Tal Ben Haim was the pick of the bunch for me, and represents a good replacement for Sylvain Distin. I must admit to not knowing a lot about Kevin Prince Boateng, but I’ve always liked O’Hara, and (I say this through gritted teeth) Michael Brown made a good debut aginst Man City at the weekend. In terms of outgoings, I honestly can’t argue with any of them. If players do not want to be at the club, there is no point in keeping them. The way Kranjcar has played recently, he won’t be missed anyway. I also happen to think he is over-rated in any case. Distin has no international career to pursue, but I suppose at his age, you have to take any attractive opportunitie that come your way. The bottom line is, with what has been happening at the club recently, no player could be blamed for wanting to pursue a career elsewhere.

The exception to all this, of course, is David James. No doubt he would also have gone if a bid had come in, but he is the one player who could probably recover form that. He is also the one we most needed to stay. His presence will be essential if we are to be competitive from now on. He will need to get his head back together, but he will have no choice. His World Cup place depends on it, but a goalkeeper can maintain his form in a struggling side in a way an outfield player can’t.

It’s up front where I am most worried. I feel rather than spending £2m on a Championship central defender, Paul Hart should have been busting a gut to acquire another striker instead. We have Hreidarsson and Wilson who can play at the back as well as Kaboul and Ban Haim. Up front we have Piquionne, Smith, and Dindane. I’m not convinced by Smith but am much happier to have him than the incompetent Nugent, who signed off with another howler aginst City. We have obviously not seen Dindane yet, but I just have a horrible feeling he is going to be injury prone. This is not based on fact of any sort, and I hope I am wrong. Just a hunch. We also have the indefatigable Kanu, who has just signed a new one year deal. We may just be needing him more than last season, although he looked good against City. But he must be in his forties now! I just have this nagging feeling that it is scoring goals which is going to be our achilles heel, even after the transfer window. Didn’t we try and get Benjani?

Anyway, at least the Pompey faithful are now hopeful that we can now get our season off the ground against Bolton in ten days’ time. That’s more than we could imagine a week ago, but it’s still going to be an uphill battle. If we can make a decent fist of it, though, it should be a more emjoyable season than the last one!

Now, I’m an optimist by nature but I’m sure those who have read this blog over the past few days had noticed that like most other Pompey fans, I had become demoralised. Even with the Al Fahim takeover still clearly not complete and its potency unknown, things now look brighter. I couldn’t bring myself to mention Dindane yesterday, fearing that despite ‘the photo’, the deal had fallen through due to the failure of Peter Storrie’s takeover bid. In fact, it looks like the sale of Sylvain Distin has allowed it to finally happen. If that is the case, the right decision has been made, especially when you consider the player wasn’t happy. Somehow I think the success of Storrie’s consortium would have seen him stay.

There are still issues to contend with, not least the Distin-shaped hole in the middle of defence. The jury also remains out on Hart in my opinion, but with a couple more signings, this doubt must now soon be resolved. He should soon have enough at his disposal to play the way he wants. Not enough to stay clear of the relegation battle, but enough to show his true colours, if he hasn’t already. I truly hope he hasn’t already. If not, he must have an extremely low opinion  his current attacking options.

So, all this optimism is likely to disappear on Sunday when we play Manchester City! But I say that tongue in cheek, because in reality it won’t. Even a heavy defeat will probably be the result of  a few new signings failing to gel, or simply a huge gulf in class. I believe we may see a spirited performance. My only footballing worry is that Paul Hart will be shown to lack the motivational and tactical skills needed for Premier League management, but yesterday I would have been delighted had that been my major concern. The Al Fahim issue clearly isn’t over yet, but today no Portsmouth fan has the energy to care about that. We should congratulate Peter Storrie for his hard work and commitment in the face of adversity recently, and then ask him to consider lowering the prices in order to try and create the atmosphere we will need at Fratton Park this season. A Chief Exec’s work is never done, Peter! But he has managed to convince us that we have a fighting chance today, and that is all we ask at the moment! Play Up Pompey!

Without going over old ground, the squad we boasted a year to two years ago wasn’t sustainable, as we now know. But, providing we get through these tough times in anything like reasonable shape, let’s be grateful for the players that were here, even if their legacy was near financial meltdown. I say that because thier ultimate legacy was a major trophy, the FA Cup. It will be that indelibly marked in the record books in years to come, not the problems we are facing now.

I’m not saying we’re going to come out of this situation scott free. The takeover is yet to be completed after all (just to remind those who didn’t know!). But, despite the tiresome, never ending nature of it, I genuinely believe the signs are looking more positive in the last few days. SURELY, Al Fahim would not leave it until after the season had begun to pull out?! I believe if he were going to do that, it would have happened by now. At risk of starting a riot amongst Pompey fans, he gave a very positive interview on ArabianBusiness.com this week. You can read it here. I know, more words and still no action, but you must admit he does give a good interview, and the timing of it so close to the opening of the new season suggests the moment for the collapse of the deal has passed.

Paul Hart has also explicitly stated today that any further player sales will be his choice. A very bold assertion, and one that he would not make in public like that unless he was very confident. This brings me on to the state of the squad, very pertinent now we are staring the new season on the face.

The win against Rangers has given me real optimism that our squad is not as poor as the ‘pundits’ would have us believe. I know it was only a pre season friendly, but Rangers did beat Manchester City a few days earlier. I think the most important thing about that game was the confidence boost it should have given the players, given how well they gelled as a team.  I would still like another striker (perhaps not Mark Viduka), but Frederic Piquionne at least showed that he is has pace, presence and can finish. He just has to produce that now over a season!

Same with Paul Hart, really. I didn’t enjoy the end of last season! I hope he’s got some more attacking football up his sleeve. The Rangers game would suggest so, but he has a lot to prove. It may be easier in a way without the shock of last season’s unfolding events weighing him down. But has he got the players to do it?

Let’s assume we only add to the squad from now on. We still have an England goalkeeper. Fulham, who finished seventh last season, have a good one too in Mark Schwarzer. We still have Distin and also Kaboul and Finnan for example. Fulham have Hangeland but not much else to impress at the back. Our midfield almost looks better than theirs! We still have Kranjcar and now Diop is returning to fitness. Basinas can pass a ball if he can ever secure a starting place. Fulham have Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu. Up fron Fulham do look stronger with Kamara (!), Johnson, and Zamora (?). Kanu will be a bit part player at best, and Nugent isn’t good enough. John Utaka has a real opportunity this season to fulfil the potential I believe he has. Anyway, Fulham finished seventh last season. My point is, our squad must compare favourably with the Burnleys and Hulls of this world. Granted, new signings such as Vanden Borre have to be at least a relative success, but with good management and team spirit can inspire a modest set of players to great heights as Roy Hodgson and Fulham showed last season. Paul Hart and the players (and one or two new ones) need to step up to the mark.

This week it really is apt because we haven’t got a clue what is going to happen between now and then! The takeover may have completed, it may have fallen through (remember, I reckon on or the other is going to happen this week!), or it may have completed accompanied by a sense of depression that Al Fahim blatantly doesn’t have any money! In any case, we need to expect the worst. The events of the last two months, if not the last fifty years (largely) have taught us that.

The thing is, despite the fact that Paul Hart’s managerial mettle has yet to be proven, he is the only one we can believe in at the club at the moment, if only on the level that he is doing his best under difficult circumstances. But more importantly, whether Paul Hart says it or not, it is blatantly obvious that that is what we need to do on Saturday. Get behind the team with the kind of backs to the wall mentality that hasn’t been needed since the great escape.

And be honest, that’s when Pompey matches are at their best isn’t it? Huddersfield and Bradford away, going to Middlesbrough on a freezing midweek night in ‘92 and winning 4-2, Manchester City and Wigan a couple of years back? They were some of the best games, with the best atmospheres, I’ve ever been to, INCLUDING winning the FA Cup at Wembley.

So, with everyone fed up to the back teeth of talking about this takeover, today’s message is simple. Get defiantly behind the lads on Saturday and sweep them to a victory which could be precious come the end of the season. As for the takeover, I think Peter Storrie has the right idea. Wait and see, just wait and see.

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.

That’s right, I want to talk about American Football. Although you’ll see this is really about soccer (!) football. I went through a phase in the mid 80s of watching American Football every week. It was easy to do so as an eight year old boy because it was shown by way of a weekly highlights programme, Sunday evening on Channel 4. The host was Mick Luckhurst, a British guy who had made it big in the NFL as a kicker with the Atlanta Falcons. I think there was also a bearded fella called Nicky Horne who may have preceded Luckhurst, and later there was Gary Imlach. I was taken by the drama of it, but of course the game (short bursts of action separated by long interludes where the clock stops, meaning that a game with a playing time of an hour can go on for three) lends itself to this type of highlights package. Even now, live matches (apart from the Superbowl perhaps) would be a bit much. I will never buy a Sky subscription either, so the only way I will ever really watch it again is if the highlights format comes to Freeview. The Chicago Bears were my team by the way. They had William ‘The Refrigerator’ Perry and Walter Payton. They beat the New England Patriots to win the Superbowl for the first time in ages I think and have done pretty much nothing in the twenty-five years since!

The Arsenal Chief Executive, Ivan Gazidis, recently called for a salary cap in an article in the Guardian. You can read it here. In it, he refers to the cap operated in American Football. The thing about American Football is that the team with the worst record in one particular year might turn it round the next to become top dogs. Why? A combination of the college draft system and the salary cap, probably. The draft system means that the worst teams get the first pick of the top college players, and the best have to wait until last. Now of course we don’t have the same college (or University) sports system here, but we still used to have the situation where a promoted team team could go straight on and challenge for the league title the following season. Nottingham Forest achieved that under Brian Clough thirty years or so ago. Not only that, they immediately went on to win the European Cup twice in a row. Like the NFL today, they were only able to do that because our league was truly competitive. Today, it is not, and that is because money and greed is spiralling out of control.

The NFL is rich, the players are paid more than most people could even dream of, and yet competition is equalised. The integrity of the product is maintained. I have no problem with players earning big salaries but things are getting obscene now. How much do they need? Manchester City have reportedly recently offered Samuel Eto’o £180,000 a week! £180,000 a year would be more than enough for him to pay for a bit of financial advice and be secure for the rest of his life. We’re not even talking about sponsorship deals or image rights here!

For now, we seem to be stuck with the model that sees TV money providing the main income for football clubs in this country. In turn, rich investors are attracted. But more of this money needs to go into improving club infrastructure and facilities, and nurturing young talent. Not into the pockets of established stars. The level of wages seems especially distasteful in the current economic climate, and although fans no longer pay the players’ wages, the TV companies still pay to show games in full stadiums with a good atmosphere. Without the fans there would be no football.

 There were few changes to the Championship winning team, Portsmouth’s books actually revealing a credit balance on transfers of £16,400! The Champions started the season well enough with a 3-1 win at Newcastle United, but were up and down after that. There was a defeat at home to Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool, interspersed with a 5-1 win at Middlesbrough and a 7-0 thrashing of Everton at Fratton Park. On 1st October league leaders Wolves visited Fratton Park, and for the first and only time. more than 50,000 spectators crammed into the ground for a league game. A 1-1 draw left Pompey in seventh, but only three points behind Wolves. The title race was to remain tight for the rest of the season.

Large scale merchandising was still a thing of the future in those days and in the 15th October Football Mail, Pompey Championship ties were advertised at Landports Drapery (which later became Allders). Portsmouth didn’t have a club shop until the late 1960s and the only items visible in club colours amongst the crowd tended to be scarves and rosettes. But one supporter of the time, Cyril Lucas, recalls that the absence of large scale commercialism aded to the sense of occasion on match day. ‘When I stood on the north terrace opposite the tunnel, I couldn’t wait until the players came up the tunnel. I was just so full of pride when I saw those royal blue shirts and that star and crescent badge. That shirt was only worn by the eleven players – no-one else wore it, unlike the replica shirts you see these days – and you wouldn’t see it again until the next match. It was Pompey’s pride and glory and a huge cheer went up when the players ran out.’

Even the players had to supplement their wages! Eleven of them commissioned photographers to take individual and team photos, which were then sold privately to supporters and through newspapers.

Pompey continued to be up and down, and a feature of the season was that the team was far more unsettled than in the previous campaign. More players were used, and more than one found themselves making their solitary Pompey appearance as they covered for injuries.

Portsmouth were drawn against Third Division (South) Norwich City in the FA Cup third round and underperformed in the Fratton Park tie, drawing 1-1. In another example of how similar football fans are both then and now, consider this letter to the Football mail in the aftermath of the game. ‘I think this was a disgusting show for a first division team. Almost 20 years at the Park and I have never seen anything like it…If Pompey want to make a show in the Cup or league they have to go out and buy a couple of forwards in my opinion. I reckon Pompey are the meanest club of all divisions for paying out, and may I finish up, If Pompey do not win on Thursday (the replay), my old woman will be having more of my company on Saturday afternoons in the future.’ As I said, nothing changes!

Going into March, four points separated the top seven with Pompey in fourth behind Manchester United, Liverpool, and Sunderland. Portsmouth continued to stutter, losing 2-1 at Derby with Jimmy Scoular sent off. This was a huge incident in the days when it was extremely difficult to even receive a booking, and the issue hung over Pompey for weeks before the relevant FA committee was due to meet to discuss punishment. But, it seemed to be the title that nobody wanted to win as other teams also dropped points.

Going into the crucial game against leaders Manchester United at Old Trafford on 15th April, four points separated the top six, with Pompey lying third, a point behind the leaders. Reid and Froggatt scored in the last six minutes for a priceless 2-0 win. Second placed Sunderland lost at home to Manchester City. Pompey were now in pole position with three games to go, and could become the first club to retain the Championship since Arsenal’s hat-trick of titles was completed in 1935.

Pompey won their next game against Liverpool, and results that day showed that one win from two was now required to retain the Championship. The next game was at Highbury, never a happy hunting ground. Pompey had never won there at the time, and slumped to a 2-0 defeat. But the maths still held and a win in the final match at home to Aston Villa would be enough, barring an improbable 20 goal haul by Wolves in their last match.

This was the era of goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded), and Pompey’s was vastly superior. From the moment they scored after 20 seconds of the game at Fratton Park, the result was never in doubt and they ran out 5-1 winners. The Championship was retained. The next team to achieve the feat was Manchester United’s Busby Babes in 1957. Portsmouth had proved themselves the best team in the country.

Despite this, the press failed to recognise the achievement. Alex James of the Daily Express, a distinguished former Arsenal striker, reserved his choice of team of the year for Second Division Champions Tottenham Hotspur. ‘Don’t think I’m knocking Pompey,’ he said, ‘it takes a wonderful side to win the league championship two years running.’ He evidently considered it more wonderful to win the Second Division once than to win the First twice!

That reminds me, I must catch up on the latest installment of ‘Pompeygate’.

After reading and digesting, there doesn’t seem to be much to digest! The central revelation in Saturday’s article in The Sun by Shaun Custis, seems to be that a few people involved in running the Premier League and a couple of the clubs within it, actually know each other! 

Then there is Sunday’s News of the World article by Andy Dunne and Rob Shepherd, featuring Peter Crouch. Peter Storrie has called Crouch’s comments ‘disappointing’, which they are, but you can bet the journalists didn’t need much encouragement to turn them into another sensationalist article with Portsmouth Football Club as its target.

These people have made no secret of their intention to throw mud at Portsmouth at every opportunity. The best response, of course, is to sit tight, wait for the takeover to be completed, and watch the club go from strength to strength. 

Mike Hall puts it better than I ever could in his article today on the Pompey Rivals website. The main thrust of his article is to ask the question, ‘Why would Thaksin Shinawatra remain in the background, in secret, as the true owner of the club whilst unable to allow anyone to discover this?’. The very idea is ludicrous, especially when you consider that Al Fahim is considerably richer than Shinawatra in any case. 

In my mind, the issue was more to do with Shinawatra being one of a number of investors. However, it still doesn’t stack up. It could be argued that Shinawatra is the very person who caused the introduction of the Premier League’s ‘fit and proper person’ test in the first place! Why then would someone of the calibre of Al Fahim even take the idea of involving Shinawatra remotely seriously, knowing the takeover would be doomed to failure? Nice try Shaun, but no-one’s buying it I’m afraid.

For the flip side of the coin, the BBC today carries a report drawing heavily on quotes from Al Fahim’s spokesman, Ivo Ilic Gabara. See the full article here, but let’s just touch on some of the content.

Amongst other things, he says that the purchase is being made by Al Fahim Asia Associates, the Dr’s sole vehicle. I am sure that I heard the purchase was in the form of a consortium (and not just from The Sun!), but in any case Gabara goes on to say that if any investor ends up owning more than 10% of the club, full details will be disclosed, as per the rules. No ambiguity there, then. The Sun’s latest revelation today is that Hydra Properties is part of a group owned by the brothet of Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour. Well, Gabara addresses this in revealing that Al Fahim does not own a single share in Hydra Properties.

Unfortunately, we do seem to be in for a long wait with Al Fahim’s camp refusing to commit to a timescale for completion any shorter than ’some time in July’, but the spokesman does say that focus on the deal has become even more heightened recently.

The protracted timescale won’t help the current speculation, or the apparent insecurity of the players, but I will swap that any day for a squeaky clean (how could it be anything but?) completed takeover. I believe anyone except Glen Johnson jumping ship in the meantime will be losing more than they gain. My moneys’ still on Al Fahim.

I have attached a rational article on this (amongst the panic) taken from the Vital Pompey site. It was written by one of the stalwarts of the site, ‘pompeyrug’:

It is easy to worry, to start shuffling a little uneasily with the amount of time that Dr SAF’s proposed takeover of Pompey seems to be taking – but these things do take time, they do not happen overnight, granted ours seems to be taking forever but a date in July was always the date – from the time the deal was made public – that was targeted to be the completion date of those involved in the deal and for information that has been said to me by a couple of people, and nothing has changed …

I think that The Guardian’s title of the article they ran that mentions the time it will take to go through was misleading in many ways, but not in others.

Misleading as the deal is not in as much jeopardy as it might be made to look or in as much ‘limbo’ as it might seem but not misleading in some ways as far as the ‘limbo’ thoughts go – we are facing the prospect of being left in limbo as we cannot appoint a manager not to mention several players’ contracts I would guess end at the end of this month, so what do we do? We cannot offer new deals as the new manager might not want them to stay, nor can we send them away as they might! The possibility of going onto rolling weekly deals could happen, but is that likely?

Now that is the limbo we face, and not so much a limbo stat for plenty that I expected to be released, but limbo for some that I hope we can keep…

Dr SAF’s spokesman Ivo Ilic Gabara had this to say, admitting that the deal ‘could’ still fail to go through, but not saying it would not, to be fair they are just being honest: ‘what I can tell you is that from the beginning the timescale hoped to complete due diligence (will be) in the course of July. Any due diligence process is open to any outcome. The due diligence process is a very serious process after which the two parties decide whether to complete the understanding that was reached (under) the memorandum of understanding.

‘But then you have accountants, lawyers, the other party – how can you control whether the other party (the current owner, Alexandre Gaydamak) at the end of due diligence is still going to be interested in selling? What I can say is that Al Fahim very much wants to complete the process and the acquisition and sees a great future for the club.’

His people will ‘meet the full requirements of the Premier League’ to ensure that the fit and proper tests are past with it also said that ‘if there are investors that fall within the criteria for disclosure under league rules we’ll disclose them.’

This is a very complex process, that takes time and to be honest I really do not think that details of this from such an early stage were meant to be leaked when they were, the British media had no idea of this on-going deal so would they have, had it not been for arabianbusiness.com, who broke this – maybe with some ‘hint’ from those involved?

But any suggestion of this being a ‘publicity stunt’ were shot down though: ‘certainly not. Whoever spoke about a publicity stunt?

‘He was engaged to broker the deal (with City) which he did very successfully. This is a very serious (transaction) that also has social implications for the club and its fans for which Al Fahim has given very serious and very thorough consideration.’

Like I say this is a time consuming and complex matter, and I would imagine even more so with the new ‘fit and proper persons act’.

Not to mention we are talking an £80m deal, or probably thereabouts – this is not small change and is bigger than anything that this club has ever seen, with the potential to offer us things that we have always needed but never seriously thought would be possible. Anyone buying into this needs to make sure they know what they are getting into and they also need to make sure they can prove to the premier league that they know who they are letting into our club!

As put to me in a conversation I had ‘the man is spending tens of thousands of pounds just to proceed with the due diligence, he is serious but there is a process that needs to be followed.’

With another point we need to think about, and take into account highlighted ‘we might remember all the mud that came our way when we didn’t in the past and were regarded as somewhat of a dodgy cowboy outfit.’

I share the frustrations of everyone, I want the deal done but once again cannot but stress the need for ‘patience’. We have July, and quite possibly mid July as a target date then ’schedules’ will be met I am sure.

Of course, this is Pompey we are talking about so nothing is ever easy, so given past histories and false dawns that we have seen there will be a ‘cautious’ nature taken by many, and that is not a bad thing, but lets just keep it at cautious and not pessimistic – the deal will go through, but needs to go through right.

I do not really know much, if anything, about other deals going on so I am just making assumptions which could be well off but Sunderland might have seen their deal go smoothly, but, and like I say I do not know much about the deal they have done but I think the guy that had bought into them was already involved in some way with the club? Was he not already on the board with a certain percentage stake already? The West Ham deal appears to be a different type of deal and with Newcastle no longer in the premier league, if a deal goes through the ‘fit and proper’ rules might not be as stringent outside of the premier league, which marches to its own beat…

Like I have said before, the deal will go through, but as I keep stressing here, and have done in the past, it will take time.

If we could at least bring in a manager that would be a start, and hopefully all being well within the next few weeks – as the deal nears its completion we can at least do that to bring in another level of stability. Players being left in limbo is a worry and missing out on players, albeit free agents, is another concern as we could be missing a trick with some of these but what can you do…

I know that I would rather it took time and we got this done than be faced with the future we looked to be being faced with, wouldn’t you?

PLAY UP POMPEY!

Today we’ll have a quick look at the attributes and drawbacks of the three main candidates, but first, here’s a summary of what we know so far about their chances of being appointed.

Slaven Bilic – seems to be the new favourite with his agent having reportedly said that he would be very interested in taking over. The trouble is, according to Sky Sports News, Rudi Vata isn’t his agent! That’s a classic, even by the standards we are seeing on this issue at the moment! Another story in the Portsmouth News today has a journalist friend of his saying that, although Bilic wishes to see through the qualifying campaign with Croatia, ‘he believes’ that Bilic would be interested in combining the two roles. It’s done and dusted, then.

Roberto Mancini – is the subject of my favourite managerial non-story so far. An article in today’s News says that, wait for it, Portsmouth have not contacted Mancini over the vacant position! That’s right, there has been no contact. In fact, Mancini’s agent is quite unequivocal about it. “We have not heard anything from Portsmouth. There is no news at this moment.” Wow.

Sven Goran Eriksson – Poor Sven has been left out a bit, but I think I’m right in saying that Dr AlFahim himself said last week that Sven was not on his shortlist.

I refuse to mention the other guy.

Moving on to their strengths and weaknesses, assuming that the eventual new manager will be one of these three (I think it will):

Bilic – seems to have done a very good job with Croatia, although they are struggling to qualify a little this time around. He has played in the Premier League, albeit 10 years ago. The problem for me is that he has never managed a club side, with the day to day involvement and the responsibility for tranfers that this entails. 3rd choice of three for me, although I wouldn’t be unhappy with him given some of the other names out there at the moment.

Mancini – a successful club manager. I think I’m right in saying he won three Serie A titles in a row with Inter. Dr Al Fahim has his own connections with that club, of course. The problem is his ongoing contractual dispute with Inter. If it’s rumbled on this long already, will he compromise enough to allow him to become a Premier league manager? A better choice than Bilic for me.

Sven – I’ve included him here because he would be my choice, so there! Great experience of the English game. Managerial experience here too, and relative success with a City team that was better than it is now. They didn’t want to see him go, and some of his team were talented young English players. The careers of Michael Johnson and Micah Richards have certainly both taken a dip since he left. So, he can spend money, but he can also nurture talent. He is also the only one that is a free agent! I’m not sure I would want my manager going off to manage a national side every couple of months, although you could argue that most of the players are away during those times anyway. I think the Doctor has ruled him out so that other potentially interested parties are not alerted to the requirement to act quickly! Just thought I would join in the speculation.

Anyway, it’s still as clear as mud with two of these candidates tied up and the other seemingly ruled out. I somehow still believe the new manager will be one of these three, but there may still be some twists and turns to come.

As I said,  I refuse to mention the fourth guy.