The 4 Trialists and more!

Today marked the first day Portsmouth players get back into pre-season training for the upcoming campaign in nPower League One. With only 10 players expected to return training by Appleton it would be interesting to see if any trialists were to be at the Eastleigh training base as well as the under contract players.

This morning The News reporters Jordan Cross and Neil Allen were hot onto the players whom turned up for training, those who didn't and the trialists that were at the ground. Eight under contract senior players were at pre-season training, those missing were Kanu and Aaron Mokoena, the latter heavily linked with a move back to South Africa.

Slowly over the course of the day The News sports journalists identified the four mystery trialists at the training ground. These were Jon Harley (formerly of Chelsea, Watford and Notts County), Mustapha Dumbuya (formerly of Doncaster Rovers), Laurie Walker (plays for Kettering Town) and Simon Eastwood (formerly of FC Halifax Town). All are free agents having been recently released, except for Walker (probably a small compensation fee for being under 23). Both Walker and Eastwood are young goalkeepers, Dumbuya and Harley are both defenders, filling gaping positions left after recent transfers of Joel Ward and Jason Pearce.

Who are these trialists? Let's have a quick run over;

Jon Harley
Age: 32
Position: Left Back/ Left Midfielder
Current Club: Free Agent
Previous Clubs: Chelsea (Loaned to Wimbledon), Fulham (Loaned to Sheffield United and West Ham United), Sheffield United (Loaned to Burnley), Burnley, Watford, Notts County (Loaned to Rotherham United)
Honors: FA Cup Winners Medal (2000- Chelsea)

 

 

Jon Harley playing for Notts County

 What Harley brings more then the other trialists is experience, he has played in every football league in England, from Chelsea and Fulham in the Premier League to Notts County in League Two. This knowledge would be good especially if Appleton chooses to develop young players alongside seasoned professionals such as Harley.

Just for a laugh, let's look at their Football Manager stat profile as well (even if it's not an accurate measurement of their abilities!)

Last FM12 Update

Mustapha Dumbuya
Age: 24
Position: Right Back / Winger
Current Club: Free Agent
Previous Clubs: Wingate & Finchley, Maidenhead United, Potters Bar Town, Doncaster Rovers (Loaned to Crystal Palace)
International Career: Sierra Leone (no caps, but has been called up)

Dumbuya playing for Doncaster Rovers

A great prospect if the club can pull it off, the Doncaster Rovers fans rated him well, and will provide a good solid base in the defence. Young and hungry after being released by Doncaster I'm sure he's eager to get his career back on track. He came through non-league clubs until he was snapped by Doncaster in 2009.

FM Profile;

 

 

Look at the pace! Hope that's true!

Laurie Walker
Age: 22
Position: Goalkeeper
Current Club: Kettering Town
Previous Clubs: MK Dons, Cambridge United, Morecambe

Laurie Walker playing for Kettering Town

This could be a wild card of the trialists, not much is known from what I can see, but he seems to have good hunger to succeed. Perhaps this could be like Stephen Henderson last year, a unknown upon arrival but showed his talent and ability far beyond what fans initially thought. The only drawback is that he is under contract with Kettering Town, so a compensation fee would probably have to be agreed because he's under 23.

Football Manager Stats;

He's rated highly, but that is in the Blue Square Premier, showing FM isn't entirely accurate...I mean Benjani looks amazing in that game...

Simon Eastwood
Age: 23
Position: Goalkeeper
Current Club: Bradford Park Avenue
Previous Clubs: Huddersfield Town (Loaned to Woking and Bradford), Bradford City, FC Halifax Town
International Career: U18 (1 cap), U19 (1 cap)

Playing for Oxford United in 2010

 After a promising start to his career at Huddersfield Town with international appearances with England U18 & U19 Eastwood has found a new club almost each season. Recently he has played with FC Halifax Town in the Blue Square North Division, making 11 appearances. From reading forums concerning his ability I've gathered he's not the best at dealing with long crosses coming into the box. But is good at shot stopping and getting a good distance with his kick (even getting assists!).
There are mixed opinion on whether he can make it at full-time football after appearing for Halifax Town, but let's make this clear, it could've been a mixture of poor defence in front of the young keeper or that he needs more coherent training to make him better at dealing with crosses.Perhaps like Walker Appleton could see some interest in him and would risk taking a gamble with a young goalkeeper!
Also he's recently signed for Bradford Park Avenue, but whether that is on a full-time or part-time based contract is unclear, and whether the club would have to pay a small compensation fee (as he is 23)

Football Manager Screen

(Ignore the age, on a different season of FM12) Strangely his best 'trait' is dealing with crosses and his worse is the strength of his kick. Irony eh?

Hope you've enjoyed this blog, kept is nice and sweet as most my blogs try to be. Hopefully we shall see some developments soon!
Another amusing outcome of today's first day training is the strange manhunt for Kanu's whereabouts after Appleton announced he has no idea where Kanu is, he's officially AWOL. So on Twitter man Pompey fans are amusingly using the hashtag #whereskanu.

#whereskanu ???

HMS Caroline moving to Portsmouth?

To take a bit of time away from football I like to talk about a subject that has got me interested ever since I heard about this ship and it's decommissioning. This is that HMS Caroline which is a C-class light cruiser launched 1914 and is the only surviving veteran of the Battle of Jutland in World War One. As this war is slowly fading into history and no living veterans still alive this is a important artifact of naval history, it still is largely intact and in good condition.
The Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth took over it's well being after it was decommission from the Royal Navy Reserve in November 2011.

HMS Caroline berthed in Belfast

The first mention of it being possibly moving to Portsmouth came in 2009 when rumours of it's eventual retirement was announced, the Commanding Officer of Caroline said the rumours of it being run by the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth as 'wide of the mark'  he further said; “They have no desire to move the ship from Belfast — they never wanted to move her to Portsmouth, it is all speculation,”.
On online forums discussing this subject many citizens of Belfast believe it is logical to leave HMS Caroline in her existing berthing because of it's proximity to the Titanic Experience which opened in April 2012. Another warship fighting for survival as a museum HMS Plymouth is seen as the logical favorite for Portsmouth.
Now in June 2012 plans are underway to piggy-back HMS Caroline back to Portsmouth to be restored to a museum ship to join alongside Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior (1860) and Monitor (M33). This again was met with equal views from Belfast and supporters of HMS Plymouth.


That's the background story of HMS Caroline's decommission and potential home as a museum ship, I have a personal interest in the ship after hearing about this. Because of it's historical importance to naval power in World War One this is an essential monument to save to those who lost their lives at sea during the war. The Battle of Jutland was the biggest naval engagement of warships between the Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy, this was seen as the modern 'Trafalgar' as it was the first large scale naval battle between Dreadnought battleships, Caroline was part of this battle as part of 26 cruisers.
After World War One it was saved from being scrapped by being placed in Belfast as a training ship for the Royal Navy Reserve, it was a home for many sailors who trained during the Second World War.  It was listed as part of the Historic Fleet, Core Collection which protects ships that are of historical significance, many historical ships are listed in this collection such as HMS Victory, the Cutty Sark and SS Great Britain.

Why would Caroline fit so well into Portsmouth? Well it would fit perfectly into the current line up of ships in the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth and would serve as 'missing link' from the Ironclad HMS Warrior to the modern day navy ships next door. With only 54 years apart from each other it would demonstrate the fast and rapid evolution of the Royal Navy after decades of industrial revolution and advancing technology. If berthed next to the Warrior it would show a progression of trust and belief that adopted new technology was a good thing, for instance Caroline was installed with steam turbines which would give her an impressive speed 28 knots and would link well with the large steam engines of the Warrior and how it quickly evolved, got smaller and more efficient with advancing technology such as Turbinia.
It also has similar dimensions to the Warrior, it only is bigger in draught and beam by around 10ft, and would fit alongside on a jetty. A aerial shot shows how much room there is next to the ironclad warship;

Berthing Caroline opposite to HMS Warrior (which is similar in length) could be plausible

The ship can also serve as a reminder to other ships that helped shape naval power during the war, starting with the most famous ship of all, HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906 it made all other battleships obsolete, with it's fast steam turbines and impressive armament it set an unprecedented message to it's enemies. By World War One Dreadnought construction was underway in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria-Hungary and as far away as Japan. With Dreadnought being constructed in Portsmouth it serves and important lesson as one of the reasons why World War One started.

Caroline would also provide a boom in the local economy and tourism industry, with the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland just only 4 years away I'm sure whoever will own and run the ship would want her to be open to the public for that. The addition of Caroline to the Historic Dockyard attraction line up would be fantastic, it would provide more value for money on top of an already outstanding price for what you get.

What would need to be done? The current ship has undergone a lot of changes since it's berthing in Belfast in the 1920s, here is the original ship and it's side profile;

HMS Caroline in active Royal Navy service

Here is the ship in her current condition;

With modifications made while she was a training school in the Royal Navy Reserve

The ship would need her superstructure reshaped back to it's original fittings, removed of rooms and buildings put onto the ship in her career as a training ship. It would also require the reinstatement of the all it's armaments including it's front turrets which I'm sure would have to be re-cast. This could be a project that could be taken on by students at the University of Portsmouth or a combined effort even to restore items of the ship. With the ship kept in a good condition the only major costs of refurbishing of the ships would be to bring it back up to it's original fittings in 1916, especially casting new turrets and parts of the superstructure.

But what about HMS Plymouth? With the subject of HMS Plymouth it would probably be more beneficial to keep it in it's namesake city, it would serve as a reminder and homage to those who gave their lives to the Falklands War. If Portsmouth wanted a ship to remember the Falklands then I would either recommend HMS Bristol (Type 82 Destroyer) or HMS Hermes (which is currently INS Viraat) once she is retired from the Indian Navy, both served in the conflict and would serve more fittingly to those in Portsmouth than HMS Plymouth. Especially Hermes who was the flagship of the task force which liberated the islands months after it was invaded by the Argentine forces.

HMS Hermes (now INS Viraat) returning from the Falklands War

Overall I believe it would be foolish to overlook HMS Caroline and leave it in Belfast, despite all the history and the local fondness to the ship the Navy Museum must keep the ships well-being in mind, it's artifacts are stored in Portsmouth and would have better facilities to maintain it there. It would be received positively and would act as a poignant reminder to a terrible war which is unfortunately slowly being forgotten as the decades go on. The Naval side of the war is only told through the Battle of Jutland and Caroline would serve as a guide to all Naval involvement in World War One, and also to the Battle of Jutland itself.
I for one will welcome her home if this becomes a reality and will eagerly anticipate visiting her decks, as a keen history lover and of the Royal Navy and it's rich history it would be fantastic for the city and the Historic Dockyard to have a ship of such historical significance in such a good condition. It would be foolish otherwise!

I hope you've enjoyed the blog, it's a subject matter I feel passionately about, but was not sure if this would end up a good constructive debate, or a load of rambling about HMS Caroline.

Season Ticket Prices in League One 12-13

(Written also for Pompey Pages)

Season Ticket Prices in League One 2012/13

With the promising news that Pompey fans will soon be able to purchase their season tickets for the upcoming season in League One and the news that the supporters will be consulted about the pricing is great. It made me wonder what is the average price of season tickets in League One?

I knew going into this that the pricing structure was not going to be cheap, in fact the cheapest price I was expecting for adults was £250-275 and the most expensive being near £500.

This article is conducted by collecting all the known season ticket prices that have been announced on 25^th May 2012. The clubs missing from this survey are; Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Shrewsbury Town, Notts County, and the winner of League Two Play-off Final (Cheltenham/Crewe)

The way I've conducted the survey was to collate the 19 clubs season ticket prices into three categories which are Adult, Concession and Child (Under 18). These are the normal three ticket categories at most grounds. There were some good deals at individual clubs, but I will discuss that later in the article. Also these are the full price season tickets, not early bird deals.

The prices are a combination of all the prices for each ticket, for instance some of the clubs have different pricing structures in each stand or parts of one particular stand. Some were cheaper with a lot of grounds having terraced stands, these were totalled up and divided by the number of pricing structures, for example Yeovil Town's Adult Season Ticket;

Augusta Westland Centre	Augusta Westland Wing	Screwfix Stand Centre	Screwfix Stand Wing	Thatchers Gold
£380.00	£342.00	£361.00	£323.00	£307.00

So the math would be;

380+342+361+323+307= 1713 /5 = £342 (rounded down)

This was used for each of the categories and then accumulated into a line graph, they will be presented on the same graph to show the varying differences in prices across the league and categories in each club.

 Red= Adult

Green= Concession

Blue= Child

This is the data entry with each individual price if you unable to read on the line graph;

What is interesting about the data is that it isn't what I was expecting in my initial prediction. There is a consistent element in a lot of the clubs around the £330-380 price area for adults, Hartlepool are the cheapest with £155 which works out as an impressive £6.73 per game and the most expensive club are Colchester at £437 per adult season ticket which is exactly £19 per game. This is closely followed by MK Dons at £408 and £17.74 per game, but they are only more expensive by around £30 more than other League One clubs.

If we break this down even further with the price per game model then it highlights the price difference more clearly between clubs;

Key

Red= Adult

Green= Concession

Blue= Child

This new graph shows an encouraging outlook to the League One season ticket prices, with many clubs sticking to astute price structuring, particularly in the children season ticket sector. For example children ticket at Carlisle is £10 for the entire season which is unrivalled in the league, the nearest competitor is Hartlepool and Tranmere which offers children season tickets for £50.

Bury do a great season ticket deal which is called Dad and a Lad ticket which for £310 a dad can take his son (under 11's) to the football which is great, saves £73 then buying individual tickets!

If Portsmouth want to viably attract crowds then they will need to do similar research into pricing structures across League One, and look at ways of attracting people into the lesser used stands i.e. North Stand Upper and South Stand Upper. The club should also do a season ticket similar to Bury and attract dads and sons to games to let them experience football for a season or even the first time.

I don't think we need to be as drastic as Hartlepool, a recent poll had a 'majority' vote calling for Portsmouth season tickets being under £250, which is totally unrealistic. The realistic figure I feel we are looking for is around £15-17 a game for adults, this would put our season tickets around £345-380. It would be a fair reflection of the high maintenance our club has become with high-wages still hanging over the club without any hope of it leaving us quickly.

Pricing structure wise I think Children season tickets should be around £100-125, or around £4 a game, with most the cheaper children seating in South Upper and North Upper to attract more adults and children in to these stands which are often dotted with empty seats, these stands are more family friendly then the more verbally hostile North Lower and Fratton End. The Dad and a Lad deal would work well in these stands also, attracting more family interaction with the club and hopefully blooding another Pompey supporter for years to come.

Similarly the same should be for Seniors/Young Persons/Students, the pricing structure should be cheaper in the South Upper and North Upper. Once more to attract more fans of varying ages to enjoy the club. Even if these stands do have visual obstructions in some parts of the stands but then that's why there is a cheaper ticket price. If they price it reasonably at around £12 a game then it would be around £275 for a season ticket and then structure it to £300 for a seat in North Lower/Fratton End.

For a lot of this article I've always looked at season ticket prices from a full price viewpoint, I feel Portsmouth will either bypass the early bird process because it's so close to the next season or will offer a small reduction to next season ticket for renewals. It would be nice to have a reduction of around 10-20% perhaps, but that's in a perfect world.

My ideal pricing structure for Portsmouth would be like so;

	Adult	Concession (Young Person/ Senior/Student)	Child (U16)	Child (U12)
Fratton End/North Lower	£380.00	£300.00	£125.00	£65.00
North Upper/South Upper	£345.00	£275.00	£100.00	£50.00

So in conclusion I've been pleasantly surprised by a lot of the pricing of season tickets across the football league, the figures may seem quite large when they are collated in a graph, but after breaking them down they do represent good value for money across the season. Some clubs are offering some great deals, whether they are the cheapest prices or offering a great deal for father and son to go the football, it shows how clubs in League One are finding clever ways of attracting more people to football in a time of recession. I for one hope Portsmouth can structure a new season ticket pricing structure as fairly as they can in this league, and it would be harshly unfair to punish us by having the most expensive prices in the league after some paid £500 to watch us fall into financial oblivion and relegation all in one season, not sure if it was worth the £22 a game, do you?

My niggling optimism of late..

Quick short blog this time, as I've not much to say in the closed season. Playing cards close to my chest about our expectations next season, I'd like us to just enjoy the ride and not push for promotion. Enjoy the Johnstone Paint Trophy and get through at least ONE season without mishaps. Just to see a smile back on the fans faces after so long being lied to.

Appy's dream of a youthful and hungry team looks like it could well be possible, the amount of young talent being let go from clubs of late has been interesting to follow, I'm intrigued as to who is going to be signed, as I've said before we need a good mixture of old and wise professionals with youthful prospects who will blossom over time and won't cost the club a lot of money.
Same with transfer dealings, the club need to be clinical and prudent in their sales, I feel we should offer a player to Derby and part exchange Maguire to come back to Fratton Park after his very impressive loan spell at the club. His passion and hunger to play is the exact sort of player we would need to lead us to a successful season next year.

Sad to see Ricardo Rocha and Jamie Ashdown leave the club, but they can find clubs again and play once again I feel, and it would be unfair to stop them doing so, all the best in the future lads!
With Matthew Gledhill leaving the club as well it leaves the club without any goalkeepers for now. We shall see how the overhaul of the club will shape up. But one thing I do hope is the rapid fire sale of the high-earners, as so far only the lower earners have gone i.e. Henderson and Pearce (fetching around £900k in sales) and Ward could soon follow for £450k.

Might look up a few players I think could fit into the squad well next season, one I did get excited about was Izale McLeod who is a free agent now, after a great season with Barnet scoring 23 goals in 72 appearances would be a good addition I feel!

Transfer Spending in the entire Football League

After my last blog looking into the transfer spending across the nPower Championship I thought I'd look at the spending across the Football League, and whether it has a similar or different patter. What I found was surprising and encouraging for Portsmouth whom I support going down into the third tier of the league pyramid.

From the findings you could almost call the Championship the 'mini Premier-League' as they spend more money on transfers then League One, League Two and the Blue Square Premier combined!

So first up is the Championship which I did last time, here is the graph;

 

Click to enlarge

It may not been that expensive in this day and age of high spending Premier League clubs, but it shows how fiercely competitive the Championship is, in that investment is the only way of surviving, whether that may be beyond the financial means of the club or not.

Middlesbrough are the frugal club of the division by spending nothing on players, choosing to stick with the squad they already have, which saw them finish just out of the play-offs in 7th.

Portsmouth were one of the highest spenders and finished 22nd and were relegated due to a 10 points deduction after going into relegation in February 2012.

Leicester were the biggest spenders in the league with a whopping £15.78m almost 3 times more than 2nd place Southampton and 10 times more than title winners Reading. The Foxes finished the season top mid-table and hoping for a better season next year, after beginning as title favourites.

Transfer Spend;

Barnsley- £1.14m

Birmingham City- £500k

Blackpool- £660k

Brighton & Hove Albion- £5.32m

Bristol City- £350k

Burnley- £1.65m

Cardiff- £1.94m

Coventry- £0.48m

Crystal Palace- £590k

Derby- £3.02m

Doncaster Rovers- £120k

Hull- £1.42m

Ipswich Town- £2.89m

Leeds United- £810k

Leicester City- £15.78m

Middlesbrough- £0

Millwall- £1.21m

Nottingham Forest- £1.08m

Peterborough- £1.75m

Portsmouth- £4.23m

Reading- £1.75m

Southampton- £4.5m

Watford- £1.04m

West Ham- £10.85m

League One

Onto League One which this year has been crammed full of some big clubs that have fallen from grace, such as Charlton, Sheffield United/Wednesday and Preston North End, all vying to try get promoted back to the Championship. Surely then they are the biggest spenders? Not necessarily, it's actually surprising which teams ended up more eager to splash the cash and those being frugal. With some clubs being relegated they sold more than they spent. 

The chart is a bit different because the place where I make my graphs wouldn't accept the data, so had to change;

 

 

 

Click to enlarge

 

It is very different to the Championship graph, the maximum data number entry has gone from £20m to only £2m, the fact that the transfer spend is ten times less than the Championship shows how the financial spending is far smaller in the third tier.

There are some big spenders though, only two teams have gone over the £1m mark which is Huddersfield and Bournemouth, the latter was taken over by a Russian businessman in mid-season and purchased expensive players to strengthen the squad and avoid relegation.

It is surprising the amount of teams who have spent nothing, they still brought in players, but on free transfers and loans. I was excited to hear this as well, as Portsmouth is relegated to this league it shows promise that we could assemble a squad without having to break the bank at the same rate as a Championship squad, it could be done for a frugal price.

League One Transfer Spend:

AFC Bournemouth- £1.35m

Brentford- £0

Bury £50k

Carlisle- £0

Charlton Athletic- £800k

Exeter- £0

Hartlepool- £0

Huddersfield- £1.84m

Leyton Orient- £0

Milton Keynes Dons- £0

Notts County- £0

Oldham- £0

Preston North End- £150k

Rochdale- £0

Scunthorpe- £0

Sheffield United- £150k

Sheffield Wednesday- £560k

Stevenage- £0

Tranmere- £0

Walsall- £0

Wycombe- £0

Yeovil- £0

League Two

League Two is similar to League One in the respect of a lot of clubs utilising the free transfer market to bolster their squads over the transfer markets. There were a few clubs that did spend money but it wasn't much, but that is the smaller financial side of the fourth tier of the Football League. A lot of clubs that fall into this league find it hard to move out of it, or usually yo-yo between league's one and two.

Click to enlarge

Again the data entry is slightly different with the highest transfer spend being £1m, half of what League One was and twenty times less than the Championship graph. The spending is more prevalent in this league but is much smaller in value. There are big spenders in this league, with Gillingham being the most prevalent, looking for promotion, same as Swindon Town. Crawley Town were big-spenders in their first season in the Football League as they were in the non-league, spending £220k on players, but they did make a large earning on Tyrone Barnett (£1.1m from Peterborough)

Transfer Spend:

Accrington Stanely- £0

AFC Wimbledon- £70k

Aldershot- £0

Barnet- £0

Bradford- £0

Bristol City- £0

Burton- £20k

Cheltenham- £80k

Crawley- £220k

Crewe- £0

Dagenham & Redbridge- £0

Gillingham £490k

Hereford- £0

Macclesfield-  £60k

Morecambe- £30k

Northampton- £0

Oxford- £0

Plymouth- £40k

Port Vale- £0

Rotherham- £140k

Shrewsbury- £0

Southend- £240k

Swindon Town- £280k

Torquay- £50k

Looking at the graphs collectively it shows how financially different the leagues are, especially the void between League One and the Championship. The TV money is different in that you get a bigger share of it, but apart from that there are no other financial benefits. The nPower Championship overall spent a whopping £63.08m on transfers during the 11/12 season, if you then compare this to League One which is £4.75m is thirteen times less than the Championship spending. League Two spent £1.72m on transfers in 11/12 season which is almost equivalent to one player that a club paid for in the Championship!

Overall League Two spent 37 times less than the Championship, a massive difference, the Premier League is vastly different, it's an eye watering number, £563m was spent (that is known) on players in the 11/12 transfer windows, here is a graph showing retrospectively the spending across the leagues:

Click to enlarge

Overall Transfer Spending:

Premier League- £562m

Championship- £63.08m

League One- £4.75m

League Two- £1.72m

The Championship spent nine times less than the Premier League. 

League One spent 118 times less than the Premier League

League Two an eye watering spent 326 times less than the Premier League

It shows how much the leagues are getting further and further financially smaller than the Premier League, many clubs have left the league and fallen from grace, going through administration, once such team Bradford is an example. The club has been recently looking into leaving their ground because it's too big for their current attendance which is a remnant from their Premier League days.

Hope you've enjoyed this review, sorry if I haven't gone into too much detail, but didn't want to waffle on too much about this subject. Felt it needed touching upon and explained simply.

Dave

 

nPower Championship Transfer Spending

The nPower Championship is over, another mixed emotions year, with my own club starting as possible mid-table fodder ending with relegation amidst administration. For other clubs it was either missing out on play-offs, title chases or merely a write-off of a season. Now the season closes to an end with Reading emphatically taking the title back to Berkshire, Southampton are also promoted once again finishing in 2nd place.

With the play-offs still to be played I thought it was time to reflect on the transfer spending, I felt this would be an interesting one to researching as it would give a good observation on how much money has been spent and the comparison between that and the clubs league position at the end of the season. For some clubs it's surprising, for others it isn't.

Here is the graph I compiled using stats from Transfermarkt.co.uk, these use the most accurate transfer fees you can get (minus the undisclosed fees, as they are listed as '?'), the graph was compacted due to 24 entries on the X axis!

Click on picture to see the full size graph

Transfer Spend;

Barnsley- £1.14m

Birmingham City- £0.5m

Blackpool- £0.66m

Brighton & Hove Albion- £5.32m

Bristol City- £0.35m

Burnley- £1.65m

Cardiff- £1.94m

Coventry- £0.48m

Crystal Palace- £0.59m

Derby- £3.02m

Doncaster Rovers- £0.12m

Hull- £1.42m

Ipswich Town- £2.89m

Leeds United- £0.81m

Leicester City- £15.78m

Middlesbrough- £0

Millwall- £1.21m

Nottingham Forest- £1.08m

Peterborough- £1.75m

Portsmouth- £4.23m

Reading- £1.75m

Southampton- £4.5m

Watford- £1.04m

West Ham- £10.85m

On the final Championship table with the net spend displayed alongside the league table makes for an interesting read into how much investment went into the teams and where they ended up, most notable being Leicester;

 What the relation between the chart and the final table shows is that teams with relatively little funding put up a good fight in this season, with many clubs going for more astute free transfer signings over potentially expensive ones. Middlesbrough have finished just below the play-offs and their frugal transfer policy nearly paid off, with a large squad full of quality players it is easy to see why they finished so high and without needing much investment.

On the flip side large investment hasn't garnered success, as previously mentioned Leicester have invested a huge amount into their squad, buying expensive players into the squad by Sven Goran-Eriksson. Their policy lead to them stuttering this season, finishing a respectable 9th place, and I'm sure hoping to push on next year for promotion, they were hot favourites at the start of the year.

Portsmouth are the biggest casualty of the big spenders, after the collapse of CSI and administration in February 2012 the club tumbled down the league with the 10 point deduction and was unable to salvage another Great Escape. As a Pompey fan I'm still bemused that the £4.23m spent on players only got us around 5/6 players, utterly ridiculous, as when Steve Cotterill left we had a squad of 18/19 players which left hardly any cover for injuries or rotation. Very bad business by the club, thankfully those involved have duly left. 

West Ham have invested heavily after falling from grace from the Premier League, they have invested a whopping £10m into the squad with Sam Allardyce at the helm, they lead the division for much of the season, but poor home form cost them the automatic promotion spots as Reading romped past them in the second half of the season. January transfer window saw West Ham invest heavily again in players after their stuttering forwards couldn't find the goals, dipping their toes they bought Maynard and Vaz Te for a combined fee of £3m. Earlier in the season they signed Sam Baldock from MK Dons for a £2.2m deal, but the young lad has found it difficult after the January arrivals only playing 23 times this season.

A lot of the clubs on the list have used this season to consolidate or build for the next season, I've noticed a few clubs who have had players leave the club on large fees and the club investing those funds to either pay debts or invest back into the club, i.e. Oxlade-Chamberlain going to Arsenal for £12m and Middlesbrough selling £4.2m of players without spending that immediately back into the playing squad and still finishing 7th is commendable and astute.

So there we go, another quick little blog, apologies if I've skimmed over a few clubs and their transfer activity, I'd love to go into detail about all the clubs, but I've neither the time or the patience to go over it at this moment in time. I may make another blog similar to this comparing the spending over the Football League (and Premier League) and perhaps mix in the sales market as well.

Dave

League One anyone?

All is not well down at Fratton Park at the moment, administration, deducted points, administrator informing fans that the cash will run out in 6 weeks. It's all becoming all too real again, the threat of our club and it's future hangs in the balance, 30 staff were made redundant this week including Chief Executive David Lampitt. Another casualty of the administration is Erik Huseklepp who was our best player (and top goalscorer) has been loaned to Birmingham with a view to a permenant transfer in the summer.

Huseklepp celebrates after scoring against Blackpool
(Photo from The News)

It's such a shame he's left, his commitment was easy to see, if you saw the Barnsley highlights he rushed back to try stop the impending Barnsley second goal. His touch and technique was a welcome addition to a stifled and somewhat ageing squad.

Gloomy sky picture gets a run-out again

But it leaves us fans with a pessimistic outlook, relegation seems all too real now, it's like rewinding the clocks 15 years! Back in the Division One days when every season was almost a scrap to stay in the league, this time I fear we may not be able to get out. We have 15 games until the end of the season and in that we still face Southampton, Birmingham, Leeds and Reading still to come. Most importantly we have a important final game against Nottingham Forest which could decide our fate.

But would relegation be that bad? Yes we'd lose a lot of income in terms of TV money, but it could mean a fresh start, there a few players whom their contract runs out in the summer i.e. Mokoena and Mullins who earn a hefty wage. We may also be able to shift the high-earners who wouldn't want to drop a division or drop wages, and maybe even shift Ben-Haim off for good!
Long as kept players such as Pearce, Ward, Henderson and Futacs who have all come through recently and shown their pride and commitment to the team, and don't particularly earn massive wages. If we kept hold of them into League One I would see us with good foundations to build upon a new squad, especially if Appleton was at the helm! It would see a properly organised approach to building a team, as opposed to Cotterill's 'quality not quantity' approach which has backfired on us spectacularly!

Futacs has been a welcome addition to the striking line up, favoured over Dave Kitson

It could also open up opportunity for investment, with League One not being as difficult as the Championship it would give us enough time to invest in areas of the club that need strengthening, i.e. the youth system, the infrastructure of the club without affecting the squad itself.

Obviously this is a somewhat fanciful dream of mine, because we'd need owners first, which I'm sure there is someone waiting in the wings out there, just I'm sure they were dealt with rather poorly by Andronikou and might of been put off by his demands. Hopefully when the club is sold the new owner will allow the Supporters Trust to buy a stake in the club (or even donate 10% for example) to allow the fans to have a say in the running of the club for a change.

But for now let's concentrate on the Championship before I get ahead of myself! Leeds coming up next, don't see much coming out of this game with our threadbare squad, could be a draw, but it's going to be scrappy!

Play up Pompey!

Reason why it might not be doom and gloom after all!

A lot of scare-mongering is going on in Portsmouth fan circles. With 2 weeks until the HMRC wind-up petition is taken to court many fear the worse. Some are pushing for a new club to be formed already as they've 'lost faith in the club' etc.
Now personally I'm open to all opinions and will listen to everyone's feelings on the matter, but I think we will get out of this. When you think about who we owe money to i.e. Chanrai and Gaydamak (plus the other CVA creditors) they are not going to take pennies from their debts if the club get liquidated.

Chanrai will probably step in to keep the club going, if it costs him more to get his money back he will. He's not a idiot, it does not mean he'll takeover the club, more a benefactor I suppose? I'd imagine this could be because a snag might of come up in the takeover process at the moment, or he's getting worried himself over his investment into the club from the supposed Al-Faraj takeover in early 2010.

Savior once more?

If he does step in I hope he puts enough money into the club to get it to the end of the season, promising the fans to keep tickets prices the same etc. As the last thing we want is Chanrai to be chairman again, he's a businessman with no football knowledge, he's said many times before he has no interest in being a football club owner. He made this clear when he went over fans heads and upped season ticket prices and on the day prices, this caused a lot of uproar, but hardly unexpected to be honest!


Some mis-management going on down Fratton Park at the moment with another attempt to pay players wages goes wrong, which is a mess and our club are looking an utter joke. If it's that 'simple' to get a validation order why hasn't it happened already?! I hope after this financial mess is all sorted they re-shuffle the club from top to bottom, starting with a CEO, I'm losing patience with David Lampitt! But I'm not a believer in utter transparency at the club, well only on important issues which has a knock on effect, i.e. financial problems. But for some that's not enough, they'd want Fratton Park and the offices made of glass until they are completely satisfied, probably even then they'll complain!

Reflecting on past transfer dealings! With GRAPHS

While watching the Watford vs Tottenham game on ESPN I read a interesting tweet by Neil Allen, reporter for The News;

It got me thinking about how much money has been spent over the seasons and how much has gone out of the club. This can be explained by totalling the known expenditure via Transfermarket.co.uk (these do exclude loan fees and undisclosed fees, as these are unknown). So without beating around the bush too much lets knuckle down to the expenditure.

ALL THE STATS ARE APPROXIMATES!

Here is a line graph tallying the expenditure since Harry Redknapp took charge of his first full season in 2002/03 title winning season right up to the current season.

As we can see there is a steady increase for 3 years and then a large spike. In the early days Redknapp signed a lot of free transfers, astute signings, such as Merson, Festa, Hislop, Sheringham etc.
Then as Gaydamak starting influencing the club with his part ownership the money started to be splashed, with a whopping £51m being spent in the 2007/08 season, the year we won the FA Cup. In that season was such large signings such as David Nugent (£8m), Jermain Defoe (£8.84) and Sulley Muntari (£8m). Large signings for a club with a stadia of 21,000! Alarm bells should've been ringing around this time, but the FA Cup glory and the prospect of playing in the then UEFA Cup was quelled by this.
The gradual change towards the end of the Premier League glory days is noticeable, in 2008/9 this high £23m transfer spend would've been smaller if Crouch hadn't cost a highly inflated £12m! The best season for signings is 2010/11 with Cotterill and Lampitt's good transfer savvy bringing in free's and loans that helped get the club through the season. Then this season it's spike through the investment of Convers Sports Initiative which helped strengthen the squad but without getting rid of the high-earning deadwood that it inherited causing problems after the companies collapse in November 2011.

I will come onto signings later in another blog, that might take some more time to research.

So now moving onto the sales over the past 10 years! This is a lot more different to the first graph, a lot of players were released on free's rather than sold, maybe due to the nature of their contracts back then.

As you can see the outgoing sales starts of very small, there are a lot of releases in the earlier part of the graph and starts spiking around the FA Cup winning season and after it. The 2008-2010 period saw a lot of the huge talent in the Pompey squad leave, Diarra leaving for Real Madrid for £19m, Glen Johnson to Liverpool for £18m, Defoe for £15m etc. These helped ease huge loans taking out against the club by Gaydamak in the run up to the FA Cup triumph, it also helped 'manage' debt after the Russian's sudden lack of financial input after the 2008 financial crisis. After relegation from the Premier League the club shaved it's high earners and talent to the highest bidders, some players did well after leaving, some not.

Now lets look at the two graphs together, they make for an interesting comparison;

That shows how the club gradually peaked in the 2007/8 season with the FA Cup winning side, one of the best Portsmouth sides to grace Fratton Park since the Double First Divison winners in 1948-50! But this quickly fell apart since 2008. From buying £51m worth of talent in 2007/08 we then almost sold the same amount of money in the next season! The huge amount of money going out is mind-boggling, it shows how much of a financial black hole the club was in, if £105m worth of player sales still create a £80m debt hanging over the club it does raise issues of where the money went, or how bad our debt levels were to begin with!

It does show the sad decline of the club over the past few years, seeing the names that we bought and the players we had playing for us over the years make me wish we could do it all over again sometimes. I will always take the FA Cup win over being relegated allways, the way it made the whole city proud of the club, it was pure estatic pride when Sol Campbell lifted the FA Cup to the sound of 'Play Up Pompey' ringing in the background, the sight and sound of that will stay with me forever!

When Sol went up to lift the FA Cup! We were there! We were there!

After compiling this followed a few tweets talking about the worst signings made by Harry Redknapp which a few were pinged about like Chalkias, Karadas, all worthy names, but not Redknapp signings. Then compiling this made me remember some, here's my contribution;

 

and the reply!

 

Felt quite satisfied by that bit of banter!
If anyone is wondering who I compiled into these graphs here is the list and their approximate transfer price;

Transfers In

2002-03

Richard Hughes- £70k

Matthew Taylor- £530k

Vincent Pericard- £530k

Deon Burton- £330k

Total £1.45m

2003-04

Eyal Berkovic- £660k

Ivica Mornar- £530k

Richard Duffy- £400k

Dejan Stefanovic £2.2m

Amdy Faye £1.95m

Sebastien Olszar- £176k

Petri Pasanen- £260k

Total £6.2m

2004-05

Valery Mezague £440k

Aliou Cisse- £396k

Ricardo Fuller- £2.2m

Lomana LuaLua- £1.98m

Total- £5.1m

2005-06

Brian Priske- £660k

Benjani- £5.3m

Emmanuel Olisadebe- £440k

Franck Songo'o- £330k

Andrew O'Brien £2.64m

Dean Kiely £220k

Jhon Viafara- £2.11m

Total £14.498m

2006-07

Andrew Cole- £660k

Lauren- £484k

Niko Kranjcar- £3.96m

David James- £1.5m

Djimi Traore- £1.2m

Total £8.08m

2007-08

Jermaine Defoe- £8.14m

David Nugent- £8m

Lassana Diarra- £6.2m

Glen Johnson- £4.8m

Papa Bouba Diop- £4.4m

Danijel Subotic- £350k

Adda Djeziri- £27k

Arnold Mvuemba- £1.7m

Sulley Muntari- £8.8m

John Utaka- £8.8m

Total £51m

2008-09

Younes Kaboul- £5.5m

Nadir Belhadj- £3.9m

Hayden Mullins- £2.1m

Peter Crouch- £12m

Total- £23.5m

2009/10
Kevin Prince Boateng- £3.9m

Mike Williamson £2.1m

Tommy Smith- £1.76m

Total- £7.76m

2010-11

All free transfers

2011-12

Luke Varney- £750k

Jason Pearce- £400k

Erik Huseklepp- £2.2m

Greg Halford- £880k

Total- £4.2m

Transfers Out

2002/3

Shaun Derry- £530k

2003/4

Boris Zivkovic £176k

2004/5

Kevin Harper £66k

Rowan Vine £330k

Nigel Quashie- £2.77m

Amdy Faye- £2.65m

Total sales- £5.82m

2005/06

Yakubu 8.58m

Ricardo Fuller 132k

Total sales- £8.71m

2006/7

John Viafara £220k

Brian Priske £880k

Total sales- £1.1m

2007/8

Gary O'Neil £6.60m

Benjani £4.57m

Matty Taylor- £4.2m

Lomano Lua Lua £3.6m

Collins Mbesuma £330k

Dejan Stefanovic £1.3m

Total sales- £20.6m

2008/09

Pedro Mendes- £3.3m

Lassana Diarra- £17.6m

Jermain Defoe- £14.43m

Sulley Muntari- £13.2m

Total sales- £48.53m

2009/10

Sylvain Distin- £5.72m

Younes Kaboul- £5.2m

Asmir Begovic- £3.3m

Niko Kranjcar £2.46m

Glen Johnson £18.04m

Mike Williamson £968k

Peter Crouch £9.24m

Martin Cranie £880k

Total sales- £45.81m

2010/11

Kevin Prince Boateng £5.02m

John Utaka £440k

Nadir Belhadj £3.7m

Marc Wilson £3.2m

Papa Bouba Diop £270k

Matt Ritchie £265k

Tommy Smith £1.65m

Total sales- £14.55m

2011/12

Nadir Ciftci £160k

Cue the Gloomy Sky Picture

Portsmouth are yet again in a financial disposition, so here is a guide to how the media like to portray these 'harrowing' times down at Fratton Park...(this is a tongue in cheek blog)

We start with an inevitable shot of a dark gloomy sky looming over a game at Fratton Park;

Dark clouds are gathering over Fratton Park, as they often do, as it's weather in Britain, and it's sunset.

 This over used shot to indicate a sense of dark clouds are gathering and bad news is coming for this club. The over darkening of the stands is another tongue in cheeky reference to how the fans are almost 'kept in the dark' over the clubs financial mismanagement.

Then we cut straight into a bi-polar sandwich of facts and history, starting with the fact we are the first Premier League club to enter administration in 2010 with debts of up to around £120m, a eye watering amount for a club with a small 21,000 stadia. Before getting on to a slice of positive action we need another gloomy photo;

Portsmouth up for sale, again, again, again, again

But for this huge amount of debt they have something to show for it, in 2008 Pompey won the FA Cup after pretty much buying a new squad mid-season (not that we fluked our way there, apart from that Man Utd game) and to the FA Cup Final in 2010. Quick time for a photo of the FA Cup triumph before the next stage;

Portsmouth celebrate their FA Cup triumph over Cardiff in 2008 with their newly formed squad

 But with big signings such as Peter Crouch for £12m and the departure of god-like figure Harry Redknapp to stuttering Tottenham Hotspur the future didn't look great, then Tony Adams took charge, and it got worse. Despite a dream 2-2 draw at home to giants AC Milan the club teetered on the brink and the big names were sold, for a hugely inflated price, i.e. Lassana Diarra leaving for £20m to Real Madrid, Jermaine 'I've got a cold' Defoe for £16m, overall by the end of the 2008/9 season Portsmouth had raked in a transfer income of £80m which vanished, but we'll gloss over this fact by adding another picture.

This was un-noticed by the supporters of the club, if I'm not mistaken are very passionate about the club, so they protested;

Grr I'm angry!

Life long supporters were interviewed as they conveniently gathered outside the ground, including casual latecomer and mega-nutter-pompey-fru-and-fru-geezer John 'middle name here' Westwood says it's all caused by the 'big men at the top', cue a nutty picture of him;

Fru and fru

The owners take no notice and continue being crooked etc. An example of this was the appointment of Daniel Azougy, a fraudulent accountant (even convicted) was allowed to come in, rape the books, sell Asmir Begovic to Stoke and collecting a £1m up-front payment for him (gullible fools), he left the club in quiet circumstances before Chanrai came in.

Far into the 2009/10 season brought four new owners and managers alike, all perfectly innocent people, but they have no money or managerial savy! Until the 4th owner comes in the shape of Balram Chanrai who realises it's gone tits up and puts the club in administration and places narcissistic Andrew Andronikou as administrator of the club, here's a picture;

'Yes I do have a modeling contract with Administrators GQ'

Relegation befouled Portsmouth and even more financial uncertainty faced Portsmouth! Who knew? The whole dreaded saga continued right up to October 2010. In that time about 30 players departed the club leaving only 5 players remaining at the club, strangely some of the over-paid players such as Ben Haim who earns a reputed £38k a week! Savy-geezer Steve Cotterill is appointed manager to rabble a team with no money together in time for the season, here he is;

 

 

"Remember lads, no attacking movements and long balls to Kitson! Sorted"

On the 24th October the club came out of administration after agreeing with creditors on how it was going to pay them back, taking 20p in the £1 on the debt, making it around £20m(ish). So no more sad pictures of Pompey. Bad news for pathos photographers;

A photograph no longer seen in papers and websites alike, a sad day

But after a mediocre first season in the nPower Championship the second would have a promise of playing bitter rivals Southampton and the investment of the new owners CSI. This paved the way of Chanrai to exit the club once for all, we'd hope;

"I'm leaving now, I hope you enjoy your fairly priced season tickets this year"

With heavy investment in the squad taking it up to a whopping 17 players! Keeping high earners like Ben Haim and racking up a transfer investment of around £5m the talk of play-offs and promotion loomed!
BUT then it came crashing down in November when Vladimir Antonov was arrest for assest stripping Snoras Bank in Lithuania! I mean a crooked owner at Pompey?! NEVAR!
The 'operating company' CSI went straight into administration within days, paving the way for something amazing, not narcissist Andrew Andronikou! But GLOOMY SKIES!

 

 

Gloomy and mysterious, ooooo

No but seriously Andronikou was appointed administrator of the CSI group and tasked with finding another owner! Here he is again in case you've lived in cave;

"Do you like my impression of Gareth Bale? I can do other impressions too! Available for hire also!"

David Lampitt expressed disappointment with the CSI group for what had happened and tried to reassure fans, but the see-saw of intelligence tipped into the knee-jerk reaction stage.

"Mate, that money wasn't yours!? Fuck"

This leads to more precarious photographs of Pompey looking somewhat on the brink of a media journalists wet dream and when football fans either berate of use this as a crusade for football. Another gloomy photo, with relief but with fans;

"It's as if the club is a bunch of clowns to be honest mate..."

The fans are reassured once more that there is suitable interest in the club and hope to take it forward Lampitt says recently, despite news of a £1.7m tax bill which the HMRC will come armed and aiming for the jugular this time. Bleak for those 'long suffering' fans of Portsmouth.

But this must end of a positive, for all the debt the club has won the FA Cup in 2008, finalists in 2010 despite being relegated and had a good selection of world class talent through the years. Some supporters are talking of AFC Portsmouth (which sounds like a pub team) the future could be bright(ish).....

Lampitt has said that we won't be selling any players in the mean time, it's not in the clubs best wishes to deplete their squad to a bear minimum, as I mean sensible ones wouldn't. But sensible clubs don't give the club to people who claim to have money but don't, wasting resources instead.
Here's Joel Ward celebrating after equalising against Southampton in December 2011

"'ave that scum"

I conclude by saying Pompey buggered up with money, again, then buggered it up again after more Russians had dodgy money and got out quick without a problem. Thus leaving us in the capable hands of the devil himself to find us a new owner, and not Chanrai;

"So you've got my good side yeah?"

Thank you for reading, I hope this was fun, as I intended it to be a little light-hearted in all the heavy discussions and news coming out of the club of late.