Kenny Jackett to remain as Portsmouth manager

The News understands the manager’s position is currently safe, despite the poor start to the season.

There is concern from within the club at the manner in which the campaign has started and the way in which the Blues lost their way in dreadful fashion against Wigan on Saturday, but the view is it's too early in the season to make a managerial change.

The on-pitch picture pales into insignificance when considering the financial worries created by the coronavirus pandemic, however.

Pompey’s losses now top £5m, as football going behind closed doors wreaks havoc with their financial health.

Chief executive Mark Catlin has already stated the club have been losing £700,000 per month, as the impact of Covid-19 is felt.

Catlin has previously stated redundancies can’t be ruled out at Fratton Park, as a result of the huge figures being haemorrhaged each month.

With the prospect of fans being kept from attending games until next year, the concern over that desperate scenario occurring intensifies.

It’s understood it would cost in the region of £400,000 to cancel Jackett’s contract which ends next summer, while there would likely be a turnover of backroom staff in the event of a new manager coming in.

That would bring its own huge costs especially if a successor was in place at another club, with compensation needed to be paid.

A new face would also likely see a turnover of players, as is usually the case as a new manager shapes the playing squad.

Incurring those costs doesn’t make financial sense in a climate which will see clubs go to the wall, unless a bailout can quickly be actioned.

Calls for Jackett to leave have intensified in the wake of a winless start to the new League One campaign.

The Pompey boss himself explained that he’s feeling the pressure on Saturday, even with fans not attending games.

That is a scenario which is arguably helping Jackett, with Fratton Park likely to have been a toxic environment in the face of the opening-day draw with Shrewsbury and weekend loss to the Latics.

Also, disappointment among fans translating into a drop in attendances could have been a scenario which would have forced the club’s board to act over the manager’s future.

Jackett now faces a huge challenge of turning around supporters’ feelings towards him, when it’s now clear he doesn’t have the support of the majority of fans.That task begins at Burton Albion on Saturday – the start of a busy eight-game run in October.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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