Chapter 1: What recent performance issues are affecting Pompey?
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John Massino is asked when and for how long he plans on playing Conor Shaughnessy over this period of time when we've got quite a glut of games. And is he in any way lured into the idea of saving him for the Oxford game?
I'm not even thinking about the Oxford game at the moment I will just make the decision based on Norwich and then see how he is after that. Shox was disappointed for the fourth goal against QPR. Apart from that I didn't think anything else was necessarily a reflection on his performance. When that fourth goal went in, we decided to protect Shox and bring him off the pitch.
Collectively I don't think anybody came off the pitch thinking they had produced a stellar performance.
Chapter 2: How is Conor Shaughnessy's playing time being managed?
We were always going to bring him off after about 70 minutes, that was the maximum he was going to play. At that point, with that fourth goal going in, I thought we could make that change and try to freshen things up, have a bit of a different impetus down that left-hand side with Swanee coming on. We'll see what happens after Norwich.
We'll see what the nature of the game is, how much there is in terms of an output, how Shox feels on the Saturday, and then go from there. That's one we are going to play by ear. We need to do everything we possibly can to win the game on Friday, and then go from there. We have to fully focus on Norwich. I don't think you can look at Oxford right now. You can't afford to do that at the moment.
we have to fully focus on norwich they are both worth three points if we actually get something against norwich it's massive it gives us impetus going into the oxford game we can't afford to look at any other games this season and think they are more important or less important than others obviously when you play against the likes of oxford and leicester they are down there with you so it might feel a bit different but we need to try to pick up as many points as we can
The dilemma of when to play Shaughnessy and for how long is one of the reasons why we pay our manager a good wage. Because it's a decision that I suspect none of us would really like to have to actually make. Obviously Shaughnessy himself is going to be in on the plan there and the medics as well. And we also have to look at the cover that we have for Shaughnessy.
If John Messina decides not to start him against Norwich, but to save him for the Oxford game, have him on the bench perhaps in case we're 1-0 up with 20 minutes to go at Norwich and we decide that we'll take those three points and so we'll shore up our defence by bringing him on.
But what we don't want to do is risk him getting crocked because he's a player who looks as though he's going to be out for two weeks and it turns into six months. As John Messina has been underlining quite a lot over the last few days. He has players who look as though they're... A perfect example, of course, is Murphy, who's going to be out for a couple of games.
Then it turns into the rest of the season. So he's got to make, you know, real, real tight decisions about...
based on probably a lot of guesswork as well as everything else so it will be especially interesting to see what the starting lineup is when we get the team sheets for the Norwich game and just have a look at whether or not he's going to risk Shaughnessy which if he does that means that he is going for something from Norwich which will be a brave thing to do Because it is, isn't it?
Whether he likes it or not, whether he says so or not, it's all about Oxford, isn't it? What are Steve Bone's predictions for the Norwich game?
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Chapter 3: What strategies are being considered for the Norwich game?
Pompey's total spend on agents' fees during the last 12 months was Ā£830,000, rendering the South Coast club one of only four Championship outfits, whose agents' spend was less than a million. The big spenders on agent fees in the Championship were Ipswich Town, who shelled out Ā£11.7 million. Southampton who forked out Ā£8.3m, Leicester Ā£5.8m and Norwich Ā£4m.
The only clubs who spent less than Pompey were Sheffield Wednesday inevitably Ā£534,000 and Blackburn Rovers Ā£676,000. On average the rest of the championship spent approximately three times as much on agent fees as Pompey. Agent fees are not an exact representation of transfer value, much depends on the individual deal struck between the clubs and the agents.
Nevertheless the statistics do act as a general litmus test of spending power.
Another good reason to listen to Steve Bowen's podcast on Pompey Sound is that he breaks those numbers down quite cannily, but nevertheless forces himself to admit that we don't know as fans enough about who these agents are, who the agencies that they are part of are, how the money is broken down, who pays those fees.
The player obviously gives something to the agent in exchange for his services. But does the club that is selling the player?
give something to the agent in order to ensure that or help ensure that the fee that they receive for the player is as good as it can possibly be and does the club that is buying the player okay also pay the agent because the agent is able to say well look i've delivered you the player that you wanted at a price that we agreed would be a good one we just don't know
But Ā£600,000 is a big piece of Pompey's outlay when you consider that we are restricting our recruitment team to spend no more than a mil, maybe a mil and a bit on players. And there we are spending almost three quarters of a million on agents fees.
It will be nice to know, provided the information could be provided to us in a way that we, non-accountants and non-wheeler dealers, will understand.
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