletic. Sven Goran Eriksson has just gone to Notts County for God’s sake! Yes, clubs can and do give trials to any player, and the lesser talents are by definition the ones who end up on trial, but Bopp is just one of the many clouds of smoke that point to a great big fire.

Another cloud is the appointment of Hart himself. Again, I am right behind him and he may turn out to be the right appointment (more chance of that if Brian Kidd returns, I feel) but his appointment undeniably shows that the club is desperately short of funds desite new ownership!

So what went wrong? There is a lot of conjecture in the press and on the internet, but from what I can work out, and it pains me to say it, The Sun may well have had an effect. It ought not to have done, as attempting to mount a takeover with mystery backers who wished to remain a mystery would represent foolishness in the extreme, but the one inconsistency in all Al Fahim’s statements was when he changed tack about who was providing the finance for the takeover. If Al Fahim was as rich as we were led to believe, there still should not have been a major issue, but the theory put forward by his ‘best friend’ on the infamous ‘Dr Al Fahim Blogspot’ sounds plausible to me. Perhaps he could not pay as much as originally intended and we now have a compromise deal which allows Sacha Gaydamak to pay off his debts (and sell our best players).

But I have been saying that Al Fahim and Paul Hart still have my support. They do. Hart has stated that he played the football he needed to play to avoid the drop last season. That his true style is much more attacking. It may well be, but it is the players who play the football, not the manager. I’ve already touched on the qualityof the players. Dr Sulaiman may have completed the deal he had to complete at the time, with a view to building the club in the long term. This is his stated objective. The problem is that it would appear he doesn’t have the money to do it.

One thing’s for sure. Pompey fans need a confidence boost. We have waited for this all summer after a turbulent season before, only to be anxious and despondent at the very point of completion. It would actually be the ultimate triumph to eventually realise all of the new Chairman’s stated ambitions starting with a shoestring first season, the cobbled together team guideed to safety by the wily old foxes Hart and Kidd. Indeed, we should all be behind the new regime until we are given reason to be otherwise, but at the moment it’s vastly more in hope than expectation. Very sad.

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