The wait continues. To be honest, its a bit odd. Three weeks now and no manager. Bets have stopped being taken. But no appointment has been made. A new managerial appointment is always very important – but this one especially so, it will force the cagey CSI to reveal their hand in terms of ambition and finance.
It seemed that Sean O'Driscoll was going to be appointed. Evidently he is not first choice, if he was he would have been announced long ago and the longer the wait goes on the more his future credibility is undermined. He is not a name I get instantly excited about but I am encouraged by the comments of Donny Rovers blogger Keep the Faith after I asked him for his views. He believes S O'D was the best manager in their history and did not deserve the sack. But he warns that his approach needs time – time that his relatively low profile is unlikely to afford him if he does not have a good start. An additional concern is his review of S O'D's media approach that is described as brutally honest and rarely optimistic – this could be a refreshing approach – but when Pompey fans are looking towards years of rebuilding, is this what we need?
More positive is his approach to tactics – he seems to be relatively experimental and willing to change formations during the course of the game, which would be different to the rigidity of Cotterill.
He turned down the Sheff Utd job because he wanted to stay loyal to Doncaster, he was considered for Burnley, Notts F and Bristol C and his popularity at Donny seems unlikely for a sacked manager and his teams play good football. I dont think he would be a bad choice.
BUT the other option seems to be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has just won the league title with Molde of Norway. Their first ever. Sir Alex has come out this week saying he always knew he'd be a top manager and explained how he always used to make copious notes at training and during matches for his future managerial career. However Sir Alex has warned him not to come back to England too soon and Norwegian football pundit Jan Age Fjortoft told this blog two weeks ago he expected him to stay in Norway. However if I had a choice out of the two, I would go with OGS.
Why? Well Pompey are in the doldrums. It doesnt matter which way you look at it, the Premier league hangover remains. The average attendance this year is 13,654, 17th in the Championship down from 15,701 last year (13th in the championship) the atmosphere at Fratton is flat and the inability to instantly sell out for the Pompey Scum game is worrying. I would appoint OGS for the boost he would give the club. For the excitement he would generate. A flippant example of this profile is in researching this article I looked up both SOD and OGS, I dont need to tell you which one was featured in articles by such luminaries as Henry Winter. Get him in charge, give us something to be excited about ( also like the idea of a link to United for loan deals) and lets push on. It may seem a strange thing to make the decision on, but both would be a gamble, so lets go for the exciting gamble!
Having said all that the delay indicates we might be about to be hit with a curve ball, perhaps even a Director of football coach arrangement, that would make me very happy!
N.B – Good fun at Palace last night – good to see some original (ish) chants, the persistent Dave Kitson chant to the tune of Cant take my eyes off you:
'oh David Kitson, you are the love of my life, oh David Kitson, I'd let you shag my wife, oh David Kitson, I want Ginger hair tooooooooooooooo
and my favourite (stolen from Liverpool re Maxi - )
Varney, Super Luke Varney runs down the wing for you, do do, do do do, do do, do do do
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