News

‘A Good Going Rover’ With Vital Pompey

|
Image for ‘A Good Going Rover’ With Vital Pompey

Ahead of tomorrows relegation clash we have taken some time to speak to throw some questions at the man known as Rug at Vital Pompey.

Luckily enough he threw me some answers back (What are the chances?!) and we have an interview.

Check out the answers below – I will find a link for the return interview I did as well!

So, bottom of the league, but have the performances been better than the results for Pompey?

Many would say that I am wearing the tinted specs but I really do feel that, on the whole, our performances warrant more than the 7pts we have at present – that said if you do not take you chances you will not score goals, and goals win games. We have been unlucky at times but poor finishing is not ‘bad luck’ it is just poor finishing.

We have shown in our last couple of games, scoring 4 in each, that if we take the chances it makes a difference!

Is there one player you wish you still had from last season?

I am a big fan of Peter Crouch so I was sorry to see him leave but I guess at the end of the day he decided to leave – even though we had to sell him. Although the one player, above all others that I wish we still had was Lassana Diarra, what a fantastic all-round footballer the littleman is.

Where did it all go wrong off the field? Fill us in?

Quite simply spending wildly beyond our means, seemingly for a number of years!

The outgoings were not being covered by that coming in – the fact that we have sold, what getting on for £100m worth of talent but we are still in debt is very alarming, something is not adding up is it? The interest rates on the loans – yep several loans before the said no more – we took have either been incredibly high, gross mismanagement of the club has been going on for years or fingers have been in the till… Maybe a bit of all of these is to blame, that said it cannot be changed so can you really dwell on it, can you? All we can now hope for is that we FINALLY get things sorted out once and for all and can be run like a ‘proper club’…

Given our history I think I can be forgiven for being a little cynical about this happening to be honest.

Which player is likely to provide the spark to drag you away from danger?

I do not think it is one individual player that will do this, I feel we have to continue to play as a team making sure that everyone continues to give 100% effort and commitment – whilst we have this we have a chance, and I still think this is what will drag us to safety.

This said I feel we need Marc Wilson and Younes Kaboul to continue to build their defensive partnership and the likes of Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jamie O’Hara to help drive us onwards attacking wise from midfield with the strikers of course scoring goals.

Are there any players from Blackburn you wouldn’t mind signing?

David Dunn looks to be having a good season – he is a serious attacking goal threat from midfield, although I ‘hope’ we now have this in the shape of Boateng and O’Hara so all in all I would say that a proper goalscoring striker would not go a miss, and ‘apparently’ Benni McCarthy could be this man for us?

I am torn on him, I know what a good footballer he is but his attitude seems to stink sometimes and I am not sure we can afford to have a ‘rotten apple’ in the pack? That said he wants to go to the world cup, right? For this he would need to knuckle down and give it his all, so this would see us get 5 very good months out of him in the lead-up to this, and that could save us…

Who’s been the Pompey player of the season so far?

Now that is a tough one to answer to be honest. Like I said above we are seeing a real team effort this season, everyone is playing for the shirt, the club and the fans – and I am really enjoying seeing this! We do not seem to have any football ‘mercenaries’ in the ranks anymore, and that is fantastic.

I think I would probably go for Younes Kaboul if I picked anyone though as the guy has been tremendous on and off the field.

Who will win the League?

You know what I could not really care less to be honest!

Although as I like the way Arsenal play football – and they are a pleasure to watch – I would not mind them winning it at all, not that they will, will they? I would say, at the moment, it will be Chelski.

Who will get relegated?

Once again I could not give a rats so long as we are not one of them!

In all honesty, based on what the league table shows you and with 8 defeats to our name already we will do well to get out of it, but I maintain my belief that we will. I think Hull are nailed on as they are the worst team in the league by a mile for me. Wolves would probably join them as they were also poor when we played them. So I think Hull, Wolves and one other…

Can I grab a prediction from you?

A win would do us the world of good and I feel only enhance the belief that the squad have we will stay up – this ‘could’ see us out of the bottom 3 for the first time this season, and what a boost that would be going into another bleeding international break – I also run Vital England – here so check this out during the break, sorry for the shameless plug…

A lot depends on Paul Hart’s mentality.

If he goes looking only for a point then that is all we will get, if we get anything, this is the mentality we showed against Hull. If he goes with a similar one to that we have seen against Stoke and Wigan we can get the win I feel – and wins are what we need. Granted a point would not be that bad and in all honesty I think I would take it, but 3pts would be gigantic at this stage and this is what I feel we should aim for.

I hope that Hart goes with the ‘fortune favours the brave’ mentality I asked for earlier in the week – previous suggest he will not though, but what the hell I am the eternal optimist so will hope he does and say we will win! We need it more than you anyway as I feel you will be more than safe come May anyway…

May I be the first to say thank you and good luck to Rug and to all Vital Pompey this weekend.

Share this article

Vital Blackburn Site Editor / Fence Sitter

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *