I am shocked at your position pompey as are probably half this league. If you need a new Manager anytime soon then the way our results are going you can have our's. Alternatively in this league I would look no further than a certain Paul Sturrock whose league 2 CV is probably second to none. Forget his second stint here at Plymouth because we were well and truely screwed before he even started and God himself would have struggled. His first stint and subsequent efforts elsewhere have been pretty good if you want stability. Your friends down the road would remember him I suspect and may be a bit disparaging but he didn't actually fail there either if you look at the stats. Dressing Room prima donnas did for him there. He was probably a bit too ordinary for their liking.
After we lose at [sorry, play] Wycome next week, our following games are at home to Hartlepool and away to Dagenham & Redbridge [the current bottom 2]. These games could go a long way to deciding if we will be in League Two or the Conference next season On the plus side; if we do go down, Havant & Waterlooville are currently 3rd in Conference South and Gosport Borough are only a point outside the playoffs. Not to mention a bubble fixture with Eastleigh!
He looks beate A lot of fans are saying we need someone with a big personality, Di Canio the latest to be touted. My personal view is that the club needs to identify its footballing philosophy and everthing follows on from that. Maybe we should appoint a Director of Football (or similar post) first before we go rushing off to get yet another manager who will impose his own style on the club, to be followed by another manager who will impose his style and so on and so on. Swansea and them up the road have done it - maybe the board needs to look to learn some lessons first.
I don't think ANY club needs somebody with a big personality. They need somebody with the know how to progress them from the league they are in. Just because a person is a "name" means nothing on a Saturday afternoon. Fans will always moan about Managers and eventually they all leave anyway. We all want a team winning first and foremost and then one that plays brilliant football as a second but it's not a likely combination in this league. Results, results, results is all that matters and there are managers out there who will get them for you even if you don't like what they do. Tony Pullis kept us in the Championship with negative ugly football but look at his record of success since. People down here wanted rid and got their way when the Stoke position came up and he was always going to go for it. What happened after is there for all to see. We got a big personality media wise in a certain Mr. Holloway (I love this club and the supporters so much). When he had no more money to spend he bailed out for an owner with a bigger wallet and look at his record since. For league two you don't need a big name you need a Paul Sturrock type.
I agree with 3rd eye - if we are truly re-building lets do it in totality - a philosophy of football - and Swansea have proved that the right approach can work at all levels - the team we have on paper is actually decent - it needs moulding and organising - I want a coach/manager who sees the opportunity that Pompey is. Look at a lot of the young coaches doing decent jobs - Rowett, Robinson, Ainsworth, Neil etc. We need that with a Senior figure as a Director of Football.
The advantage of being in League 2 is that it's truly very difficult to get relegated, which allows some leeway in rebuilding; might take a while to get it right, but the worst-case is generally going to be pretty similar to what you're experiencing now. I agree...you're far better off coming up with a coherent plan for the future. Might take a couple years to escape the division, but it might also provide a platform that'd allow you to push up through the Football League pretty quickly thereafter.
I remain an unrepentant advocate of sticking by the manager. Unless Awford choses to leave he should be retained. I have, however, got to contemplate the very real possibility that he might be gone soon so I suppose I have to consider replacements, and if he had to be replaced then I dont know who I'd pick to replace him, but, you know what, there's a guy out there who's unemployed at the moment who would be an interesing appointment for a whole variety of reasons - Nigel Adkins (and I'm not being serious when I say that, just to clarify) I have, however, ever since Guy Whittingham took the job perminently said we needed a more experianced head as Director of Football or an advisor to the manager to help pull us through these more difficult times as well as to help stablize off-field and rebuild the club, and I still think the ideal guy is Frank Burrows.
Nige is having a bad time, but lets not take the piss by linking him with a doomed L2 club. He just needs a good opportunity & he'll be back.
The problem with Nigel Adkins is that he would split the fan base. Personally, I would take him but, and it's a big BUT, I suspect he was successful because of Nicola Cortese and/or Les Reed. I suspect Andy Awford and even Guy Whittingham could have succeeded if the footballing side of the club had been set up as well as the business side of the club has been set up (kiosks notwithstanding). Two rookies given carté blanche to run everything without the experience behind them to do it. I can't imagine the members of the board would run their own businesses along the same lines.
Surely the blame, in that regard, would rest with Mark Catlin as he is in charge of running the day-to-day business of the club as Cheif Executive. I think he'd done a great job with the financial side of things and with establishing new infrastructure - we've finally got a perminant training ground within the city for example - but perhaps he's not as savvy with the the football side of it.
