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.

Quiet week at Fratton Park?

Never a dull moment really as a Pompey fan, always things going on at the club that help your week more exciting. With talks in the papers about Neil Warnock citing being 'poisoned' from within the QPR hierarchy and David Beckham signing a new contract with LA Galaxy etc. Portsmouth was busy once more in another ownership wrangle, almost like X-Factor there are the characters who are more outspoken.

Step forward a Mr Joseph Cala, a shrewd Sicilian businessman who takes a single Google search to find out why myself and other Portsmouth fans are concerned with his intent into the club. His going business is a loss making one, claiming to sell high-class underwater casino's and glass bottom yacht's in which it makes a year on year loss, not a good omen.

Joseph Cala, a photo he personally sent to The News. 

Because he didn't like the one they kept showing of him!

Looking further into his credentials shows he previously owned a football club, a Serie D side Salerno Calcio, promising their unfortunate fans of promotion back to Serie A. This was supposedly backed with a '40m euro investment' into the club, which might of won over people, but the money never materialised and Cala left the club with crippling debt after only weeks. Fraud is a common word associated with Joseph Cala, usually following most stories about him.

He claims to have shown the cash necessary to complete the deal with David Lampitt (around £20m, a bold claim) and expects to complete the deal by Friday 20th. But today is that day, he announced Friday afternoon he had pulled out of the ownership race, much to the delight of Pompey fans.
I for one am glad! I think he would have been slow poison, selling off players and taking the money (ala Gaydamak) then asset stripping as well (ala Venky's). Then leave the club in a horrid position and probably on it's knee's facing relegation and oblivion. So it's a relief to hear he's off the radar!

Moving on though, the other news this week is finally somewhat good, and not about who owns the bloody club! I knew after the sad departure of fan-favourite Herman Hreriadasson we had freed up wages for another player, further rumour built with Appleton confirming a new signing in 'a matter of days'. Then The News confirmed Kelvin Etuhu had been training with us for a period of time.

Etuhu playing for Man City against Barcelona

These were confirmed when it was announced he signed a contract taking up him to the end of the season, a good addition to our thin squad. He adds pace and another winger to the squad, an area we desperately are lacking in. He has been a free agent after he was released by Manchester City while serving a prison sentence for assault (not the best reading), but he has stated his desire to play and get back to his best, Appleton also backs him for good things. Hopefully he will prove to be a good addition and I look forward to seeing him in action.

He goes straight into the squad against his old loan club Cardiff, the squad has only 14 fit professionals at the moment, it brings youngsters such as Adam Webster into the squad. Tonight I've seen on Twitter that Sam Magri has joined the first team in the trip to Cardiff. He has to undergo a initiation song as per tradition for new players. Good to see the young lad in the squad, he did well in the Youth Cup mid-week.

Finally the re-singing of Joe Mattock and George Thorne can happen once West Brom's injury crisis gets better, it's the only hindrance to their return. The reason this can happen is when the sudden collapse of CSI happened they were on the wage books, so it is budgeted for. Let's hope WBA injury problems get better (or they sign defenders/midfielders) we can see them back down Fratton Park!

Don't hold much hope for us against Cardiff tomorrow, hope we play well, we managed to nearly grab something against West Ham with 10 men!

Play Up Pompey!

A Little Help From Our Friend (almost)

Finally we get back to domestic football after the short lived FA Cup campaign after a 4-0 loss to Chelsea, after reading updates most of the day when I could (working you see..) it sounded like a harsh defeat. But positives came out of the game as well, such as holding a top 4 team to 0-0 for 45 minutes.

Going into the fixture against title chasing West Ham we are unbeaten at home since we lost to Peterborough 3-2 in September 2011, impressive to say the least. I wasn't sure how we would fair in this game, with injuries stretching our squad, Varney, Rocha out still the team saw Adam Webster make another return to the bench over experienced players like Kanu.

West Ham themselves have a few injuries and their form hasn't been good of late, they've never been able to capitalise on Southampton of late, whenever they've lost, West Ham have lost, vice versa with wins. So to keep the pressure on the rivals down the road they had to win, their away form is the best in the league. This was going to be a clash of form from the offset.
Now for a confession, I have no idea who Kevin Friend is (only referee's I remember are Slaughter and Deadman), maybe if I was told he was that infamous referee from the Sunderland and Reading game last season then I might of guessed where this game was going in terms of decisions....

Friend sends off Yebda against Sunderland back in 2010

The switch of ends was interesting, it was the first time this has happened at home since we played Peter....oh dear....this does not bode well. Now within 15 minutes Friend already made a few dubious decisions, such as Futacs being held, being pulled the ground etc. The decisions were soft and were never for us it seemed. Halford came close early on after Lawrence dinked a lovely ball into the penalty box and Halford headed over.

We found it difficult to get the ball of West Ham at times, they kept possession well and pushed forward slowly but with confidence, it was a boring first half in this respect. West Ham lacked clinical finish, they would push forward but never get a shot on goal, always broken down before this. Portsmouth when we ever saw the ball were too stifled and slow, again losing the midfield battle which we always do!

Then came the penalty, hard to see from the Fratton End, didn't know what it was for, but seems to have been a little bit soft, especially when Futacs had been dragged the ground twice by West Ham players prior to this, with a help of an arm around his neck! Noble scored and Henderson was unlucky not to have saved it, just getting a hand to it.

I can't really be bothered to talk about the rest of the game, as otherwise I'll just get angry about the referee! I found him to be totally incompetent at referee-ing this game, he just was not consistent. Papa Bouba Diop would go down (because he's a donkey on ice) and it's a foul, but being hacked to the floor isn't? A utter joke, the stats make us look dirty, but West Ham were no angels, Kevin Nolan should've been given another yellow for dissent for constantly trying to influence the referee, always chatting in his ear. No wonder he can't hit the target, he had 4 good chances and waste ALL of them.

The red card against Norris was baffling, he didn't take too much time thinking about it, I bet he even grinned at the possibility to show a Pompey player a red card, again. It totally ruined the game for both sides, neither played anything decent. Pompey kept trying to push for an equaliser but was thwarted by our numerical disadvantage and West Ham couldn't get a ball into a decent position to score, if they want to get promoted they need to score more goals, as we could've won/drawn the game had it not been for Norris going.

I was also left fuming by the decision of Friend to signal for a corner and then blow for full time while setting up to take the corner, which left our players very annoyed, Lawrence making his feelings clear to Kevin Friend after the game. Henderson even wanted to run up and have a go! But no, just wanted to pile on the misery more for us. I hope we don't see him again!


Another issue I'd like to raise is the poor performance level of Erik Huseklepp recently, maybe it's down to stamina or fatigue, but he hasn't been performing very well of late, giving away possession, poor passing, he just seems off the boil. But no one gives him stick, unlike a certain Dave Kitson who gets just about every curse word under the sun shouted at him, his work rate is phenomenal, he's always chasing balls, trying to get involved in play, granted sometimes it isn't fantastic, but at least he is trying! Him and Futacs are a good little partnership, maybe if we got another striker who isn't just a 6ft + tower with no pace we could utilise that system in a 4-3-3, but until then it'll be them two.

So that broke out fine home record and the start of a very very difficult few weeks. By the end of February we shall know if we are in a relegation battle or aiming to push into the play-off's. Games against Cardiff, Hull and Ipswich will be tough games, but hopefully we can at least get something out of these games, even if it's a draw.

Play Up Pompey, hope we can get in someone in on loan soon after the departure of the legend that is Herman Hreiðarsson, one of the last remaining squad members from the 2008 FA Cup winning side. He has been such a character in his time at the club, may I wish him the best of luck at Coventry, and we hope to see him again in the future!
I'll leave the blog today with a picture of his antics from the FA Cup celebrations!

Another one bites the dust

After the busy 3rd round of the FA Cup the sacking of Neil Warnock came out of the blue (in terms of the media response), after drawing with League One MK Dons the Hoops hadn't won a game in 8 games, the writing was definatley on the wall for Warnock. He may of stormed QPR to the nPower Championship title last season but coming back to the Premier League has been an unwelcome one, with player tantrums, erratic signings and injuries he has had it tough.
During his tenure in the Premier League there has been a change of ownership take place, injury crisis in the striker department, racism investigations, controversial red cards, player tantrums etc. The list could go on, not that I feel sorry for Warnock you see, I think personally he's a victim of his own success, his own nemesis somewhat.

He brought in quality players during his time in the Championship such as the outstanding Paddy Kenny, the often ill-tempered but talented Adel Taraabt and controversial signing Alejandro Faurlin (who nearly cost them their title). These signings were key to their climb up the table in an almost Pompey style turnaround in 2002 where we went from a relegation fodder side to a title winning side in a quick turnaround, always constantly reducing and improving the squad.That's as far as I will comment on Warnock in the Championship, as this blog is focusing on his tenure in the Premier League and where I feel he may of faltered.


The beginning of the season in the Premier League was certainly filled with news stories of new owners, price tickets being absurd for such a small ground (Loftus Road holding only 18,000) it was hardly a positive start. The results didn't follow suit either, after being thrashed at home 4-0 by Bolton and then 2-0 by Wigan away a few weeks later made their 1-0 win against Everton somewhat insignificant. QPR had also been dumped out of the League Cup in the second round by League One side Rochdale in a 2-0 defeat at home.
Now it's not as if they didn't invest in the pre-season, they added Jay Bothroyd (free), injury prone Kieron Dyer (free), Danny Gabbidon (free), DJ Campbell (undisclosed; £1.2 approx), which helped bolster their squad with some Premier League experience, these had a mediocre impact on the squad. Dyer was injured in the first game, unfortunate for him to be injured once more, Bothroyd and Campbell couldn't hit the ground running and often were rotated awkwardly to little effect on games.

Improvements had to be made in the squad, and with the new owner Tony Fernandes securing his ownership not long before the transfer deadline it made for some interesting stories.
The main story was Joey Barton, a favourite at St James' Park to the fans, but not the board, after refusing to sign a new contract he ditched his boyhood club and moved to QPR on a free, Barton was optimistic about the move and felt it was a 'relief' to move.
More faces joined after this before the transfer window closed;

• Defender Luke Young from Aston Villa
• Armand Traore from Arsenal
• Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City
• Anton Ferdinand from Sunderland

From Telegraph Online

All of these signings were listed as 'undisclosed' so who knows how much money these guys were bought for, but knowing Wright-Phillips and Traore from the past I'm sure it's on large wages, wonder how a 18,000 crowd will fund this. A few ego's in the squad as well, Wright-Phillips and Traore again have had a few tantrums fits at their past clubs by being left out or not being allowed to move (remember Wright-Phillips at Chelsea?) clubs. It was up to Warnock to gel these players into a team that could avoid relegation and push forward as the owner saw, often making fanciful statements such as building a 40-50,000 stadium etc. I may be hypocritical as a Pompey fan, these things were all promised to us many, many times, but over a long period, not in 3-4 months!


After the international break it was time to put the new signings to the test and after a promising but dull game against Newcastle at home their form turned Jekyll & Hyde, with some good performances in the mix as well, highlights were the plucky 3-2 loss to Manchester City where QPR kept knocking on the high-spending club goal mouth and nearly came away with a valuable point. There was the win against Chelsea which saw 2 red cards early on and John Terry giving the FA another reason why he isn't a suitable captain (but they are blind as dead people). By the end of year they had 4 wins, 5 draws and 10 losses, now when you analyse this with the amount of investment the new owner put into the club to try improve their form it's understandable why they have been faltering.

It's hard to put on what is the exact problem behind their poor form this season, as they have the talent to push forward and achieve more wins, one player I think may have a negative effect is Adel Taraabt, I've never liked his attitude, he has too many tantrums for a footballer! He would be a top player at a top club one day if he curbed his attitude, he has the quality and natural talent to succeed.
But overall the team hasn't gelled very well I don't think, if you compare QPR to the other promoted teams they are not as slick or fluent as total-football Swansea or rugged Norwich, they simply cannot survive if they continue to invest in highly paid transfers, they already have a striker overload without one main goalscorer (unless you count Helgusson), it all looks worrying, and I'm sure Hoops fans are already dreading the coming months, as it could be another trip to Barnsley away on a Tuesday evening if results keep going this way!


I hope this made some sense, as it felt like I rambled towards the end....but that's how I feel about QPR, I'm not the biggest fan of the club, nor Warnock. Rumours so far all point to Mark Hughes taking over within 48 hours.

Marko that! Portsmouth vs Watford

Heady days at the moment to be a Portsmouth fan, on the upside is that after yesterdays result we are unbeaten at home since the 3-2 loss to Peterborough, another is the rise of Marko Futacs into the first team. The 6ft 5' Hungarian striker has burst onto the scene after a few cameo appearances throughout the season (first time I've seen him play properly since FC Rostov and Saints game), after finishing emphatically against Leicester he was given his second start against Watford, but more of that later. I met him a few weeks back at work with his girlfriend (who was stunning) and was really friendly, no one recognised him.

I was apprehensive about this game, I think it's the fact when in the bookies prior to the game I read that Watford were on a 8 game unbeaten streak and then remembering how awful we played at the reverse fixture (worst game of football I've seen). I know from that game they have some very quick and skillful players such as Sordell and then big physical players like Iwelumo up front (he was a constant menace in the reverse fixture).
For us we had two suspensions (Halford and Ward) and injuries to count too (Rocha and Varney), it was a worry, especially with the possibility of Mokoena in defence against fast, quick players. After reading the line-up with Huseklepp, Kitson and Futacs heading our attack it sounded promising, but the first half would give a indication on how this would work.
The tribute to Len Phillips was well observed by all corners of the ground (something Watford fans aren't used to), including the away fans. The first half was entertaining for us, good passing play and pressing forward at any opportunity, Futacs and Kitson worked well together acting as holding forwards allowing everyone to get forward, it was still stifled and static at times allowing us to be punished in the midfield. Still have a lack of belief in our final third, I don't know why no one can just have a shot if they can? Do they fear ridicule? I mean it'll either go over, be saved, or go in, even go out for a corner! Kitson had a good shot at goal with a quick touch, swivel and volley but straight at Scott Loach, perhaps Norris and Kitson should have made their shots count better, as they had more time on the ball and wasted their shots at times, especially Kitson. By half time the BBC statistics said that Watford hadn't had a single shot on-target OR off-target, mind-boggling! Usually it's the other way around! Not that Watford had any chances during the first half, they had numerous but we eventually broke down the attacks and stifled it, often giving them little room to get the header or shot away, Sordell was the main danger man, quick on his feet!
A few bits of sloppy play here and there by Mokoena, kept being caught out time and again, luckily for us he wasn't punished by this, another was how slow we are to break out of the box, by the time it's kicked out Watford have got back into position! No urgency to get forward or playing it quickly.

Second half was perhaps the best team performance of the season by us I think, completely dominated the game and made Watford pay for being poor in the first half. After a lacklustre beginning in which the Fratton End went a bit silent for a while we pressed forward, constantly knocking on Watford's penalty box, after a cleared corner Lawrence and Norris combined for a quick corner and Norris crossed it deep to be met by Futacs who headed top corner to put us in the lead, well deserved for the lad as he worked hard during the game, him and Kitson were being a nuisance to the Watford defence (who may I add are quite short for defenders? With two 6ft 4/5 strikers in the box they were not going to win anything!) throughout the game. Straight from the restart we pressed again. Carl Dickinson fouled Liam Lawrence shortly after the goal which led to much banter between him and the fans, chants of "You're fucking useless, we've seen you before" etc. which led to him revealing his 'golden boys' later to the Fratton End, much to the guffawing Fratton End!

Futacs celebrating after scoring against Watford (from Daily Mail)

Then came what we thought was the 2nd goal, but wasn't, I thought Lawrence wasn't offside, Appleton doesn't believe he was either. After a quick break Mattock worked his way into a shooting opportunity and let rip a curling shot which Scott Loach was equal to but had to only palm it away Lawrence pounced on the looping ball to head into a exposed goal, cue jubilant celebrations but quickly quelled with the sight of the linesman's flag, it caught everyone by surprise, even Sky Sports News reported the goal before rescinding it.
A mention quickly to mention the Watford fans who cheekily chanted at us "Shall we sing a song for you" which was met by a few laughs since I seem to remember Vicarage Road is one of the quietest stadiums I've been at since Loftus Road! 1,700 out sang all of home fans I seem to remember! The banter stretched to a quick and silly "Da da da da fucking Eustace" when he came on a sub.
More pressing play from Pompey which kept us fans on our toes as we were hoping for the second killer goal in the last 15 minutes of the game after Lawrence's header was ruled out earlier, and our moment looked to come in the form of Scott Loach being sent off after handling outside the box while challenging the oncoming Futacs, it was hard to call from where I was sitting, I thought he impeded a goalscoring opportunity, but the reports say different and seem more correct. On came the young Jonathan Bond and boy was he tested after, we piled on the pressure once more, constantly looking for the killer goal, it didn't take long though. A cross by Erik into the box was mis-kicked by Mullins who then controlled once more and fired low into the net, game over, it was the killer goal we needed to make sure we got 3 precious points, the relief was felt all around the ground and probably the manager too. Nearly grabbed as Futacs beared down on goal, rounded the defender and let rip a thunderous shot that cannoned off the upright and over, what a hit it was! We all thought it was going in! The man of the match was a bit dubious (Henderson....), I personally would've either given it to Lawrence or Futacs, they played brilliantly and were instrumental to the victory, always moving into space and creating chances, especially Lawrence, finally getting back to his old self which is good!

Overall it was the best team performance of the season, we piled on the pressure and were right on top of the game throughout, after worrying about the game prior to kick-off I'm mightily relieved to come away with a 2-0 victory going into what is a tough fixture list ahead. Improved performances from Lawrence who has steadily improved and getting back to his best after a poor start to the season. I also think this is the first of many good performances from Marko Futacs, he has great skill and composure for someone his age and looks to be a real bargain if he continues to perform well. Has a cracking shot on him, as well as his heading ability, makes you wonder how the team will shape up after Varney is back from full fitness, maybe a 4-3-3 formation might appear? Who knows, but for now it's all about Marko Futacs and his explosive start to the starting line-up, long may it continue!

Up next is tricky games ahead, FA Cup away tie against Chelsea, title chasing West Ham and 'rivals' Cardiff in the next 3 weeks! Let's hope for some loan signings in the window, but that's for another blog! Play Up Pompey!