Selling Pedro Mendes!
I would totally agree with this, and as such of course voted that way as I would not say that appointing Tony Adams was exactly the wrong thing to do – ok, it might not have been the right thing but it was something that we had little or no option but to do given our financial standing at that time, plus who would have come in from outside to have had their hands tied as he did? Not many, if any! To be fair a large amount of Pompey fans did want this, and I would say more were for than again even if there were some ‘reservations’, to say the least, about this…
Selling Mendes was stupid for a variety of reasons for me:
* We sold a player that always gave everything for the club and was not lacking in quality either – quality that we would be crying out for throughout most of the season! He might not have quite been the same since he was ‘assaulted’ by the hooligan Ben Thatcher and ‘attacked’ by the thug Joey Barton but he still had more than enough about him.
* We sold him for peanuts! Did the measly £2.5m, or thereabouts, that we got for him really make that much difference? Did the savings on his wages, which although must have been pretty good would not have been astronomical really need to be made that desperately?
* We had already sold Sulley Muntari and of course Lassana Diarra was a nailed on certainty to be sold in January, so with the quality and flair that we already had ripped out of the team already ‘giving away more’ was strange to say the least…
Ok, the guy would have wanted to play more than he had been but surely he would have been – or at least should have been – one of the first names on the team sheet each week last season! I know ‘sacrifices’ had to be made, but that sacrifice is still one to this day that I think was the wrong one, well more than wrong, hence ‘the most stupid act of the season!’
Over the years we had sold so many players that gave their all for the club, we sold out this passion and commitment, and to be fair quality, for greater quality admittedly but when this greater quality looked to be being offloaded one at a time surely we needed to not only retain some of this, but that undoubted commitment to the club – something that Pedro had plenty of, but there you go.
These are the thoughts that were shared about him in the forum poll voting…
pompeyrug: ‘I guess I will kick off the comments then…
I went for ‘selling Mendes’ – with it obviously clear that our midfield was lacking, the very heartbeat being ripped out the decision to allow mendes, who would clearly have a part to play and had so much to offer was a very bad thing! I know we had to ‘balance the books’ but did the savings on his wages and the measly £3m, if that, we got for him really make that much difference?
We must have known that it was almost ‘nailed on’ that Diarra would leave in the January window so we would be even shorter than we already were?’
powered_by_pies: ‘I agree. Selling Mendes was one of the stupidest things ever done.
Oh how we need him right now. Thing is, even if we offered to throw untold amounts of cash at him, I doubt he’d come back. He’s just won the SPL title with Rangers, and he’s already seen as a hero oop narth. :-(‘
UKTony: ‘Mendes gets my vote.’
pompeycarpet: ‘It wasn’t just Mendes though. It was the fact that we sold three midfielders, and didn’t replace any of them!
(Basinas doesn’t count, as he didn’t play, and Mullins doesn’t count, because he’s worse than we had already!)’
Lemmi: ‘Yes it’s Mendes for me.’
Squee: ‘Mendes gets my vote too. Although Adams’ reign was woeful it couldn’t really have been predicted how bad it would have been and, as they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing.
The problems of selling Mendes on the other hand should have been thought out much better. I’m glad the fella’s enjoying himself up there in Glasgow – I should think the move from the sunny south coast was a bit of a culture shock!’
A decent number of votes in this one, so to see how this voting went click here.
Keep a look out for the other categories that will be appearing in the forum over the coming weeks…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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