INTERVIEW: Linvoy Primus on life at Portsmouth, the ups and the downs

 

 

Linvoy Primus was a big part of the one of the most successful periods in Portsmouth’s history. He got out at the right time, retiring before Portsmouth were relegated from the Premier League. He spoke to us about the ups and downs on life at Portsmouth…

On early life at Portsmouth Our expectation the season we went up was to get in the play-offs, to be promoted as champions was way beyond what we thought. Come Christmas time it became clear we had a chance but when you go up you realise how difficult it’s going to be to stay up and the expectation that comes with being the champions.

At a couple of points during that first season it was a little bit touch and go, we got cut adrift at times but in the end we went on a good run and stayed up safely. We built on that but it didn’t look good for a while when Harry (Redknapp) left, but when he came back the club really pushed on.

Everything after that was just amazing, from missing out on Europe to winning the FA Cup and some of the big signings we made. But after that things began to change quickly, as quickly as we’d come up it seemed we were going back down at the same speed.

On how things changed for the bettter It’s confidence, the players you sign. The season we just missed out on Europe we’d brought in David James, Sol Campbell, Glen Johnson and several others. Matt Taylor was doing really well for us and we had a fantastic team. We had internationals like Kanu, Utaka and Kranjcar.

Harry just had this way of allowing players to play to their ability, the players had belief in the manager and vice versa the manager had belief in us. The players coming in had a history of doing it on the pitch so it was a natural progression that the team got better and better.

On the telltale signs I suppose looking back it was when Harry went to Tottenham. The club got £5m compensation for him but you think about whether that was necessary. We were in a strong position and we didn’t need that money, then rumours started to spread about the owners and the finances but there was no real evidence until players started to get sold.

That’s when you start to realise that the rumours are true, the administration rumours started to circulate and you know it’s really happening. As players, you’re kept away from that because the club don’t want it to affect things on the pitch but once the press get hold of it, the players start to hear about it too. That’s when you find out just what a bad position the club is in.

On what went wrong It seemed that whatever the plan was for the club with the owners was going really well, I’m not quite sure of the details but I think there was something going on with another business of theirs and it affected everything at Portsmouth.

I think things were going ok but the financial recession worldwide started and it started to hit certain football clubs hard. We’ve got a small fan base for the league we were in and our status so there wasn’t really much else to back up what we wanted to do. There were no other assets for the club to rely on to get us through, all we had were the players so they had to be sold to pay off the debts that the club were building up.

On the positives and turning a corner There’s always optimism at the start of every season which is great to have. I think what we’ve learnt is you need players who have that taste for success and we’ve got a manager now who has that too.

He knows what it takes and he’s brought in his players who know that too. Players need to know what it means to play for Pompey, to feel that atmosphere, but the flip side of that is results are necessary, performances are necessary and that comes with a lot of pressure. But he’s bringing in players who know that and buy into that so it’s a great opportunity to take the club forward again now.

Follow Rich on Twitter @RichJLaverty