Portsmouth Takeover Officially Becomes A Car Crash
Posted on | August 3, 2009 | No Comments
I spent quite a lot of time this summer blogging about Portsmouth’s bright new future. With a prospective owner from the Middle East who wasn’t short of a few bob, but who also preached a long term, sensible vision, things looked promising. Today, I take back every single word. Forget it all. This takeover has become a complete embarrasment of a car crash. The botched attempt to sign Nikola Kalinic proves it.
At the moment, the club is the laughing stock of not just the Premier League, but the whole of English football. At least Accrington Stanley (if it’s good enough for a milk advert, it’s good enough for me) know what their plans are for this season and what it is likely that they can achieve. Portsmouth have no such plans. We just have complete and utter chaos. The ONE positive thing about the current situation is that the only alternative would appear to be administration.
Now, I’m not blaming Paul Hart here or even Peter Storrie. The blame quite clearly lies either with the current or prospective owner. What I don’t understand is how, over two months since the takeover was announced, the club is NOT EVEN in a financial position to seal the signing of Nikola Kalinic. Don’t get me wrong, he is a player with potential. But he is a prospect, nothing more, and has just signed for Blackburn Rovers. They are taking a risk. We couldn’t even get to that point.
This blog today was never meant to analyse the reasons, but I simply can’t fathom how Dr Al Fahim could not be ready to buy players, at least on some semblance of a competitive level, at the crucial time. There may still be a month until the transfer window closes, but no-one could argue that Portsmouth are not in complete disarray. The pre season results confirm that, and so do the transfer dealings(!) thus far. Surely if the takeover cannot yet complete, there is some way that Al Fahim could at least fund player purchases? Have we found the only Arab investor in the world with no money?!
Of course it is still possible that the takeover will eventually be a success and that we will survive this season before thriving. We would obviously take that here and now. But even if that were the case, I would still like to know what went on here. Because there is no doubt that even at this early stage, even if it goes on to be a success, the Al Fahim era has got off to a VERY bad start. Trust has almost gone before he has even taken over, IF he takes over.
Someone owes the fans an explanation. But more than that, someone needs to take decisive action NOW, before it is too late.
Tags: Accrington Stanley > Blackburn Rovers > Dr Al Fahim > Nikola Kalinic > Paul Hart > Peter Storrie > Pompey > Portsmouth > Portsmouth takeover > Premier League
Comments
Leave a Reply