Source: SKY_Sports
Hart - Price being paid
Portsmouth manager Paul Hart admits the club are paying the price for a previous regime's attempts to compete with the best sides in England.
The Premier League strugglers are in turmoil after if was confirmed on Thursday that players and executive directors were not paid their salary for September.
Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie has confessed there is 'no money left' as owner Sulaiman Al Fahim attempts to refinance the Fratton Park outfit.
Hart has therefore been left fighting fires and he believes the 2008 FA Cup winners are in the situation because of a previous bid to rival the big boys.
The ex-Nottingham Forest boss is even unsure if Pompey have begun to pay off their summer signings, telling the Daily Mail: "We had to beg, steal and borrow in our search for players.
Defer payments"We had to call in favours, defer payments. Even now I'm not sure if we have actually paid a penny to anyone for the lads we brought in.
"The previous owner (Sacha) Gaydamak, (manager) Harry Redknapp and Storrie took this club to the heights.
"It was incredible the way this club punched above its weight.
Not least by winning the FA Cup 18 months ago.
"But this was a club with gates of no more than 19,000 that had the fourth-highest wage bill in the Premier League.
"There were some great players here (Sol) Campbell, Sylvain (Distin), (Lassana) Diarra, (Jermain) Defoe, (Peter) Crouch, (Niko) Kranjcar and Glen (Johnson).
Lies
"That group of players enabled this club to compete with the very best. But ultimately there was a price to pay for that and that is the situation we find ourselves in now."
Hart has also revealed that he told lies to the media in order to hide the fact that Pompey's squad had been stripped to the bare bones by a summer exodus of players.
He added: "It has been crazy from the day we returned to pre-season training on 9th July. I had 14 players. Fourteen players!
"I had to lie to the media, tell them we had a squad of 20, because the truth was just too shocking.
"I ended up getting a load of names from the youth team and adding them to the list."
Hart added: "I know I haven't been in a more difficult job than this one. It's never been as hard as this. Sometimes you feel that just getting on the training pitch is a reward."
