Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Zheng Zhi story corrected

We ran this story earlier, then someone pointed out that 'retained' had been replaced by 'regained' on the official website. A typo or a Freudian slip? You decide. Here is the original story:

On the official website the club is celebrating the retention of Zheng Zhi, although in practice this will probably only be until January. In the bloggers' briefing earlier in the 'summer' Richard Murray made it clear he would be going if the price was right - but obviously it wasn't.

However, Steve Waggott has a curious way of presenting his retention: 'He's a fantastic player, and we look forward to a big contribution from him as we try to retain our status in the top flight.'

What the club seems to be doing is admitting that the real objective this year is to stay in the Championship which I suppose is the top flight of the Football League.

Whilst I have always been dubious of 'talk the talk' ambition when the money isn't there to back it up, it does seem to me that the 'Port Fail' strategy of trying to remain a Championship club for many years to come is a risky one - both in terms of achieving it and retaining fans.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Think you're looking into mistaken words too much Wyn. If a promotion is worth 40 odd million quid then why would a business not want that????

Wyn Grant said...

I am sure they want it, but they are also realistic about whether they can achieve it.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Waggott can't tell his 'retained' from his 'regained'