Duncan Barkes

But if John Messina and the coaching staff say he needs game time, he needs game time.

And when the player ahead of you is Connor Ogilvie, that's going to be hard to get.

Of course, Connor could get a suspension.

I don't know how many yellows he's on at the moment.

He could be moved to centre-half the way things are, and he certainly does a great job there.

Or it's possible that he might be needed to be rested, in which case, then, step forward...

farrell but as things stand he's going to be spending a lot of time sitting on the bench and therefore not developing his uh the top end of his footballing game which he might do if he's on loan somewhere and it looks as though if the rumors are to be believed that the clubs lining up interested in his services if he goes out on loan are pretty substantial clubs pretty substantial outfits which is very flattering for him and if you want to view him uh

as an asset, pretty valuable, increasingly valuable for Pompey.

It's a two-way thing with Marlon Pack.

Not only are we very lucky to have him, a player who can play like him, who can dominate the entire pitch like him with his enormous sense of authority and also play such a successful and valuable game of football.

Besides being a natural leader, a talisman, he plays such a good game.

He's tackling his positional sense, his distribution, his threat to goal.

is right up there with anybody else in the championship, surely.

It's just that he hasn't necessarily got 98 minutes in him week after week or three times a week as sometimes now Pompey and the other teams are playing.

But just as we're lucky to have him, he's lucky to have us.

really, to see the sun set gradually, hopefully very gradually, on a powerful career, a strong career as a professional footballer, an exemplary career as a professional footballer.

OK, he didn't crack it in the Premier League.

Very few English players do.

But he's cracked it in every way possible, everywhere he's been.

And he's waiting now to see what sort of doors open for him in coaching and management when he finally decides to hang up his boots.