Jackett had left him a pretty hard task to make the play-offs but having reached the final game against Acrrington he and the players should have, at least, given us a victory. He then found himself in a position where he had to get rid of his better players as they were out of contract, a reduced budget or as a 'punishment' demanded by the majority of the fans for failing four years running.
He knew he was stuck with the high earners and had to put together an experienced squad on limited resources. Overall he didn't do too bad a job and aided by some kind fixtures we were off to a reasonable start but then the wheels came off, 4 at Rotherham and then another four to Ipswich here at Fratton just three days set the alarm bells ringing.
Since then he has turned it right around and we've gone ten games unbeaten and despite covid postponements we continue to maintain a healthy position just outside the play-offs.
Cowley would have you believe that are rich benefactors from across the pond gave him the backing to land Romeo, Ogylvy and Morrell.....arguably our three best players. Any Pompey fan looking at the squad for tomorrow evening can see that in defence and midfield we have the numbers and the quality to push on but upfront we have virtually nothing unless you count Curtis and Harness as out and out strikers (not in my view).
I like the guy (Cowley) enormously but when he talks about the problems of attracting new players I get very frustrated when I hear 'too far south', 'price of property' and 'we're surrounded by water'. This is to glaze over that for a famous debt-free club going for promotion we don't pay the wages because the owners have no genuine ambition. Loan players are loan players (five months tops) so those factors don't come into play. The fact that we are severely disadvantaged by our extremely unfortunate geo-economic location seems to have coincided with the arival of our American cousins; it's an excuse.
Nobody will dispute that we need to strengthen up front and possibly another central defender. The onus is on the Eisners to back their manager to show that they actually do have some kind of ambition. I fear that they won't and that may leave Cowley with a dilemma as to whether to stay or go.
The excuses are really ratcheting up unfortunately.
Beginning of December he was talking about 4-5 players coming in.
End of December this drops to 3-4 players.
The soundbites coming out now say 2-3 players.
2-3 is all we need IMHO. 1 full-price CF is the absolute priority. If we get nothing else I'll still be happy. With Robertson back, we have a perfectly good deputy in Olgilvie. We have enough midfielders though if we can afford another near-top player then fine. A bad string of injuries again would not help us for sure, but it's very difficult to get decent players in January as we all know. What I want to see more than anything else is 100% commitment from the players (which we've not always had), getting into the playoffs is 2nd. Promotion is 3rd.
The fewer January signings the better IMO.
A new centre forward, a young loan striker, and replacement for anyone else that leaves (e.g Downing, Azeez) are all we need.
2 would me. A CB and a striker
Maybe we should be looking at the Africa Cup of Nations?
There may be a young striking talent that may relish the chance to bang goals in at League 1 level, and (dreaming here) get promoted to the championship?
If they were that talented - everyone else would be looking at them too.
I'll get me coat.
Will Bass be going out on loan ?
He can`t be a happy bunny surely.
We need him here in case of injury to Baz or loss of form.
Not a good career move though is it ?
If we can't offload Downing and Marquis, we will just have to wait til the summer. Whatever happens between now and next season DC knows what he needs. Signing just 2 players now would still mean a hell of a lot of work to do in the summer. But what will be will be.
Bass should be starting for every game for Pompey, no question. Incredibly short sighted to be using Baz (as good as he is). Why deliberately block the progress of a home grown player proven to be ready for first team football?
(11-01-2022, 03:07 PM)Isaac Hunt Wrote: [ -> ]Not a good career move though is it ?
No it's not but if we need him as understudy then tough. He could always work hard and force his way back in.
(11-01-2022, 03:22 PM)Pedalo_menders Wrote: [ -> ]If we can't offload Downing and Marquis, we will just have to wait til the summer. Whatever happens between now and next season DC knows what he needs. Signing just 2 players now would still mean a hell of a lot of work to do in the summer. But what will be will be.
Bass should be starting for every game for Pompey, no question. Incredibly short sighted to be using Baz (as good as he is). Why deliberately block the progress of a home grown player proven to be ready for first team football?
Who says his progress is being blocked ? He looks better every time we see him, working with Bazanu is clearly doing him good. Having said that getting a loan deal for the next 3 months would probably do him good too.
Either way he will be ready to start next season as first chpice ... and much more ready than he was this season.
"Whos says his progress is being blocked?" If you're not even willing to accept that playing is better than sitting on a bench, there's no point in even discussing the topic Deep. Jesus wept.
(11-01-2022, 05:06 PM)Pedalo_menders Wrote: [ -> ]"Whos says his progress is being blocked?" If you're not even willing to accept that playing is better than sitting on a bench, there's no point in even discussing the topic Deep. Jesus wept.
All I'm saying is that on the evidence of our own eyes he is still improving despite not playing regularly. Good training can have that effect.
Let's face it...The yanks don't want to pay championship wages, so we're stuck in Div 1 for god knows how longh.
(11-01-2022, 06:16 PM)foxleyblue Wrote: [ -> ]Let's face it...The yanks don't want to pay championship wages, so we're stuck in Div 1 for god knows how longh.
Sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about. Do you ever listen to Eisner??
Lots of headlines about players we are missing out on. Not too many about incoming. They've done well to give Harrison & Downing the boot though. But assuming we have a mediocre Jan, we have the following players to replace/secure next year:
All listed are not contracted to Pompey next year:
Bazunu - replace with back up for Bass
Romeo - needs retaining
Downing - needs replacing
Brown - needs replacing
Williams - needs replacing
Marquis - needs replacing
Hirst - needs replacing
Ahadme - needs replacing
Azeez - needs replacing
Harrison- needs replacing
Jacobs - needs retaining
Louis Thompson - needs retaining
Twelve players! That's a huge amount of work to do.
(11-01-2022, 06:52 PM)Rocketman Wrote: [ -> ] (11-01-2022, 06:16 PM)foxleyblue Wrote: [ -> ]Let's face it...The yanks don't want to pay championship wages, so we're stuck in Div 1 for god knows how longh.
Sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about. Do you ever listen to Eisner??
Erm, I thought I had. but perhaps I missed one of his speeches?
Pedalo, some of em already gone
(12-01-2022, 06:35 PM)dsmg Wrote: [ -> ]Pedalo, some of em already gone
Yeh gone but not replaced yet. The loans you would assume will be replaced by other loans so the total number of players to bring in remains the same.
Its tricky because you don't want to get in crap players if that's all that is available in Jan
I'm just forecasting that there is an absolute mountain to climb still in terms of squad building.
(12-01-2022, 06:05 PM)foxleyblue Wrote: [ -> ] (11-01-2022, 06:52 PM)Rocketman Wrote: [ -> ] (11-01-2022, 06:16 PM)foxleyblue Wrote: [ -> ]Let's face it...The yanks don't want to pay championship wages, so we're stuck in Div 1 for god knows how longh.
Sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about. Do you ever listen to Eisner??
Erm, I thought I had. but perhaps I missed one of his speeches?
He is on the record several times (as is his son Eric) for saying he wants Championship football this year (the links are on the PFC web), and "eventually" Premiership. Now of course saying it and doing what is needed are not the same thing, but he IS doing what he said at the Portsmouth Town Hall meeting, viz invest in the infrastructure, build from the bottom, and not waste stupid money. That was also before Covid hit and all the stupidity around that, that cost him a lot of money bailing us out.
We needed to bin/ replace 5 players if possible this window. Downing and Harrison have gone and Ahadme looks to be going very soon. Hopefully we can sell Marquis and return Azeez. I would settle for a new CB and goalscorer and hopefully a left wing back type on loan.
(13-01-2022, 11:16 AM)bluetagagain Wrote: [ -> ]We needed to bin/ replace 5 players if possible this window. Downing and Harrison have gone and Ahadme looks to be going very soon. Hopefully we can sell Marquis and return Azeez. I would settle for a new CB and goalscorer and hopefully a left wing back type on loan.
In an ideal world I'd agree Bluetag but it isn't unfortunately. To shift 3 players so far is a result.
The Biggest Problem is Marquis & I can't see any club in England buying him as too High Wages & Too Low Form.
Maybe we loan him out to a lower Div 1 or Div 2 side & pay 50% of his wages until the Summer. Unless we can ship him abroad.
Azeez is a slightly different situation. Technically very gifted on the ball but struggling off it.
He's on a Season Loan agreement so we can't just send him back to Arsenal.
But maybe Arteta will agree to swop him for the young CH DC has watched a couple of times.
The other very long chance would be to ask if we can have Charlie Patino until the end of the season.
He is their most outstanding young attacking midfield player in the club & scored after 5 minutes sub appearance against the Mackems recently. He started against Forrest on Sunday & struggled but the whole team played badly. If they will allow him out on loan it will be a real coup for DC.
if they let Jacobs go which I don't agree with we will need a very experienced replacement & Jack Willshire is still looking for a club. He's been injury free for some time now & really is a class player bit like Paul Merson was but slightly younger. Only problem is a few Championship sides like QPR sniffing around.
Jermaine Defoe is available.