Time for Michael Eisner to provide answers to his own Portsmouth criticism

‘I rarely tweet when we lose,’ stated Pompey owner Michael Eisner. ‘But I have to say it’s disappointing the way we’ve been playing lately.’

The Blues chairman could be forgiven for being a little awry on the detail, in the wake of a 1-1 draw at Oxford United which felt like a defeat in any case. The message remained clear, however, and a surprising departure as Eisner opted to publicly criticise what he’s seen from John Mousinho and his team in recent weeks.

After a change in his Twitter policy, it was an approach which garnered a varied response late on Tuesday night, but one with an undoubted strand of appreciation for the American’s public honesty. It was also a delivery which raised more questions than it answered.

The most obvious starting point, of course, was why?

Not looking too deeply for subliminal messages is probably a necessary approach here, especially when considering the temperature among most of us after what had been witnessed at the Kassam Stadium. Players either increasingly disengaged or indifferent to Pompey’s cause has set the blood boiling of late, with personal agendas and that of the team no longer in alignment as the season tails off into obscurity.

That cumulatively coming off the back of three draws which had buried any lingering thoughts of the play-offs, meant Eisner was far from only the man conveying sentiments redolent of frustration. Perhaps, too, the 81-year-old was holding on to hopes of making the play-offs as the rest of us steadily let go of such fanciful notions; perhaps this was Eisner’s point of realisation.

But, and most significantly, when you’re the man who sets the course for a football club, such public statements of disapproval over shortcomings scream one response: DELIVER THE ANSWERS.

With the season now dead in the water, the time is right to ask questions of how things went wrong and leave Pompey facing a gut-sinking seventh season in League One.

Danny Cowley, injuries and the common thread through the campaign which is the players are, of course, all firmly in that conversation. But to use a phrase beloved of the man who left in January, it’s for all concerned ‘to look in the mirror not out the window’ when reflecting on the reasons why.

And when that comes to Tornante, the question has to be have they given the right conditions for Pompey to succeed on the pitch?

There are 28m reasons for appreciation of their six-year stewardship and the building blocks being put in place, but the fact remains each of those have now been spent foundering in the same division.

Yes, the pot has consistently grown, but a playing budget in excess of £4m has undoubtedly seen Pompey fall off the pace in real terms amid the rapidly changing financial terrain in League One. You only have to look at last night’s opponents fighting for survival with superior resources and Plymouth leading the table with an inferior fighting fund, to know there are no guarantees. Likewise, there are sides with three times the budget of the Blues nervous about how things will play out this term and beyond.

The positive news is the signs are there Eisner will afford greater resources to allow Mousinho to action the transfer policy assembled in recent months, soundbytes to hold people to account. Eric Eisner and Andy Redman made enough noises to that extent on their whistlestop visit last month.

Now the man at the top has delivered a statement everyone is looking for him to firmly answer himself.