Match Day Thread Tangerines

Not every one's cup of tea I know but I think Joey Barton would be a perfect fit, he is a strong character and has proven to get the best out of his team and can work on a limited budget
He would certainly shake them out of their malaise

 

A new manager won't solve the problem

 

"Everytime Portsmouth go forward it looks like they can score "
When was the last time a commentator said that about us...and that's against a top premiership club

 

and it’s about Ellis Harrison who most on this board absolutely panned last season.

 

Well, he was poor in the Championship last season. I think he only scored two or three goals in all competitions, albeit injuries were an issue.

I think most of us on here questioned the judgement of selling Harrison to a promotion rival. He played well last night, but it’s worth pointing out that John Marquis is their main striker and Ronan Curtis is arguably their best attacking player. Good luck to Harrison though, hopefully he’ll get further opportunities in the Championship next season, but by working with a better coaching staff than what he had here last year - maybe he'll be better?

 

It is surely no coincidence that most of our players off loaded in recent years, discover their best form and score goals for fun!

 

I know...even Luke Varney is still banging them in (14 goals last season, albeit in L2)

 

Departing players do have a habit of doing well elsewhere, which I think is a criticism of the set-up at the club, the physio department, and of course the quality of the coaching. Take a club like Portsmouth, while we’re on the topic of them, and they’ve taken Matt Clarke, Brett Pitman, and Ellis Harrison from us in recent years. They’ve got those players performing consistently and better than what they did for us. The lad Clarke is on the books of a Premier League club. On a wider basis, we know the likes of Bart, Webster, Waghorn, and McGoldrick are good players, but since leaving the club, they have prospered elsewhere (in the Premier League, in two of those cases). In that respect, it displays the lack of forward-thinking at the club and our inability to retain our big assets. With the financial constraints we are working under, as well as a low Championship wage budget, selling off the odd good player is unfortunately a necessary evil to remain financially competitive, without any further outside investment. Then you’ve got odd cases like Hourihane and Keiffer Moore who are playing well in the Championship but never impressed for us.

 

it’s a very long list of very capable players either underperforming for our club or performing but not being valued and the only common factor in our failure is Marcus Evans.

The matches I saw of Kiefer Moore I could see what he was capable of - Hourihane didn’t get the opportunity.