Don't believe a word

As a Saints fan, Pompey sacking their manager should be a good thing and indeed on many levels it is!

But Paul Hartt being relieved off his duties yesterday was something that saddened me as well. Hart was appointed initially as caretaker manager following Tony Adams departure having previously been the Youth team coach. He had previously managed Nottingham Forest and that hadn't ended well. Despite that he did ok and eventually the caretaker part of the title was removed. Eventually he kept Pompey in the Premier league.

During the last five months Pompey have become a laughing stock amoung the media as the ownership has changed three times and in order to avoid administration virtually every decent player on their books has been sold. (Last weekend Spurs beat Wigan 9-1 and seven of the goals were scored by three of those players). During all that time Hart must have wondered what on earth was going on and been tempted many times to let them get on with it. He didn't, however, he carried on with quiet dignity, facing the media and giving the impression that he was "as one" with the management, what ever the reality.

Yesterday he turned up, trained the first team squad in the morning, met the media to discuss the weekends pending game against Man Utd and. after all that. was then called into to see the Chief executive and "let go". Why on earth they couldn't do it either when he first arrived (or the night before?) only they know, but it was a shabby thing to do to someone who had represented them in a way they had no right to expect.

While he may not be the best manager in the world, he seems a decent man and I hope that he finds another job soon.

Editions of you

I went to see Roxy Music play live in 1979 at the Gaumont in Southampton and have been a fan ever since. It was a concert I mainly went to because my friend Nigel had a spare ticket, but they were brilliant that night.

I have all the albums and all of Bryan Ferrys solo stuff as well. Earlier this week I stumbled upon three remix EP's on the Amazon MP3 store (they're also on iTunes). Each EP takes classic Roxy songs and as is the way with a re-mix album, presents them for a new audience. "Virginia Plain" and "Same Old Scene" are the best, sounding like they might have had they been written and recorded today on modern equipment. "Editions of you" rocks but is more of a re-mix. "Angel Eyes" (which gets two different remixes) and "The Main Thing" have been remixed before when 12" remixes were released at the time of the original albums. The new remixes do add to those but don't sound that different. "Finally "the Thrill of it all" is a complete re-working of the original.

Some Roxy fans will hate them as they do mess with classic songs, but to me it is good to hear a re-take on these tracks. After all there is meant to be new Roxy album somewhere in the future.