Neville Dalton is a journalist and a Portsmouth fan of more than 40 years.
Ever since Pompey were bought for the umpteenth time in the past half a dozen years, I’ve been looking forward to writing about the season ahead unfettered by the misery that so marred our most recent close-seasons.
No more massive debts hanging over us; everybody paid; a level playing field; a decent-sized squad, with room for sensible – and careful – augmentation where necessary.
Oh, and a proper pre-season, carefully planned and controlled by a manager no longer constrained by the physical and metaphorical chains that have held us down for what seems for ever.
I’m still looking forward to writing such a piece.
But I won’t hold my breath.
Only 12 months ago I bemoaned having to write a piece so similar in outlook and hopelessness to that which I had written a year before that.
But while some things have clearly changed – and there appears to be a measure of stability at Fratton Park that has not been evident for two or three years – we embark on yet another season in circumstances uncomfortably familiar to those of our recent past.
It would be nice to think the club has seen the back of those frightening debts, and I imagine all sensible supporters are anxious that Pompey should now live within their means.
If that means being run by an owner reluctant to splash out on personnel, so be it.
But he, the club, everybody must be aware of what that means.
More mediocrity is on the cards.
We’ve brought a few players in, but numerically they barely replace those we’ve let go.
There may be a little more spare cash in the coffers, but it looks as though the numbers may be boosted by loanees again.
Where’s the early squad assembly that Steve Cotterill said was so important to ensure we didn’t get off to another shambolic start?
As we prepare to kick-off the season against Middlesbrough, we have a squad of about the same size as this time last year – with youngsters that Cotterill doesn’t rate failing even to fill the substitutes’ bench.
Solvent
By the time the transfer window closes in four weeks, we may be stronger – but we’ll have played at least six games – including five Championship fixtures.
And we all know that last season’s opening seven games without a win ultimately cost us at least a play-off place.
So let’s not get carried away about our prospects as a solvent club once again.
And so to the on-field preparation. We all know what a disaster last year’s US tour turned out to be – half the tour spent flying around the country; kitbags going missing; flight delays depriving the threadbare squad of sleep before the final game.
This time it was going to be different, promised Mr C as he prepared to fly out with his, er, threadbare squad to… er, the United States.
And so it was. No flying around the country. The country came to them. Well, at least Charleston Battery did.
First, their fringe players gave Pompey a scare before the Blues fought back to draw 2-2.
Then a game against the Battery’s first team ended goalless – with Cotterill complaining: “I thought we looked really tired tonight.”
If they’re tired after the pre-season preparation, what will they be like come muddy February?
He did seem to think that the training in-between the two fixtures had helped fitness, though.
And at least there was the final warm-up game against Real Betis still to come.
Except that in circumstances not dissimilar to that pre-season nightmare just 12 months earlier, the squad’s plane was damaged before take-off, extending their stay in the States by two days and forcing the Betis game to be cancelled.
Quite apart from whether the club has to fork out any sort of compensation to their Spanish visitors, the saga has left the players strikingly short of match fitness as they prepare for the journey to Teesside this weekend.
It’s not all gloom, though.
Stinkers
Cotterill proved in such challenging circumstances last season that he has what it takes to motivate players in a crisis.
They played some good football some of the time and went on two excellent runs (albeit in-between two or three stinkers).
This time round Cotterill has lured two of his long-term targets – David Norris and Luke Varney – to Fratton, as well as persuading Greg Halford (one of the more successful of last season’s loan signings) to join the club full-time.
Unfortunately, Richie De Laet – by far the best of said loanees – is not coming back, and it looks likely that in the short term at least, Halford could be taking his place at right-back – a position where he failed to shine last term before being converted into an effective – if somewhat casual – centre-back.
Despite the Varney signing, we’re still short up-front, a position not helped by Cotterill’s refusal to give Danny Webber a new contract.
But the Pompey boss has shown that even under the enormous restrictions he endured last season, he still has a nose for a decent player.
For every Sonko and Dickinson there is a Halford and De Laet; Jonathan Hogg and David Cotterill may ultimately have proved disappointing, but the undoubted top-level experience and quality (albeit in short bursts) of Liam Lawrence and David Kitson remain.
Am I disappointed; am I angry?
Not at all. Few people seem to have worked harder for this club in recent years than Steve Cotterill.
His quality can finally be properly assessed now the shackles of last season have been thrown off.
But there is that caveat – Pompey have not suddenly become a carefree team competing with the big boys in the transfer market or, presumably, in the wages league.
Expectation must be adjusted accordingly.
A year ago I said if Cotterill kept Pompey up, he should be in line to succeed Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu.
OK, that’s a bit fanciful. But in view of yet another less-than-inspiring pre-season this time around, without a late successful flurry before the transfer deadline arrives, I’m not sure we can look to anything more than another flirtation with relegation.
Mind you, a struggling Pompey is still better than no Pompey at all.
And that’s a message we could all do with remembering come next May.