Former Arsenal star Paul Merson: Winning Portsmouth promotion was best achievement of my career

He won every major domestic honour during a glittering Arsenal career, in addition to the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Paul Merson lifts the Division One trophy after Pompey claimed the title in 2002-03. Picture: Steve ReidPaul Merson lifts the Division One trophy after Pompey claimed the title in 2002-03. Picture: Steve Reid
Paul Merson lifts the Division One trophy after Pompey claimed the title in 2002-03. Picture: Steve Reid

Yet Paul Merson ranks the Division One title success with Pompey as his greatest achievement.

The cultured midfielder arrived on a free transfer from Aston Villa for the 2002-03 campaign, representing a massive coup for boss Harry Redknapp.

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He then established himself as a talismanic figure as the Blues claimed promotion to the Premier League – and the Division One crown in the process.

In a 2015 interview for Played Up Pompey, Merson reflected on an outstanding playing career which also earned 21 England caps.

And it was his Pompey feat which headed his list of proud achievements.

‘I won everything in football at Arsenal bar the Champions League,' he told Played Up Pompey.

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‘There was the FA Cup, the League Cup, the old Division One – which is really a name change from the Premier League – the Cup Winners’ Cup and the Community Shield.

Paul Merson regards winning promotion with Pompey as his greatest footballing achievement. Picture: Steve ReidPaul Merson regards winning promotion with Pompey as his greatest footballing achievement. Picture: Steve Reid
Paul Merson regards winning promotion with Pompey as his greatest footballing achievement. Picture: Steve Reid

‘Yet that 2002-3 season when we won the Division One title at Pompey still goes down as the biggest thing I achieved in my footballing career, without a doubt.

‘You have got to remember where the club was for the previous 14 years, they hadn’t been in the Premier League and had spent plenty of that time fighting relegation.

‘So for Harry Redknapp to put a team together of eight free transfers and play football in the style we did was incredible. We scored bundles and bundles and bundles of goals, everywhere we went we had a go.

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‘Don’t get me wrong, the Arsenal team were 100 times better than Pompey, of course we were, it was a different standard of football.

Former Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Villa midfielder Paul Merson cherished his time at Fratton Park. Picture: Steve ReidFormer Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Villa midfielder Paul Merson cherished his time at Fratton Park. Picture: Steve Reid
Former Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Villa midfielder Paul Merson cherished his time at Fratton Park. Picture: Steve Reid

‘However, for the feat of promotion and getting that many players together to gel that quickly with everybody performing to their ability through the whole season was just phenomenal.

‘The game I’ll always remember was travelling to Crystal Palace for the third match of the season.

‘My debut was against Nottingham Forest at Fratton Park with a crowd of 18,910 and I have never played in front of anything like that in my life.

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‘I’ve turned out in a stadium with a crowd of 100,000, appeared in front of 40-50,000 week in, week out, but had never performed to anything like that before.

‘We won 2-0 that day and the following match was a mid-week 1-1 draw at Sheffield United – then it was onto Selhurst Park.

‘Now Pompey weren’t the best team in the world, I follow my football and they’d always finished in the bottom six or seven, always scrapping, never near the top.

‘After the first couple of games we'd collected four points and I was thinking “Here we go, this isn’t a bad team at all”, I was really encouraged by it.

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‘Then at Palace I’m walking off the pitch at half-time wearing an all-gold kit and we were 2-0 down – honestly, it could have been 100-0.

‘Dougie Freedman was ripping us apart, I will never forget that, he was slaughtering us and had scored the opener, while Tony Popovic had grabbed the other.

‘I headed towards the dressing room thinking “What the hell have I done? I have come here and it looks like we are going to win a home game every now and again and then get absolutely battered away every other week”.

‘Inside, Harry came steaming into the dressing room, he was fuming. We had been terrible, all over the place, really, really poor, it was unreal.

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‘He shouted: “Right, you off and you off, we’re going three at the back, Jason Crowe you go right wing-back, Matty Taylor you go left wing-back, Merse you in the hole and let’s give it a go – get out there and have a right go”.

‘We went back out for the second half and it was wallop, crash, we absolutely battered them and won 3-2, Hayden Foxe scored and then our substitute Crowe got two, the winner 18 minutes from time.

‘There must have been thousands of our fans down there at the side of the pitch and they were going completely crazy.

‘We played three at the back for the rest of the campaign, Linvoy Primus was one of them and never looked back, he was one of the best players that season and I cannot remember when we lost a game after that.

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‘That day at Selhurst Park was down to Harry and people are so disrespectful to him saying he is a wheeler dealer and all that. So disrespectful.

‘I have worked under a lot of managers in the game and he is one of the most tactically-astute I have played under. I loved working under Harry, he was a different class.’

Paul Merson made 48 Pompey appearances and scored 12 goals from August 2002 until July 2003.

Played Up Pompey Too, released in 2017, is still available from Amazon. While Played Up Pompey Three, which contains more of your favourite Blues players, is out later this year.

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