The Portsmouth story from their dysfunctional Premier League years is a football gift that keeps on giving. And now Liverpool are the recipients of an unlikely pairing forged on the south coast and charged with maintaining the fortunes of the club in the post-Jurgen Klopp era.
Michael Edwards was Portsmouth’s first Prozone analyst and a man who once left Harry Redknapp confused when he provided him with a CD-Rom containing information on a player. The then-Pompey boss called Edwards – or “Prozone Eddie” as he was known in and around Fratton Park – and asked him why it wouldn’t play on his car CD player.
Richard Hughes, meanwhile, was an all-action midfielder who struggled to nail down a place in the Portsmouth first team as Redknapp wrote cheque after cheque to invite players who would previously have struggled to locate the city on the map to a trip on the ultimate rollercoaster ride.
Now, Edwards and Hughes will be charged with ensuring that Klopp’s legacy isn’t squandered.
Hughes became something of a cult figure for Portsmouth during his 165 appearances, not least for being on the receiving end of a Cristiano Ronaldo headbutt that led to the Portuguese star being sent off in a 1-1 draw between Portsmouth and Manchester United back in August 2007. Hughes subsequently described that moment as one of the highlights of his career.
He also wrote a regular column for The News, the city’s newspaper.
“Hughsie was the heartbeat of that dressing room,” says Neil Allen, the paper’s chief sports writer. “He survived a procession of managers and even administration.
“He also wasn’t afraid to sacrifice himself for the team, willingly collecting yellow cards as a spoiler.
“He wrote a column for us, and it reflected his views on the game. He’s eloquent, intelligent and a deep thinker. He was equally popular in the dressing room and on the terraces.”
Guy Whittingham was at Pompey during that time, and spent a period working with the club’s Under-15 side. He came across both Hughes and Edwards on a regular basis.
“It’s amazing the way that things have worked out,” he tells i.
“And if you look at Portsmouth’s recruitment during that time, it was exceptional. You had players like Yakubu, who came from a club in Israel, and the likes of Sulley Muntari who Harry developed into an incredible player.
“A lot of that was down to the work that Michael did.”
In addition to data analysis, one of Edwards’s other key roles at a club that didn’t own a training ground throughout its time in the top flight, was to organise the regular Champions League predictor.
Those players who finished bottom of the pile would be given the keys to a Robin Reliant, and charged with the task of modifying it in time for the next round of European matches.
“It came back one week and one of the players, I think it might have been Jamo [former England goalkeeper, David James], had put wide wheels on it and a massive exhaust. You could hear this thing coming from miles away.”
As it turned out, Portsmouth were freewheeling towards financial oblivion. Within a few years, the club were no longer training at a school ground in Eastleigh, they were laying out the cones at a playing field in Copner, clearing away the dog poo as they went.
Edwards, though, had already made his mark. And, crucially, developed a friendship with Hughes that would endure. In an interview with Bleacher Report in May 2020, the latter outlined the impact that Edwards had.
“If I was going into a game on a Friday afternoon, I’d ask him what he could tell me about whoever I was playing against and if there was an angle he could give me to help me the next day,” Hughes said.
“It’s probably more a question you’d ask a coach or a manager, but Michael had that respect from us. We treated him as someone whose input was not only worthwhile but desired.”
Both men have been on an upward trajectory ever since and their biggest challenge now awaits.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/6PGWX7S
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