We're starting our preparations for the new season by focusing on Saturday's game with Portsmouth and giving one of their supporters a grilling ahead of the game.
1) Who are ya and how long have you supported Pompey? My name is Tony Gladwin and I have supported Pompey for 42 years
2) How are Pompey looking so far in preseason? Preseason form has been reasonable, as would be expected we've beaten number of non-league teams and scored a fair few goals in the process, we did lose to Bournemouth on Saturday 2-1 but still not a bad result against a Premier League side.
3) What would make a good season in the eyes of your average Portsmouth supporter? Certainly attaining a play-off place is not out of the question, I think as a side we are better suited for League 1 football than League 2 as less sides will be defensive for 90 minutes and so easier, in theory, to break down.
4) Any thoughts on little old Rochdale? I like Rochdale, they try and play football the right way from what I've seen plus, from the outside, there appears to be a decent set-up at the club. I think you could do reasonably well this season.
5) Who are the stars of your side that we need to keep an eye out for? All 16 in the squad on matchday!, seriously though we have a promising young goalkeeper by the name of Luke McGee that we've just signed from Spurs, Christian Burgess at centre half is a very good player on his day as can be Kyle Bennett in midfield,up front we've just signed Brett Pitman from Ipswich and I would expect him to score 15-20 goals this coming season.
6) A big deal was made of Portsmouth being owned by its supporters after all the financial issues, so why did the supporters approve the sale of the club to someone with no link to the club? In my opinion fan ownership can only take you so far and I think that we had reached that point were the club couldn't progress further without a cash injection, Fratton Park alone needs £5 million spent on it and you can't expect supporters to keep dipping into their pockets. Michael Eisner is a very wealthy and successful businessman, I like what he has had to say and will be around long term, together with family members, he has the means to take Portsmouth FC forward, both with the stadium and the playing squad.
7) Paul Cook quit the Summer, calling the job "overbearing” before jumping ship to Wigan. Any thoughts on that? Good riddance to him, I have never known a manager split the fanbase so much, constant fallouts with players, bought a load of players to the club and then never played them and his brand of football bored me to tears most home games, away games were better because our game was better suited. The pubs of Portsmouth are no doubt missing him though.
8) What are you expecting from new manager Kenny Jackett? I think we've now got a far better, more professional manager who is well respected within the game, he also has far better contacts which should be to Pompey's advantage. I honestly think that he could get us promoted within a couple of seasons, he's done it before at this level and at clubs where fans have high expectations.
9) Give us your all time Pompey XI
David James
Slvain Distin
Matty Taylor
Billy Gilbert
Gavin Maguire
Kevin Dillon
Lassana Diarra
Robert Prosinecki
Pedro Mendes
Mark Hateley
Paul Walsh
10) Any predictions for the game? A tight game I reckon, maybe 2-1 Pompey.