Adams to decide players' futures
Tony Adams had insisted it would be next season before his Pompey revolution takes shape. Now it's a guarantee.
The new Blues boss has been given the green light to stage his own mass clear-out as he looks to stamp his own mark on the club.
A staggering 15 members of his Pompey squad are out of contract this summer.
That includes skipper Sol Campbell, Sean Davis, Noe Pamarot, Kanu and Richard Hughes.
The club's longest-serving player, Linvoy Primus, is another whose current deal expires at the season's end.
Others are Djimi Traore, Glen Little, Jerome Thomas, Hermann Hreidarsson, Richard Duffy and Jean-Francois Christophe.
The tally also consists of Nadir Belhadj and Armand Traore, the pair on loan at Fratton Park until the end of the current campaign.
The 15 does not even count home-grown pair Joel Ward and Matt Ritchie, or teenage keeper Jon Stewart, the youngsters not yet considered fully-fledged members of the first-team squad.
It all adds up to a golden opportunity for Adams to perform major Pompey surgery as he moulds his own team.
Losing several big earners is also an attractive proposition as the club attempts to force down its massive wage bill.
But executive chairman Peter Storrie has insisted Adams will be given an entirely free rein in deciding just who will stay and who will go.
He said: 'Squads do turn around, if you've got 30-odd players you tend to have up to 10 every season which change.
'The ones that are probably senior and directly involved in the side are just Campbell, Kanu, Hughes, Davis and Pamarot.
'Then you've got people like Lauren, Djimi Traore, who have not featured much.
'We've got a few young ones this time as well, people like Duffy and Christophe.
'Obviously those 15 include Nadir – who we hope to conclude in January – and Armand Traore.
'What happens next is in Tony's hands, it's up to him to come to me and say "I want to let this one go" or "I want to keep this one". It's his decision and not anyone else's.
'It's entirely up to Tony. These are football matters and I will help, but it's his decision.
'That's what you should do with managers, my job is to help, support, be there for Tony and do the deals.
'The choice of who he has, who he doesn't have, who he plays, who he doesn't play, that is what you pay a manager for.
'Boards, owners and chairmen shouldn't get involved, I am totally against that. That has to be entirely and utterly in Tony's hands.'
Importantly, the majority of Pompey's key performers are still contracted to the club long-term.
And Storrie believes they find themselves in an excellent position this summer to restock and push on again.
He added: 'Tony is in a very good position, it gives him the opportunity to have a good look at the players and decide what he wants to do about those, how many he wants to retain, how many he wants to get rid of and let go.
'One or two out of contract may want to go in January, fringe players not really in the team, but that's something we will only deal with if they come to talk to us about it.
'To be honest, at this stage other people are talking about it more than we are.'
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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