Source: Telegraph
Paul Hart called to meeting as Portsmouth plumb the depths
If nothing else, the image of Hart standing alongside Victory's cannons and carronades might help to affirm the Nelsonian leadership streak that most believe he lacks. But there would, sadly, be another connotation: after six games and six defeats with Hart at the helm, he is staring down the barrel of a gun. [LNB]Perversely, that gun is being wielded by Sulaiman al-Fahim, whose knowledge of the game's vicissitudes is, by common consent, vastly less than that of his manager. Three days ago, while Hart was busy drilling his team for a 700-mile round trip to play Carlisle in the Carling Cup, Fahim cropped up in Valencia to promote a chess match between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. [LNB] Related ArticlesSol Campbell: a tortured soulPremier League tablePremier League fixturesAl Fahim: Pompey can spend in JanSport on televisionHart has been summoned to meet Fahim at Fratton Park on Friday, ostensibly to establish why there is no money for Portsmouth to spend in the January transfer window, when Fahim had insisted that there would be. But the none-too-hidden agenda is how long Hart has left. It is understood that should his side succumb at Everton on Saturday lunchtime, he will not be spared. [LNB]For all TS Eliot's depictions of April as the cruellest month, it is October that Premier League managers have greatest cause to dread. Why, Juande Ramos had garnered more points for Tottenham at this stage last season than Hart has for Portsmouth, and everybody knows what happened to him once October came. [LNB]The one dubious distinction that Hart shares with Ramos is that the pair have led their clubs to their worst starts to a league campaign since the Titanic sank. In this maritime city, it is an unsettling reality. [LNB]Hart never asked for such brutal exposure. An unapologetically dour and saturnine figure, the former Nottingham Forest manager loathes giving interviews as much as his owner appears to relish it. [LNB]They make the oddest of couples, and Hart is tellingly dismissive when asked about today's meeting. Paul, do you fear anything? "What I have got to fear? I know what I do day in, day out." But are you under pressure? "No. From what?" Well, football owners in the past... "You're asking me, I'm not an owner."[LNB]Have there have been any discussions about how long you have to turn it around? A shake of the head. Would it help if the situation was clarified? "What are you asking for, a fourth vote of confidence in three weeks?" No, but would a discussion help? "Not really, no."[LNB]Hart's conversations with the press have become ever more staccato with each fresh setback. To a point, such terseness is understandable. The team he surveys have been taken apart to a scarcely precedented degree. [LNB]Portsmouth are woefully under-resourced. The desperation that they showed in the last 48 hours of August transfer business, bringing in players such as Tommy Smith from Watford just to shore up the ranks, made Fratton Park look like a clearance store, in keeping with the soulless retail park that surrounds it. [LNB]Hart cut a lonely figure as he strode out through the cars outside Portsmouth's training ground. The car park, unusually, was full on Thursday, save for one space. Word had it that it was being kept free for Sol Campbell. [LNB]Portsmouth's league results this season[LNB]Sat Aug 15 - Portsmouth 0 Fulham 1 Wed Aug 19 - Birmingham 1 Portsmouth 0 Sat Aug 22 - Arsenal 4 Portsmouth 1Sun Aug 30 - Portsmouth 0 Manchester City 1 Sat Sept 12 - Portsmouth 2 Bolton 3 Sat Sept 19 - Aston Villa 2 Portsmouth 0 [LNB]
