24-04-2023, 03:03 PM
(24-04-2023, 02:23 PM)blueandwight Wrote: Our final finishing position will almost certainly hinge on the last game of the season against mighty Wycombe Wanderers.
A pretty meaningless game but it's at Fratton so, yet again, there'll be around 18,000 there.
We will finish 8th or 9th.
Don't really understand why the majority of Pompey fans are up in arms with yet another failure to escape this league.
Why? Well it's easy. If your playing budget is at a similar level what more can you expect?
By the way if you do a little bit of research on the internet you can get a fairly accurate estimate of our playing budget. Similarly you'll also discover that are owners' wealth is in the region of £1 billion.
What can the fans do to address the problem? Regrettably, in my view, absolutely nothing because we all know that come the first home game of the new season in August we'll have about 13,000 season ticket holders and the gate, whoever we're playing, will be in excess of 18,000.
Don't worry though, financial stability and careful progress off the pitch in a sustainable fashion means that we should be more than happy to be contesting with the likes of MK Dons, Cambridge, Fleetwood, Port Vale and Co. Where's the problem?
All very sad.
You do not need to 'do research on the internet' to get a good idea of our playing budget. The club is very open about the numbers ... we have a competitive budget, about 6th in the league at the club's estimate.
And what has the owner's wealth got to do with it ? They could have 100bn or 1bn, but they have stated very clearly that they would not fund unsustainable levels of playing budgets, and that their spending would be on the infrastructure to support that ongoing sustainability. That was their manifesto, that was what people voted for. That is what they have done.
They have increased the playing budget year on year but not to silly levels like Sheff Wed & Ipswich (only one of whom look likely to go up). We have under-achieved this season but that is because certain players have under-performed, certain coaches have under-performed, and a dreadful run of very unusual injuries. Not because of how much the owners are prepared to spend on the playing budget. We could have spent big and signed another Marquis and still failed.
Mousinho's points per game record is pretty good given that the players are not his choices, there is every reason to beleive that with another measured increased in the budget and good player selection in the summer we can have a very good season next year. We have no god given right to be better than the likes of MK Dons, Fleetwood etc, you have to earn that right by working hard, spending wisely, good tactics etc. Not by just chucking money at it.