Dave_S139 on the need, and soon, for some stability at Portsmouth Football Club.
June 3rd 2010; Portsmouth Football Club will cease to be a member of the Premiership and instead will be replaced by Blackpool. This will bring an inevitable end to seven eventful seasons in the top division and follows quickly on the heels of Avram Grant’s resignation.
Avram Grant quickly bought into the emotional ties that inflict most that become associated with Pompey. There are players from many different places who have played for numerous clubs but if they include the one based in Frogmore Road then it is Portsmouth that invariably remains closest to their hearts. Difficult to explain but that’s the way it is. There is something about Pompey – and Avram quite simply got it! For that reason, wherever he now goes in his career, he will have more than half an eye on the goings-on at Portsmouth. He will of course remain loyal and professional to whomever his employers may be but he knows and we know that the job that he really wanted was to finish that which he started at our club. Pompey is where he really wants to be but circumstances simply won’t allow it.
But as inevitable as Avram’s departure has been and as inevitable as Administration, Relegation and Papa Bouba Diop’s failure to score has been, our club MUST now quickly regain some much needed stability.
Against a background of departing loanees and summer sales we are set for another couple of months watching our club being put through the blender. But despite all of that, the priority must be to swiftly resolve both the CVA issue and then the ownership before finding a suitable man to place at the helm and hopefully steady the ship. Milan Mandaric spoke in 2003 when he first bought the club out of administration and said that “this club must never have to go through this again”. We, the fans, all cheered for it was precisely what we wanted to hear but here we are again, back at square one. Whether it’s Rob Lloyd’s man or somebody else, our new owner(s) whoever that may be will need to act quickly to reinforce the creaking foundations upon which Portsmouth Football Club is currently resting.
To Mr Andronikou I say that whatever criteria you use to measure whom should be best placed to take over our great club you must ensure that they are proper football people who offer genuine investment and a realistic, achievable and progressive business plan. We don’t want money lenders or faceless people who don’t even realise that a football is spherical; we’ve already had our share of those.
To the West Ham fans who dismiss Avram Grant’s credentials as not good enough to be the manager of their club I say “don’t”. You are getting a man of great integrity, loyalty and honesty who will be fair to you if you offer him the same courtesy. But, if you decide you really don’t want our Avram, we will happily take him back.
And finally, to Mr. Lloyd and anybody else out there who genuinely wants to buy Pompey and take it forward I say, “please hurry up”. There are thousands of people waiting to support this football club. You must understand that owners aren’t a particularly popular breed among Pompey fans right now and you will have to earn their respect and trust but they are ‘in waiting’ and ready to get behind their club in the way that they always have – 100%.
It’s not a wealthy city – and you need to know that – but the football club means more to the people of Portsmouth than has been immediately obvious of late. And despite everything that they have had to tolerate their loyalty to the cause is unquestionable and second to none anywhere. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Avram Grant.
Written by Dave_S139.
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.
