Portsmouth: Uefa Cup syndrome to dent league hopes

Monday, 04 August 08, 12:05 PM · Comments(1)

After the luckiest run of fixtures seen in a long time during last season triumphant FA cup campaign, Pompey go into European football for the first time in a long time. With all the joy and excitement that goes with achieving this holy grail of ‘the rest’ of the league, comes a hidden danger. Blackburn and Bolton suffered from this terror, in part, so did Tottenham. Ipswich in their second season crumbled and Middlesbrough and Manchester City have not been exempt. The danger is that for a team unfamiliar (and sometimes even when familiar) with Uefa cup football and the extra demands it places on the body and mind through extra games and time spent travelling from home to Norway to Sunderland to home to turkey and back again, there will be a loss in league form.

I can see Portsmouth suffering a little for this as history has taught us that this may be a factor in their consistency across the year. Apart from this European curse I am very positive for Pompey’s season. Their famously solid defence including James, Johnson, Distin and the slightly creaking Campbell will no doubt hold them in good stead through the season, however I wonder whether a European campaign may be a step too far for Campbell at this stage of his career

The most exciting thing for Pompey fans will be the partnership of Defoe and Crouch. Together for England the pair have looked to offer a good balance and variety of attacking options. The pair will no doubt form a formidable club partnership and backed up by the quality of Kranjcar and Diarra there are good signs for 2009.

If they drop out of a cup early or if they weren’t in Europe I would say a top 7 finish is very realistic, but with the quality of the Premier League and a new venture in Europe I think 8^th may be more realistic.

Season prediction: 8^th – Defoe to be near the top of the scoring charts and a solid challenge for a second UEFA Cup campaign

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