The Cook Debate

[pomp 'n circumstance]

Don't ask football fans to be rational - it isn't something that they ever been able to achieve since someone headed a pig's bladder into the night sky and found that the laces made a nasty mark on the forehead. Whilst I don't subscribe to the emotional plea of Pompey 85 that we loathe Cook because he's from the North, is anti Chaplin and still doesn't know his best team, neither do I side with the infantile prattle of many of the Pompey fans who attend games in order to abuse the team from the moment they walk on to the pitch and show not one iota of understanding of what the game is all about and display a tactical knowledge akin to a family of baboons in a safari park.

Cook came to us last season, charged with taking the club forward and into a higher league. Cook is also an old school tracksuit manager - nothing wrong with that if he can deliver what he promises. Is this year's team better than last year is debatable - his trafficking in the transfer market is less than impressive and there seems to be a general malaise in terms of the way the team is being asked to play.....do they even understand what he wants? I am neither Pro nor Anti Cook - I agree it's too early in the season to be changing the manager.

However, I have a suspicion that even if we were to achieve promotion this season, Cook is not a manager who could take us any further. He has neither the nous nor the charisma to attract the sort of players who could take us to the next level and indeed he has never managed at a higher level. He projects himself as a cheeky Scouser, but without the ability of man management that will be necessary to have us purring with approbation in the style of Jasper's cat.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Who exactly is doing all this moaning at the stadium anyways Pomp?
Is it those damn kids or the older generation?
It's the wrinklies that usually moan innit?....the kids are the ones with stupid haircuts and s41t music as I recall.

[pomp 'n circumstance]

Who exactly is doing all this moaning at the stadium anyways Pomp?
Is it those damn kids or the older generation?
It's the wrinklies that usually moan innit?....the kids are the ones with stupid haircuts and s41t music as I recall.

The split in opinion between the wrinklies and the kids is difficult to define Kid - both have fans who give the team a hard time and only appreciate the sort of 'pub football' that means lumping the ball into the stratosphere and waiting for it to reappear snow clad in the opposition penalty area there to be dispatched usually into the crowd behind the goal in row Z to the sound of PUP PPU....not for the faint hearted or the purists. The bulk of our fans are in the main more discerning and appreciate the ball on the ground which is a novelty in Division 2.......

[Pompey Gary]

However, I have a suspicion that even if we were to achieve promotion this season, Cook is not a manager who could take us any further. .

Ok. I'll bite. He lead Chesterfield to League 1 play-offs before he joined us.

The Championship would be a big step up for him and for indeed for a fan-owned Pompey but there is a whole division between where we are now and that one - and League 1 is only marginally different from League 2.

[portchesterblue]

so we need to ditch the manager because he has never managed higher than league 1, we have to ditch the goalkeeper because he is old and wont be down with the kids, in which case Roberts and baker are out the door too.

the current owners, (that's us) have never owned a club outside of league 2, so if we do go up should we be looking for new owners on that basis ???

[pomp 'n circumstance]

so we need to ditch the manager because he has never managed higher than league 1, we have to ditch the goalkeeper because he is old and wont be down with the kids, in which case Roberts and baker are out the door too.

the current owners, (that's us) have never owned a club outside of league 2, so if we do go up should we be looking for new owners on that basis ???

A simplistic 'out of context' reply if I may say Porchesterblue - for starters, I don't happen to believe that Cook will earn us promotion this season and if he doesn't, I think he will leave anyway. Secondly, whilst I await the winter months with some trepidation and the fact that I'm not convinced about Forde, I have never suggested that Roberts or Baker are suspect because of their age.....outfield players stick out like a sore thumb if they can no longer cut the mustard.

Lastly, if Cook were to get us into Division 1.....and I would applaud him in the same way as the rest of us.....I have seen
nothing to suggest that he has the ability to put together a team to prosper at Championship level.

[Pompey Gary]

I have seen
nothing to suggest that he has the ability to put together a team to prosper at Championship level.

Any manager is going to find life tough competing in the Championship on the budget that Pompey would have. There are some fairly big hitters at that level. We’re fan owned which is great and personally I hope to retain this but it comes at a price.

[Locky_McLockface]

I have seen
nothing to suggest that he has the ability to put together a team to prosper at Championship level.

Any manager is going to find life tough competing in the Championship on the budget that Pompey would have. There are some fairly big hitters at that level. We’re fan owned which is great and personally I hope to retain this but it comes at a price.

The current board are aware that we would need further investment to compete in the Championship.

[Pompey Penguin]

I have seen
nothing to suggest that he has the ability to put together a team to prosper at Championship level.

Any manager is going to find life tough competing in the Championship on the budget that Pompey would have. There are some fairly big hitters at that level. We’re fan owned which is great and personally I hope to retain this but it comes at a price.

The current board are aware that we would need further investment to compete in the Championship.

And that is the issue of being in the Championship (which is still a long way off for us). Investors expect a return on their investment, in this case promotion to the PL and lots of TV money before selling on to the next bunch of Chinese-American-Arabs on the rank. All very well racking up debts if you succeed (a la Bournemouth) and can recoup the money to pay off the debt (or not if your investor is a bit shady), but otherwise teams are back where we were recently. The debts carried by some Championship clubs are still frightening, even with new regulations to reduce overspending. I know many (even most) Pompey fans disagree with me, but I would rather be a lower half Championship team or Championship to L1 yo-yo and stay mostly community-owned than risk the club once again chasing PL dreams. Personally, I would not be prepared to "invest" (without a return in this case) in the club again if we mess things up.

[rumourmonger]

Basically what we are going to need when we get to the Championship is a die hard Pompey fan to win about £50m plus on the Euromillions and pledge a large wedge of it to the club.

[portchesterblue]

so we need to ditch the manager because he has never managed higher than league 1, we have to ditch the goalkeeper because he is old and wont be down with the kids, in which case Roberts and baker are out the door too.

the current owners, (that's us) have never owned a club outside of league 2, so if we do go up should we be looking for new owners on that basis ???

A simplistic 'out of context' reply if I may say Porchesterblue - for starters, I don't happen to believe that Cook will earn us promotion this season and if he doesn't, I think he will leave anyway. Secondly, whilst I await the winter months with some trepidation and the fact that I'm not convinced about Forde, I have never suggested that Roberts or Baker are suspect because of their age.....outfield players stick out like a sore thumb if they can no longer cut the mustard.

Lastly, if Cook were to get us into Division 1.....and I would applaud him in the same way as the rest of us.....I have seen
nothing to suggest that he has the ability to put together a team to prosper at Championship level.

I have to correct you pomp, your concerns over Forde were that because of his age he would not know what the kids were like and would be able to connect with them, therefore surely Roberts and baker who are of a similar age must be got rid of as they wont be able to connect either

[past memories]

Basically what we are going to need when we get to the Championship is a die hard Pompey fan to win about £50m plus on the Euromillions and pledge a large wedge of it to the club.

That would buy Pogba`s left foot.

[Berkshire Blue]

I agree with PP that "further investment" from outside sources is not at all desirable. If we go down that route we will have learned nothing from the past. I foresee numbers of financial disasters involving league clubs over the next few years, and at present we are in a good financial position, being pretty well in control of our own destiny. If this means a less exalted position in the tables, so be it. I did not put money in the club to have it blown by some financial chancer down the line.

[Selsey Bill]

I did not put money in the club to have it blown by some financial chancer down the line.

[Miss Tickle's bottom]

The biggest problem Cook has is the impatience of the crowd, the vast majority of which seem to just want to see the ball launched forwards as fast and often as possible. Yes, I know that's an exaggeration!

An example of what i mean. We win lots of corners. We're not particularly effective from them. So I was pleased in the first half when the team tried a rehearsed short one, involving passes between Roberts, Bennett and Baker. It was an imaginative move which failed due to a poor touch from, I think, Bennett. The reaction from the crowd - howls of derision, people screaming "Just get it in the f****** box!".

Also, Cook's change in formation was not a Road to Damascus moment - it was a gamble which, happily, paid off. If our new keeper hadn't made an excellent save I dread to think how the crowd would have reacted. Until Roberts's penalty (the result, incidentally, of a moment of madness from a defender which had no link to our formation), we had lost control of the game and I actually thought Colchester were more likely to score than us. We can discount the second goal as the situation (i.e space!) just would not have arisen if we hadn't taken the lead.

Pompey's problem isn't the formation, it's the struggle to score the opening goal against hyper-defensive opponents. The crowd can help this by not groaning when players in blue shirts pass the ball to other players in blue shirts.