Its an interesting fact that since 2002 Portsmouth have had twelve managers in ten years, granted, some were caretaker managers but still that's not a promising fact. In fact, I could extend that list back to 1989 and say we have had twenty-five managers in twenty-three years. This a list, in chronological order, of Alan Ball, John Gregory, Frank Burrows, Tony Barton, Jim Smith, Terry Fenwick, Keith Waldon, Alan Ball, Bob McNab, Tony Pulis, Steve Claridge, Graham Rix, Harry Redknapp, Velimir Zajec, Alain Perrin, Joe Jordon, Harry Redknapp, Tony Adams, Paul Hart, Avram Grant, Steve Cotterill, Stuart Gray/Guy Whittingham, Michael Appleton and Guy Whittingham. Of this list Alan Ball was at the end of an almost five year spell in charge in 1989, Jim Smith spent almost four years in charge, Terry Fenwick was here for almost three years, Harry Redknapp spent about two and a half years in charge first time and slightly under three years in charge the second time. Other than that every other manager we've had has lasted under a year and a half. Ok, in some case they were caretakers and never expected to be perminant - Barton, Waldon, McNab, Jordon, Whittingham/Gray and Whittingham - and in some cases it was the managers who made the decision to leave - Redknapp both times, Cotterill and Appleton - but its still disheartening to know that we've been through so many managers so quickly. Every manager has his own idea on how he wants the team to play, every manager has his own preferance for players, so with each and every change in manager there will be change in playing staff, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that a couple of hundred players have been through this club in that 23 year period. How could we ever have expected to achieve any stability on or off field when except for five spells but four managers we've been chopping and changing the man at the top constantly since Alan Ball was sacked in 1989?
The sacking of Alan Ball in1988 was a travesty. He'd taken us into the top flight for the first time since 1959 and was given no funds to strengthen the team. We basically played the season in the First Division with the same side that had played in the Second. As soon as relegation was a dead cert he was sacked. Terrible!
And our next manager will be our seventh manager in four years Harry Redknapp, Tony Adams, Paul Hart, Guy Whittingham/Stewart Gray, Michael Appleton, Avram Grant and Steve Cotterill ..
