'You can’t have it both ways' - Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan questions Portsmouth approach

The former Eagles supremo has said it’s unfair to expect any Fratton Park head coach to prioritise developing and signing young players under a self-sustainable model AND bring success to the League One side.

Jordan applauded the Blues, under chairman Michael Eisner, for adopting a renewable approach to its football operations.

But the businessman and current talkSPORT presenter said a combination of experience and investment is the only way of getting the club to exactly where is wants to be.

The ex-Selhurst Park chairman was speaking about the current situation at Pompey as Danny Cowley made a guest appearance on his ‘White and Jordan’ show with Jim White.

Cowley was sacked as Blues head coach on January 2 and replaced by John Mousinho last Friday.

According to Jordan, Cowley had a difficult task combining all that was expected of him, which is something his successor will soon discover as well.

The former Palace owner said: ‘Portsmouth is a great club. I tried to buy it in 2012.

‘It is one of those football clubs that has a fantastic supporter base, but it seems to be cyclical because it got itself going when Milan Mandaric took over it and got it to the Premier League and had a period when it was there, and then it seems to have gone back to levels where it spent many years in terms of outside of the top-flight and outside of the top two divisions.

‘But as a football club it’s got a wonderful fanbase – one of my mates was the main sponsor at Portsmouth for years, KJC, and I got to see it and obviously we played against them on many occasions, so it’s a big club.

‘I think it’s a difficult circle for Danny to square.

‘You can’t have it both ways. It’s all well and good saying you want a sustainable football club – we all want that, everybody wants to be an owner who doesn’t have to keep putting his hand in his pocket.

‘But to get to a point where you are sustainable, you have to invest. And you can’t simply suggest that young players are the solution.

‘They will give you your head. They will give you your sanity. When you’re brining young players through the academy or whatever it is as a youth development situation and they want to play for the football club – that’s wonderful.

‘But, also, it’s slightly unfair on a manager who has got two things in hand – one to bring young players through and the other to bring success.

‘They’re very difficult bed fellows. Alan Hansen once famously said – he got to eat it for lunch, didn’t he – “You can’t do anything with kids”.

‘But you can’t, as a rule, in divisions like League One, build a side with young players. You need experience, a bit of investment.

‘I’m not suggesting Michael Eisner won’t do that.

‘I would have thought that Portsmouth would have felt the lights were on when he came through the door. But I’m not entirely sure that’s what’s happened.’