Deja Who?

Here we go again…

Ahh, there’s nothing more comforting than the assurance that every few years Pompey fans have at least one managerial merry-go-round to look forward to. Steve Cotterill’s oddly sideways departure from Portsmouth to Nottingham Forest has once again left that hotseat vacant, and it’s time to find a new occupier.

The names that have been linked with us so far have been very encouraging. Dave Jones, Sean O’Driscoll, Karl Robinson… not the usual plethora of iffy and potentially disastrous names that seem to pepper the odds lists for this situation. However these are just rumours. There’s nothing stopping someone like Barry Fry sneaking (well, waddling) into the job, so we have to tiptoe around being too presumptuous yet.

But let’s look at the current favourites. Dave Jones is someone who has a very impressive track record at second-tier level. He has a bit of experience in getting sides to the Premier League, and he has worked in a variety of circumstances and situations. Putting to one side his connections with the club-whom-shall-not-be-mentioned, he would be an ideal choice as someone who can keep the ship steady and slowly build towards making Portsmouth into a possible candidate for promotion.

The only trouble is whether or not Dave Jones would be interested. Certainly Portsmouth is a good place to be as a manager, save for the lack of a substantial transfer kitty. However, you do get the sense that if Jones was to hold on for a bit, he could get a job where the potential of the club could be more immediately reached. It’s definitely possible that Jones won’t quite be ready to jump for this one.

What about Sean O’Driscoll? He’s definitely someone with a very credible background and would again be ideal for the club. Albeit he maybe lacks much experience, he has still shown his credentials through success at both Bournemouth and Doncaster, where he achieved promotions for each. He’s clearly a manager with good potential and someone we can rely on for decent results.

I see O’Driscoll as a more likely appointment due to the fact that he would probably require lower wages, and in honesty would probably be more willing to manage Portsmouth. He’s never had a club with the stature that Pompey possess, and furthermore he’s already worked on the South Coast through his position at Bournemouth (and yes, that is a big factor – encouraging people to move to Portsmouth is no mean feat).

I’m going to ignore the fact that Alan McLoughlin is the next manager on the odds list. I like him as a person, a radio presenter, a player. But I’d be very worried if this was the direction we went through. I’m not saying he couldn’t do the job (although his match commentary would sometimes lead you to this conclusion), but to give someone with no managerial experience the job would be a risk and a sad indictment on the direction we are taking.

So moving beyond him, next we have a few decent names. Aidy Boothroyd, Steve Coppell, Alan Curbishley, Brian Laws, Billy Davies. All seem like decent shouts, although I’d perhaps suggest that Curbishley has been out of management for a bit too long now. In either case, the point I’m making is that it’s very reassuring that the signs coming out of the club are that we want to keep pressing forwards, and if that involves spending money, so be it.

I’m still unsatisfied by the relative silence of the owners at this point, but there have been indications that things are running smoothly in the background and that the finances are in nowhere near such dire straits as during the Chainrai period. However, whilst there’s little being said from the men behind the scenes, the inklings of worry continue and David Lampitt alone is not going to quell that.

Perhaps an ambitious choice of manager will. If we get Dave Jones, then it’s a bit of evidence that there’s enough in the way of structure at the club that it’s attractive to good managers. That alone is worth something.