There has been a lot of talk about sustainable development in recent years. What does it mean though? One thing you can say for certain is that you can't sustainably develop a business by mislaying a couple of thousand fans as Portsmouth Football Club seems to have done.
The most important area of a football club though is the football side however, and the manager is the most important person full stop.
There were real lessons to be learnt from watching a couple of former Pompey managers this week. Harry Redknapp is going through his familiar early season series of tantrums, where he complains about the lack of players he has despite the fact he has a massive squad and he signed most of it.
Yet again he goes through the Redknapp cycle of life, where he brings success, great results, quality players are revived, the club reaches heights not seen for years – and then the moaning starts. Ever more quality players must be signed to replace the ones he signed last year. Hints of discord between manager and chairman abound. If Redknapp were Man City manager this summer it's not hard to imagine a public tantrum about the non-arrival of Messi to replace last season's star signing, Ronaldo.
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Meanwhile, in complete contrast, Tony Pulis' Stoke City continued their ever-upward progress with the minimum of fuss. A solid team, built over several seasons, sensibly improved every year by the addition of good young players, bought to fit into a pattern, shows organisation, discipline and ruthless effectiveness.
The two men and their methods are poles apart. The high octane, show-biz, money-splashing Redknapp contrasting with the tight-lipped Pulis who treats every penny as if he had to rip it from a tiger's pocket and regards flair players with deep suspicion.
There is a major lesson here and it concerns Steve Cotterill. When Pulis came into Pompey we were in a desperate relegation battle. He signed some really solid players, he reinvigorated the players he already had and made Pompey an effective unit. When he took over Pompey we looked dead and buried. He kept us up with three games remaining.
The following season we began rather as we have begun this, with half a squad to implement the system the manager prefers. We were adding players and making it up as we went along. Short term unpopularity left Pompey fans grumbling about results, playing style and the managers irascible interview technique. Milan, unfortunately never one to ignore a hook baited with short term popularity, sacked Pulis and replaced him with Steve Claridge.
That constant search for a short term fix brought us Claridge, Rix and then Redknapp. We achieved wonderful things in both Redknapp's spells in charge, but fundamentally, he spent every penny the owners gave him as fast as he could and then left when the well ran dry. Had we stuck with Pulis, the odds are that he would have done what he has always set out to do; build a sustainable team working within a budget and still overachieved. Stoke weren't getting into any cup finals or playing in Europe before he came along.
Steve Cotterill is a very similar manager to Tony Pulis. He builds long term and likes his teams to keep it tight and compete. The frills come later. Last year, despite all the odds, the lack of money and the need to throw together a team at the last minute, he twice had us on runs that any promotion contender would be proud of. Each time we were undermined as our squad was weakened by the loss of key players.
Yet again Pompey have been forced to start the season late. We have stuttered through the opening five games, but tellingly we have now kept two clean sheets in a row. We have made some really solid signings, Pearce, Halford, Henderson, Norris, Varney, Benjani, and Huseklepp, to add to the undoubted quality of Kitson and Lawrence.
Like Pulis, as soon as he was able to go into the market he put in the spine of a new team, one that is beginning to take shape with each passing week. There will be bumps in the road yet to come. It will take time for people to be fit, patterns and tactics to bed in. As ever, it is taking aeons to bring a squad together and that is likely to make the first couple of months more of a roller coaster than it might have been.
There is little about Fratton Park that can be sustainably developed in the short term. Nothing much is being done to attract new fans or win back the ones we have lost in recent years. On the field though, there is sustainable development. Steve Cotterill is exactly the right manager for this club – sensible, durable, understands budgets and with an eye for a player.
Given time, I am willing to bet he will do for us what Tony Pulis has done for Stoke. Quick fixes are always attractive. And they always end in tears too.
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