10-03-2021, 02:58 AM
Tonight's performance showed what we all know. We are in crisis, our season is almost certainly over, and there's nothing we can do about it. Astoundingly we are still in a play-off position, but we all know and the club knows, we are nowhere near good enough to go up. Even in the very unlikely event that we somehow squeeze into the play-offs, we all know what will happen. In the even more unlikely event we get to the final, we still aren't likely to succeed. In the totally unlikely event we get promoted, this year's problems will be nothing compared to next year.
The club have made it clear this week that Jacket is here until the end of the season so we might as well accept it. He's a decent man, does not deserve to be abused, but is past his sell-by date for all the reasons we know. We can't really "get behind our club" because there are no crowds. Equally, without our current owners we'd probably have gone into liquidation by now. So we have to make the best we can. I for one hope we put out a strong team on Saturday and (hopefully) manage a win. At least we'll have something to show for the season because there's certainly nothing else.
For those of you who missed it, there's a very interesting report on a conversation with Mark Catlin (see below the post The Pompey Forum Interview with MC. No-one deserves vile abuse, not Jackett, not Catlin, not the Eisner's, nor others on this forum. But Catlin & the Eisner’s need to understand the frustration of the fans - not just going in freefall from the top since Christmas, not just going from leading scorers to pathetic up front, not just going from 7 games without conceding to being a laughing-stock at the back, not0 just by being humiliated by other poor teams, but showing no motivation, no energy, an almost total inability to pass to one of our own, very little skill, and worst of all seemingly like no pride in playing for the shirt (with a couple of exceptions).
Like many others on this forum, I have been calling for Jacket to step down or be fired, based not just on inconsistent results but on the basis of forced to watch boring football, safety-first strategy, and numerous incomprehensible team selections. I was a supporter of Jacket to start with, but it became clear after the first 18 months that his best achievements were behind him.
The message to our CEO and Owners – thank you for supporting us, but please appoint someone younger, with modern experience of managing football, someone with pride and passion in our team (like Alan Ball God-rest his soul), and give us something to smile about before the start of next season. If you do, Fratton Park will once again be full every game. If you don’t, crowds will go back to the days before Harry took over.
The club have made it clear this week that Jacket is here until the end of the season so we might as well accept it. He's a decent man, does not deserve to be abused, but is past his sell-by date for all the reasons we know. We can't really "get behind our club" because there are no crowds. Equally, without our current owners we'd probably have gone into liquidation by now. So we have to make the best we can. I for one hope we put out a strong team on Saturday and (hopefully) manage a win. At least we'll have something to show for the season because there's certainly nothing else.
For those of you who missed it, there's a very interesting report on a conversation with Mark Catlin (see below the post The Pompey Forum Interview with MC. No-one deserves vile abuse, not Jackett, not Catlin, not the Eisner's, nor others on this forum. But Catlin & the Eisner’s need to understand the frustration of the fans - not just going in freefall from the top since Christmas, not just going from leading scorers to pathetic up front, not just going from 7 games without conceding to being a laughing-stock at the back, not0 just by being humiliated by other poor teams, but showing no motivation, no energy, an almost total inability to pass to one of our own, very little skill, and worst of all seemingly like no pride in playing for the shirt (with a couple of exceptions).
Like many others on this forum, I have been calling for Jacket to step down or be fired, based not just on inconsistent results but on the basis of forced to watch boring football, safety-first strategy, and numerous incomprehensible team selections. I was a supporter of Jacket to start with, but it became clear after the first 18 months that his best achievements were behind him.
The message to our CEO and Owners – thank you for supporting us, but please appoint someone younger, with modern experience of managing football, someone with pride and passion in our team (like Alan Ball God-rest his soul), and give us something to smile about before the start of next season. If you do, Fratton Park will once again be full every game. If you don’t, crowds will go back to the days before Harry took over.