Pompey oldies past their prime

Can Portsmouth's veterans still cut it in the Premiership?

By John May

Jump into your time machine and set the coordinates for 1993.

Topping the Premiership table is a team containing a whole clutch of class players in their prime.

At the back, a young Arjan de Zeeuw; a midfield to die for contains youthful, exuberant Paul Merson, with Steve Stone and Tim Sherwood buzzing around, and up front, a fresh-faced Teddy Sheringham is banging in the goals.

That's the team Portsmouth might have had 10 years ago.

The fact that Harry Redknapp has assembled a team with a core of 30-somethings suggests it's a side a decade too late.

Redknapp's policy of infusing experience into his team to get them out of Division One was spot on.

Merson was probably Division One's player of the year last season, his craft and guile too irresistible a force for the division's defenders.

Factor in the old head of Gianluca Festa at the back, and the midfield wisdom of Stone and Sherwood, and it was no wonder that a Pompey team with too much know-how for the rest cakewalked to the title.

But the Premiership is another matter.

Know-how is useful, but that has got to be allied to a powerful, high performance engine.

Granted, Merson, Stone and Sherwood are experienced Premiership players. But they have been out of the top flight for a season.

The Portsmouth management team has assembled an ageing squad

Each season, the Premiership pace increases and doubts have to be cast whether they could pick up that pace.

Similarly, the signing of Sheringham has to cast further doubts on Pompey's survival prospects.

For all his pitch-smarts and his renowned ability to find space in a hurly-burly world by standing still, Sheringham showed signs at Spurs that Father Time was catching up with him.

With his other players are all Premiership greenhorns, Redknapp knows he needs experience larded through his team, but he will need to be careful to get the balance just right to avoid his team having the legs run off it.

Although Redknapp is a master of making the right noises, there must be a doubt as to whether he seriously feels he can accommodate Merson and Sheringham in the same team.

Sheringham's arrival, coupled with Merson's off-field problems, must cast serious doubt on Merson's future at Fratton Park.

Granted, there is a place in the Premiership for experience.

Gianfranco Zola seems to get better every year, Alan Shearer is a fearsome force and, dare you mention it, just up the M27 at Southampton, Chris Marsden has discovered a new lease of life.

But they are all players in teams where they are surrounded by younger players with plenty of Premiership experience.

Like an old man limbering up for a night's clubbing by connecting himself up to a young lad with a set of jump-leads, Pompey's 30-somethings might need a transfusion of young, fresh blood.

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