'It would be stupid, it would be foolish': Portsmouth skipper Marlon Pack emphatically addresses his Fratton Park future
The Buckland lad has 144 career appearances for the Blues, scoring 10 times
Marlon Pack ruled out retiring in the summer to pursue his Pompey coaching ambitions and insisted: I have another season in me.
The Blues skipper, who turns 35 this month, is among seven players whose existing Fratton Park deals expire at the end of the current campaign.
Pack has made no secret of his desire to transition into coaching once his playing days are behind him and has already obtained his Uefa A licence.
However, having started - and completed - four Championship matches inside 12 days, the Buckland lad is adamant he’s nowhere near ready to call it a day.
Instead he has his eyes set on securing a new deal - and earning a fifth successive Pompey season since returning to his beloved club after an 11-year absence.
‘I don’t think quite yet’
Pack told The News: ‘I want to continue to play at this football club. I have spoken before about what my role looks like. I’ve been playing, I’ve been injured, I have been on the bench, hopefully I still add some value to the group.
‘I am a very self-aware person, I know I won’t start every game and I know the role might be as it was before Doz got injured, which is coming off the bench, depending on the scenarios of the game. That role could also be driving standards in training and being that voice and that communicator.
‘While you are still playing, retiring would stupid, it would be foolish to try to step away and give up playing, giving up being part of the group, giving up being in the dressing room. Once you do that, I think it’s hard to recreate that feeling.
‘As long as I feel physically able - and I always look after myself - as long as I feel I can have an impact at this level, whatever that looks like, which might not be starting every game.
‘Of course you want to continue playing because you are a long time retired and I have given my all to become a professional footballer. I do like the coaching side of it, it’s definitely something I want to go into - but I don’t think quite yet.
‘I’ve never been the quickest, we’ve got Ebu in there now, who is a really dynamic midfielder, which definitely balances us out, especially how I play. I am smart enough to know my deficiencies and I play to my strengths.
‘If you continue playing at this level, there’s no reason to call it a day yet, that is more for other people to do. I am self aware of that, when the time is right, it will be right. I still think I have another season left in me.’
Made his Pompey debut in August 2010
He recently returned to the starting XI in place of Andre Dozzell, who is sidelined by an ankle injury, subsequently lining up at Charlton, Millwall, Wrexham and then Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Hull.
Indeed, his Millwall outing produced the 10th goal of a Pompey career which began in August 2010 with a substitute outing against Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup.
Following a successful season-long loan at Cheltenham, he left Fratton Park for a permanent Robins deal in May 2011 and later represented Bristol City and Cardiff.
‘No contract talks’
Pack added: ‘There have been no contract talks, nothing, but I am quite a laid-back person and my focus is on us as a group winning games of football.
‘That should be the priority for the football club and for us as players. In due course, contract talks will happen at another time.
‘I am 35 in March, I have played more than 700 career games, you do the right things, you try to be consistent - and things take care of themselves.’