April 2009 - Front Page Articles

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  • Portsmouth United

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  • Reasons to be cheerful, Part 1

    Not long now ‘til the end of the season. A couple of trips back up the M6 and games at home against the Gunners and Black Cats and it will all be over. But it's not yet and there's still time to savour the skill of players that may well be playing elsewhere next season.

    Of course, it's still possible that a rich, football loving philanthropist will come our way but let's not hold our breath. Instead we should view the next few matches, especially those at home as our last chance to feast our eyes on some of the best talent in World football.

    Top of this list for me is Glen Johnson. Toilet seatist turned best right back in the country and quite possibly the best all round player in the league.  Don't we all hold our breath when he breaks in from the wing and waltzes past the league's finest as if they weren't there? Can anybody remember when he started doing that thing that he does? You know, where he feigns to go right but cuts back to the left and drives into the area.

    Talk of Johnson being worth £10,000,000 for me is nonsense. Ok we may have left the Robbie Keane and Mascherano excesses behind, but big money is still being spent and if Diarra is worth the best part of £20m, then Johnson must be worth at least that and then some.

    He's reached such a level of ability now that I no longer get nervous when a team drives down the left. More often than not Johnson breaks up the attack and then lobs a back spinning ball down the line and then chases it himself, playing one twos with Pennant or whoever, before doing that thing that he does...

    It says much when a player is so good that mistakes are met with disbelief. Against Newcastle a couple of stray balls had me double checking who was at fault. With Belhadj you expect it, it's part of the package. But with Johnson you just assume he's going to execute his task with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of effectiveness.

    Of course Peter Storrie being the smart businessman that he is, knew that Johnson's contract extension in January was much more than a fillet for the long suffering fans. He knew just how good Johnson was and come the summer, immaterial of our financial position, he knew that another Diarra like offer was going to be on the table. Put simply, players with long contracts fetch more than those with a just a year or so to run.

    Come next season, if Johnson has gone elsewhere we can still rejoice, because like Muntari and Diarra before him, he would have learnt his trade at Portsmouth FC, home to one of the finest footballing apprenticeships ‘money can buy'.

    To all those players looking to make it ‘big', Pompey should be at or near the top of your list. Come study here and leave with honours!  It'll prove to be the best decision you made in your career.

    References on request.

     

     

     

     

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  • Wenger ponders footballers' strike

    Wenger and co would have you believe that Brown and his cronies have signalled the demise of the Premier League's pre-eminence in Europe. Apparently the introduction of the 50% tax band will have many local and foreign prima-donnas jumping on an Easyjet for more favourable tax regimes.

    Spain looks especially attractive given it has a 25% tax band available to ‘foreign executives', although what that will mean to home grown players like Torres remains to be seen. Come to think of it, the average Prem footballer struggles to manage their personal affairs for 90 minutes, so how they could pass themselves off as 'business executives' beats the hell out of me.

    Yet reading between the lines, the 50% tax hike, will by the government's own internal modeling, only affect the 33% of high earners who are stupid enough not to exercise one of the many loopholes available to them. It seems the richer you are the less you pay and footballers are very rich and likely to stay that way as long as Sky and its foreign counterparts continue to throw money at pink wheeled Range Rovers.

    Tax avoidance, as opposed to illegal evasion, is commonplace, yet Wenger clearly spends more time at the training ground than he does at his accountants. Otherwise he'd know exactly how to avoid paying more tax and would consequently see the elevated band as nothing more than political vote rigging.

    But hang on. Perhaps we are doing Wenger a disservice. Could this be the first sign of a planned public outcry from a man who is after all French and he has it in his blood to bleat about everything from fishing quotas to farm subsidies, so presumably tax rates will fit nicely somewhere between the two.

    But as powerful as Wenger thinks he is, he won't change the mind of the Government. Leading to all manner of visions of footballers going on strike, blockading turnstiles and burning old heavily taxed wage slips on the pitch. Driven on by the megaphonic outburst of a man who really should pit his wits against Perrin back in his strike laden homeland. Before that is, we are compelled to consider changing the shape of our church arches for the second time in a thousand years.

    In other words Mr Wenger, if you don't like it, can I suggest you jump on a ferry home. That is if you can find one that hasn't been blockaded and please, remember to take your poor over-taxed chums with you.

     

    It could never happen here... could it?

     

     

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  • Storrie plans ahead

    myPompey had mixed views about the appointment of Paul Hart. It came at a time when most of us had anticipated Adams' sacking as making way for a ‘name'. But it wasn't to be. It seems like Tone just had to go, even if the only option was to replace him with the Youth Team Manager, who himself had a less than impressive record of managing elsewhere.

    It helped though that Hart came into the job with a truck load of humility. ‘Been there not done it', so to speak. A refreshing change from the arrogance of Redknapp and the raw naive ‘Arsenal next' ambition of Adams.

    But if the fans were unsure of Hart, then what of Peter Storrie and Sacha Gaydamak? Presumably there were half dozen other managers in the wings, each of them as a good as or a better prospect than Paul Hart. Why then the man from the Academy? Arguably he should have been left building for the future even if we needed something for the present.

    Ultimately, whatever the reasons behind the appointment, it wouldn't have been taken lightly when Premier League status was in the balance. Ask Charlton or for that matter Southampton what relegation from the Premier League really means beyond not playing the more glamorous teams.

    This week Peter Storrie made a couple of pro-ish statements about Paul Hart, suggesting he's on a short list of one for the job come the summer and based on results so far that doesn't sound like a bad idea.

    Hart & Kidd's average of 1.44 points per game suggests that a season long tally would be somewhere in the region of 55 points, although there's no telling how a team will play when it's not fighting for its life as we are now.

    If Peter Storrie is seriously contemplating Paul Hart then you have to consider what this means for the Club. We all assumed that a well known manager would be needed to attract investment hence the interest in the fickle Eriksson and ex ‘BBC' man Avram Grant. Indeed the Club confirmed that Sven ‘was' a target, so the question I see is: what has changed?

    Are we to conclude the Club no longer sees a high profile ‘dude' as a prerequisite to attracting investment? Or is it simply a case of no cash, at least not enough to attract the likes of Eriksson. We have to remember that top managers expect spending money and whereas we could probably rustle up enough to pay them, where is the £25m+ coming from that most would expect to have at their disposal?

    Anyway, it's all conjecture at this stage but Peter Storrie did say that with relegation looking less likely it's time to start planning for next season. Whether next season will see Paul Hart in charge depends largely on where we finish and you suspect, how much cash we have in the coffers.

    If we do end up changing managers there's certainly no shortage of candidates looking for work according to the League Managers Association and we've highlighted some interesting names so as to invite debate.

     

     

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  • Saints to be relegated following 10pt deduction

    The Football League will deduct 10 points from Southampton FC following its parent company going into administration. Saints will now be relegated at the end of the season immaterial of whether they finish in the bottom 3.

    A Football League investigation by independent forensic accountants found that the club and the holding company were "inextricably linked as one economic entity" and as result the mandatory penalty was applied.

    The Football League also released the following:

    "The holding company has no income of its own; all revenue and expenditure is derived from the operation of Southampton football club and the associated stadium company"

    "The holding company is solvent in its own right. It only becomes insolvent when account is taken of the position of Southampton football club and the other group companies"

    Southampton are currently entrenched in the bottom 3 of the Championship and if that remains the case at the end of the season, the points will be deducted from the next season's campaign in Division 1.

     

    A Stadium too far..

     

  • Our 'Arry

    There's a cat in our neighbourhood that seems to belong to everyone. Or at least lots of people think he's their cat. It might explain why he's so fat and jowly, going from house to house and eating his fill half dozen times a day.

    He's a funny colour too. One of those cats who looks different in different lights. You are never quite sure whether he's black and white, or even blue and white when the light catches him right. A chameleon amongst cats you might say, moving from house to house and everybody's friend when it suits him.

    Which is why I'd like to claim that the neighbourhood fat, jowly cat is called Harry. But he's not. It's plain old Tom, although you have to admit the resemblance is more than passing.

    The real Harry of course isn't furry and neither does he clamber through cat flaps. He's too fat for a start, but swap bowls of pilchards for bigger fish and houses for Clubs and you can see why our local Tom had me chuckling.  And my neighbours too.

    You see despite the fact we all know Tom is a rogue, we all love him really, even if we do get narked when he fills his belly and then sneaks off in the middle of the night in search of another tasty dish down the road. Same thing happens there too. In he waltzes, laps up the cream, purring lovingly to his ‘owner' and then he's off again on his relentless cupboard love journey.

    Where will it all end? It's only a small street with 20 or so houses and he's claimed a few already, although you suspect he has an eye on the Manor House across the fields. I understand though that they have taken a liking to Italian pedigree breeds and I am not at all sure they would welcome our old English moggy, even if he is a good mouser.

     

    Tom, shades of black and white and blue with a little cherry and claret nose.

     

  • When Harry dumped Matty

    Great to see Matty Taylor back at the Old Lady today.  It's been a long time and it's a toss up as to who is going to be more emotional when he first steps onto the pitch, the home fans or Bolton's very own Redknapp reject.

    Bolton reportedly paid in the region of £4m for Taylor and with ten goals under his belt already this season, Bolton will have him down as the bargain of the decade.

    Yes you read that right. Taylor has scored 10 goals for Bolton this year and that's 10 league goals, only one less than Crouchie and don't forget Taylor scores these from midfield.

    Who knows what Redknapp was thinking. Smacks of selling the earrings to buy a necklace and losing big time on the deal. 

    It's not as though any of the Pompey faithful was happy with the sale. Taylor along with Benjani were ushered out of the door to be replaced with players that themselves have since moved on. Good business? Was it hell, another example of ego with a phone stuck to its ear.

    Many might point to the massive profit that came from the Diarra and Defoe sales. But, given players are paid for in installments, it's doubtful whether much of that has materialized yet and don't forget we probably haven't been paid all of the Taylor and Benjani fees either.  

    Sixteen months on, here we are struggling to stay in the league and how ironic is it that our opponents today see Redknapp's reject as their star player. Megson has rightly been calling for Taylor to be called up for the national team and this week revealed that he declined Matty's request to captain his new team on his first return to Fratton Park since he left.

    Seems like the affection goes both ways, with Megson going on to say that Taylor's return will be an emotional time for him.

    Just goes to show Pompey fans that we have something special here. Matty was born in Oxford and played for Luton before coming to Fratton Park in our promotion season. Yet it's clear he sees Fratton Park as his footballing home and notably like most ex Redknapp Pompey players, has fond memories of our Club, not the man who sold him.

     

    Better in blue than white.

     

     

     

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  • Dump the ring doughnut

    It's tempting to say Pompey is a much better team than our league position suggests. Notwithstanding  claims that the table never lies,  you could argue that our collection of highly paid stars should be much higher, until you take a sobering look at our midfield, or lack of it.

    You could argue that Paul Hart inherited a squad with a hole smack bang where the cream of the team should be.  Muntari, Mendes and Diarra being sold off in bite size chucks to satisfy the needs of a dough hungry owner.

    On the other hand, you might say that Adams went some way to solving the problem by bringing in Pennant and Basinas, who when coupled to the likes of Diop, Traore and Belhadj, would give you a top 6 midfield.

    But, for whatever reason this hasn't happened.  Sod enforcing his law with ruthless efficiency has deprived Pompey of Diop and Traore for much of the season and Hart has decided that the centre of midfield needs to be packed with ‘play breakers' to the detriment of creativity and speed on the wings.

    True, Johnson and Pennant are formidable  on the right and so too Kaboul, but having only one side of the team probing allows the opposition to reinforce other areas, more specifically to boss the centre, despite that being the area that Hart has gone some lengths to reinforce.

    But has he? It's no secret that Hart favours brawn over brain, no disrespect to Hughes, Davis or Mullens, but none of these three are what you'd call play makers and as soon as the midfield gets congested they typically break up the opponents attack which is great, only to give the ball away either directly or indirectly through an ill considered, often rearward facing pass. Which is bad.

    The result being that more often than not our defence is mopping up situations that should never have existed in the first place.

    This problem is compounded by Hart's refusal to deploy speed or stickiness up front. When we do manage to fumble our way through the middle, the opposition often counter attacks with more speed than our original move.

    It's no coincidence then that our goals have been coming from Crouch's aerial assaults, or touches of brilliance from raiding wing backs in the form of Johnson, Hermann and Kaboul.

    The big question is whether Hart sees this too. Surely it can't escape him that we have given away goals all season. Either through enforced errors at the back due to relentless pressure coming though the centre, or midfield themselves believing that caution is the best form of attack.

    For me at least, the solution to our problems is clear. If Hart is intent on ignoring some of the finer pastries we have on offer and insists on playing us like doughnuts, then let's at least ensure it's cream or even jammy, but not one with a thumping big hole in the middle.

     

    Not good for a team's health

     

     

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  • Pompey's woes put into perspective by the Manchester United debt machine

    For those of you who missed it, Manchester United revealed their own annual accounts last week showing a huge debt pile of £699,000,000 and a massive £49,000,000 needed each year just to service the interest payments.

    United as ever spin these results in their favour saying that the Club's turnover has grown to a record £256,000,000, implying they have more than enough to cover outgoings, but analysts suggest otherwise.

    Bearing in mind United's results cover 07 to 08 and will not include many of the effects of the economic downturn, including AIG needing to be replaced as principal sponsor, reputedly bringing in £19m on an annual basis.

    Wigan's Chairman Dave Whelan recently suggested that a major Premiership Club was getting itself into a financial pickle and based on these latest figures, he may well have been referring to United.

    In comparison Pompey's accounts show a total debt figure in excess of £114m on a turnover of £70m. A ratio of 1.63 to 1, whereas United's debt to turnover ratio is 2.73 to 1.

    Not only does United's debt dwarf Pompey's but its borrowing ratio is significantly higher and that's the key figure to be taken into account.

    United argue that the debt is secured against the Glazers' personal wealth and that it will not adversely affect the Club. As true as that may be, the issue remains that the Glazer family borrowed money to fund the purchase of the Club and the Club itself is funding the repayments.

    Nice work if you can get it and is it any wonder that the world is in a financial mess when the hard working folk of Manchester fund the ambitions of an American businessman?

     

    Related article: Pompey's 635 staff!

     

     

  • David James Pompey Manager?

    Jamo has made no secret of his desire to enter management when his playing careers ends. Some would say he's started early what with his outspoken comments about Adams and his recent refusal to shake Paul Hart's hand at the end of an abject display on Saturday.

    There is no doubt that James would have lots to offer, even if keepers have a notoriously bad record of managing teams after hanging up their gloves. Jamo's worked under some of the greats and not so greats both in Club and National teams. You can't spend 20 years witnessing team selections and then sitting through over 650 half time team talks without getting some idea of what works and what doesn't, hence you guess, the refusal to shake hands on Saturday.

    Setting aside the record of keeper's in management, would James stand any less chance of being successful than other high profile Premier League players? If Shearer, Keane and Southgate can do it then why not Jamo?  Based on the simple fact that none of the above had any prior experience other than being leaders on the pitch, then why wouldn't James be equally suitable?

    You might recall that James had plenty of positive words to say about Southgate following the 'Boro match last month, clearly drawing parallels between himself and the Middlesbrough manager and pre-empting the pain that all managers, himself included will endure during their career.

    If James is set on managing then shouldn't Pompey be helping him with his ambitions? We may not want to hand him the keys to the first team just yet, despite precedents set by clubs in the North East, but why not try him out managing the Reserves? I can't believe Jamo needs to spend his week on the first team training pitch any more than Kanu does, so why not give him a part time job to run alongside his first team duties?

    Let's face it, our Reserves come across as little more than an afterthought and get very little coverage by the Club themselves or the local media. With James in charge I can see a whole new level of interest by fans and media alike, to say nothing of those players that are currently reluctant to lower themselves in the B team.

    If it works out then who knows, a perfect candidate for Assistant Manager or in more pressing times perhaps even the top job.

    Ask yourselves this. Had the Redknapp and Adams crises happened 12 months down the line with Jamo having experience with the reserves, wouldn't he have been the natural choice to take over the reins? Let's face it, you can't help thinking also that having one of football's more flamboyant characters managing the Club might well be a more attractive option to prospective investors.

    How about it Pompey? Reserves first and then see where it leads?

     

     

     

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  • Keeping it tight against the Baggies

    West Brom are in town on the back of 3 draws and 6 losses in the past 9 games and with only one win in the past 11.  Most have written them off even if their form now mirrors ours in the Adams era. The difference being we had a buffer to play with, plus the teams around us at the time were playing almost as badly.

    There's no denying the Baggies are knee deep in the smelly stuff. They sit 3 points beneath Boro and 5 behind Newcastle, who themselves are 3 points from safety.  But it's not all over. Pompey pulled clear from a similar points position 3 years ago and Fulham had a good run last year culminating in safety arriving in the last game of the season....  against a lacklustre Pompey.

    Whether the visitors have what it takes to walk away with anything today remains to be seen. They have only won once away all season (says Pompey fan with a magnificent 2 away wins...) and taken a total of 6 points from a possible 45. Scoring 6 and conceding 27 in the process.

    But as we all know, anything can happen at this level and at this stage of the season. West Brom are no dummies even if their league position suggests they are. If anything a lack of confidence sapping their spirit more than any outright deficiency on the pitch.

    Paul Hart has already said that we won't be taking liberties in any of the remaining matches and implied our performances will err on the side of caution. Fair enough. If we keep it tight and score first the form book says we will win given the Baggies have lost all 21 games in which they've failed to score the opening goal.

    A win?  Yes please. But something better than 1 nil or 2-1 at home is needed. Matty and his chums are here next week and today's fixture is a much about getting three points on the board as it is telling Bolton that we are no longer a bunch of highly paid pushovers.

    Pompey will be without injured Sean Davis and suspended Glen Johnson, although Pennant is expected to return. Talking of the Liverpool loanee, isn't it about time he got on the score sheet?

     

    Portsmouth (from): James, Kaboul, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson, Pennant, Hughes, Mullins, Nugent, Kranjcar, Crouch, Kanu, Pamarot, Belhadj, Utaka, Basinas, Traore, Wilson, Cranie, Begovic.

    West Brom (from): Carson, Kiely, Zuiverloon, Hoefkens, Meite, Olsson, Martis, Robinson, Cech, Morrison, Greening, Koren, Brunt, Do-Heon, Teixeira, Dorrans, Valero, Simpson, Fortune, Bednar, Moore.

     

    That goal in the Semi.

     

     

     

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  • It's not pretty

    Did you see PFCtv's Gung Ho article? Paul Hart tells us he won't be taking any chances in our pursuit of safety and reminds us that it won't be pretty. He also made a reference to backsides being felt, which I have to say was lost on me, but maybe the pressure is getting to him a little.

    For the first time since he took the job at Fratton Park, Hart looked ever so slightly rattled, no doubt in part due to questions which for me at least, were entirely inappropriate for an interview held at the training ground. Track suited and with players in the background doing their stuff, Hart was urged to discuss the most important subject at the Club for at least three years.

    Yes we all understand that a manager has media responsibilities and it all comes as part of the job, but wouldn't we all prefer Hart to be left alone at least during the daytime and let him concentrate on what after all is his day job. A once a week interview should suffice plus of course the mandatory post match "we were great" or "we sucked", depending on how it went.

    It's no surprise that it's tough going at Fratton Park for Hart. Even if we are a few points away from the bottom three it could all change in a weekend and against WBA at home is not the time for us to slip up. So pressure mounts.

    When Hart was appointed I was slightly deflated.  Like many I wanted a name to come in and in doing so help change the fortunes of the Club on an off the pitch. But, 6 games in and who can complain. Sure it ain't been pretty but that appears to be part of the plan.

    Yes, it is a plan. Don't assume for a second that Hart is one of those managers whose on field style reflects his conservative demeanour. He's just doing what needs to be done for now, pretty, ugly or pretty ugly...  it's the end game that counts, not how it looks in the middle.

    If you doubt that, you need look no further than Hart's previous managerial career. Whilst researching this article I had a chat with the League Manager's Association and they pointed me towards material which included an interview following Hart's managerial debut for Forest in 2001.

    Here he talks about his use of a second wall to block the view of the opposing keeper during free kicks.

    "It's perfectly legitimate. It's a way to block the 'keeper and I've tried it at Academy level. Not that we've scored from it yet. It's one of mine and I've got a few more up my sleeve."

    So there you have it. Hart is innovative and pioneering and not afraid to try new things. We just need to wait until the time is right and that's when we are safe. Which could be after the Bolton game, all things being well.

    Play up Pompey

     

     

     

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  • Help find these Pompey fans!!

    Please see below. PFC are trying to track down these young fans. If you don't know them then please forward this page on to others who might.

     


    Can you help?

    Do you know either of these lads? 

    This photograph was taken pitch side at Wembley at the Final and we
    would very much like to find out who these two lads are, as we would
    like to feature the photograph in a forth coming project.

    If you can help, could you please call Clare Martin at Pompey Study
    Centre on 02392 776821

    Thank you


    Clare Martin







  • Pompey: 635 Staff!!

    Take a seat folks, you might find this hard to believe. Pompey's latest annual accounts for 2007/08 released today, reveal that the Club employ no less than 635 people. Yes, you heard that right. Six hundred & thirty five. Quite where they all work is beyond me and presumably space will be a bit tight until Fratton Park is extended in the next few years.

    Interestingly, staff now account for 77.6% of turnover, down from 92% the previous year.  So we can deduce that we are either paying ‘em less, or bringing in more cash.  In fact the latter.

    The accounts show a loss of £16.66m down from £23.45m in 2006/7. Turnover jumped to £70m from £40m the previous year. Much of this due to increased media revenues.

    The Club owes £44m to Standard Bank and Barclays Bank and at first glance this doesn't seem too bad. Although Peter Storrie did mention that Vega wanted Sacha Gaydamak to recover his Director's loans from player sales, so presumably these are addition to the amount owed to the two banks.

     

    The complete statement follows:

     

    POMPEY RELEASE YEARLY ACCOUNTS

    Portsmouth Football Club have reduced losses by £6.79m for the year ending 2007/08 - from £23.45m (2006/07) to £16.66m.

    The club anticipates a further substantial reduction for 2008/09 and is on course to break even by the time Fratton Park is redeveloped to accommodate 30,000 fans by the season 2011/12.

    The first phase of the redevelopment will see Fratton Park's capacity increase by 5,000 to around 25,000 for the start of the 2010/11 season.

    Turnover for the year rose from just over £40m to £70m, largely due to the increased revenue from the new three-year Sky TV contract - from £25m to £49m.

    In addition there were increases in retail operations, sponsorship, match revenues, hospitality and as a result of the FA Cup success. These accounted for an extra £5m on the previous year.

    The club anticipates turnover remaining at the same level but then rising by up to 50 per cent when the stadium redevelopment, with the addition of extra seating and corporate hospitality boxes, is complete.

    Total staff costs rose from £36.8m to £54.6m for the club's 635 personnel, but the overall amount as a proportion of the club's turnover fell from nearly 92 per cent to 77.6 per cent. This was despite the payment of bonuses for winning the FA Cup and qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

    The club's aim is to reduce the wage bill further to fall in line with the Premier League guidelines of just over 60 per cent of turnover.

    During the 2007/08 period the club invested around £4m in new offices, a new megastore, new ticket office and media centre and upgraded facilities at Fratton Park.

    The business also diversified by buying South Coast Investments, a leisurewear business that includes the stores Animal and Quiksilver and also invested in a 25 per cent share in Quadrant Media, which runs three radio stations on the south coast.

    The club also introduced a financial services division to provide alternative payment methods for season tickets, which were once again frozen.

    The club has since introduced a five-month interest free option through Zebra Finance and a club credit card which allows payments to be made over a 12-month period. All season ticket prices have been reduced for next season.

    The 2007/08 figures do not take into account fees agreed for the sale of players such as Pedro Mendes to Glasgow Rangers and Sulley Muntari to Inter Milan in the summer of 2008, or Lassana Diarra to Real Madrid and Jermain Defoe to Spurs in January 2009.

    The purchases of Peter Crouch and Younes Kaboul in the summer of 2008 and Nadir Belhadj and Hayden Mullins in January are also not included.

    The club currently has loans outstanding of £44m with Standard Bank and Barclays Bank. The club is in discussion to renew banking facilities.

     

     

     

  • Whatever you do, don't play the Sub

    I was reading recently about Swindon Town, the little Club nestling between Reading and the two Bristols and whose claim to fame is having once been managed by Hoddle and Wise.

    The Robins, like most Clubs outside the big cities, struggle to make ends meet but do a good job of making their County Ground stadium pay for itself when it's not being used in Division 1. But despite playing host to weddings and the like, cash flow is still the dominating factor and the Chairman is known to wince when manager Danny Wilson sends on a sub for the last 5 minutes of a match, resulting in additional appearance money, just so the players can taste the action.

    It wasn't so long ago that Pompey was in the same predicament, counting the pennies in the hope that the pounds would look after themselves. But these days with Premier transfers starting in the millions and ending who knows where, Pompey's finances have taken on a whole new perspective.

    When Harry was here it seemed like boom would never turn to bust. The team that arrived in the Prem, full of last leg Pros and Redknapp specials, was replaced with a long list of highly paid stars that resembles the wives and girlfriends on their arms and the fast cars that fill their garages. Temperamental and highly strung and constantly in need of an expensive service.

    Pompey like so many clubs, unwittingly became embroiled in the footballing equivalent of a Ponzi scheme. Feeding new money to old problems, or in our case, paying the players obscene amounts of cash just so that the dream, which is what is was, could continue. Pompey's PAYE department surely the busiest part of the Club. Rain, wind or shine, win, draw or lose, money going out the door with the frequency of a Redknapp sound bite.

    Peter Storrie himself has said it can't go on as it has been. New rumours are surfacing daily about someone, or somebody, being owed money. If it's not the banks it's the tax man and if it's not the man from the revenue it's other clubs queuing up to collect their HP instalments for the numerous players bought on the never never. Who'd have thought that Mendes was still being paid for, months after he was sold to another club?

    It's a delicate balance. On the one hand we have to make ends meet but we don't want to cut back to an extent that survival in the Premier League is a near impossibility. There is a certain level of expenditure required to stay in the top flight and it won't all come from media revenues, gate money and shirt sales, despite the claims of similarly sized Wigan, stating that they intend to break even in 2 years.

    Whichever way you look at Pompey's situation, we need an owner with some spare cash and someone with no hurry to make a return on their investment. The revised stadium plans will help considerably because prior to the down-sizing we needed a very, very, very rich owner. Now with a more modest agenda we are instead looking for a very rich owner, which in the current climate makes all the difference, especially if we have the added attraction of staying in the Prem.

     

    This article was not a veiled reference to Gekas. Honest!

     

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