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Club Focus - Portsmouth - Sunday’s opposition an example to follow
It is the final day of the Premier League season, and Portsmouth travel to Goodison Park in what is essentially a dead-rubber. The Toffees will finish eighth no matter what result, or results, on Sunday, while Pompey are, of course, relegated to the Championship.
The fact both have nothing riding on the game is where the similarities end. For one is simply a fine blueprint of how to run a successful, if unspectacular Premier League club, while the other is simply a real-life warning to all others of what can happen if a club attempts to punch above its weight, along with horrendous management. Indeed David Moyes has little sympathy for Pompey’s plight, he never has and he never will. As while the Scot has worked tirelessly for over eight years, on a largely restricted budget, of which he has spent miraculously well, Pompey instead threw heaps of money, which they never had, in order to seal success. In some ways, everyone gets their comeuppance, and Pompey’s plight is as much justified as it is pain-staking.
Cast your minds back to January 2008, and the transfer of a certain Lassana Diarra. The Frenchman’s signature was highly-sought following limited first team action at Arsenal, but as Pompey and Everton went head-to-head for the now Real Madrid star, a certain south coast team waved the big-bucks, at which Diarra headed south. Moyes simply couldn’t compete, and while he would no doubt have looked on enviously at Harry Redknapp as he secured Diarra, amongst other big-names, he can now sit safe knowingly and honestly as he contemplates an assault on the Premier League big-boys next term, with what is a cleverly and astutely built squad.
On the other hand, Pompey can only wallow in their own ‘success’ of two years previous. Six days after the trip the Merseyside, fans and players will have the FA Cup final to fondly look forward to, but then what? Yesterday’s meeting with the club’s creditors threw up just yet more depressing news (and figures,) while optimism on the new owner front, which is vital to the club’s immediate future, has been in short supply. Indeed at yesterday’s very meeting, club administrator Andrew Andronikou remained firmly unconvinced by the one consortium who had publicly voiced their interest - Rob Lloyd’s ‘secret’ investor. What’s more, the club’s debt seems to rise with every given day, now totalling at £138m, and it is becoming increasingly worrying just where this will stop, remember it started at the £70m mark. The main headlines to come from the meeting was that Andronikou’s debt repayment plan would see creditors regain (a minimum of) 20p to every pound they’re owed, over a five year period. Needless to say, there was very little good news to come out of the meeting. Once more the club’s horrendous debts and shocking mismanagement were laid bare and the club just seemed to sink to new depths.
For what its worth, things won’t be getting anytime soon for Pompey’s dedicated and boisterous band of followers, as the summer will be one of many more sagas. Expect numerous fruitless takeover rumours, the inevitable mass exodus and if matters don’t pick up, the exit of fans’ favourite, Avram Grant. The Israeli remains committed, but has made no secret of his desire to refrain from enduring another season like this. Andronikou knows the former Chelsea boss would be a massive coup for any Championship club, especially one surrounded by such farcical and difficult circumstances.
Yesterday’s meeting was a vital one on the road to exiting administration. There are no early indications as to the productivity of the said assembly but the very existence of the football club hangs on its success. A situation no club should ever be in. So Sunday represents a chance to see first hand just how to negotiate the merciless environment that is the Premier League. In the corresponding fixture last season, Pompey ran riot on Merseyside with a stunning 3-0 rout, Jermain Defoe and Glen Johnson the two big-money men on the score-sheet. While Pompey won the battle that day, Everton have certainly won the war.
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