The people of Portsmouth and the surrounding areas hold their breath. Another club wants their manager. Time for the messageboards to get into overdrive and wild gnashing of teeth but wait what do we have here? We seem to have a peaceful and serene state of affairs with more offers to drive him up to Nottingham than to kidknap him until he agrees to stay on as the man in charge of the club.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say that I’m not a Steve Cotterill guy. I never have been and I never will be. Rightly or wrongly unless I can either like a guy on a personal level or I see progress on the field then I just can’t like them. Many PFC disliked Yoshi and Rudonja but they both were very nice people off the field and did everything the club asked of them so even though they didn’t work out as players on the field I’ll always like them.
Manager wise in my time I’ve seen a few but I have liked most. Those that I haven’t is because I didn’t see progress. I felt for Terry Fenwick as he was lumped with some awful players from Australia and Alain Perrin had little to no control over signings so what can you do? Jim Smith I loved because you can’t help but love him and he put together the most exciting team of my youth. Had luck shined ever so slightly differently he would have both promoted Portsmouth to the Premier League and won the FA Cup with a team from outside the top flight. Alan Ball is one of the greatest people ever let alone managers. The job he did when he took over a side seven points adrift is nothing short of miraculous and whatever you think of Harry Redknapp you could see the on field product getting better.
Heck even though Avram Grant oversaw our demise out of the top flight he was kinda badly hamstrung but still gave us memories. Cotterill lovers (the few that exist) will say that Grant’s squad was good enough to stay up so why did we as fans like him but then when you point out Pompey’s team in the Championship under Cotterill was the best 1-11 in the division they stonewall you.
I have seen no progress in Pompey under Cotterill. He is not likeable and blames everyone under the sun bar himself for anything bad that happens. If I had seen something then I’d be more willing to overlook the fact that he isn’t likeable but close defeats are still defeats and close defeats whilst playing garbage is even worse. I can deal with losing if we lost whilst trying to entertain and score goals but we don’t do that. I know so many that don’t go to games any more not because we lose a lot but because the prices are sky high and there’s no passion out there.
I have watched some god awful Pompey teams in my time but thoroughly enjoyed the experience because even though the players were rubbish they gave their all. Nowadays I see a lot of people on high wages who couldn’t give a toss. Is that the fault of the manager? No but do you get a sense of team spirit from the club? No you don’t and some of that can be put at the feet of the man in charge.
Steve Cotterill is another one of those managers with a great pedigree but have actually done very little to have earned it. He has won less than 30% of his games in charge at Portsmouth and it’s not like the club doesn’t have some half decent players. Steve Cotterill as a manager has less than a 30% winning percentage in any league above League 1 in three different stops as manager. That to me doesn’t scream out that he’s my guy.
If Nottingham Forest want him then I couldn’t care less and would probably be happy to see him go. Who comes in I have no idea and no doubt whoever comes in might be worse than Steve Cotterill but as a Pompey fan – like many – I suspect I’m willing to risk it.
Steve Cotterill is odds on to become the next Nottingham Forest manager at the time of writing.
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I can’t believe we got lumbered with this peice of garbage manager. All the players which hehas at his disposal and he can’t get them to do the basics.
Vile football from a vile manager who needs to grow up when he’s giving interviews.
Taxi for Clotterill….
For a start, there are very few cotterill lovers but I don’t denigrate for a moment the job Avram Grant did at Pompey. I don;t think his inheritance was quite as bad as Cotterills but I think he did a pretty good job – getting us to a cup final for instance.
As for Cotterill having the best 1-11 in the division, this is an opinion that can only possibly be arrived at by taking one of two measures:
1. Drinking absinthe heavily
2. Never going and watching Pompey – which you don’t.
Because anyone who watched Pompey this season or last can only laugh at the thought. This would be Michael brown we had for half a season but now can’t get on Leeds bench? Best in the division? Sonko? Dickinson? 37 year old Herman Hreidarrson? Ashdown? Kanu at his age? John Uataka for half a season, the hot shot that has scored 0 goals for his new French side? David Nugent?
No-one could possibly believe that comment – frankly it is arrant nonsense and not worthy of you.
Look I know Ashdown wasn’t great but a team consisting of Halford, Mokoena, Sonko, Dickinson, Lawrence, Mullins, Brown, Kitson, Kanu, Hughes, Rocha, Utaka, Nugent is not average fodder. That is a group of players who should be in a position to challenge in that league last season.
Whilst I don’t go that often there is a magical thing called the internet and you know what I was able to watch Pompey on several occasions last year – not every game as TV links for CCC games aren’t as easy as EPL but I still saw probably 15 games last season.
Had it been Football Manager that squad was decent enough to do very well indeed.