TrueBlueArmy Forums

When Accrington beat Pompey on last day the commentators pointed out that 5 of the side had been picked up by John Coleman from non league. Basically how they punch so far above their weight with good acquisitions that will be cheap in both 8nitial outlay and, at least initially, wages. Our recent attempts at the same game has uncovered a couple of gems but mainly failures, at least at league one level. Interesting to see Accrington are now signing, local Pompey lad, Tommy Leigh from Bognor Regis.

We really seem to be missing a trick here. I raved about Rob Atkinson at Eastleigh, a player totally in the Matt Clarke mould of good in air, on the ground and fantastic ability to bring the ball out of defence at his feet. Of course Oxford soon signed him, he became a regular, and made the League One PFA Team of the Year this season. Eastleigh currently have another gem, Joe Tomlinson. Are we even aware of this.

On the goalkeeper front is there a better keeper at lower league level than Vaclav Hladky at Salford. Trouble here, I expect, is he is likely to already be on a very decent wage so may not fit in with our current car boot sale purchase plans.

When it comes to infrastructure, Pompey is a big pile of sh1te.

One observation I would make is that the club is way too over reliant on the relationships of its individual personnel to identify talent. It’s understandable that managers will leverage these but you lose contacts fast as people come and go.

It looks like Portsmouth FC as a club does not have a steady relationship with local clubs across the leagues. We should have 20:20 vision into all the clubs below us, because we should be lending them academy players and in return we cast an eye over their squads.

Similarly, we should be first in line when Brighton, Bournemouth, Palace, (maybe not scum) have decent players they’re willing to loan out.

It should be at the CEO & Board-member level, putting these in place. It’s just another item in a long list where we underperform.

One thing I would have expected with American owners is a real progress on off-field structure throughout the club. It seems a long way off at present. I know they have propped us up during Covid but looking longer term are we moving forwards at all?

(12-06-2021, 03:38 PM)Pedalo_menders Wrote: [ -> ]One observation I would make is that the club is way too over reliant on the relationships of its individual personnel to identify talent. It’s understandable that managers will leverage these but you lose contacts fast as people come and go.

It looks like Portsmouth FC as a club does not have a steady relationship with local clubs across the leagues. We should have 20:20 vision into all the clubs below us, because we should be lending them academy players and in return we cast an eye over their squads.

Similarly, we should be first in line when Brighton, Bournemouth, Palace, (maybe not scum) have decent players they’re willing to loan out.

It should be at the CEO & Board-member level, putting these in place. It’s just another item in a long list where we underperform.

Chelski, Cobham training ground is probably the closest where our scouts should have a constant presence. 

They have the most players from a Premier League club out on loan.

Jason Cundy who played for us works for the club & I'm sure could earmark a few young players we could enquire about.

It goes against the grain but we should not right off Stains youth, they have a very good long term record of producing and playing top quality youngsters through to the very highest level.