CHIMES ARE TOUGH
Avram Grant's got his work cut out following Paul Hart's break with Pompey
IRONIC, isn't it? Avram Grant loses his job at Chelsea after a missed penalty.
Then he gets handed the Portsmouth job after a missed penalty.
If Kevin-Prince Boateng had tucked the ball home from 12 yards at the Britannia Stadium last weekend, do you think Grant would have been appointed this week?
A point for Pompey at Stoke wouldn't have been a bad result. Better teams than Portsmouth have struggled there.
That might have given Paul Hart a bit of breathing space. The board would have felt the club were going in the right direction and granted the manager a stay of execution.
Continuity generally equals confidence, the players would have known where they were going and, who knows, Portsmouth might have put a bit of a run together.
Or am I living in cloud cuckoo land?
Just as Grant discovered at Chelsea, when a plan's been hatched behind his back, the manager is a dead man walking.
Even if John Terry had scored from the spot in Moscow and Chelsea had won the Champions League, Grant would still have been sacked, count on that.
And even if Pompey had come away with a point at Stoke, Hart was as good as gone.
Two missed penalties just gave the Chelsea and Portsmouth boards the excuse they needed to make the decision they'd always planned to make.
It's bloody tough on Hart. He'd walked into a basket-case of a club where nobody knew where the next owner was coming from, let alone the next penny.
They'd sold just about everything that wasn't nailed down at Fratton Park and Hart was given just 48 hours before the transfer window closed to somehow build a team.
The fact he'd kept his head - and dignity - through the worst start in Premier League history won the respect of the players and most of them looked as if they were really pulling for him.
But as soon as Grant walked through the door, Hart was toast. I knew it, the world knew it and, deep down, Hart probably knew it. What I can't get over is some faceless Portsmouth director coming out this week with the old "Enough is enough, results aren't what we expected" line.
What DID they actually expect with a squad cobbled together from free transfers and loans in the space of a couple of days at the end of August?
It's the classic case of demanding a manager operates with both hands tied behind his back AND blindfolded, then sacking him when he's not challenging for a Champions League place by Christmas.
How's Grant going to fare any better when Portsmouth won't be able to bring players in come January and when the players are basically all starting again with new methods and a new managerial style?
I'm not saying any manager who is not getting the results should be given endless time to get it right. But does anybody seriously think Grant is automatically going to do a better job than Hart and Pompey will be safe by the end of the season?
Like everything that's gone at that club these past few months, it just looks blinkered, muddled and utterly confused.
Perhaps Hart is better off out of it.
Now buy the News of the World print edition for more from Paul Ince
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This article has 3 comments
Hart had a rough deal, but he hung himself by sticking with mediochre players that did not have any right to be playing in the Prem, sure he had a bad hand to start with but you don't compound your errors by lack of tactical awareness, he picked the team to try not to lose, not to win.
By bernie brown.. Posted November 29 2009 at 12:57 AM.
Hart had a rough deal, but he hung himself by sticking with mediochre players that did not have any right to be playing in the Prem, sure he had a bad hand to start with but you don't compound your errors by lack of tactical awareness, he picked the team to try not to lose, not to win.
By bernie brown.. Posted November 29 2009 at 12:58 AM.
Paul Ince as a failed Premier League manager you are of course going to stick with Paul Hart, I'm sure Wenger or Fergie would disagree with you.
The main point about Hart is he doesn't have a clue about tactics, despite our loss today we looked alot more organised than we have done and we could have easily got something from the game had it not been for a disgrace of a referee. Hart could obviously motivate the players, but you can't play well every week and lose. Grant has proven in the past he has the footballing nous to get us better results than Paul Hart did. Check out PH's past record as a manager for further information.
By Jimmy Hammond.. Posted November 29 2009 at 12:17 AM.