Squad fractures more important to repair for Portsmouth boss than relationship with fans

The Blues boss will start his fourth season at Fratton Park as the club’s longest-serving boss for 25 years. He also begins it with a battle to convince what is now a considerable amount of supporters he’s still the right man for the job.

Not that it’s his most significant challenge in the weeks and months ahead.

That particular status is afforded the task of bringing a dressing room together, which could well be fractured by the events of past weeks and months.

And doing that is going to be critical to any chances of success, after Pompey’s natural advantages at this level were neutralised in recent days.

Everything which needs to be spoken and written about the significance of Friday’s narrow vote in favour of the EFL wage cap - for now - is in the public domain.

What hasn’t been explored to such a great extent amid the overriding anger hurtling in Kenny Jackett’s direction, is the impact of the decisions which has been used to fuel some understandable fan fire.

The one thing Jackett has never shirked in his Pompey - and managerial - career is making a big decision when he feels it’s required.

That, of course, is the right of any manager in a cut-throat business, with no boss ever wanting to reflect on the decisions they should have made. They usually get the leisure time to repent when it goes wrong.

Pompey, of course, are preaching loyalty to their boss, however.

So, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and the landmark wage cap vote, he will attempt to reshape a squad to get out of a third-tier landscape which has now bred an over-familiar contempt.

The conditions Jackett is now working under will inevitably limit the business he can do, with fine-tuning a misfiring squad over pimping his Pompey ride the mechanics used.

But among his options currently are a captain who was totally bombed out for the biggest games of the season, and a local midfielder who’d made every squad he’d been fit for - until the two defining matches of the campaign.

Elsewhere, there’s a defender who was given a three-year deal last July but hasn’t been picked for a league game for nearly a year now and a goalkeeper, in all honesty, who spent the second half of the season not quite knowing if he was coming or going.

In Pompey’s slimmed-down squad these are people who are likely to be turned to in the coming weeks and months.

For someone of Jackett’s make-up, these are issues which are probably of little consequence. Footballers are professionals paid well to do a job in an industry they are fortunate to be in. He wouldn’t waver from making a similar call for a moment, if he felt it necessary.

But it’s a legitimate concern that when the time comes to go into the trenches for their manager, these moments will provide the backdrop for men who are asked to rise to the challenge of delivering success.

Jackett’s approach with his players has always been to maintain a respectful distance while offering an open-door and dialogue with them, if required.

In fact, it’s not just the men he works with on the pitch who he chooses to deliver that approach with.

‘You won’t know him any better from the day he walks in to the day he leaves,’ said one journalist who’d previously worked with Jackett, after his Pompey arrival in 2017.

‘He’s like that with everyone,’ said one of his former players of his enigmatic ways. ‘That’s whether you’re a player, the media or the chief executive.’

Some have interpreted that way of operating as cold and distant, however. And when that marries with some big calls going against you, it’s not inconceivable that’s viewed as unempathetic.

MacGillivray was left befuddled when he was dropped on the basis of a well-publicised ‘gut feeling’ in January. It was a decision which proved largely justified, however, as Alex Bass came in for his first run between the sticks and showed promising form.

It was a confusing situation for the keeper, though, and one that points towards the lingering issues such calls can have.

The management truism goes there’s always 11 players in a dressing room who think the boss is brilliant, while the rest are left muttering words of Anglo-Saxon origin about him to the other team-mates not in the starting line-up.

And as soon as those men make it back into that first XI all the previous beefs with the manager are forgotten. There’s certainly accuracy in that statement.

Likewise, it’s worth underlining to those who have made their minds up about the man at the Pompey helm, that he is a gentleman. And whatever your modus operandi, maintaining the qualities of a good man in this game is no mean feat.

Jackett, of course, has addressed his men since their return and reports this is a streamlined group over the body blows the 2019-20 season ultimately dished out to them.

Whether that translates into the true backing of his players after all that has gone before, we will soon find out.

A message from the editor

Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.