Bolton 3 Portsmouth 0: Neil Allen's verdict: Trapped in an excruciating never-ending cycle of drudgery. The patience is gone - the Eisners must act

The Blues are back to square one. A new incoming head coach, a fresh rebuild, the pleas for patience, and reconstructing brick by brick.

We’ve been here a while, of course, almost five-and-a-half years to be precise, imprisoned in League One yet continually refused parole and instructed to return to the cell to tortuously gaze at golden skies still nowhere near within reach.

It’s akin to carrying out the painting of the Forth Bridge, only to realise you’ve run out three-quarters of the way through and must return to the very beginning.

And we’re tired, so very tired, trapped in this excruciating never-ending cycle of drudgery, constantly returning to the starting point, like Groundhog Day, aching for a different outcome.

Since August 2017, Kenny Jackett has failed, Danny Cowley didn’t succeed, and now the search is on for the next challenger.

Tornante have displayed admirable patience with both their managers in a brutal knee-jerk industry which spits out bosses with breathless ease and uncomfortable lack of accountability.

Yet that amounts to approaching six seasons in League One – and, not unreasonably, the Fratton faithful are anticipating it stretching to a seventh.

Inevitably it will involve the next head coach overseeing another major squad overhaul plus granted the usual free-hit season during a major rebuild. That totals another two years down the line.

Not that Michael Eisner should operate a rapid hire-and-fire policy so ludicrously implemented by the likes of Watford, far from it. It’s just that the current approach continues to fail to deliver Championship football.

Wonderfully the club is debt-free and without the burden of loans. Self-sustainability should be applauded, but football is irrational, it’s unpredictable, it’s exciting – and Pompey are so very, very safe.

Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Bolton provided the uncomfortable realisation that promotion ambition this year has likely been extinguished before the January window has ended.

Depressingly, since returning to League One, they have never before been as far adrift from the top six at this stage of a campaign.

It throws up the very real possibility of an unpalatable third successive season without reaching the play-offs, unless Liam Manning, Ian Foster or whoever can perform a Fratton Park miracle.

For many of the Blues faithful, patience has now been exhausted, they struggle to stomach the prospect of starting over once more. The hope, the anticipation – then familiar devastation and disillusionment.

Such people are not the chuntering remnants rendered permanently disenchanted after poster boy Balram Chainrai was overthrown, bitterly refusing to accept fan ownership at first and spending the subsequent decade sniping and sneering at all things Pompey.

Rather these are good folk who strode forward and saved a football club from liquidation, dipping into their own pockets, demonstrating outstanding fortitude and determination to beat the odds for a remarkable April 2013 triumph at the High Court.

When dripping apathy has drowned the passion of their like, it represents a clarion call.

That’s not to be ungrateful to the Eisners who, in addition to ensuring the club remain debt-free despite Covid and its associated financial issues, have overseen the £11m redevelopment of Fratton Park and purchase of their Hilsea training home.

The existing Fratton End was opened in October 1997 and, in the years that followed, apart from providing the Milton End with a roof upon the Premier League’s insistence and essential repairs, Pompey’s infrastructure has been criminally neglected.

A quarter of a century later and Tornante are finally providing the Blues’ 123-year-old home with a fresh lease of life, surely an impressive commitment with should be acknowledged by all, albeit no doubt begrudgingly with some.

Having spent seven seasons in the Premier League, it was long a criticism that Pompey’s wealth had been lavished on transfer fees and player wages rather than strengthening its infrastructure.

Now the Eisners are being blasted for investing into Pompey’s infrastructure instead of recruiting players and boosting the player budget. A delicate balance must be achieved.

Of course, nobody is advocating sending the Blues hurtling into financial oblivion, condemned to a fourth administration during reckless pursuit of footballing success. Just a little more ambition on the pitch, please.

Realistically, they cannot match the footballing budgets and spending of Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday and Derby. Players earning weekly five-figure sums and splashing out £1.5m transfer fees are eye-watering at League One level.

Not that a greater financial outlay guarantees success. At the start of this transfer window, with Josh Koroma and Josh Griffiths present, the Blues possessed their biggest budget since Championship days. They’re now seven points ahead of the relegation zone.

Plymouth top League One, having started the season with a smaller budget. Ipswich, for all their immense financial muscle, finished 12th last term. Saturday’s victors Bolton are currently fifth, Exeter are 10th – both will have smaller budgets than the 15th-placed Blues.

Incidentally, Kieran McKenna was previously Manchester United first-team coach, while Steven Schumacher promoted from assistant manager. They would be branded ‘cheap options’ by some Pompey fans.

As ever, recruitment, the right manager/head coach and possessing a structured plan is pivotal, which is why the installation of a sporting director at Fratton Park in Rich Hughes is regarded as progressive.

A positive move by chief executive Andy Cullen and the owners, designed to drag Pompey up to speed with modern football. Finally an excellent example of forward-thinking.

Today Pompey are closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs, though, a damning decline dictated by one win in 15 league games for the one-time leaders.

Caretaker boss Simon Basey’s team were yet again awful at the University of Bolton Stadium, creatively abject, while defensively Josh Oluwayemi, on his Football League debut, gifted the hosts their second after dropping Kyle Dempsey’s cross.

It was far too comfortable for the Trotters, just as it was in Tuesday night’s 1-0 triumph at the same venue in the Papa Johns Trophy, as they eye the play-offs and a Wembley cup final.

That was Pompey once. Two goals away from the League One play-off final one year, a penalty kick short the following campaign, yet, with a few more talented additions, the belief was there’s always next season.

Those days have gone, time to start over once more. Back to square one.