Source: Telegraph
Portsmouth feel the chill as injury list grows
A state almost of paralysis has taken hold. Fortress Fratton has another meaning. Now it is the club, rather than opposition teams who once struggled to deal with the vibrant football played by Harry Redknapp's team, the fiercely partisan crowd, the ramshackle stadium, and even more dowdy changing rooms, with cold running water that is feeling under pressure.[LNB]Today Portsmouth go to Arsenal desperately waiting for their artillery to arrive. Whether it does this season may depend on how quickly chief executive Peter Storrie completes the takeover of the club that, after the embarrassing hiatus surrounding Sulaiman Al Fahim, he now heads.[LNB] Related ArticlesArsenal v Portsmouth previewPortsmouth takeover twistPortsmouth takeover faces fresh doubtsJames could exit PortsmouthCampbell eyes Newcastle moveArsene Wenger on Arsenal v PortsmouthA positive announcement is expected next week. Meanwhile, even if Storrie and his backers do assume control there is no guarantee that extra investment will be found for the Premier League's most precariously poised club. [LNB]"It's a difficult, difficult time for this football club," said manager Paul Hart. "But we're standing up and fighting. Once you accept you're in a fight, which I've been shouting about since May, because I've known it's going to be difficult, and you know you're not going to have £25 million here or there, that you're not going to have players like [Lassana] Diarra coming in... those days have gone, even with a takeover. Then you've got to be real."[LNB]Reality has hit hard on the south coast. Portsmouth's collapse has happened with bewildering speed. But how firm were the foundations? Storrie has done his best but this crisis feels like a reckoning. [LNB]Redknapp signed players of quality, England internationals, and they were awarded huge salaries. The wage bill ballooned for a club with a 20,000 capacity and little corporate hospitality. In the year to May 2008 they lost £17 million, after a previous loss of £23.5 million.[LNB]May 2008 was remembered for something else, of course. Portsmouth won the FA Cup. But that high point has proved a turning point. "It's a different club," Hart, 56 and with a wealth of sense and experience, said. [LNB]"Two years ago when I came in [as youth team coach], we were doing things differently. Harry was a great manager doing wonderful things. That's fine. That's how it was. But this is where we're at and I can't paint a different picture. [LNB]"If Abramovich pulled out of Chelsea, they'd be a different club, and our owner, over the past nine months to a year, has virtually pulled out of this football club. So it has changed. I'm sure it would be the same at Aston Villa and other clubs with one-man ownerships."[LNB]Maybe so, but Alexandre Gaydamak, Portsmouth's owner, undoubtedly over-stretched himself chasing a dream and once he decided that enough was enough Portsmouth's liabilities were always going to be unsustainable. [LNB]Redknapp and current players, such as David James, have questioned where the money brought in from the fire-sale of star assets including Diarra, Sulley Muntari, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson has gone, but the answer is simple. Bank debts which stood at £44 million last summer, now reduced to £20 million had to be serviced and bills covered.[LNB]It's a sober strategy as long as the first team are not fatally undermined. After two defeats in two league matches, both somewhat unfortunate, that accusation is being levelled though Hart refutes both it and claims that it's all "doom and gloom". [LNB]His background helps. "I've faced administration with Nottingham Forest," said the man who succeeded David Platt as manager of his former club in 2001, again dealing with a financial crisis.[LNB] "We're not facing administration here. I had to get a team there [at Forest] to win and be competitive. It was a difficult time. My brief was to reduce the wage bill by £4 million and bring in £4 million a year and to win promotion."[LNB]So what is his brief at Portsmouth? "To keep us in the Premier League," said Hart, who signed a two-year deal in the summer after guiding the club to safety last season. "But I'm one of 12 or 13 managers with a similar brief." [LNB]Not one has the same constraints. Hart estimates he has 14 senior professionals at his disposal. He has identified signings, such as Lens striker Aruna Dindane and Bolton pair Gavin McCann and Danny Shittu, but is waiting for the go-ahead.[LNB]"We have to be hard to beat until we get new blood in, then we can maybe change things," Hart said. "We have our targets and, hopefully, within the next week or so the targets will be here. It doesn't really depend on the ownership because there's no money. [LNB]"I could have told you in the summer we'd be odds-on to go down. It's no surprise to me. I understand it. I'm not saying it's irrational. [LNB]Arsenal have just 'done' Celtic at home [in the Champions League] for the first time in 26 years and I was a member of the Forest team who were the last to do it and they've spent 13 years getting to this point, spent millions on young players coming through and this could be the best Arsenal team yet. It's a club with a structure."[LNB]That is something Portsmouth desperately need. [LNB]
