I think my position on Awford has been quite clear throughout this thread. Here are some quotes from past comments of mine: "Expectations are too high with some people. Portsmouth were never going to be challenging for the title this season, we were always going to struggle at times and be around mid-table. To complain then that the Awford isn't good enough and should leave - at the end of the season or otherwise - betrays the unrealistic expectations that some people came into this season with." "...you'll forgive me if I get a bit annoyed with people second guessing the quality of the manager when we're doing about as well as I expected we would do this season." "I still think Awford had shown enough to believe that he will become a very good manager for us....why would I be bemoaning the quality of the manager when my expectations are being met?" "So as long as Awford maintains us safely in the mid-table region...then as far as I'm concern he'll have done a good job and talk of how he's not up to the task is unwarrented" "...if I had my way a manager would have an iron-clad contracts for minimum of three season regardless of results simply because I am sick and tired of losing manages after less than a year because people panic during bad spell"
To be fair, we're a mid-table side with mid-table form that has been mid-table all season. Occaisonally we've flirted with relegation and occaisonally we've flirted with promotion places but we've not fallen into or broken into either. I just dont know what you expected from this season.
My expectations: Top 10 finish, ideally with play offs still a possibility with 3 or 4 games to go Win an FA Cup Game (particularly after we were drawn at home to a non-league side) Not to go 3 months without a win Not be anywhere near the relegation zone Not playing ultra-defensively I suppose that is expecting a lot when it comes to Portsmouth
What you have to take into account - which I'm not sure you did - is that last season most of our time was spend fighting relegation and it was not until the last month or so of the season that we clawed our way to safety under Awford. Last season we were relegation candidates with relegation form except the month of April. As such one could not expect to leap from battling relegation to immedately being a top 10 team challenging for the promotion places. We had one of, arguably the, most dramatic collapses of any club in English football history, and certainly of modern times,. A process of recovery has to be undertaken and it cant happen overnight, therefore logically we should have expected only modest gains and progress during the rebuilding process. Lets not forget that many clubs have fallen into the lower leagues and struggled to return to the higher one's - Leeds, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston - we should not expect Pompey to be an exceptional case to them especially given the dramatic collapse we suffered. We can always hope for more, and to want more from the club and the team, but realism must also play a role in expectations, and realistically we could only hope to be a mid-table side this season. Lets compare, for the sake of it, this seasons form to last seasons. 2013/14 form: LDWDLDWLLWDWDDWLLLDLLWDLWDDDWLDWLDDDLLL Wins: 9 Draws: 15 Loses: 15 Points after 39 games: 42 League Position: 22nd 2014/15 form: DWWWLLLWDDDDLWLWLWLLDLDLDLDWDWWWDLDWDLL Wins: 12 Draws: 13 Loses:13 Points after 39 games: 49 League Position: 14th There is a noticable, though slight, improvement over last season. We have more points, we have won more games, we've lost less games, we're in a higher league position. Modest gains and modest progress has been achieved. This season might be nothing to write home about, as the saying goes, but it's played its part in the rebuilding process.
Supporters aren't meant to be realistic in their expectations generally. At the start of the season at least most supporters like to think that this will be their time and their club will perform with a happy outcome at the end. It's always unrealistic for most of them but it's how they think. Mid table mediocrity wasn't how most supporters of other clubs saw you and in my book for good reason. Despite the financial collapse which brought you here you are perceived to have a bigger budget by far than most others in this division. Money does count although with the rider that you have to spend it wisely as well. Have you seen some of the attendances some of the clubs have? How Accrington even survive is beyond me. Wycombe are a great example of this league. Odds on to be relegated before the first game kicked off. Have been in the top 3 all season with expectations of the wheels coming off at any moment. Attendances even with that form are not great yet they are still there. Portsmouth attendances at least 4 or 5 times greater. You would be forgiven by all other supporters (except that rabble down the road from you) for expecting to be up there where Wycombe are at the very least. Most people expected you to be knocking on the door if nothing else and I know I did. Therefore it isn't unreasonable to conclude that Portsmouth have massively under performed this season. I know that I don't know the intimate details of your club and that my perception is precisely that, a perception, but the above is my honest opinion for what it's worth. School report on your Manager therefore has to be "ok at times during the term but overall could do much better." Is he capable though is the real question.
Oh dear you really don't like us do you or are you just playing to the posters on this board? I don't consider myself to be part of a rabble and can enjoy time spent on both boards.
See you just prove my point about Sarfampton fans, it's all about you isn't it. You aren't the only club down the road from Portsmouth are you. I could have been talking Bournemouth or Brighton even but no they are only small so don't count. As for playing to the board I'm not sure disagreeing with some of it's posters is playing to the gallery do you? I stand by every word of my post above and even if I was talking about you as "the rabble down the road" then please tell me what I said wasn't true. You know some of your fellow board members would rip the proverbial p**s if Pompey supporters said they should be promoted at the start of a season.
Well you wouldn't have would you as all the talk on your board is about you and WAS about the Champions League until the wheels went a bit wobbly. That's why some come onto this one to do the p**s ripping. But, your threads about the Chumpions League just proves my point about supporters being supposed to over expect. Tell me lots didn't think you were gonna make it when realistically only the select few can in reality.
Of course you were talking about Southampton fans don't try to divert from the fact that you need seriously to settle down and get to enjoy the football you follow I'd hate to be so embittered and disillusioned as you are.
Yep I was talking about Southampton fans.....busted. But you miss the point also, it is the assumption by you that I was when nobody in particular was mentioned. Thanks for the advice I will try hard to settle down and stop being embittered and disillusioned. It's not easy when you're small with a large dose of penis envy though.
To be fair a lot of the supporters were quite realistic in their expectations, but based on the last 7 matches last season they expected to be up somewhere around the top 10. After his performance at the end of last season Andy Awford was a shoe-in for the Manager's job, although there were those who weren't keen on yet another rookie being given the job in place of an experienced head. But he's a legend so most supporters were happy and he had brought through some decent kids from the academy. The wheels started coming off pretty quickly though. His team selections were baffling, even after a win he would tinker with the team, he could never settle on his first 11, and then he started on his 3-5-2 formation but with players out of their preferred position, putting the wrong players in as wing-backs. A lot of supporters want to stick with him and give him the chance to bring in his own players over the summer, not that he hasn't been playing mostly his own players already, and other supporters want him to go so we can get an experienced manager in before we go through the merry go round again of 'well they're someone elses players'.
Hi Greeny! Maybe you have a distaste for SFC, but it must surely hurt you to see native born Plymouth guys roaming around Devon wearing MUFC and Chelsea shirts who have nothing to do with Manchester or Chelsea!! Wouldn't it be fantastic to see both struggle next season both in the League and Europe!!! I cannot stand these plastic glory hunting MUFC and Chelsea supporters and am delighted when my team Southampton and PFC beat them!!
Hello all - I think as always most of the points made by many are valid - greeny I don't think was trying to pee off our stripey cousins with the rabble description but he did and we should move on from there as generally harmony has been decent over recent times on the boards....and he strikes me as a decent sort. We should both be congratulating each other on both clubs reporting operating profits today - albeit the chasm in the amounts is scary. I think his points about budget/attendance etc are all fair and yet like Lapras I was a top 10 finish man with a chance of the play-offs - that said I believe we have under performed and that can be levelled at us fairly. 3rd eye is spot on with his appraisal of some of those reasons - my own bugbear pretty much all season has been the constant tweaking - at Lge 2 level the threats an opposition pose are not quite as intricate as they are in the Prem....not to diss this level but tactically it's fairly straightforward with a few exceptions. So if we scrape top 10 I will be thinking well ok...let's try again if we don't I think we have to look at why. Wycombe (as mentioned by greeny) have the smallest playing staff in the division and have used their budget very wisely - additionally they have a coach who played in the side last season and as a player must have seen what he perceived as the weaknesses that needed strengthening and did so. Fair play to them. For us it's onwards and upwards hopefully - and Ides yes totally agree.
"rabble down the road" was a term of endearment I thought you might make yourselves Pompey persons rather than an attempt at that point to wind up. I admit all comments since were but perhaps some shouldn't have such fragile egos and take their head out of their arse once in a while. I do not like plastic fans of any description Ides but it doesn't pee me off as much to see their shirts around these days as it once did. It's the age of football on TV and given the level of success previously enjoyed by Argyle it doesn't surprise me that small people pick a top side in their playground games. The fact they grow up still believing they actually support one of these sides is the saddest bit but I'm used to it. If you knew anything about this City then you would know that the largest "foreign" contingent is actually Liverpool rather than the Manchesters or Chelsea. If Argyle ever make it then that might change but sadly not until. It's a bit ironic to be talking about budgets at the time the accounts are published but it does sort of prove a point. There is no other club in this league that could have gone into Admin with your debts and within 2 years post the sort of figures you have. Gate receipts £3.4m. That is probably higher than the total receipts counting everything than a lot of clubs. Bottom line is you should be doing better and you all know you should. You are right to have expected better at the start of the season and there is no way any thought of promotion was an over expectation. Football isn't always about money of course as the Bank Managers don't play the games the players do following training by Management. If, given enough resources, the goal isn't achieved then it has to be down to the Management first and players second. In this league novice managers often don't do well. It's a league full of blood and snotter players who take few prisoners. You need a similar manager with few scrupples to get you out of it.
