Seems a strange time to sack him with three games in a week (with my team on the 4th) & I thought you were unbeaten in October.
I think the board felt they had to act after the reaction to Saturday's game. We did have a good run of 6 games but then things went skew-wiff and we're quickly slipping too near to the relegation zone.
Agreed. Especially making him go through a press conference earlier in the day. No doubt all the gory details will follow. The official announcement has irked me somewhat. "Guy left his post ... after having his contract terminated". So, after his contracted was terminated his contract did we give him the option to stay on as manager then?! What an utter load of $hit. He's been sacked, why not come out and say so. Anyway, not sure how to feel about this at the moment, other than very sad. Whilst if results pick up all will be forgiven, I feel very sorry for Guy. But clearly this goes to show "Community Club" or not, we're going to be as ruthless as any other team. I hope that whoever we appoint will buy into the ethos of the club (although I think this has been damaged over the last couple of days). As for the names linked so far (sorry 3rd eye, not directed at you, know you've just handily listed them):- Martin Allen - just, no. Neil Warnock - expensive tw@t - possibly not in that order. He'd bring in Diouf just to wind us up to spit at people. Kevin Dillon - can we have a manager let go by Aldershot for not being good enough please? Kevin Curle - I'd sooner see Keith Curle, but let's give this chap a shot. Justin Edinburgh - doubt we can afford him, expect he has ambitions above League 2 now. Gary Megson - see Martin Allen. Steve Cotterill - I can only pray he's far too expensive for us Herman - wasn't he sacked from IBV? Not sure this is the best start for him... Di Canio - I think our means of production owned by the proletariat business model won't suit his far right background. Uncle Avram - yes and would certainly put money back into the community (specifically the Thai massage business). Sadly, I heard he's next in line for the Israel national job. Ian Holloway - expensive and madder > box of frogs.
My suggestion: stick with the caretaker for as long as possible. You're not going down...it's rather difficult to fall out of League Two unless you're truly awful. Heading into next season you'll be favourites for promotion, and will likely have more resources at your disposal than most of your competition, making it a pretty desirable destination. Now, though, you're drawing from a fairly thin pool of (realistic) candidates, none of whom will have much opportunity to make their mark until the summer rolls around.
I agree with schad even with your money problems you have still got crowds 5 times the size of most other teams in the league & sometimes nearly 15 even Chesterfield started off looked like they were going to walk the league then did'nt win for 8 games until Saturday
For those suggesting Appleton. What did he achieve at Portsmouth, or ever really? Fair play he stuck it out in difficult times, but his managing record is poor. Holloway or Warnock. I saw Megson. If you get him you're down.
I don't think the board would have sacked Guy without having some idea of who they could approach, or who they would like to see. This time though they should go through a rigorous recruitment process and try to get it right. No guarantees in football though I know.
I ask you what manager would want to come to Portsmouth. We have a dreadful record of sticking by managers when things get tough, going right back to Alan Ball in the 1980's. Since Ball was sacked, and excluding caretaker managers, we've had 17 managers in 24 years, the longest serving of them being Redknapp twice (just under 2 years first time and just under 3 years second time) and Jim Smith (just under 4 years). The turnover since 2000 speaks for itself 13 different managerial reigns in 13 years, working out to a manager a year, some of them not even lasting that. It is a record we should be ashamed of. I doubt that any other club in the country could match that - I'd check myself but my computer is being ridiculously slow today. For any club to push forward there has to be stability, and, as sorry as it make to say it, Portsmouth must be the most unstable club in the country, even excluding the financial problems of the last few years.
Hmm, I did say a while back be careful what you wish for. Guy always was an appointment from the heart rather than the head so maybe there was an inevitability about this. The fans were turning and gates are dropping. We might be a community club but first and foremost we are a business, which is why the Trust/board appointed a professional CEO and FD, and McInnes did not succeed in business without being a bit ruthless when needed. With decent performances and a chance of the play offs then 15,000 gates can be maintained, but more displays like Saturday they would soon drop further. I left before the end on Saturday, the first time I have done that in years - it was that bad. I was not intending to go tonight but perhaps now I will. It will be interesting to see the reaction of players and fans!
You say that, but Guy was only the second manager to be sacked since Paul Hart in 2009 and in that time we've been relegated three times and had a terrible win percentage.
Maybe true, but of the 13 different managerial reigns since 2000, 7 of them - Pulis, Claridge, Rix, Perrin, Adams, Hart and Whittingham - ended in the manager being sacked, and in every single case the manager lasted a year or less. Its still speaks badly for Pompey's off-field stability and willingness to stick by a manager during difficult times.
Can't argue with any of that. I really wanted Guy to succeed once he was appointed. But I didn't want him appointed in the first place because it would inevitably lead to this very situation. As Leading Fish said, it was an appointment from the heart, not the head. But they gave him his chance and it's possible that he could have been a success. It wasn't to be. I hope the board now are more scrupulous in their next appointment and have a rigorous recruitment process.
I didn't want Whittingham to have the job either because of the chance of this very thing happening - him being sacked and likely having to leave, though I'm not sure if he's still going to be employed by the club in some capacity or not - but having appointed him manager it is my belief that we should have stuck by him for the duration of his contract. The results haven't been good, I understand and agree, and nether have the performances, but that doesn't mean Whittingham couldn't have turned it around if he had been allowed to remain in the role, it doesn't mean that the only solution was to the sack the manager. It seems to me that a considerable contingent of Pompey fans have become desensitized to the idea of managerial changes, that they believe the immediate fix for any on-field problem is to fire the manager and bring in a new one, and I can only attribute that to the frequent turnover of managers we've had. But while this can achieve short-term results, it is not a long-term solution and it hurts us more than helps us. We have had no blueprint, no set plan, for the playing side of our club and how the players should develop since Jim Smith - since his reign was far more stable than either of Redknapp's where the squad was concern - and we cannot hope to progress as a club unless we pick a manager we want to be here for the long term and stick by him in good times and bad, and as long as we continue to turn on the manager during the bad time and sack him we will never gain any stability off-field and we will consign ourself to life struggling in the lower leagues for the forseeable future.
MAJR - you say GW should have been given more time, but how long would that be? PFC is now a business being run correctly, its a model for other teams to follow and we are being heavily scrutinised.......the team we watch each week is based on players assembled by GW, these are the players he has brought in.........with the exception of injuries and odd suspensions (every team has them) GW even stated himself he did not know what his preferred line of defense would be! That's a crazy comment to make, and one I believe contributed to his down fall. The board are in part to blame, they made a sentimental appointment and like others I did not want GW to have the job for this very reason.......... but after everything we all went though last year and before, it was always likely. This game is a results industry, unfortunately with no where else to go, another relegation is not even contemplateable, this club will not survive if relegated due to the debts the CVA has to service over the next coming years. Unfortunately for GW, if we had remained in L1 this season he probably would have been given time. I strongly believe the board have some one in mind. There is never a good time to sack managers, its a shame for anyone, but at least now the club should move forward and make the right appointment, who ever comes in has a chance to look at what we have and work with them in asessment prior to Jan. We all need to get behind the club, drop the sentiment and play our part.....as 12th man! PUP
I do not believe in firing a manager after a year or less in the job. I do not feel that is a significant amount of time for the manager to truely stamp his mark upon the squad or club, and you will not see the best of the manager or the team within that short a time period. As the old saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. The only way it might work is if you have a ridiculously rich owner and a lot of money to spend to bring in the best players and buy success, but even that doesn't work all the time. The fact of the matter is that I came into this season with the limited goal of having a quiet season where we finished safely mid-table. I was not expecting to challenge for the title or for promotion and I was not expecting the team to play well all the time and I was expecting a poor spell leading into winter as Pompey seems to go through a poor spell every winter where performance and result are concerned. For my, frankly, limited and minor expectations Whittingham was doing a acceptable job, though recent performances were a concern I do think Whittingham was deserving of the benefit of the doubt. Sure, November's been a bad month for us but its not been that bad this season at all. In the League in August we lost two, drew two and won one, in September with won one, drew one and lost two, in October we won two and drew two, and in November we've won one and lost two. That's five wins, five draws and six losses. That's average, fairly even spaced in results, and well within what I was expecting of this season, not perhaps the best potential results I wanted but still not out of the realms of my limited goals. So this has annoyed me this morning twofold. One, because it is further proof of Pompey lack of off-field stability and refusal to back a manager throught difficult times, and two, because I thought Whittingham wasn't doing that bad of a job for what I expected of the season.
