pompey set to appoint tony adams

according to reports, portsmouth will announce tony adams as their new manager at 1pm this afternoon.

i like it. clearly, when he took the wycombe job he wasn't ready; no experience of a dressing room from the other perspective, let alone from the manager's. at pompey he's had a positive impact on their back four (at least last season... we'll gloss over that performance against city earlier this year) and generally seems to be better equipped now to deal with the pressures of being a premier league manager.

and ultimately, i like the idea of taking a risk on a talented younger man as opposed to giving one of the usual suspects - fat sam in this case - another job. generally i don't like the idea of just handing over the reigns to inexperienced ex-players (it would be laughable, for instance, if alan shearer were to walk into the newcastle job, and i think even a relative success story like gareth southgate would have benefitted from taking time to learn his trade before taking the boro job), but when they have demonstrated promise and earned their badges i would much rather take a risk on someone who might be fantastic than give the job to someone who you know will be average. (it is the same reason i was in favour of paul ince getting the blackburn job from the very beginning, although to be fair to ince he had worked minor miracles in the lower leagues and his promise seemed quite clear.)

so i'm not saying that adams will be a success - for the record, i certainly hope he will be - but its a hiring i'm definitely in favour of.