18-01-2022, 05:55 PM
I'm with you to a degree.
4 years of Jacketball really sucked all the fun out of going to the football. Even when we were going 20something games without winning when dropping through the leagues I still had more excitement for getting down the park or to an away match than the last 2 years of his tenure (save for a few select matches).
This season for me has been an odd one. I know it's cliche to say 'transistion season' but it was only ever going to be. Cowley inherited a team that was demonstrably not good enough to mount a sustained push for promotion and could not overhall the entire team in one transfer window. With that in mind some of the transfers have been pretty good (Morrell, Romeo, Hirst, Olgavie, Bazunu). He's also extracted a lot more from the likes of Raggett and Harness, the former who is in with a shout for our player of the season and the latter is on 10 goals and 2 assists.
I came into this season more enthusiastic than ever partly due to having been away for so long and partly because Jackett was no longer manager and whilst it's not been a perfect season, there are signs that progress is being made. Most of the deadwood has been shipped out (a few more to go) which frees up wages for players Cowley actually wants. If you look at the playing style we do win a lot of balls back high up the pitch we are just wasteful with it afterwards. Cowley bringing in players to suit this style will (fingers crossed) help. A lot of our goals have been well worked, started by us winning the ball high up or a combination of both, we just need more consistency. The MK dons match was a summation of our wastefulness in that they took the few decent chances they had and it took us 5 good chances to score 1. Lets hope that Hirst and the new geezer can sort that because right now we are relying on Harness to be the creater and finisher.
I think we'll finish just outside the playoffs but are a maybe 3/4 players short of a title pushing team. We desperately need a new LB, another CM and forward and a few more just to bulk the team out. If we see no progress by this time next season then I will be not be happy but it's not an instant fix.
I also think it's harsh to suggest the owners aren't invested in the club, whebn they are putting circa 20mil? into the stadium. The fact that 20mil only boosts the attendance by a 1000 or so is testament to 2 things, 1) it's fucking expensive to build a stadium. 2) FP has sadly been left to rot to the point it need a substatial investment just to break even on capacity.
With that in mind I would like to see more investment in the academy. I know we as a club have been notoriously shit at bringing through players for most of our existance, certainly for the time I've been following Pompey but aside from Bass we haven't had anyone decent come through in about 3 years. Close and Whatmough are established L1 players but that's it. I'm sure there are moves going on in the background that we don't know about so hopefully we'll starting seeing fruit being bared. I suppose investigting in the youth side of a club isnt something you notice working until your a few years down the line anyway.
Anyways I've talked for long enough, I'm making a habit of doing that on here but you all love me for it.
Play up Pompey
4 years of Jacketball really sucked all the fun out of going to the football. Even when we were going 20something games without winning when dropping through the leagues I still had more excitement for getting down the park or to an away match than the last 2 years of his tenure (save for a few select matches).
This season for me has been an odd one. I know it's cliche to say 'transistion season' but it was only ever going to be. Cowley inherited a team that was demonstrably not good enough to mount a sustained push for promotion and could not overhall the entire team in one transfer window. With that in mind some of the transfers have been pretty good (Morrell, Romeo, Hirst, Olgavie, Bazunu). He's also extracted a lot more from the likes of Raggett and Harness, the former who is in with a shout for our player of the season and the latter is on 10 goals and 2 assists.
I came into this season more enthusiastic than ever partly due to having been away for so long and partly because Jackett was no longer manager and whilst it's not been a perfect season, there are signs that progress is being made. Most of the deadwood has been shipped out (a few more to go) which frees up wages for players Cowley actually wants. If you look at the playing style we do win a lot of balls back high up the pitch we are just wasteful with it afterwards. Cowley bringing in players to suit this style will (fingers crossed) help. A lot of our goals have been well worked, started by us winning the ball high up or a combination of both, we just need more consistency. The MK dons match was a summation of our wastefulness in that they took the few decent chances they had and it took us 5 good chances to score 1. Lets hope that Hirst and the new geezer can sort that because right now we are relying on Harness to be the creater and finisher.
I think we'll finish just outside the playoffs but are a maybe 3/4 players short of a title pushing team. We desperately need a new LB, another CM and forward and a few more just to bulk the team out. If we see no progress by this time next season then I will be not be happy but it's not an instant fix.
I also think it's harsh to suggest the owners aren't invested in the club, whebn they are putting circa 20mil? into the stadium. The fact that 20mil only boosts the attendance by a 1000 or so is testament to 2 things, 1) it's fucking expensive to build a stadium. 2) FP has sadly been left to rot to the point it need a substatial investment just to break even on capacity.
With that in mind I would like to see more investment in the academy. I know we as a club have been notoriously shit at bringing through players for most of our existance, certainly for the time I've been following Pompey but aside from Bass we haven't had anyone decent come through in about 3 years. Close and Whatmough are established L1 players but that's it. I'm sure there are moves going on in the background that we don't know about so hopefully we'll starting seeing fruit being bared. I suppose investigting in the youth side of a club isnt something you notice working until your a few years down the line anyway.
Anyways I've talked for long enough, I'm making a habit of doing that on here but you all love me for it.
Play up Pompey