Fratton Park side may take it easy for the rest of the season.
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Avram Grant has hinted he will make a farce of the Barclays Premier League survival race by fielding weakened teams for the rest of the season.
The Portsmouth manager is furious his team have been condemned to play Championship football next term after being deducted nine points for going into administration.
He will hold a crisis meeting with his players today in an attempt to discover how they want to approach their remaining nine league games, when they have nothing left to play for.
And in a threat to the integrity of the Premier League he has refused to rule out two stark possibilities.
He may field weakened teams, preferring to keep his best players fit for their April 10 FA Cup semi-final date against Fulham or Tottenham at Wembley.
And he may listen sympathetically to players like David James, Nadir Belhadj and Hassan Yebda if they say they do not want to risk getting injured before the World Cup.
Grant is in no mood to bow to any league dictat that he should field his strongest team in every game.Grant said: ‘We don’t have a duty to the other Premier League teams. The Premier League has a duty to the other teams.
‘We have a duty to Portsmouth, and I have a duty to football.
‘We’ve tried everything in the last months to keep the spirit of football and what I think football is about and I don’t see any reason to do it when we haven’t got a target. Of course our target now is the semi-final.’ (Daily Mail)
This could get interested. Not sure what Avram needs to sit down and talk to his players about. What does “sit down and discuss how they want to approach the remaining games” well presumably they want to approach them with the mindset of trying to win them? Am I missing something here?
Whether you think Portsmouth deserved their nine point deduction, which by the way they did, surely the idea that they may decide to field weakened teams is a highly immoral one and one that will not taken lightly by the authorities.
Hopefully this is just a knee jerk reaction and any intention to take it easy is one that is surely made in jest?
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Avram is hurt. We as Portsmouth fans are all hurt. The mess our owners got us into has nothing to do with us, and we shouldn’t be blamed for that. However, the FA cannot tell us who we field, how we play and what type of football we play!
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Why weren’t West Ham deducted 9 points for fielding an ineligble player last year?
Why are players made to suffer(through deducted points) for crimes of manager/CEO/owners?.
How come Liverpool and Man Utd are far more in debt than Pompey yet they get no punishment?
Portsmouth is just the start…just watch the cards tumble.
Football is rotten at the top, and Sky and the Premier League have done nothing to prevent the demise. The sooner clubs are made to run in an afffordable manner, and players wages reflect this affordability the better
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 9:11 am
I sympathize with Pompey fans,players and staff…they did NOTHING wrong but the FA and their corrupt ,asshole Pompey owners/Board did. This was a great club and may be again one day but the FA, shortsighted and inbred as it is, seems to feel punishing the players and their supporters is the right way to go. Why doesn’t the FA and the Crown punish those idiot owners and Board members who mismanaged Pompey in the first place by forcing them out of the Club BUT offering the club all the support it needs to remain competitive in the EPL? If they were relegated because of poor performances in a normal season, then that’s part of Football BUT last year they were never in danger of relegation so what has changed? The mismanagement has ruined them, along with Redknapper’s raiding the club and the FA’s intransigence.
I think the FA should rescind the 9 point penalty and take over interim management of the Club as well as allowing them a hiatus for the debts and player transfer options normally in force. however this has never been done for relegated teams so I doubt it will happen for Pompey.
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Good for Avram and to hell with the Premier League. Let us go after the FA Cup, win that and up yours to the press and the Premier League.
As has been said the players and the manager do not deserve to be punished like this. They in no way deserve a nine point penalty and it should be restored immediately and go after the pariahs who sucked Pompey dry.
On Match of the Day last week, Gary Lineker said he did not believe in points deduction and the rest of the panel agreed with him.
Come on Premier League show some guts and ban this abnoxious punishment immediately.
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Have Arsenal still got to play them no problem Mr. Grant.
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
The decision to deduct nine points is based on the fact the business was run badly, after a desision not to deduct points from a club, because a player was ineligble to play seems to be arse about face, but thats the AF for you. I totally agree with Avram Grant the punishment should fit the crime.
The FA should be looking to themselves to control the money, not the points as they have done in Pompey’s case, what did they do wrong with the points apart from not get enough? They had already punished them to a degree by slapping a transfer ban on them, this on top, seems to be blaming the club for their own failings. They should protect the franchise by having control over what rich owners can and cannot do. One of those is to put in place restrictions i.e. in the form that any loans are covered by the individual not the club, so if they do walk away, as is the case as with Sacha (Alexandre) Gaydamak the club doesn’t suffer. His crime apart from maxing the clubs credit card is to then sell it to someone who couldn’t afford it. To me he is the person solely responsible for this mess. He bought the club when they were challenging at the top of the Premiership, he sold and they were bottom after spending a fortune. His father makes money selling arms, he son loses it by dropping bombshells, that’s the irony of it all.
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FOWLERISGOD - March 19th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I’m a Liverpool fan . And I think Avram Grant is completely right why should the player’s and fan’s be punished for what the owner’s/board have done to the club ? It is absolutely mad to punish the club by docking them nine points . Why should he have to put his stongest team out when there’s nothing to play for ?Rest them for the F.A cup , make a mockery of the Premier League . That will force those idiots at the F.A to have a re-think about the rules .
Anonymous 09:04 I see your point but Liverpool fans and manager also shouldn’t be punished because of bad owners . Which brings me back to the point of those idiots at the F.A . Some blame must be layed at there door , as don’t they have to check theses new owners ? They allow them to buy our clubs then hold no responibillity when these owners which they veted desroy our clubs . Then dock the club points , F.A should mean F*****G AMATEURS .
Good luck to you Portsmouth will be routing for you in the F.A cup
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anonymous - March 19th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I don’t support any club in the EPL but I cannot agree with Avram Grant’s tactics here. The decision is rather harsh and punishes the fans and players who are not in charge of the finances of the club. That said the true test of character is how you respond from such a setback. Go out and win your next 9 games if you don’t want to show up to play then you are doing a disservice to the fans of Portsmouth who pay money to see you put out a competent side.
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