Michael Pantling oppsummerer og ser framover.
MENINGER: Vår medlem nummer 39, Michael Pantling, er bosatt i Danmark, men pleier å reise over til England for å se Pompey flere ganger i sesongen enn noen andre av våre medlemmer.
Han deler jevnlig sine tanker og meninger om Pompey med oss. Denne gangen ser Michael på tingenes tilstand etter rundt halvspilt sesong.
LES OGSÅ: Vi går en spennende andre halvdel i møte
Back in the Championship
At last, we are back where we belong after a very good season.
Last time we were there things were pretty dire for Pompey but we had some good players who tried to support the club by allowing their contracts to be cut short and even buying into the club and a few notable exceptions such as Ben Haim to tried to get every penny he could. We also had Erik Huseklepp who did fairly well for us.
In my opinion, the biggest reason for of success this season is the manager, despite his limited experience, things really changed for the better. We had a pretty solid defence with Joe Rafferty and Sean Raggett performing consistently well. Their ages must be a factor in them not being offered new contracts but I couldn’t have done any harm to offer them, say, a further year but I imagine they would really have needed something longer to see out their careers.
On the other hand, I am glad that there are talks with Marlon Pack and Connor Ogilvie about new contracts.
It will be very interesting to see who Pompey will recruit and how much they are prepared to spend.
Ipswich og Plymouth
We can see this season that Ipswich did really well with Chaplin and Harness in their squad whereas Plymouth were really lucky not to be relegated back to League 1. Many of Plymouth’s problems related to the changes in manager and they should really have done a bit better.
While I don’t expect Pompey to replicate Ipswich’s success, we must do better than Plymouth and build a stable team capable of competing well at Championship level. The competition is going to be far more intense with a number of clubs receiving substantial parachute payments from the Premier league giving them a huge advantage.
Pompey will get additional TV income (as will everybody else) which may help unless it simply drives wages up. The downside it the number of matched that will be moved away from Saturday afternoons and I only hope that the fixtures are agreed long in advance in order not to have to change flight tickets to get to matches.
Our owners have also played their part by providing much need financial stability and necessary investment in Fratton Park. It will be interesting to see how much is now spent on players and whether there will be any major investment in a new stand or two to increase capacity and comfort.
It is great to be able to look forward to the prospect of another exciting new season ahead and hopefully more success.
Kanskje lettere med billetter til bortekamper neste sesong
As we will be visiting bigger grounds it might be a little easier to get away tickets – this season I ended up watching Pompey with the home fans at both Exeter and Charlton. I would very much like to visit Middlesbrough and Burnley if the dates permit but I don’t hold out much hope to go to Southampton without having a season ticket. I haven’t been to QPR since the mid 1980’s and have never visited Millwall so they are other possibilities.
Wishing you all a good summer and Play Up Pompey!
Michael Pantling til høyre.