Predictions?

[RED666]

Hi PFan,

I'm a bit too young for Jimmy Scoular, however the likes of Nobby Stiles, Norman Hunter and Tommy Smith i remember very well. Whilst i agree that they were hard men, they were hard hard men with very little skill and relied on hacking, raking and the frequent 2 foot tackle from behind just for good measure! I'm glad to see the back of those dark old days! How ever we have the cancer of cheating, greed and malice with intent instead in today' game.

Honest, i do love the beatiful game. It's just the bottom circles - i'm not allowed to print ********s - that are involved running and playing the game i despise and have contempt for!!

[Pompeyfan]

Hi Red666

At least you go, or try to. There are so many Man United supporters out there who have never been to OT or ever watched them live. Its like a fashion item, supporting a team that is doing well. You see them wearing the shirts, bu when you stop to speak to them, they have never seen them other than on Television. The same for Chelsea supporters, you see their shirts everywhere, but I wonder how many actually support them. And by support I mean actually actively supporting them, not from afar.

And talk of prices, Pompey supporters who went to Chelsea yesterday had to pay a fortune for tickets let alone getting there.

I am quite lucky at Pompey being an OAP now. But it is still expensive. I don't understand why clubs don't make it easier for supporters to pay in monthly instalments for season tickets. But I suppose if they can fill the stadium with those paying up front, they don't care?.

There is so much hospitality at clubs now caring more it seems for the prawn sandwich brigade than the good old British worker once the life blood of any club?.

David

[Pompeyfan]

Hi Red666

We had skill in our team as well when we were one of the country's best teams. And don't forget, those were the days of Stanley Matthews. There is not a player anywhere today with his skills.

We had a winger called Peter Harris. Again I have never seen anybody with his speed on the wing. He was so fast he would leave any defender of any quality standing cut inside, and score. He scored as many as the forwards. He played for England, but because he was unlucky enough to be around the same time as Stanley Matthews, he rarely played for England.

I prefer those days because they honest hard working players, and many will skill like Stanley Matthews. It was worth paying to get in just to watch him, even if he did play for the other side. He would dribble around players as if the ball was stuck to his feet, a true genius, and a top man too. These so-called super stars of today could learn a lot from Stanley in both skill and as a person.

David

[bennythedip2]

..Yes your right in some ways about skill's but the real truth is, there are players today with fantastic skill's, take a look at Ronaldinho at Barcelona. The problem in this country now, is kids and youth players are trained to play in a formation, individual skill gets blocked in favour of tactic's and formation's learned on a blackboard, then practiced on the training ground's, it's all about midfield play. This is probably the reason why England as a football nation are only second division in world rankings !
.. I really don't understand the media in this country , they are not interested in what goes on, on the playing field, their interested comes from selling news papers, or the sport radio stations are only interested in whipping up public rivalry at club levels, and knocking players and managers and sensationalising who is going to be the first manager to be sacked !
.. When you look back over the last few years, really since the formation of the championship league, money has become the motivator of everyone involved with football. Chairmen and the board of director's, managers, are not motivated to win anymore, their all afraid of losing !!
.. So ultimately we are where we are today, sensational media hype ,about a game that lost it's way years ago in this country.
.. 'The good ol days', will always be 'the good ol days', no matter what generation, I remember the football in the days when i played (minor league admittedly) when players like 'Rodney Marsh , Stan Bowels, George Best and many others played the wonderful game, and even these players were mullered by the press , but at least they played football the way we all loved to see it , as we payed at the turnstile we knew we 'd get value for our money, those were the days when the supporter mattered, and the game was ......football .. Benny

[Pompeyfan]

Talking of George Best, I think he was the greatest player that ever lived. My reasoning for that is that he was able to ply his silky skills on pitches no better than a ploughed field. We have come a long way these days during the winter at higher levels with pitch technology, but other great players like Pele played on better pitches due to the country they lived in which were better than ours due to their weather. That is my argument anyway?!.

Havig said that, when Robert Prosineki, the best ever Croatian, came to Pompey for one season, he did things with the ball I have never seen anybody in a Pompey shirt do, or indeed anybody. He made players look completely stupid with pure magic, nutmegging them and scoring great goals or putting the ball directly into Crouches head at long distance. He helped Crouches career a lot by scoring a lot of goals for us thanks to Prosineki. He has never been the same since?!. But that was on a good surface. Besty could do it on any surface which is why he was so special in my opinion.

David

[RED666]

Hi PFan,

I take your point about so many Utd fans who have never been to OT or Chelsea fans that have never been to the bridge. This fact can be used against any successful club in the last 40 years, E.g. Leeds Utd of the early 70's, Liverpool of the late 70's and most of the 80's, Everton in the 80's, the blip by Blackburn in the 90's, Arsenal in the 90's, Utd in the 90's and 00's and now Chelsea. If ever M'boro, Derby Portsmouth or say Villa become sucessful, i'm sure they'd have a bigger fan base with some of the fans never going to the ground to see a game.

It's a logical step for any one new to football to follow a successful club. The other reason to follow a club is parental/peer pressue. My 2 sons follow Utd how ever my daughter follows Chelsea - plan to have DNA testing regarding her - some say it's poor parenting on my part regarding her choice of club! Could be worse she could support the Micky mousers.

As for my club, they have been the best supported football in the last 60 years. Out of the last 60 seasons, Utd have had the highest average attendance 46 times. 7 out of the 14 when they did not, it was due to ground redevelopment. We even had the highest average in the country when we were in the old 2nd division. We averaged 49K, the next best was Liverpool at 46K who were in the old 1st division.

I personally welcome all supporters to my club, whether they come to the game or not. I'm lucky that my circumstances allow me to attend 20+ matches a season. Others pay the their Sky sports subs and support football that way.

To be honest the way football is bleeding the fans dry, we should all stay away and make them think again!!! But like so many i'm an addict!

[Pompeyfan]

Hi Red666

Pompey have always had a large fan base, they just have not been going to games when we were in the lower divisions.

We were once one of the biggest clubs in the land and that has never gone away, we still are off the pitch if not on it. But it has not been reflected in the gates during most of my lifetime when we were in the lower divisions.

But when I first started going in the early 50s we had regular gates of up to 50,000. Even during our darkest hour when we sunk to the bottom league, the old Div 4 in 1977/78 saw home gates of 20, to 23,000. Almost unheard of in that division. And when we were promoted back to Div 3 in 1979/80, we took over Northampton's ground for the last game of the season that saw us promoted. They had a home gate of 10,774, but most of that crowd were Pompey supporters. We stunned the Northampton crowd.

Then in 1981, in the FL Cup, as a 3rd Division team we took over 13,000 supporters to Liverpool for an evening game. It was I think the most away support ever to go to Liverpool. And as far as I know, has never been beaten. The Kop gave a standing ovation at the end, they had never seen anything like it. The gate was 32,021 and we had half of the ground. We lost 4-1, but the result meant nothing. We showed that support wise, we were still at the very top.

We really are a sleeping giant, and it is only an old ground having to comply with modern standards that we have had to drop to 20,000. But that 20,000 has made us the loudest support in the Premier League a couple of seasons ago, and something like 3rd in Europe last season. Imagine the noise level with 50,000 like it used to be if we can win noise levels with just 20,000 not counting the away support that is. So it is only about 16,000 or so. Away managers are amazed by the noise level at Fratton Park even when losing. We often up the noise level when losing to spur the team on.

But those supporters, that once filled our ground to 50,000 are still out there somewhere because like me, we hand the bug down the line. My granddaughter, and now 6 years great grandson are Pompey supporters. And other familes are the same. Those I went with in the 50s now take their kids and grandchildren, or at least follow from afar. So those who have died have handed it on. The problem is that people still don't go, even if they could. And that is a mixture of many reasons including money, but the fan base is most certainly there.

We have supporters clubs all over the world. In fact with Sky, more possibly watch on TV all across the globe than actually go. When we beat Liverpool to win the Asia Cup last month in Hong Kong, order for shirts in China hit the roof. And we now have top quality shirts exclusive to us for the next 5 years. Canterbury of New Zealand who make rugby shirts have moved into football, but only with Pompey. They are top quality shirts aimed at soaking up sweat. Basically, if you dropped it in a pool of water, it would stay dry?!.

Another thing that makes us known world wide, even when in lower divisions, and which fuels our support not only now, but in the past is the Pompey Chimes. It is the only football chant on earth that can be heard at every hour right across the globe. No other football chant can be heard with such global regularity, and it is exclusive to us. Few clubs copy it, unlike other soccer chants. It is certainly regarded in the football world as exclusive to us.

Okay, somewhere in the distant past we copied the Westminster Chimes renaming it the Pompey Chimes. But most towns and cities across our planet have clocks that chime the Westminster/Pompey Chimes just like Big Ben in London. Every hour from Big Ben what do you hear the Pompey Chimes?!!. It makes me so proud!.

And being in the merchant navy travelling to just about every country in the world from large cities to small islands they all had a clock that chimed the Pompey Chimes making me feel even prouder, and closer to home. And also of course, many peoples door bells ring the chimes and of course Grandfather clocks.

We don't need to be successful on the pitch to be big. We are already a giant, and have proved it?!!.

So sorry to blow the Pompey trumpet?!.

Anyone better than?!!.

By the way, talking of big clubs, Leeds visit us tomorrow in the Carling Cup. How sad to see yet another giant fall like they have. Lets hops they bounce straight back, but not tomorrow of course?!.

David

[Pompeyfan]

The Pompey Chimes set me thinking.

How many other clubs have their own chant not copied by others?.

West Ham blow bubbles.

Notts Forest have Robin Hood.

Liverpool Walk Alone, although other clubs also sing that.

Just how many have their very own chant not copied?.

David

[RED666]

When do they intend to start building that new stadium?

[Pompeyfan]

Hi Red666

I think they want to have it ready by 2010, but it is a very ambitious project with many hurdles to cross not counting planning permission. The idea is a 35,000 seater with Flats etc on the harbour next to the Spinnaker Tower in the space between the harbour station and HMS Warrior which will be moved sideways.

They have tried elswhere but failed. This would be a huge project for the city and docks. If that fails, they will build a new ground where they are.

David