"Appleton is Pompey's coach, accountant and miracle worker"

FL Extra

24Aug

“Appleton is Pompey’s manager, accountant and miracle worker”

While most people were topping up their tans, Portsmouth boss Michael Appleton was assembling a squad from scratch and against all odds it seems to have worked. With a takeover still up in the air at Fratton Park, Appleton’s budget is narrower than a shoestring, but Pompey still have managed two draws in their opening two games. The Life’s a Pitch panel examine what is a remarkable story, before taking a look at what’s going on at Watford after Udinese became heavily involved at the club.

“[Appleton] had a team of triallists with him for about two or three weeks,” says the Guardian’s Dominic Fifield. ”He took them to Spain with him on a pre-season tour that had been funded by a fan. He only got sanction on the Thursday before the opening game of the season that he could sign them on short-term deals and thrust them all in. He met one of them, a loan signing, the night before the game. And somehow, after two matches, when they’ve got no fitness, they’re unbeaten.”

A large part of the praise must go down to the fans, who in the last week have pledged £40,000 to help Appleton secure more loan signings. “It’s a fantastic example of the community backing the club,” says the Daily Mirror’s John Cross. ”They deserve so much more. And when you hear Michael Appleton talk, he talks with passion, he talks with feeling, he completely gets the amount of support that he’s tapped into with the fans. It’s a wonderful story, Michael Appleton is a football manager, accountant and miracle worker all rolled into one.”

The People’s Janine Self hopes the fans can take this momentum a step further. “[Portsmouth] have a fanbase that belongs in the Premier League and they’re keeping it afloat. I think it would be absolutely wonderful if they could get together, buy the club and give Michael Appleton some money and hopefully go back up.”

At Watford, meanwhile, it seems fans are being alienated, rather than encouraged. The Pozzo family, owners of Udinese, took over during the summer and their changes to the academy are causing some concern. “Watford had a Category One academy there,” says Dominic. “Suddenly it’s Category Three. It sends out a message that we’re not going to be producing homegrown players, we’re going to be getting lads in from Udine on loan and we are basically just a temporary club that people pass through.”

The academy in question took a decade to build and turned out the likes of Team GB international Marvin Sordell. John is convinced it will all end in tears, and not even Watford’s new Italian manager will be able to help. He says: “I think it’ll be a disaster and part of that disaster will be Gianfranco Zola.”

Watch the full video discussion by clicking on the play button in the image above.

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Comments

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hbk

I wish people would do some research before writing their assessments of happenings at Vicarage Road. As far as the Academy is concerned, nothing changes. It was never Category 1, the plan was to APPLY for Cat 1 status, however the minimum requirements for that status are a joke and way beyond the means of a club Watford’s size. It also means that young players who would usually be out on loan at lower division clubs would need to be kept around just so they could play in the pointless U-21 Premier League – which is compulsory for Cat 1 and 2 clubs to take part in. As a Cat 3 academy Watford are free to continue running the academy as it is currently running without pandering to the nonsense that is the EPPP (a scheme designed purely for the benefit of the top 6 clubs in England).
Also, Marvin Sordell was a product of the Fulham academy who Watford picked up at 16 after he was released.
As for Zola, well like any new manager at any other club, let’s wait and see before judging him.
bowzer

It sounds like Dominic doesn’t understand the benefits of Watford declairing their academy and Category 3. We would not have got Category 1, we would have been given Category 2 becuase we can’t finance it to Category 1 level and we’re lacking some facilities and the staffing levels needed.
As long as funding remains as it is for Harefield Academy then the kids will get education and coaching rivalling that of Category 1 clubs at a fraction of the cost and without doubling or trebling the admin and coaching staff and having to spend a lot of money on new facilities and getting a lot more players for the U21 team that would be forced on us.
The rules for Category 3 have changed and we can sign kids witht he same restrictions at U9 to U11 level as Caetegory 1 and 2 and U12 to U15 as Category 2.

We do have some restrictions, but the positives far outweight the negatives, assuming funding isn’t cut for the academy.

As for the loanees from Granada and Udinese. Udinese have the habint of sending the same players back to Granada every season. These players are of a standard that is far better then we could ahve got previously and Udinese gain the benefit of them playing and keeping their transfer value intact for potential later sale and profit. That is what the “Watford Way” that has been described under previous managers is. The Pozzos are just doing it with 3 clubs.
Mr Fairness

If Appleton is an accountant perhaps he can find a way to pay back the £158 million of debts that are owed to charities, small businesses and the taxman before he embarks on yet another spending spree on behalf of an insolvent company ???
DodgyFL

Appleton, the man who doesn’t want to play his youth because then they get counted towards the senior squad.

He’d rather loan out the youth so they can afford a more senior player!!

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark (Denmark in this instance being the FL).

And can someone explain why when Bournemouth were in the same situation they weren’t allowed to sign *ANY* players, even ones that wanted to play for the club for free!!

Oh, and whilst I’m ranting, why would a community who have been ripped off to the tune of ~£100m happily donate £60,000 to the club??
notsododgyFL

Some bitter and twisted commentators on here who obviously have no idea of the facts and even if they did would still espouse their bigoted and insular vitriol.
helicopter1

How can Pompey use that £60K to secure more players on loan. They already have 5 loanees – the maximum they’re allowed. Or are the FL going to allow them to bend the rules again?
Fairplay

Yes, I think the FL don’t have the cojones to deal with them for fear of letting skeletons out of the cupboard.
Botley Blue

The bad debts of the two administrations were due to poor owners who should never passed the FL fit & Proper persons teats, being allowed to run up these debts and then run away scott free leaving others to picks up the pieces. its not Appletons fault he is just doing his job, and its not the fans fault. we are just trying to support our team. so if some fans want to contribute to players wages then why not
golden boy

what a poor video about watford, were a club where if we wernt taken over we would have gone into administration and how are we ment to pay 2.5 million every year to sustain cat 1 status.

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