Just Back From The Huckerby Dinner....

[AJ 1,219]

[quote user="The gut"]If my memory serves me right, nearly every supporter I spoke to thought Malky would not be good enough for the premiership, but no one wanted him to leave. I think it was wrong to get rid but was understandable.[/quote]People didn''t him to go, just like we didn''t want Iwan to go, but sometimes players have to.It wasn''t the fact they went, it was the fact they were never replaced.Svensson wasn''t a Roberts type player, and it took us too long to buy Ashton.And the same wtih Malky, we''ve not had a leader like Holt since we had Malky, it has taken us too long to replace players, and that is why we are where we are.Thank god we finally have a decent manager at the helm.

[Mark .Y. 352]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

It''s strange how we remember things. My greatest criticism of Worthy was that he never seemed to have a plan B in the transfer market. He would identify the player he wanted and expect the board to get his man. But it was always a theme that if for some reason we didn''t get him we seemed to go without. This certainly happened with Primus. Everything pointed to him coming here. He was not only a commanding defender but was a leader with a good character. He was just the player to replace Malky but Mandaric broke his oiwn rules by offering Primus more money to stay. And that was that! Malky organised himself a move to West Ham because he couldn''t be guaranteed first team football. Charlton played centre half and played well early season. The stats will show Charlton and Fleming as the best pair that season and we had some good defensive performances and it was lack of a goal scorer why we waited for so long for that first win.

 

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I agree with the "No Plan B" assumption NN.

I would, however, disagree with "everything pointed to him coming here", Linvoy Primus is very settled in this area and has been since he moved down here. He does a massive amount of personal appearances at local schools etc and always has been very committed to the local schools football leagues. I agree that he would have been ideal but would have been amazed if he had actually joined us. I think the fact that Mandaric gave him a pay rise was just a bonus to him, he would always have preferred to stay at Pompey. What I found slightly worrying at the time was that it didn''t seem that we had done any background work to check this kind of thing out. Would have been fairly simple to run a few checks etc and see that we definitely did need a Plan B.

Mark .Y.

   

[nutty nigel 7,534]

[quote user="Mark .Y."][quote user="nutty nigel"]

It''s strange how we remember things. My greatest criticism of Worthy was that he never seemed to have a plan B in the transfer market. He would identify the player he wanted and expect the board to get his man. But it was always a theme that if for some reason we didn''t get him we seemed to go without. This certainly happened with Primus. Everything pointed to him coming here. He was not only a commanding defender but was a leader with a good character. He was just the player to replace Malky but Mandaric broke his oiwn rules by offering Primus more money to stay. And that was that! Malky organised himself a move to West Ham because he couldn''t be guaranteed first team football. Charlton played centre half and played well early season. The stats will show Charlton and Fleming as the best pair that season and we had some good defensive performances and it was lack of a goal scorer why we waited for so long for that first win.

 

[/quote]

I agree with the "No Plan B" assumption NN.

I would, however, disagree with "everything pointed to him coming here", Linvoy Primus is very settled in this area and has been since he moved down here. He does a massive amount of personal appearances at local schools etc and always has been very committed to the local schools football leagues. I agree that he would have been ideal but would have been amazed if he had actually joined us. I think the fact that Mandaric gave him a pay rise was just a bonus to him, he would always have preferred to stay at Pompey. What I found slightly worrying at the time was that it didn''t seem that we had done any background work to check this kind of thing out. Would have been fairly simple to run a few checks etc and see that we definitely did need a Plan B.

Mark .Y.

   

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I honestly believe that we were closer than you seem to think Mark. Worthy knew those things about Primus. All that christian and charity work that he did at the time was certainly known. I also don''t think Primus played along to get his pay rise, he just doesn''t seem that type of person. But whatever, as you say, we never had a plan B.

There was certainly leadership issues during that season and I certainly expected more in that department from the likes of Helveg and Jonson. What''s hardest to take is that the issues got worse instead of better over each subsequent season until this one.

 

[Norfolk Mustard 94]

[quote user="The gut"]I thought Francis moved for doin a JT on Leon''s missus.[/quote]

100% correct!

''Training Ground incident'' covered it in the media at the time; McKenzie smacked Francis and damaged his cheekbone - for the very reason you stated Mr Gut!

Then McKenzie threw a wobbly until he got a move away from here...his transfer cash paying for the subsequent divorce!

[Largey 0]

Just to clarify, was McKenzie hitting Francis the reason Francis has to wear (or chose not to wear) that face mask?