Danny Cowley Portsmouth FC career update

[Selsey Bill]

The antics on the touchline or the passive lack of them does not define the ability or quality of a manager. I remember Avram Grant being accused of being like a statue during games. Then one game he lost his rag and remonstrated with a linesman. He all of a sudden became hero worshiped and seen as a beacon of defiance while we being relegated. Then when the first opertunity came he jumped ship. I don't think it matters whether a manager is animated or not, it is what his team is doing on the pitch which defines him. You may well be right and the Cowley's are emotionally invested in our club and city as a whole or, of course, they could be delving in a bit of good PR. I don't know and I would think only they know. I could write the signing on speech for new players who are well versed on what to say to get the popular vote. No doubt they have been advised what to say. Say nice things about the fans, how loud they are, how passionate they are, can't wait to play in front of them and so on. Paul Cook said he would never leave this club then walked a few weeks later. The only constants in football are us, the supporters. We have the emotional attachment to the club and we are not going to walk off to support another club because they have got a better team. I don't buy all this PR talk, I don't dismiss it as false, I take it with a pinch of salt. The Cowley's will leave this club one day either as failures or successful and join another club, whose fans and city they love.

It's all about opinions, innit. You are obviously not a Cowley fan, and I respect that.

[Pompey1984+1]

No they don’t stand motionless on the touch line they prance about like idiots giving out constant useless crap to players who already don’t have a clue what their tactics are in the first place.
But then I’m in the camp that thought from day one they were a bad appointment in the first place.
I loved their quote today in Hampshire Live ‘ our teams always come good in the second half of the season’ go figure that was clear last season was it not

Are you actually being serious about the end of last season? The way we played last game of the season wasn't good and it frustrates me still now. Couldn't get up for a cup final effectively.

However to discount the statement which I'm assuming they have stats to back up because that's how they operate - based on their handful of games in charge is one of them craziest things I've seen on the internet.

[Blue Walter]

Bill, don't get me wrong l am not particularly anti Cowley's or nor am I sold on them either. I don't want to see them sacked either, I actually want them to succeed. My contention is that they say a lot but, paint whatever picture you like, there is in my opinion no tangible improvement in our team. I think talk of transition has no substance as I see it. I disagree with them concerning the goalkeeping issue as I can't see 'transition' in that particular instance, the opposite in fact. I am a little bit old in the tooth to go for this little pat on the head of being told how wonderful the fans are and how great the city is. The cynical side of me sees it as 'here you are nice little supporter be a good boy and worship me then sod off and buy your tickets'. Or they could be quite genuine and after being here for 9 months fallen for the club and now have an unbreakable affiliation with us. Who knows but what I do know is you hear the same sort of rhetoric in almost every club in the country and I would think someone somewhere is telling porkies. I just wish they would do what they say they are going to do so we can see some seeds that suggest we are going to see the sort of football promised.

[Claygate]

My biggest gripe with Cowley is the fast high pressing football that we were promised. He’s been in charge for 10 months now and in all those matches under his stewardship, this style of play has been witnessed only 2-3 or times from what Ive seen. When Cook took over, the tippy tappy passing was plainly evident from the start of the new season.

I was at the game on Tuesday night and the first half was nothing short of atrocious…all hoof ball. No different to when Jackett was at the helm. Yes Cowley inherited legacy players, but only 3 of them in the starting 11 versus Wimbledon. There had better be an improvement in the way we play next season or the vultures will soon begin to circle.

[Portchesterblue2]

Bill, don't get me wrong l am not particularly anti Cowley's or nor am I sold on them either. I don't want to see them sacked either, I actually want them to succeed. My contention is that they say a lot but, paint whatever picture you like, there is in my opinion no tangible improvement in our team. I think talk of transition has no substance as I see it. I disagree with them concerning the goalkeeping issue as I can't see 'transition' in that particular instance, the opposite in fact. I am a little bit old in the tooth to go for this little pat on the head of being told how wonderful the fans are and how great the city is. The cynical side of me sees it as 'here you are nice little supporter be a good boy and worship me then sod off and buy your tickets'. Or they could be quite genuine and after being here for 9 months fallen for the club and now have an unbreakable affiliation with us. Who knows but what I do know is you hear the same sort of rhetoric in almost every club in the country and I would think someone somewhere is telling porkies. I just wish they would do what they say they are going to do so we can see some seeds that suggest we are going to see the sort of football promised.

not quite sure of what your definition of transition is BW, the number of players who left in the summer, the number coming in, more out this January, and some in possibly (hopefully) more, what more transition is there ??

[Selsey Bill]

Bill, don't get me wrong l am not particularly anti Cowley's or nor am I sold on them either. I don't want to see them sacked either, I actually want them to succeed. My contention is that they say a lot but, paint whatever picture you like, there is in my opinion no tangible improvement in our team. I think talk of transition has no substance as I see it. I disagree with them concerning the goalkeeping issue as I can't see 'transition' in that particular instance, the opposite in fact. I am a little bit old in the tooth to go for this little pat on the head of being told how wonderful the fans are and how great the city is. The cynical side of me sees it as 'here you are nice little supporter be a good boy and worship me then sod off and buy your tickets'. Or they could be quite genuine and after being here for 9 months fallen for the club and now have an unbreakable affiliation with us. Who knows but what I do know is you hear the same sort of rhetoric in almost every club in the country and I would think someone somewhere is telling porkies. I just wish they would do what they say they are going to do so we can see some seeds that suggest we are going to see the sort of football promised.

[Blue Walter]

Porchesterblue asked me what transition was if it didn't mean the turn over of players. He makes a good point about the amount of players moved in and out being 'transitional'. I am talking about the transition to the type of exciting football that Cowley said he wants to play. He didn't say he was going to get rid of the higher earners first and the bring in cheaper replacements as his main brief this season. He said he was going to change the team style of play. He said he was going to bring in players that would deliver the type of football he wants. There is no evidence that the team is evolving into any set pattern of play. I don't think loaning players is actually transitional if they are not going to be part of the club going forward. Loaning a goalkeeper when we didn't need one isn't actually having an eye to the future of this club. We needed to bring our own player on who is going to be part of the clubs future, which is more important than setting ourselves up as an academy for other clubs higher up than us. The biggest single point is that there is no viable indication the the team is improving because we are performing no better than last season, and scoring less goals to boot.

[Pompey55]

Porchesterblue asked me what transition was if it didn't mean the turn over of players. He makes a good point about the amount of players moved in and out being 'transitional'. I am talking about the transition to the type of exciting football that Cowley said he wants to play. He didn't say he was going to get rid of the higher earners first and the bring in cheaper replacements as his main brief this season. He said he was going to change the team style of play. He said he was going to bring in players that would deliver the type of football he wants. There is no evidence that the team is evolving into any set pattern of play. I don't think loaning players is actually transitional if they are not going to be part of the club going forward. Loaning a goalkeeper when we didn't need one isn't actually having an eye to the future of this club. We needed to bring our own player on who is going to be part of the clubs future, which is more important than setting ourselves up as an academy for other clubs higher up than us. The biggest single point is that there is no viable indication the the team is improving because we are performing no better than last season, and scoring less goals to boot.

It’s obvious I’m no fan of Cowley but we are conceding less and as he has said we should be scoring more
But add together less goals both for and against it doesn’t add up to fast attacking football as promised and very little sign of a transition towards it.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Perhaps the lack of incoming signings and more loans during the Cowley tenure is down to something fairly obvious....COVID.
When you are one of the bigger dogs in the 3rd Division due to attendance, you have a bigger payroll, so it would make sense that when yer fans are gone for a season, its going to be more painful and take longer to recover than other teams in this league that have much smaller payrolls due to playing in front of 6000 fans every week instead of 16000. I'll reserve my judgement on the Cowleys and the team until next season. This season would seem to be a "do the best you can with limited resources"...watch the $$$'s and keep us in touch with the play-offs.

[StMonkton]

I think you sum up the situation pretty well. The increased reliance for us versus others on gate receipts hadn’t occurred to me.
I suspect this season is far less hard hit than last financially but still skewed by Covid.

It certainly isn’t ‘transitional’. That implies a change from one state to another and if you instigate transition it should be to a better state.

A ‘holding season on the cheap’ doesn’t sound so desirable does it? If that’s where we are then OK it fits with what seems to be happening. Don’t try and sell it as some master plain for a bright new future.

As I have said before, treat the ‘fast attacking football ‘ comment with caution. He was hardly likely to promise ‘slow, defensive stalemate ‘ was he?

[Pompey55]

I think you sum up the situation pretty well. The increased reliance for us versus others on gate receipts hadn’t occurred to me.
I suspect this season is far less hard hit than last financially but still skewed by Covid.

It certainly isn’t ‘transitional’. That implies a change from one state to another and if you instigate transition it should be to a better state.

A ‘holding season on the cheap’ doesn’t sound so desirable does it? If that’s where we are then OK it fits with what seems to be happening. Don’t try and sell it as some master plain for a bright new future.

As I have said before, treat the ‘fast attacking football ‘ comment with caution. He was hardly likely to promise ‘slow, defensive stalemate ‘ was he?

The problem is not that this is the real situation but the fact that Cowley spouts so much BS every time he opens his mouth no one has a clue what he really thinks, he reminds me of the kid at the front of the class putting his hand up continuously saying me me me me I know the answer rather than the kid at the back who knew the answer but just got on with it

[Blue Walter]

I think you sum up the situation pretty well. The increased reliance for us versus others on gate receipts hadn’t occurred to me.
I suspect this season is far less hard hit than last financially but still skewed by Covid.

It certainly isn’t ‘transitional’. That implies a change from one state to another and if you instigate transition it should be to a better state.

A ‘holding season on the cheap’ doesn’t sound so desirable does it? If that’s where we are then OK it fits with what seems to be happening. Don’t try and sell it as some master plain for a bright new future.

As I have said before, treat the ‘fast attacking football ‘ comment with caution. He was hardly likely to promise ‘slow, defensive stalemate ‘ was he?

I agree with most of what you say and I think that what annoys me as much as anything else is the, for the want of a better expression, bull about the aims for this season. I think that this season was a 'marking time' season while the club got the highest wage earners off the payroll and replaced them with cheaper options. If they admitted that this was the prominent agenda for the season it would have hit ticket sales. So they called it transition which has a much more meritorious sound to it. What is annoying is that they want the public to believe that and accept that we are transitioning to a more entertaining way of playing.

As for the Covid effect it would be true to say that we would have seen a bigger fall in revenue than most other clubs in this league. By the same token we would also have seen a quicker recovery than most in this league as well. Having a bigger fan base would mean a greater return in commercial sales and more revenue from match day attendances than some of our smaller peers. So this is really swings & roundabouts.

[Portchesterblue2]

Porchesterblue asked me what transition was if it didn't mean the turn over of players. He makes a good point about the amount of players moved in and out being 'transitional'. I am talking about the transition to the type of exciting football that Cowley said he wants to play. He didn't say he was going to get rid of the higher earners first and the bring in cheaper replacements as his main brief this season. He said he was going to change the team style of play. He said he was going to bring in players that would deliver the type of football he wants. There is no evidence that the team is evolving into any set pattern of play. I don't think loaning players is actually transitional if they are not going to be part of the club going forward. Loaning a goalkeeper when we didn't need one isn't actually having an eye to the future of this club. We needed to bring our own player on who is going to be part of the clubs future, which is more important than setting ourselves up as an academy for other clubs higher up than us. The biggest single point is that there is no viable indication the the team is improving because we are performing no better than last season, and scoring less goals to boot.

But don't those players need to he turned over to create that new playing style, because the old ones couldn't do it?

[Blue Walter]

Porchesterblue asked me what transition was if it didn't mean the turn over of players. He makes a good point about the amount of players moved in and out being 'transitional'. I am talking about the transition to the type of exciting football that Cowley said he wants to play. He didn't say he was going to get rid of the higher earners first and the bring in cheaper replacements as his main brief this season. He said he was going to change the team style of play. He said he was going to bring in players that would deliver the type of football he wants. There is no evidence that the team is evolving into any set pattern of play. I don't think loaning players is actually transitional if they are not going to be part of the club going forward. Loaning a goalkeeper when we didn't need one isn't actually having an eye to the future of this club. We needed to bring our own player on who is going to be part of the clubs future, which is more important than setting ourselves up as an academy for other clubs higher up than us. The biggest single point is that there is no viable indication the the team is improving because we are performing no better than last season, and scoring less goals to boot.

But don't those players need to he turned over to create that new playing style, because the old ones couldn't do it?

There is only around 3 or 4 players from the Jackett era that make the current squad. Even so he would need to be playing this 'new style' so he knows which players are incapable of adapting to it. These are professional footballers so they should be capable of playing in whatever way the manager dictates.

There is no transition to a new playing style that is detectable to me. This leads me to the conclusion that this season was all about getting the highest earners off the payroll. Not about transition to a new and exciting playing style at all. If it is it has been pretty unsuccessful so far.

[PakefieldBlue]

Seems to me that this is all an argument about DC's stated desire to play "fast attacking football". Have you ever promised something that you later regretted because it wasn't as achievable as you'd hoped?

He should have just said "we want to win more games than we lose" then everyone would be happy!!

If we have a strong second half of the season, start scoring a few more goals whilst remaining as solid at the back as we are, then we might sneak into the play-offs, which we'd all be happy with. All good teams are built on a strong defence, and that certainly is a strength of ours.