Is it now time for us to reconsider who our real rivals are? For some time now I have been seriously concerned that as a football club we sell ourselves short by considering PFC as our rivals. I think we deserve better than that. I think we let ourselves down by focusing on PFC while they certainly haven’t earned the right to consider us as their rivals as I shall explain. If you think about rivalry it means that someone or a group competing against another and by competing we usually mean a contest between individuals or groups for a resource or for an outcome that cannot be shared. Well our outcome short term is promotion from the Championship and then in the long term establishing ourselves as a top Premier League Club possibly playing in the Champions League. All of these outcomes are well within our grasp as we have the infrastructure the players and the resources to achieve this. Do we share these outcomes with PFC? It is there that I have the problem. They aspire to no more than hanging on in the Championship which they may not be able to do after next season but they certainly will not be contenders for promotion. Why not? Well they don’t have the infrastructure, the players or the resources. So we must discount them altogether now for to continue to consider them as rivals would be like trying to argue that the Coop are rivals to Fortnum and Mason. So who should be our rivals? There are two better local candidates who come close to our ambitions and they are Brighton and Hove Albion and Reading FC. Both have good teams, great managers, modern stadia and rich owners. I also have to add the potential for a large fan base. Let us be brutally honest it is they who are going to give us a run for our money next few years and most definitely not PFC. For PFC their games against us next season will be their cup finals and probably their Swan Song to boot. We cannot by definition be rivals with PFC as they do not have the resources to aim for the same outcomes as us so we do not share the same ambitions or outcomes and hence canno be rivals. To sum up we have earned the right to and deserve better rivals than PFC and we now have them in Reading FC and BHA.
Do you not think that you are looking at this in a very narrow way. Rivals are more than just a team that competes with its near neighbors. In my opinion you can only be rivals if you are in the same league and on a similar footing. If you are not in the same league you are just that, the team down the road. Bournemouth are the only rivals we have at the moment but for many years they too have been just the team down the road. It could be argued that all the team in the particular league you are in are indeed all your rivals. You can argue that Pompey are our competitors for fans perhaps and yes next year they will be our rivals for points. I can't see that we have earned the right to dismiss them as has beens or any other classification. Their ambitions are not less than ours the only difference is that at the moment they appear not to have the same or similar resources. It is my view that it is arrogant for us to disrespect any team that hasn't got the same or similar resources. In my view it remains to be seen if we have better rivals to Portsmouth. We may be expected to have a better chance, but dismiss Pompey at your peril!!!
I agree with you Godders, if pompey were a horse someone would of shot them by now to stop there suffering
Oh dear. I'm almost lost for words! When we were competing in the Premier League, many of us thought as you. You're result at the end of the day was just a subject of mild amusement if you'd lost or bah! if you'd won and that was about it. But to start all that tosh when you've only just been promoted to our current level is just another example of you're misguided arrogance. This has to be a wind up and nothing more. Look at the history of honours won and it's more than a little lop sided between the two clubs. Yes, you are better placed at present to go on and take the ascendancy again but don't start bleeting until you've won a few titles and cups eh?
Now we aren't rivals anymore. Thank Godd for that. Hampers all round. This one looks nice. http://www.fortnumandmason.com/product/the-cheese-wine-box,10360.aspx Some sort of Fromage du Chevre, definitely Comte (which is absolutely delicious, a must if you are wintering in the Dordogne), a rather runny looking Brie, but the other one I don't know, if they are all French, but it could be Stilton? Do the Co-op do hampers now?
You have all missed the point. Portsmouth cannot be our rivals as they are not competing for the same thing. They me be in the same league as us next year but we shall be pursuing promotion while they will be hoping for survival at the very least. We are therefore not rivals as we are not seeking the same outcome. I started this debate because I believe it is an important one and that we need to raise our expectations. If we want to compete to avoid relegation then we are Portsmouth’s rivals if our ambitions are higher than that then we should forget all about them and worry more about Reading and Brighton. You can be silly or you can be serious. One of the reasons I joined this site was hopefully for an intellectual debate over football matters. I have put forward a hypothesis which so far no one has responded to with an equally valid counter argument. Should we consider as our rivals a football club that as of this moment could not even raise a side to play us in a friendly game of football? Get serious guys as far as Southampton FC is concerned Portsmouth are history and we now have much bigger fish to fry! Sorry about the pun.
I did. Do you think Bristol City now consider Rovers to be less of a rival now? No. Did Pompey see it as that when we were two divisions apart when we met in the F.A Cup last season? No. I know you are trying to put forward your argument sensibly and I'm not disrespecting that, but why would we not consider the skates as our rivals anymore just because we weren't in the same league as them? IMO, if they get a takeover, they'll soon be back in the Prem as well. As for suggesting Reading? By putting forward their name you are basically countering your argument, as we'll be above them come a year or two as well. I'm sorry but you obviously have never experienced the atmosphere of a Saints-Pompey game, or you are just slightly deluded because if you asked ANY Saints fans whether we should change rivalries to Reading and Brighton?!! they'd give you a funny look.
Frattonfunkydaddy your lack of comprehension of English club football history is a big disappointment to me and weakens your argument in a serious discussion about football. English football has three historical periods: The period up to WW1 when Southampton was one of this County's top clubs and we trounced you regularly winning more Southern League titles than you. This was a period when the Southern League was separate to but every bit equal to the Football League that was very much based in the Midlands and the north. The performance of Southern League clubs against Football league clubs at this time is evidence of this comparability. The second period was from the end of WW1 when the Football League was expanded to include other clubs including Southern League sides such as PFC and SFC through to England winning the World Cup. During this period your club performed better than Southampton. During the period of the modern game from the 1970’s Southampton were once again in the ascendancy over Portsmouth. Now you can narrow your choice of era to suit your argument but I would put to you that on those occasions when Portsmouth and Southampton won the Southern League that was every bit as comparable as a football league championship title. You cannot dismiss as meaningless any period in the history of our two clubs. You may choose to ignore a known period of history because it does not support an argument you may wish to make but remember I was always told that to ignore that which is known is called ignorance.
the rivalry with pompey is more geographical but will be more football related next season. but if we do progress as planned, then i agree, pompey will become less of a rival (assuming they don't progress aswell) If that happens, then i don't think we will have any real rival at all
Frattonfunkydaddy wrote: "When we were competing in the Premier League, many of us thought as you. You're result at the end of the day was just a subject of mild amusement if you'd lost or bah! if you'd won and that was about it." Thank you Frattonfunkydaddy you have made my point for me. We were no longer your rivals therefore you were dismissive of us. The tables have now turned and you are of no consequence to us as you are no longer our rivals we have now passed you. In a few years time when you have some players, some money, a decent ground and an owner who is interested in your club things may change but until then you no longer count anymore. Your history as they say.
