The games in question are Wigan, Burnley, Birmingham, Sunderland, Stoke, Hull, Blackburn and Wolves. Adult tickets have been cut to £20 in the Milton End, and £30 in the wings of the upper North Stand.

It’s just the kind of gesture the fans need to see at the moment, but more importantly it improves the chances of the ground being full for these important games, as people continue to struggle in the recession. To the season ticket holders who are already complaining, I can only say, STOP BEING SO SHORT SIGHTED! The whole club needs to pull together at the moment and this is a positive step towards that happening. Obviously the biggest step will be a great performance and win against Bolton, but back to the ticket prices. You can’t actually buy a season ticket in the Milton End, and the price you paid guarantees your usual seat. But also remember, when you by something, including a season ticket, there is no guarantee that a better deal won’t come along further down the line. Simple as that. The club should not be criticised for this positive move. Play up Pompey!

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!

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!

There is nothing else we can do, I’m afraid. Typically, we still don’t know what the future is supposed to hold and the completion of the takeover just leaves more questions and a sense of frustration instead of the relief we have all longed for. I am just confused, frustrated and, most depressingly of all, sceptical about the deal and the future. The drawn out summer, and the nature of the eventual deal have given us Pompey fans no reason to be anything else. I think we have all just had enough and, sadly, Al Fahim starts his reign with an uphill battle on his his hands to even convince the fans of his best intentions. Money aside, we can’t even rely on continuity in the boardroom to see us through this difficult time. I would love to believe that all concerned can now pull together for the good of Portsmouth Football Club, but I just don’t think life works that way!

Al Fahim now has just days to make an impact, or the morale-sapping effect of further inactivity will mean the January transfer window may be useless to us. The positive and immediate impact required seems improbable for a man who appears to have been forced into a deal, any deal, to save face. I hope I am wrong, but I am so very tired of it all.

Without going over old ground, the squad we boasted a year to two years ago wasn’t sustainable, as we now know. But, providing we get through these tough times in anything like reasonable shape, let’s be grateful for the players that were here, even if their legacy was near financial meltdown. I say that because thier ultimate legacy was a major trophy, the FA Cup. It will be that indelibly marked in the record books in years to come, not the problems we are facing now.

I’m not saying we’re going to come out of this situation scott free. The takeover is yet to be completed after all (just to remind those who didn’t know!). But, despite the tiresome, never ending nature of it, I genuinely believe the signs are looking more positive in the last few days. SURELY, Al Fahim would not leave it until after the season had begun to pull out?! I believe if he were going to do that, it would have happened by now. At risk of starting a riot amongst Pompey fans, he gave a very positive interview on ArabianBusiness.com this week. You can read it here. I know, more words and still no action, but you must admit he does give a good interview, and the timing of it so close to the opening of the new season suggests the moment for the collapse of the deal has passed.

Paul Hart has also explicitly stated today that any further player sales will be his choice. A very bold assertion, and one that he would not make in public like that unless he was very confident. This brings me on to the state of the squad, very pertinent now we are staring the new season on the face.

The win against Rangers has given me real optimism that our squad is not as poor as the ‘pundits’ would have us believe. I know it was only a pre season friendly, but Rangers did beat Manchester City a few days earlier. I think the most important thing about that game was the confidence boost it should have given the players, given how well they gelled as a team.  I would still like another striker (perhaps not Mark Viduka), but Frederic Piquionne at least showed that he is has pace, presence and can finish. He just has to produce that now over a season!

Same with Paul Hart, really. I didn’t enjoy the end of last season! I hope he’s got some more attacking football up his sleeve. The Rangers game would suggest so, but he has a lot to prove. It may be easier in a way without the shock of last season’s unfolding events weighing him down. But has he got the players to do it?

Let’s assume we only add to the squad from now on. We still have an England goalkeeper. Fulham, who finished seventh last season, have a good one too in Mark Schwarzer. We still have Distin and also Kaboul and Finnan for example. Fulham have Hangeland but not much else to impress at the back. Our midfield almost looks better than theirs! We still have Kranjcar and now Diop is returning to fitness. Basinas can pass a ball if he can ever secure a starting place. Fulham have Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu. Up fron Fulham do look stronger with Kamara (!), Johnson, and Zamora (?). Kanu will be a bit part player at best, and Nugent isn’t good enough. John Utaka has a real opportunity this season to fulfil the potential I believe he has. Anyway, Fulham finished seventh last season. My point is, our squad must compare favourably with the Burnleys and Hulls of this world. Granted, new signings such as Vanden Borre have to be at least a relative success, but with good management and team spirit can inspire a modest set of players to great heights as Roy Hodgson and Fulham showed last season. Paul Hart and the players (and one or two new ones) need to step up to the mark.

The main (self imposed) obstacle I’ve encountered this week is a lack of progress on the technical aspects of building up the website (eg. payment gateways etc.) The steps are all listed there in the Quick Start Guide of Membership Club Magic, so that’s not the problem. It’s the fact that my blogging is taking too long, mainly because I can’t draw a distinction between fun and ‘work’ and spend too long researching and writing them. I hope to address that this week by a combination of having a rough plan laid out for my blogs, and a little bit more time discipline without sacrificing the fun I am having! Just a bit more balance required! Having referred to a blog plan, it’s not always that easy as events are fast moving, especially at Portsmouth Football Club at the moment with a potential takeover by an Arab billionaire, Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim.  But, there’s no shortage of material!

Specifically, next week I am anxious to think more about developing my website into more than a blog and installing some of the functions which will be required to do that. This will also involve trying to think about exactly what I want the site to look like and offer, and how I can position it alongside sites which address some of the niches I want to have on my site. I also need to do some administration, for example install roboform to list all my passwords. Password confusion has got me into trouble more than once so far!

I have managed to get to number one on Google for my website name, Portsmouth Till We Die, and am on the first page for ‘Portsmouth Till I Die’. That is fine, but it’s just made me hungry for more progress, and made me focus on the fact that the goal is a fully functional, profitable website. I will actually begin to meet some people face to face next week too as I am going along to the Northern group meeting of the Money Gym.

The next few weeks will be crucial for the future direction of the club, as due diligence is carried out. This issue, especially regarding the Premier League’s ‘fit person’ test, has been complicated after the emergence of the structure of the proposed takeover. It seems that Dr Al Fahim is backed by an unknown group of investors. Whilst this is not a problem in itself, these backers are reportedly reluctant to be identified. This will not go down well with the Premier League and their new-found zeal for complete disclosure.

It would seem reasonable to assume that this issue can be overcome, but while we wait for progress, there will inevitably be extensive media speculation about all aspects of this story including the due diligence process, financial implications of the takeover, players sales and recruitment, and the managerial situation. We can all join in, but the real story, from Pompey fans’ point of view at least, is what will happen if and when the purchase goes through. In the meantime, what has got me thinking, is that question, why Portsmouth?

That excellent site, Vital Pompey, part of Vital Football, has beaten me to it! The extract below was written by ‘Chix’ a regular poster on the site. It’s a great article to start the debate, and I think there’s a lot of truth in it. My thoughts on the reasons for Dr Fahim’s choice follow the extract:

As I was pondering how to break ‘the ever increasing circle of speculation’ I suddenly realised that the man that made all this possible; Uncle Peter Storrie must have, at some point, had to ’sell’ Pompey to the Doc… Just think about that for a minute..

So be prepared to show your pride, be ready to demonstrate your passion and above all gear up for the most dynamic change ever in the history of PFC. It is down to us – Let’s all enjoy it

I have a slightly different take on it, although I think that the quality of our support is likely to have had a part to play. Chix says in his article that plenty of clubs need development and this probably wasn’t the primary factor. I have to say I think that no other club in the Premier League has Pompey’s development potential, and I’m sure that this WAS the main reason for his decision.  

We have a ground (not ’stadium’!) that we all love, but that needs COMPLETE redevelopment and possibly relocation to provide the club with 21st century facilities. If it is to be relocation, then the Fratton Park site can also be sold to recoup some of the outlay. I can’t accept that a professional property developer on such a large scale would not be interested in applying that expertise in a situation where it is so clearly called for. 

He has obviously shopped around, but Newcastle have been relegated and already have a large, modern stadium. Spurs probably aren’t for sale. Chelsea were too expensive in the sense that they didn’t represent great value for money. West Ham were probably our main competition, but again are much further advanced in terms of infrastructure.

The price of Pompey is relatively cheap, and there is potential to expand. Portsmouth also represents a fantastic project and a challenge to get your teeth into, attractive to a man involved in fighting malnutrition globally. We are the only Premier League club south of London so there is no immediate competition. 200,000 fans on Southsea Common last May has perhaps convinced him that a 40,000 seater stadium is feasible, but what is most exciting if you accept the property development argument is that he obviously believes he can make it happen!

Just need to make some progress regarding setting up the other parts of the site outlined in the Membership Club Magic progamme like payment gateways and mailing lists before reporting back to Nicola Cairncross next week! It won’t be this week though! My daughter wants her dinner so I’ve got to go!

Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim has agreed a deal to buy the club from Sacha Gaydamak, and a period of due diligence now begins. Assuming that the commercial due diligence process has already taken place (how else would this have reached a stage where the deal has been publicly announced?), this must constitute the tying up of legalities and the satisfaction of Premier League requirements. It would appear, then,that before long, Portsmouth will become the second Premier League club to be owned by wealthy Middle East interests.

So what do we know about him? Well, those who watched Piers Morgan’s programmes a few months ago on the world’s wealthiest destinations, may remember him hosting Piers on his private jet in Dubai. He lost the whole of his immediate family in a car crashin 1998, and is now something of a philanthropist, with involvement in worldwide projects to eradicate malnutrition. He studied in the United States and has a number of other interests including chess and a TV show called the Hydra Executives in which his catchphrase is “Impress Me!”. Alan Sugar eat your heart out!

Football wise, he can also be recalled as the initial broker of the deal which saw Abu Dhabi United Group take control of Manchester City, although he no longer has any involvement with them. His development company, Hydra Properties, is currently building a football academy in the UAE in partnership with Inter Milan. Rumours of his other possible targets include Chelsea, West Ham, and Newcastle, although he has settled on Portsmouth with the intention of ‘turning a smallish Premier League club into something big over a number of years’. That remit would, if achieved, would consitute the perfect outcome to the recent uncertainty surrounding the future of the club.

What is the level of his investment and ambition? We don’t know yet. But we should soon. After all, the Premier League’s ‘fit person’ test should be a breeze to a man like him. Let’s allow our imagination to run away with us for a moment…

Off the pitch, I would suggest a Middle Eastern property developer would be very keen to fulfill the development potential offered by the club and the city. Whilst a lot of the barriers to the Horsea Island project are of the planning variety, they are also intrinsically linked to financial implications. Increased investment in the project begins to allow the potential development to become more favourable, with a reduction in the planned retail floorspace for example. The effect of a real propsect of delivery on even Portsmouth City Council surely can’t be underestimated, especially with a World Cup bid in the offing. In this scenario, Dr Al Fahim still stands to recoup some investment if he so wishes from the Fratton Park site. I would be happy to move to Horsea to bring the club into the 21st century as long as the stadium was built with the atmosphere in mind (and the prices!). Someone get on the phone to Herzog and De Meuron again! The academy project must also be seen through, so that the club is run in the right way. Local talent deserves its chance, and although there may well be increased competition from foreign youngsters, we live in a globalised world now. Football is proving to be no different, and there is the opportunity to provide better opportunity to local talent than has ever existed before.

On the pitch, I see Sven arriving and Paul Hart returning to his previous position, if willing, to carry out that important work. With reasonable investment, a top ten finish in his first season would be guaranteed, with the chance to get back into Europe. Then we would see how serious Dr Al Fahim is. Which players would we go for? Which would come? It’s an interesting prospect, but in the short term there’s not much to tinker with. The majority of out-of-contract players are on their way out of the club anyway. No change there then. Those prized assets that were looking likely to leave should be kept (I’m thinking more of Johnson and Crouch here than Kranjcar). Finally, let’s get in players in those areas that can help us challenge for Europe again. Everyone knows what’s needed. A defender to replace Sol Campbell, a whole new midfield, and a pacy striker to start with.

How far can this go? Some of the more wild quotes, in today’s Sun for example, have the man in a competition with Manchester City to see who can spend the most money! If he has this kind of money, there is theoretically no limit, Champions League, you name it, although a bigger, modern, full stadium with a fantastic atmosphere would help to reinforce future credibility. Deep down, I wish that Burnley could challenge for the title next season with nothing more than good coaching and management, and a few canny buys. I’m thinking Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest here. But, it seems the world is on the irreversible path to globalisiation, and football is no exception. ANYTHING that breaks the current uncompetitive monotony of life at the top of the Premier League is fine by me, and I would  LOVE IT, LOVE IT to be us!