Transfer Madness at Fratton Park

By Zain Alvi | 2nd September 2009

Transfer Madness at Fratton Park | read this item

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niko-kranjcar If you are Paul Hart – by far the bookies’ favorite to become the first sacked manager in the Premier League this season – you would need a miracle to save Portsmouth from relegation at this point. Four games into the new season, Pompey are yet to scrap up a single point, which is a clear indicator of how the team roster was in desperate need of major bolstering on the final day of transfers.

In a shocking transfer decision, Portsmouth offloaded their most creative player in Niko Kranjcar for only £2.5 million as the Croatian swiftly made the move to Tottenham Hotspur. With Spurs’ own talisman – Luka Modric – sidelined with a long-term injury, former Pompey boss Harry Redknapp couldn’t be happier with how efficiently he has replaced Modric with another Croatian playmaker.

Having offloaded Peter Crouch to Tottenham earlier this summer, Portsmouth had already indicated that Fratton Park was set to witness a season of rebuilding. However, it seems that the Pompey management forgot how important it was to find a quality striker to make up for the goals they had previously expected from Crouch. Unsurprisingly, Pompey have struggled to score, which makes life very difficult especially considering an inexperienced defense cannot support David James to consistently keep clean sheets.

With Sylvain Distin and Sol Campbell joining Peter Crouch on the way out of the club, Paul Hart effectively lost his most important players at both the front and the back. A talented midfield, led by the match-winning abilities of Kranjcar, was the sole remaining lifeline. Unfortunately, Pompey failed to hold on to their most prized asset, merely replacing their star man with Benfica’s French midfielder Hassan Yebda.

While Tal Ben Haim has joined from Manchester City to offer Hart and his team some much needed experience, the downfall of Portsmouth seems inevitable. Of course, they can always pull off a miracle just like they did a few years ago. However, that was under Harry Redknapp, who is one of the only managers capable of such a feat. Certainly, the current Pompey management is a long way behind Redknapp’s disciplined leadership quality. Coupled with a below-par roster, trouble is surely forthcoming at Fratton Park.

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