Fratton Park hasn’t been United’s favourite ground at
the best of times, and even a visit now they are the Barclays
Premier League’s bottom-placed club is fraught with danger after
Portsmouth this week changed their manager.
Paul Hart was dismissed and replaced with former
Chelsea manager Avram Grant, and Sir Alex Ferguson has briefed his
players on managing the inevitable response that follows a change
at the top.
Portsmouth will not only be buoyed by a fresh approach under Grant,
they’ll take heart from the fact they have claimed ten points from
six meetings with United on the south coast since their arrival in
the top flight in 2003/04.
“It’s not easy to go to Portsmouth,” Sir Alex said on Friday.
“Obviously they have a new manager, so you would imagine there will
be a response, as you always get from a team with a new
manager.
"We also recognise the atmosphere at Fratton Park, it is a great
football ground. You need to deal with that, so it should be a very
hard game for us.”
Grant is a good friend of Sir Alex’s and the two have kept in touch
since the Israel-born boss left his last post at Stamford
Bridge.
His last game in charge was, of course, United's Champions League
triumph in Moscow on penalty kicks in May 2008. But Chelsea ran the
Reds close both in Europe and domestically that year, so Sir Alex
has a great deal of respect for his opposite number.
“We know Avram very well from his time at Chelsea,” he added. “He's
very experienced and I’m sure he will get the right reaction from
his players. We’ve kept in touch quite a lot, and he will be glad
to get back into management. But he has got a challenge
because when your team is bottom of the league you've got a real
task on your hands. But hopefully he can manage that.”
Sir Alex certainly won’t be underestimating Portsmouth, nor will he
be lulled into a false sense of security by Pompey’s precarious
league position and financial plight.
“They have some very good players,” he says. “I’ve watched videos
of their games and they might be in a false position. But being
bottom of the league often causes a reaction from owners of clubs.
They don’t like to see their team at the bottom – that’s the danger
position.
"If you’re third or fourth bottom they think everything could be
OK. But when they see their team bottom, it creates a different
imagination in their mind of where they’re going to be next season
– a dread of where they could end up. And that often leads to a
change of manager.”