Devo's 411 - Torquay Utd

Ryan Bird - the goalscorer of today

 

To be fair to Avram, we were relegated the moment we appointed Paul Hart is full-time manager.

 

That's not entirely fair. It was when we apointed Paul Hart full time and lost Brian Kidd to Man City. Hart and Kidd were a good team, Hart on his own wasn't good enough. And Avram didn't really have a chance because of the financial collapse of the club, losing players, being docked point, etc, etc.

 

The problem with Paul Hart is that his tactics weren't great, he was ultra-defensive and absolutely no attacking ambition. Furthermore, he had his petty feuds with Gekas and Basinas, despite the latter single-handedly destroying Man City, which was to Portsmouth's disadvantage. I was always against him being made full-time manager as it was clear the improvement was more due the impact of a new manager rather than anything by the manager himself. Plus, I believe we only played well in two games during his time as caretaker manager: Man City (which again was probably more due to the impact of a new manager) and Sunderland. I can't remember how we played the following season tbf when he was full-time manager, all I can remember is that we were all over Tottenham when we played them at Fratton Park and Gomes was insane that day and we lost 2-1, sad times, but I still don't think Paul Hart should have been made full-time manager. Not that it matters now.

 

I was sorry that Guy decided to take on the manager's role, he is Pompey through and through, but if it goes pear shaped then the board will have no option but to sack him. We then lose a legend. The same thing happened at Bristol City with Keith Millen.

However he is here as manager and gets my 100% support. His biggest mistake to date is to not have appointed someone with a lot more experience as his 2iC.