Steve Cotterill has snubbed Pompey in favour of being his own man at Stoke. The ex-Cheltenham manager had agreed to join Pompey after the play offs but stalled on the move once he knew that Wimbledon and Stoke were interested in him.
In the end it was Stoke that enticed the highly sort after coach who told Stoke Fans that it was the "stadium, the Academy, the facilities overall" that made him choose Stoke. This sort of set up is a far cry from Pompeys with more news today that the stadium could be put on hold - for another SEVEN years.
The Sellar Property group have ploughed £50million into the Pompey centre and are finally losing patience. With the retail park and link road taking shape, SPG chairman Irving Sellar told The News: ‘We've delivered what we said we were going to deliver. If Milan Mandaric wants to build a stadium, he can. One has to put a question mark over whether he ever will build a stadium. I don't know what he might do. We're curious to know exactly what his plans are. Right now, the jury is out."
The Club have been given an October deadline for 5 acres of land to be purchased for a sum of £2million - this would give the club enough space to build a 26,500 stadium - with an option to extend to 36,000 before work has even started on the ground. The club of course are looking for new sites and will pay the SPG even if they do not build on the land. With an announcement promised in June, it seems that the plans must be ready to be unveiled soon. Pompey fans can only sit and wait once more.