Tal Ben Haim was the pick of the bunch for me, and represents a good replacement for Sylvain Distin. I must admit to not knowing a lot about Kevin Prince Boateng, but I’ve always liked O’Hara, and (I say this through gritted teeth) Michael Brown made a good debut aginst Man City at the weekend. In terms of outgoings, I honestly can’t argue with any of them. If players do not want to be at the club, there is no point in keeping them. The way Kranjcar has played recently, he won’t be missed anyway. I also happen to think he is over-rated in any case. Distin has no international career to pursue, but I suppose at his age, you have to take any attractive opportunitie that come your way. The bottom line is, with what has been happening at the club recently, no player could be blamed for wanting to pursue a career elsewhere.

The exception to all this, of course, is David James. No doubt he would also have gone if a bid had come in, but he is the one player who could probably recover form that. He is also the one we most needed to stay. His presence will be essential if we are to be competitive from now on. He will need to get his head back together, but he will have no choice. His World Cup place depends on it, but a goalkeeper can maintain his form in a struggling side in a way an outfield player can’t.

It’s up front where I am most worried. I feel rather than spending £2m on a Championship central defender, Paul Hart should have been busting a gut to acquire another striker instead. We have Hreidarsson and Wilson who can play at the back as well as Kaboul and Ban Haim. Up front we have Piquionne, Smith, and Dindane. I’m not convinced by Smith but am much happier to have him than the incompetent Nugent, who signed off with another howler aginst City. We have obviously not seen Dindane yet, but I just have a horrible feeling he is going to be injury prone. This is not based on fact of any sort, and I hope I am wrong. Just a hunch. We also have the indefatigable Kanu, who has just signed a new one year deal. We may just be needing him more than last season, although he looked good against City. But he must be in his forties now! I just have this nagging feeling that it is scoring goals which is going to be our achilles heel, even after the transfer window. Didn’t we try and get Benjani?

Anyway, at least the Pompey faithful are now hopeful that we can now get our season off the ground against Bolton in ten days’ time. That’s more than we could imagine a week ago, but it’s still going to be an uphill battle. If we can make a decent fist of it, though, it should be a more emjoyable season than the last one!

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.