You would ‘think’, or at least ‘hope’ that football would learn from what has happened with Pompey? It doesn’t seem it does but tracyc knows it must.
I don’t think there is anyone involved in football in this country who isn’t aware of what has happened – and nearly happened – at Portsmouth this season. By involved, I mean everyone, fans, managers, players, owners, agents and the various kinds of journalists.
Most of them have a fairly over-simplistic view of what happened at Pompey and the causes, ignoring that when Gaydamak was putting in lots of money, he appeared to have it, and it was only after the foreclosure by the bank that he turned round and said it was all a loan that he wanted back, as well as ignoring what happened later with the other owners that have come in. Most of them just put it down to Portsmouth having spent over and above our means, and we have been roundly and viciously condemned for it. Even to the point where the other premier league clubs voted for Portsmouth to go to the wall last March.
So you would think, hope, that this had been a huge wake up call to everyone.
That’s why I can’t believe my eyes and ears lately. Take Aston Villa. I don’t know the reasons for O’Neill’s shock exit, but the suggestion has been he didn’t have a high enough transfer kitty. I’ve heard Villa supporters bemoaning that their chairman isn’t spending wildly above the club’s means, and god forbid making them a ‘selling club’. I’ve heard journalists express the view that most top managers wouldn’t want to go there if it’s a ‘selling club’.
I’ve read today that Ian Holloway is unhappy at Blackpool, because there isn’t much money to spend and there is a sensible-looking pay structure in place. Blackpool’s ground is smaller than Portsmouth’s. Does he really want them to do a Portsmouth? Really?
From listening to sports journalists, I get the impression that a football’s manager’s success is measured by the size of the transfer kitty he can get from his chairman. This has to stop. It has to become the case that managers get applauded for relative success within the means of their club and stop becoming complicit in this spending beyond those means.
I am really worried that Portsmouth is just the first of many, and there are no signs of the cultural changes that are needed to stop this rot. What’s the matter with everyone?
Written by tracyc.
The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.
