Now, I’m an optimist by nature but I’m sure those who have read this blog over the past few days had noticed that like most other Pompey fans, I had become demoralised. Even with the Al Fahim takeover still clearly not complete and its potency unknown, things now look brighter. I couldn’t bring myself to mention Dindane yesterday, fearing that despite ‘the photo’, the deal had fallen through due to the failure of Peter Storrie’s takeover bid. In fact, it looks like the sale of Sylvain Distin has allowed it to finally happen. If that is the case, the right decision has been made, especially when you consider the player wasn’t happy. Somehow I think the success of Storrie’s consortium would have seen him stay.

There are still issues to contend with, not least the Distin-shaped hole in the middle of defence. The jury also remains out on Hart in my opinion, but with a couple more signings, this doubt must now soon be resolved. He should soon have enough at his disposal to play the way he wants. Not enough to stay clear of the relegation battle, but enough to show his true colours, if he hasn’t already. I truly hope he hasn’t already. If not, he must have an extremely low opinion  his current attacking options.

So, all this optimism is likely to disappear on Sunday when we play Manchester City! But I say that tongue in cheek, because in reality it won’t. Even a heavy defeat will probably be the result of  a few new signings failing to gel, or simply a huge gulf in class. I believe we may see a spirited performance. My only footballing worry is that Paul Hart will be shown to lack the motivational and tactical skills needed for Premier League management, but yesterday I would have been delighted had that been my major concern. The Al Fahim issue clearly isn’t over yet, but today no Portsmouth fan has the energy to care about that. We should congratulate Peter Storrie for his hard work and commitment in the face of adversity recently, and then ask him to consider lowering the prices in order to try and create the atmosphere we will need at Fratton Park this season. A Chief Exec’s work is never done, Peter! But he has managed to convince us that we have a fighting chance today, and that is all we ask at the moment! Play Up Pompey!

Fulham obviously had a good season last time out and will probably set up much the same way this term. They have one of the better keepers in Mark Schwarzer, Hangeland is in particular demand at the moment, and Danny Murphy will undoubtedly be pulling the strings again in central midfield. But Fulham are strongest up front, and have real pace with Kamara, Zamora, and Johnson up front. The strength of the rest of the team is debatable, but Roy Hodgson has them very well drilled. All in all, just about a tougher than average test for the opening test of the campaign.

But how will Pompey play? I think this will be dictated by our strength up front. At the moment, Piquionne is the only game in town, and that based on one performance in a friendly. Kanu has just signed a ONE MONTH contract, suggesting that the club hope other players will come in soon, and I believe David Nugent has been earmarked for sale.

David James looks likely to be fit, and the back four could be Hreidarsson, Distin, Kaboul, and Wilson, or possibly new signing Vanden Borre. I hope to see central midfield made up of fit-again Papa Bouba Diop and Angelos Basinas, together with Paul Hart’s man Aaron Mokoena. Basinas can pass a ball and allow us to also have Kranjcar wide on the left. Utaka remains the only viable option on the right, but unfortunately he seems destined never to perform there. You could always try him up front, Paul? I don’t believe he will.

So, I think we still have a team that can compete with Fulham at Fratton Park today. Perhaps the summer goings on and current frustration will work in our favour today and make for an intimidating atmosphere, despite the fact that many fans are still being affected by the recession and Fratton Park is unlikely to be full.

Peter Storrie’s enthusiasm to distance himself from Sulaiman Al Fahim’s proposed takeover at the Radio Solent forum on Thursday night, and his hint that a rival takeover bid may be imminent  has added further spice to the occasion, with many fans now doubtful that Sulaiman Al Fahim will attend as he had promised. You can listen to the forum here, but the main focus now should be on getting three points today against Fulham. Play up Pompey!

First, the timescale. Of course, most people believe Sacha Gaydamak has now set a deadline for Sulaiman Al Fahim to complete the deal, which will expire some time at the weekend. If true, we will obviously have a resolution one way or the other before then, but typically nothing is clear with the Al Fahim camp denying the existence of this time limit. The reason I believe that something must happen this week is because of the twin pressures of Gaydamak’s debt to Standard Bank and the ever tightening transfer window. 

Even if no such deadline has been formally set by Gaydamak, in essence it exists. Despite an encouraging win over Glasgow Rangers at the weekend, the squad is at tipping point, both in terms of quality and depth. If he cannot be sure of completion, Gaydamak will have to begin selling more players next week in order to keep the club out of administration. This would be the worst case scenario for him as it would see him losing even more than most people believe he already stands to lose from the deal, quite apart from the fact that he would have no choice but to act to avoid a ten point deduction. Equally, Al Fahim cannot possibly want this to happen as the squad would then be so damaged as to be unable to compete, even over half a season. Al Fahim is believed to be planning to attend the match against Fulham at Fratton Park on Saturday. Should be very interesting!

I referred to the team itself earlier. That win against Rangers has given us all hope, especially as our star close- season signing, Frederic Piquionne, showed that he can score goals (good goals too). More than that, the whole team played well with Kranjcar putting in an impressive shift and Marc Wilson looking good. I just hope we don’t get too carried away. It did show that we have a team that can still compete, but it was still just a pre season friendly, and the squsd needs more depth for the long season ahead. This needs addressing NOW and I hope Al Fahim realises this.

Titbits? Well, the latest seems to have come from Peter Storrie, who seems cast in an ever more heroic light at the moment, given the circumstances. In an aricle in The News today, he said, ‘just wait and see’, twice! I would find that a strange comment for someone who just a couple of days ago emailed a fan to say that he knew nothing about the progress of the takeover or how long it would take, and was at pains to point out that it was between the two protagonists. In the same interview he attacked the national press for printing rubbish. Very bold for someone who had seemed so downcast a couple of days ago. Come on Peter, spill the beans!

Even if Storrie does know that the takeover will go through, the question still remains as to what kind of takeover it will be. We are not so sure now of a bright new future with riches to spend on a new stadium, training ground, and players. But surely a prospective new owner would not go through all this trouble, only to struggle to even add to an already depleted squad? If the takeover happened tomorrow and we were only able to buy a couple more modest players before the end of the month, I would expect this squad to get through to January competitively while more permananet foundations for the club were laid. This has to be his intention, doesn’t it? Something approaching his original vision for the future? Only time will tell. This Week.

We still have weeks of off the pitch events ahead of us, even after the takeover is fully completed, so I thought I’d concentrate on the football side of things. The Premier League is undoubdedly the place to be, but for the also-rans there is little chance of pre season conversation turning to title chances and those of other teams, because outside the top four there are no title chances! Championship or promotion winning seasons have always been precious, but especially so nowadays.

The season started positively on 10th August 2002 with a 2-0 home win against Nottingham Forest. This date was definitely the start of a new era, but doubly so in my case as I met my wife that night in a nightclub in Sydney! I remember hearing of a solid away point at Sheffield United in the next game whilst getting ready in my hotel room to go out, and by the time of the 3-2 win at Crystal Palace I was in Surfer’s Paradise. Great days!

I remember feeling that this could be a great season because of the way the team had come from 2-0 down to win the match, but Harry Redknapp had of course also reconstructed the entire team since he had taken over from Graham Rix at the back end of the previous season. Things hadn’t started too auspiciously, as Redknapp’s first game at Preston North End finished in a 2-0 defeat. I was at the game and we were never really in it. Svetoslav Todorov made his debut and was sent off for an off the ball incident!

The week after the Palace game I was back home to get my first look at the new look Pompey in action at Fratton Park against Watford. My recollection is that it was a non contest. We won 3-0 and it was fluid, fast football that I just wasn’t used to seeing. Paul Merson and Matthew Taylor were magnificent, and that was to continue for the rest of the season.

The day after that, I went away to the Baltic. I was at sea out there, on and off, for the rest of the season, so I missed most of it! In a funny sort of way, though, the memories are just as strong. I recall three main ways that I got the results. At sea, they were either communicated to me on the bridge or I would make sure I was in the communications office at full time to get them on the radio. The other main way, of course, was to follow the football in the bar of one of the many Baltic cities we visited. I remember being amazed when we lost at home to Leicester City, but funnily enough it didn’t spoil my weekend in Helsinki and by this stage I knew we were going to win the following week anyway!

During one of my pit stops home, I took that girl I had met in Sydney (now my wife) to Fratton Park. She had come all the way back from Australia to see me, so I needed to impress her. We lost 2-1 to Sheffield United and it was freezing! She obviously saw past that. I think I remember the match where I became convinced that nothing was going to go wrong, that we were just to strong to blow it. It was one of those where I hung around the communicatons office waiting for the result and then it came through. Pompey 6 Derby County 2. I hadn’t seen any of the game of course but the result said it all.

I was again home on a pit stop, but his time driving from Edinburgh to Somerset, when we played at Leicester. I half expected to lose to our perennial bogey team, and we duly went one down. It was a matter of pride as far as I was concerned, but the 1-1 draw we eventually got also helped cement our position at the top. The equaliser came from Matty Taylor, with one of a number of outside-the-box efforts he produced that season.

There were a number of crushing away wins that season too, not least at Millwall where Pompey fans were banned. I have since seen highlights of the 5-0 Pompey win in deafening silence!

As the season drew to a close, it became increasingly clear that the Championship was a two horse race between the only two teams in serious contention for promotion. Sheffield United’s high point had seemed to be their win at Fratton Park, and they had faded after this. Pompey had always been in pole position but Leicester had hung on doggedly and were stiil within striking distance. Portsmouth had the chance to clinch promotion with a win at home against Sheffield Wednesday, who were bottom of the league. I was in the country but couldn’t make the game. By now I planned to get married (I didn’t hang around!). I was needed elsewhere to help organise it and knew better than to argue! Anyway, Pompey did me a favour and lost the game. We were knocked off top spot by Leicester, but we all knew it was only a matter of time.

Three days later, on a Tuesday night, we reconvened at Fratton Park against Burnley. I wasn’t going to miss it this time and saw Paul Merson’s penalty smack the bar right in front of me early in the game. Still we believed and the magic moment arrived with fifteen minutes to go at the Fratton End. Nigel Quashie squared a ball low across the box (I’m sure he was shooting!) and Todorov diverted it in. I’m not sure how, but I remember seeing the image of  him running into the crowd at the other end of the ground as if it was right in front of me.

Afterwards, I cherished my one and only time so far on the Fratton Park pitch (I have also done Huddersfield, Bradford, and Wigan) and still have my blades of grass. In terms of pure achievement on the pitch in a competitive environment over an extended period, I think I’ll be lucky to see it bettered in my lifetime. It is certainly right up there with the best memories, but the memories that mean the most aren’t necessarily linked to the highest footballing achievements! I think that’s partly what keeps us supporting our team come what may.

 There were few changes to the Championship winning team, Portsmouth’s books actually revealing a credit balance on transfers of £16,400! The Champions started the season well enough with a 3-1 win at Newcastle United, but were up and down after that. There was a defeat at home to Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool, interspersed with a 5-1 win at Middlesbrough and a 7-0 thrashing of Everton at Fratton Park. On 1st October league leaders Wolves visited Fratton Park, and for the first and only time. more than 50,000 spectators crammed into the ground for a league game. A 1-1 draw left Pompey in seventh, but only three points behind Wolves. The title race was to remain tight for the rest of the season.

Large scale merchandising was still a thing of the future in those days and in the 15th October Football Mail, Pompey Championship ties were advertised at Landports Drapery (which later became Allders). Portsmouth didn’t have a club shop until the late 1960s and the only items visible in club colours amongst the crowd tended to be scarves and rosettes. But one supporter of the time, Cyril Lucas, recalls that the absence of large scale commercialism aded to the sense of occasion on match day. ‘When I stood on the north terrace opposite the tunnel, I couldn’t wait until the players came up the tunnel. I was just so full of pride when I saw those royal blue shirts and that star and crescent badge. That shirt was only worn by the eleven players – no-one else wore it, unlike the replica shirts you see these days – and you wouldn’t see it again until the next match. It was Pompey’s pride and glory and a huge cheer went up when the players ran out.’

Even the players had to supplement their wages! Eleven of them commissioned photographers to take individual and team photos, which were then sold privately to supporters and through newspapers.

Pompey continued to be up and down, and a feature of the season was that the team was far more unsettled than in the previous campaign. More players were used, and more than one found themselves making their solitary Pompey appearance as they covered for injuries.

Portsmouth were drawn against Third Division (South) Norwich City in the FA Cup third round and underperformed in the Fratton Park tie, drawing 1-1. In another example of how similar football fans are both then and now, consider this letter to the Football mail in the aftermath of the game. ‘I think this was a disgusting show for a first division team. Almost 20 years at the Park and I have never seen anything like it…If Pompey want to make a show in the Cup or league they have to go out and buy a couple of forwards in my opinion. I reckon Pompey are the meanest club of all divisions for paying out, and may I finish up, If Pompey do not win on Thursday (the replay), my old woman will be having more of my company on Saturday afternoons in the future.’ As I said, nothing changes!

Going into March, four points separated the top seven with Pompey in fourth behind Manchester United, Liverpool, and Sunderland. Portsmouth continued to stutter, losing 2-1 at Derby with Jimmy Scoular sent off. This was a huge incident in the days when it was extremely difficult to even receive a booking, and the issue hung over Pompey for weeks before the relevant FA committee was due to meet to discuss punishment. But, it seemed to be the title that nobody wanted to win as other teams also dropped points.

Going into the crucial game against leaders Manchester United at Old Trafford on 15th April, four points separated the top six, with Pompey lying third, a point behind the leaders. Reid and Froggatt scored in the last six minutes for a priceless 2-0 win. Second placed Sunderland lost at home to Manchester City. Pompey were now in pole position with three games to go, and could become the first club to retain the Championship since Arsenal’s hat-trick of titles was completed in 1935.

Pompey won their next game against Liverpool, and results that day showed that one win from two was now required to retain the Championship. The next game was at Highbury, never a happy hunting ground. Pompey had never won there at the time, and slumped to a 2-0 defeat. But the maths still held and a win in the final match at home to Aston Villa would be enough, barring an improbable 20 goal haul by Wolves in their last match.

This was the era of goal average (goals scored divided by goals conceded), and Pompey’s was vastly superior. From the moment they scored after 20 seconds of the game at Fratton Park, the result was never in doubt and they ran out 5-1 winners. The Championship was retained. The next team to achieve the feat was Manchester United’s Busby Babes in 1957. Portsmouth had proved themselves the best team in the country.

Despite this, the press failed to recognise the achievement. Alex James of the Daily Express, a distinguished former Arsenal striker, reserved his choice of team of the year for Second Division Champions Tottenham Hotspur. ‘Don’t think I’m knocking Pompey,’ he said, ‘it takes a wonderful side to win the league championship two years running.’ He evidently considered it more wonderful to win the Second Division once than to win the First twice!

That reminds me, I must catch up on the latest installment of ‘Pompeygate’.

If I allow this dreaming to take the form of hope rather than expectation, then I can see a long term project allowing the club to be run in the right way for the first time in over half a century, the team gradually climbing the league and challenging for major honours, and continuously improving attendances and facilities. In reality, the future may lie somewhere between this and the current state of affairs, but it is dreams that make football what it is, even in the modern world.

How lucky we would be to witness a team rivalling the double Championship winning side of 1948-50. It seems appropriate to look back at this era and try and get a flavour of what it was like, starting with the 1948/49 campaign. Most of this information is taken from Colin Farmery’s excellent book, ‘Champions of England’.

Portsmouth’s FA Cup fifth round tie against Derby County at Fratton Park in February 1949 saw the club’s record attendance of 51,385. During this post war period, attendances at football matches had rocketed, and this was illustrated in January 1948 when 81,962 turned up at Maine Road to watch Manchester United v Arsenal, Old Tafford being closed for renovation after war time bomb damage. But attendances did also fluctuate, Pompey’s home league gates generally covering the 20, 30, and 40 thousand brackets in a single season. It was necessary at the time to arrive at Fratton Park by 1pm if you wanted to get a good vantage point for the game, but people were queueing soon after breakfast on this particular day, and at 2pm the gates were shut.

Cyril Lucas from Gosport was working as a builder at the time and went to the match, which Pompey won 2-1, Ike Clarke scoring the winner.  ’Afterwards it was pandemonium.’, he recalls. ‘All the crowd wanted to see Ike and I remember he couldn’t come out to see anyone because he was eating a sandwich! Eventually, because there were so many people milling around outside he had to leave the ground by a back entrance. When Pompey won you were elated and we would walk back to the ferry replaying the game in our minds. However, if Pompey lost I was depressed until Wednesday.’

Doesn’t sound much different to today, apart from the 50,000 plus-crowd and the league title at the end of the season! But in those days, it was the FA Cup that really fired up the fans. Pompey reached the semi finals, and were drawn against second division Leicester City, avoiding the ‘big boys’ of Wolves and Manchester United, who contested the other semi final. It was going to be a formality. Pompey were surely on the way to the double. They lost 3-1 at Highbury however, proving that cup upsets are nothing new. The defeat meant that supporterPeter Downton had to eat a bit of humble pie. ‘A friend of mine in London was an Arsenal supporter and he came down for the Jubilee match (the year before). To our delight he was devastated by the result: he spent most of the match with his mouth wide open. Unfortunately he managed get a ticket to the semi final and so had his revenge. My friend’s smile returned and I was forced to drown my sorrows at Yates’ Winebar in the Strand’, he recalled.

One of the best wins of the season was a sun-baked Easter Saturday mauling of Wolves at Fratton Park. Pompey won 5-0 and, coming so soon after their 5-0 win at Newcastle (five headed goals!) ten days earlier, were now Champions-elect. The title was sealed a week later at Bolton, and the promotion party at Fratton Park was against Huddersfield the following week. Apart from this, the game was noteable for the fact that due to a head injury, Jimmy Dickinson missed his first ever match. It may seem strange that the attendance was only 37,042 after the record figure against Derby in the cup, accompanied by other Cup attendances in the high 40 thousands, but the average Fratton Park attendance that season was 37,058. Perhaps it is not so unrealistic to suggest that the imminent new regime could restore the club to its former glories?

The players that claimed Championship medals that season was Ernie Butler, Phil Rookes, Albert Ferrier, Jimmy Dickinson, Reg Flewin, Jimmy Scoular, Peter Harris, Bert Barlow, Duggie Reid, Len Phillips, and Jack Froggatt. Ike Clarke also received special dispensation from the Football League to receive a medal, despite missing the qualifying mark of 25 games, by one match. Despite the differences between then and now (the global nature of the game, players’ wages, tactics and equipment), we are still playing the same game after all. It would be nice to think that Portsmouth could again build a Championship winning side, but I would settle for the club being set on solid foundations for now. If a rich foreign owner is currently the only way to achieve this, I am all for it.

They represent what first got me hooked on Pompey and football in general at the age of seven. Yes they were a good team, but they were also essentially the same team that had come so close to promotion in each of the previous two seasons, only to miss out at the death. Yet they had the guts to go at it one more time and succeed. It wasn’t all plain sailing even the third time, but it was third time lucky. The whole City was immensely proud of their achievement of delivering top flight football for the first time in 28 years. 

Alan Ball was under pressure from the off after narrow failure in the previous two campaigns, and apparently launched a verbal assault on the players after a League Cup WIN at Fourth Division Wrexham. He ended the outburst by informing the players he intended to resign. The next day, training carried on as usual and nothing more was said! Typical of the manager and this group of players at the time.

Obviously, these goings on weren’t common knowledge to the fans at the time, but there were also a number of memorable matches that season. Kevin Dillon scored a hat trick of penalties in a Full Members Cup (!) game at Fratton Park against Millwall. Pompey also had three players sent off before half time at Sheffield United in a league game at Bramall Lane, and only lost 1-0! There was also a memorable 3-2 Boxing Day win at Plymouth. Strange things seemed to be happening that season. Leading scorer Mick Quinn was even sent to prison for three weks in January for driving without a licence, but stil returned to lay his part in our eventual promotion!

A famous match that season was at Wimbledon in the FA Cup Fourth Round. It was a rare televised game for Pompey in those days and inevitably a complete disaster. Wimbledon had pipped us to promotion in the previous season, and played uncompromising football. In truth, it was more than ‘uncompromising’ and Alan Ball hated losing to them. But after going 1-0 down, Alan Knight bent down to do up his shoelaces as the game kicked off again. The ball quickly reached Noel Blake in the centre of defence, who (this was in the days when the goalkeeper was allowed to pick up a backpass) rolled it back to Knight without looking. Knight was still doing up his laces! That was 2-0 and Pompey eventually lost 4-0.

Come the end of the season, Pompey were in contention as usual, and played Millwall at home with two further games to come. In a famous win, Paul Mariner scored before Kevin O’Callaghan added a memorable winner after an indirect free kick inside the penalty area was tapped to him. Some thought that was enough for promotion on the day, but we still needed another point. It semed to be on its way at Crystal Palace in the next game, but a late Ian Wright winner snatched it away. Typically, it was never going to be simple with that Pompey team, and we neede a favour from Shrewsbury Town the following night against Oldham. They duly delivered and promotion was finally ours.

Even though promotion wasn’t secured in front of our own fans, I ‘m sure everyone must remember where they were when it was confirmed. I was visiting family in Cambridge. I was only ten, but the memory was powerful enough for me to still remember it now. I was due to go to the final game against Sheffield United at Fratton Park with a friend and his uncle, but there was some kind of mix up with the tickets and I really regret not being there 28,000 others that day to celebrate.

But, that disappointment is not my overriding memory of that season. I went to the civic reception with the same friend and his uncle (no doubt felling slightly guilty). But despite all the off the pitch goings-on I alluded to before (some taken from Alan Knight’s autobiography, ‘Legend’) and the memorable matches, the reason that team means so much to me is very simple. I had spent the first two seasons of my Pompey supporting life watching us finish fourth and narrowly miss out on promotion, only to see the team come back for more and succeed at the third attempt. It said to me that if you keep trying and never give up, you can achieve your goal. It was that simple to me as a ten year old boy and that’s why they are still pinned up on my wall.

But I think the best game in the entire run that year was the fifth round replay at Ayresome Park against Middlesbrough. The game has taken on a cult-like status over the years, and I am one of those lucky enough to be able to say I was there.

It wasn’t just the amount of goals during the match, or the quality and excitement of the play that have made this such a classic. It was also the way the stage had been set during the previous rounds. Pompey had won at Alan Ball’s Exeter City in the third round with a late Warren Aspinall winner, and Darren Anderton had come to national prominence with a brilliant drag-back and shot to score in the 2-0 fourth round home win over Leyton Orient. We then faced Middlesbrough at home in the fifth round, and a Guy Whittingham goal had us 1-0 up until a late equaliser from an unlikely source, central defender Alan Kernaghan, sealed a replay for Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park.

And that was the end of our cup run. We had had a good win against Leyton Orient and shown the country that we had some good young players, but we had blown our chance of progressing further by letting Boro back in at Fratton Park. What’s more, when the replay came around, it was a freezing midweek night, a long haul to Middlesbrough, and Whittingham was out of the team to be replaced by Colin Clarke. Cue one of the best matches I have ever been to.

I have my own personal reasons for being so fond of this game too. I was still at school, but living in Preston and my Dad would take me to a lot of the nearest games. Living in the North West, this turned out to be quite a few, but I don’t think Boro away in midweek was ever part of the plan. But, if you don’t ask you don’t get and for some reason he seemed only too willing. We must both have been developing cup fever, but I’m glad we did as it was one of the best experiences we had watching Pompey together.

The atmosphere in the ground was fantastic, and we responded in the away end, despite the fact that it was more the away corner. The game itself didn’t start well with Andy Payton and Paul Wilkinson looking threatening up front for Middlesbrough. Wilkinson opened the scoring emphatically with his head from a corner on 18 minutes. The first half then developed a clear pattern, with Anderton and Clarke combining for Pompey’s equaliser. Clarke latched on to a perfect pass to finish low into the corner. Wilkinson then provided a carbon copy header for Boro before Clarke volleyed home Anderton’s pass for the equaliser. 2-2 at half time and I remember feeling privileged to be at such a great game and real excitement in anticipation of a second half that could clearly go either way, despite Boro’s home advantage.

Pompey really took control in the second half, but it was a fluke goal that saw us take the lead, Anderton scoring direct from a corner. The ball simply just crept in at the near post. Anderton crashed home  a spectacular fourth, and I still remember to this day the feeling of the celebration of that goal. It wasn’t just the quality of the goal itself, or the fact that it had sealed the game. It was the fact that there we were, far from home (most further than me) on a freezing February night, and we could see our team dismantling the opposition in their own back yard. Well that’s what I was thinking, but I know from looking at all the other Pompey fans’ faces that night, that we were all on the same wavelength. Colin Clarke even hit the bar after that and had another goal disallowed!

As we walked away from the ground back to the car that night, I remember noting that our eventual nemesis Liverpool had also beaten Ipswich in a fifth round replay. In the car on the way home, I also remember listening to Deeply Dippy by Right Said Fred, the number one at the time. Trivial things, but totally inseparable from my memory of the night as a whole, as these tiny things often are. Most of all, I remember just being grateful to my Dad, who is no longer with us, for taking me and allowing me to have such a treasured memory of the great time we had together that night for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, it seems to have come too late to stop Glen Johnson leaving us for Liverpool, but if we believe what we have been told, his transfer is nothing to do with the takeover anyway. The transfer is due to go through today. Good luck, Glen.

The source of the headline is ArabianBusiness.com and you can read the article here.

Granted, the source is not named, but the story does seem very specific not to have any truth to it, and unlike The Sun’s ridiculous ‘Pompeygate’ campaign it is hard to see what this particular website would have to gain by exaggerating. Even if we were to surmise for a moment that ArabianBusiness.com would benefit by writing sycophantic articles about Dr Al Fahim (he is not a real doctor by the way, did you know that?), there are an awful lot of specifics in here, right down to his intended presence at the Portsmouth Supporters’ Club (London) AGM on 11th July. Personally, I think this article is indeed the first to give us a credible and realistic idea of the timescale for completion of the Portsmouth takeover!

The article also mentions that Dr Al Fahim will be meeting with supporters in Portsmouth too at around the same time, and intends to maintain this kind of contact and dialogue in the long term. Good news! Let’s hope that comes to pass as well.

One very interesting comment in there is that the most difficult ownership issues have already been addressed, leaving us to assume that it is only a matter of time now, and by consequence that the Premier League’s requirements will not be an issue.

The great unknown, of course, is just what Dr Al Fahim will say if and when he does address the supporters on July 11th following a newly completed takeover of the club. Who will be the new manager? Which players will be brought in, and how much money will be spent on this? What about the training ground, redevlopment of Fratton Park, and new stadium? One thing is for sure, we will certainly get a good idea of at least what we can expect for the coming season, on the pitch, in the first few days of Al Fahim’s reign.

All in all, this is a day for cautious optimism for us Portsmouth supporters. The timescale means that we will have time to build a team and squad before the new season. It seems that the major difficulties have already been addressed, and of course, most importantly at the moment, we now know when it is planned to happen. I’m sure The Sun will desperately be looking for something to spoil the party at this very minute, but my hunch is that they won’t find anything. So, the 11th July becomes a kind of D-Day. We don’t know what will happen after that, but for now it is enough to know when.

Prosinecki was unlike any other player I have ever seen at Fratton Park in terms of his sheer ability on the ball. Opposition players would slip and trip trying to keep up with what Prosinecki was going to do next, and so would the crowd! I remember more than once wondering how he had quite managed to get the ball to do that!

His party piece was the famous rolling the ball under the foot manouevre just when he was making to shoot or pass. Suddenly the space would just open up in front of him! He scored some cracking goals that season after opening up space like that and created more the same way.

One particular example of  Prosinecki on the ball springs to mind at Rotherham in a Friday night game when he must have gone one way and then the next about five times, with the defender ending up on the turf! We lost the game 2-1, which summed up the season really. The team was fragile, and the manager Graham Rix was gone before the end of the season, a bottom half finish not enough of an improvement on the previous season’s flirt with relegation. They were strange times, and we had the Yoshi Kawaguchi saga too, along with a 4-1 defeat to Leyton Orient in the FA Cup third round, at home! Prosinecki faded towards the end of the season, and it was all change as Harry Redknapp took over.

But that is all strangely fitting, really. This was about one player, an individual with tremendous skill on the ball, an entertainer.  We will forever salute our Cup winning side, but not one of them could come close to drawing the same excitement from the crowd as Robert Prosinecki.