I'd have started Cort, Cousins and Evina yesterday, and there were some saying that Kermit didn't look interested against Barnsley. Surely not? However it must have hurt The Doctor to drop Sordell, so if there is anything wrong with Kermit's attitude then he will be dropped, but I expect him to get the nod and to be fair he has earned the right to the odd poor performance to be tolerated.
Don't think there was anything wrong with kermos attitude. He was in a war all game. Had nothing to go by in the first half. Church also seems happy to do a lot of the closing down, which was allowing kermo to find pockets of space. That's why I thought you could see the start of something strong between those two.
Problem is Nick that you have to accept that those players would be in for 3/4 games (like Button was last season) for it to have an effect on the players dropped and accept that due to this we may lose a couple of Wiggins, Kermit and Morrison to transfers. I am not saying you are wrong but you have to be aware of the consequences.
I am the last to defend Stephens but he was more responsible than anyone for our getting a point yesterday by crippling Perkins who was ran the game for the first 30 minutes. From that point on the game was fairly even. And he injured himself in the same tackle which caused his substitution, not poor form. Cousins' goal was a complete fluke. Not sure if it was even meant to be a shot. But Church's goal was pure class.
I'm surprised that in his two substitute appearances Cousins has won a penalty and scored a goal. In the U-21's he played basically defensively in midfield, or as a RB. In fact he has played right across the back four for the under-18's. I only remember seeing him score once, a speculative 30-yarder which trundled in. Funny if he's being used in a different role now. Maybe it suits him.
I wouldn't exactly say he "won" that penalty. It was a pointless lunge from a presumably tired defender. But if we are counting, he scored another goal here: http://www.havantandwaterloovillefc.co.uk/archive/live-updates---charlton-athletic.html He seems to specialise in scrappy goals, but they all count. That was our full u21 side apart from Pigott and the Harriotts who were on first-team duty. No idea of the quality of football, but it sounds like better entertainment than some of those pre-season first team friendlies. But I can find no mention of it on the Official Site, not even the result posted. Just another small sign of the demoralised state of the club at present? No wonder Nathan Jones left.
Just because we're skint why should the club be demoralised? Apart from the latter years of Curbs' spell in charge we've always been skint. Even came within 10 minutes of disappearing down the plug-hole. As Curbs himself always said "You've just got to get on with it".
I think some of our key players are playing well below their best. Players like Solly, Kermorgant and Wiggins.The only reason I can think this is happening is the contract situation. The owners are playing a suicidal game running the players contracts down which is having a serious effect on how the team is playing. This has got nothing to do with FFP as we are near to complying as things stand. The owners are making Chris Powell's job really difficult trying to motivate the squad. Don't forget his contract and all of his coaching staffs contracts run out next year. Is this really the way a Football club should be run?
Dick, are you saying that the only time a player plays well is if they are on a long contract? With FFP perhaps BOTH players and clubs will have to accept that contracts will be shorter and transfer fees will be lower for clubs outside the Prem (and even clubs in the lower reaches of the Prem) because, as Portsmouth have found out, the implications for clubs with high wage bills who fall down the leagues is quite dramatic these days. With FFP a club can not run up debt like they used to so have to keep costs under control...... players will have to accept the new environment and get on with it! without sulking if they want a new contract next summer.
If you think the situation is bad now, just imagine what it will be like come January if the owners don't sort it out. The main asset of the squad last season was not ability, but team spirit and camaraderie. That already seems to have taken a dip, and would fragment completely once players overheard team mates who were openly having contract talks with other clubs. Footballers are always the first to look for excuses and some fans will forgive them anything. Barnsley's first goal came straight down Solly's side and I am sure CS would have blocked that out last season.
All Hell Portsmouth were ruined by a unique phenomena in football, known as "Harry darlin' of the red tops" Redknapp. He "apparently" didn't realise that it was wrong to sign players from Real Madrid and many others on 50k a week when Pompey only had 20,000 coming through the turnstiles, and didn't even own a training ground. At least he finally got a trophy on his CV before the bills arrived.
I agree the contract situation is dreadful, and before the season started I said that we would shortly find out how it would affect on-field performance. But...The reason for this is presumably because the owners want the wage bill to be sustainable, which is why we gave Church a 2-year contract. The obvious way to cut the wage bill is to cut the squad size, yet we just signed 2 players, Wood and Gower, who aren't really needed. We have several players who can play in different positions if needed-Solly, Wilson Pritchard, Evina, Jackson, and we also have some of our own Academy products who may well be able to do a job if required. It doesn't seem rocket science to reduce the squad size to sort out the contract situation. Our best days were when Curbs had a small squad.
The irony is that through their amateurish mis management of the Club , the current owners have made us a lot LESS attractive to potential buyers.
