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 ???

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!