I still remember the day incredibly well; it was only the second day of the new year in 2006 and I had awoken to listen to Portsmouth play Blackburn on the radio, praying that Harry Redknapp’s return was going to right the mess that Alain Perrin had us in.
I never would have imagined the news that I heard.
Milan Mandaric—then owner of the club—had confirmed that we were in talks with the son of a Russian billionaire, who would become joint owner of the club. Regardless of our 2-1 loss to Rovers that day and the fact that we were still in the relegation zone, Portsmouth was simply buzzing at the possibilities.
By the end of the season—having staved off relegation—Alexandre Gaydamak had agreed a deal with Mandaric to buy out his remaining share of the club. In the meanwhile, Portsmouth prepared for what would be the most impressive campaign the club had experienced in more than 50 years, barely missing out on UEFA Cup football.
Another year later and with more money from Gaydamak, and the club had reached the UEFA Cup but, more importantly, had the FA Cup to add to the long-neglected silverware case. Times at Portsmouth under Gaydamak and Redknapp were the greatest they had been since the 1940’s and early 1950’s.
It was, once again, Portsmouth’s time.
With Gaydamak’s funds, the club has purchased the incredible talents of David James, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Lassana Diarra, Glen Johnson, Sulley Muntari, Pedro Mendes, and many others.
But there is a chance that all is about to change.
comments (2) write a comment »
write a new comment
about 1 month ago
on the contrary, the club has made at least 8 statements denying being in takeover talks with anyone, denying any financial problems and denying the club is for sale, although they have said they would be forced to consider any offer if it was over the odds. In other words, the same as my house, I've no desire to move, I can pay the mortgage but if someone offers me 20% more than it is worth I'll take it.
the problem is, the media simply ignore the denials and continue to print what they want to print and then twist every story to suit it. Adams said on Saturday he hoped he would have time to do the job at Pompey and yesterday this was twisted to be Adams fearing a takeover. And despite the denials of everyone supposedly involved in the takeover they just ran the stories agian today.
Ignore the media. Sasha knows what is best for Pompey and he is in no bother at all. Training ground has started, young players signing all the time and we refused big offers for our best players two moths ago. Plus, we just got £5m bunce from a manager who had taken us as far as he could because to improve he just spends money.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for the comment, Mike.
I've been looking for some statement from the club for quite some time regarding the issue, and I haven't seen anything at all. They've said plenty of times over the past several months that the club wasn't for sale (I'm well aware of all of those), but now that all of the media outlets are reporting this same story that this South African Company are in talks with the club, Portsmouth football club has released no statement on this specific issue. The last time the club made a statment was on the 5th, and it was before all of this new talk about this South African company. It only takes a minute to post a short written response on the website if nothing is going on still.
Will the sale happen? I think it's doubful, because I have been tired of the media constantly making it out that Sasha is a bad business man, he's not interested in the club, he wants to sell sell sell etc. I don't think it's the case, and I never have. I'm not sure that these rumors that talks are at "advanced stages" are very honest, rather than simply media rubbish. And I've always been a big supporter of Sasha and trusted what he has said. But he has also said in the past that if an offer came in that could do more for the club than he could, that he would look at it seriously. That could be happening now must like your above mortagage scenario.
The world financial situation is definitely changing a great deal about football, so I believe there are some truths in the rumors going around round now. But I certainly don't take everything the media says as law. I would have completely written off this talk by now had PFC simply released a statement on their website or something stating that nothing is going on with this. And as of yet, we haven't seen anything since these South African rumors started.
Thanks again for the comment, Mike.
write a new comment