View: Portsmouth must be wary after rival managerial development
Portsmouth have to be on their toes to improvement in form from sides around them, as Stoke City become the latest club to make a managerial change.
The Potters sacked Narcis Pelach on Friday [27 December] after just 19 games in charge, having won just three – unfortunately including the 6-1 hammering of Pompey at the bet365 Stadium on 2 October.
Stoke are just two points and two places above the Blues in the Championship table, and have also played two further matches in what is set to be an incredibly tight survival battle.
We all take for certain we will be in a relegation fight, but half of our clubs will end up moving clear towards mid-table – something Stoke have been ruthless but proactive in trying to achieve.
Portsmouth can only focus on themselves, though
While Portsmouth will be and should be wary of the form of the teams around them, it is not something within the realm of John Mousinho or the club’s control.
Whoever is the most consistent will stay up, and that’s a matter of fact. Pompey have looked to step up their form in recent weeks having spent the first third of the campaign inside the relegation places, but cannot stand still.
Of the clubs currently in the bottom half and within realistic reaching distance for the Blues within the next few weeks, Millwall; Coventry City; Cardiff City; Oxford United and Hull City have, along now with Stoke, changed their manager in the past few weeks. That doesn’t include Preston, who appointed Paul Heckingbottom in the first week of the campaign.
That is certainly not to imply Pompey should do the same. The issue at Fratton Park is different to many of the established Championship clubs, in that the budget has been dwarfed by what the likes of Stoke have spent. Mousinho has been working with a hand tied behind his back and an arguably League One squad, which must be rectified in January.
Pompey invite Stoke to Fratton Park in a little over three weeks’ time [22 January], by which time if there is any new manager ‘bounce’ for the Potters, the hope is that it will have subsided. But it promises to be a make-or-break month on the recruitment front, in any case.
In other Portsmouth news, the latest view on the Kwadwo Baah and Pompey fans row after Watford.
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