Neville Dalton is a journalist with the BBC News website and a
If you'd told me at the start of the season that by February, we would have Milan Baros, Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra in our squad, I'd have been astounded, delighted - and dreaming of
We keep saying it, but Pompey have come an exceptionally long way in a very short time, now well established as one of the best teams in the Premier League.
Unusually, the signings in the January transfer window appear to have won universal approval among Pompey's hard-to-please fans.
And I share the excitement, having watched Diarra's sensational start and been crossing my fingers that Defoe would come to Fratton for so long that I now have to type backwards.
It's magnificent testament to Sacha Gaydamak's financial commitment to the club, to Harry's ability to attract big names (now no longer ones past their best) and to the status of our wonderful club.
But I'm afraid I do have one or two reservations that prevent me celebrating too recklessly or declaring that Pompey really have arrived.
Firstly (and I really hope I'm wrong here), I worry slightly about Defoe's reasons for coming to Pompey.
Yes, he wants first-team football - but he's been short of that for the past couple of transfer windows and not been tempted by Pompey's overtures.
And only a few weeks ago he was declaring his intention to stay at Spurs - a team clearly on the up and with an excellent chance of winning a cup and a place in
We've been in for Jermain before. Almost every January and June, I get my hopes up, aching to see one of
Salary
But every time I'm deflated by his insistence on staying at
Despite knowing Harry well, he's never shown much outward inclination towards upping sticks and moving to Fratton.
There are a couple of differences this time, though. I wouldn't mind betting the salary on offer is pretty competitive now - and the quality of player already at the club is unprecedented, certainly in most of our memories.
Let's hope it's the latter that finally persuaded him to head south.
Another reason for realism is that maybe we're not yet quite as good as we think we are.
We're in a more competitive league than ever before.
We've bought big - but so have others. We've taken big steps forward, but still the likes of Aston Villa,
I keep reading that this is Pompey's best season for more than 50 years - and with the players we've now added in the summer and January, that may still prove to be the case.
But at the moment, the truth is, it's not even our best season for 50 months.
Our record as I write is:
P 24 W 10 D 7 L 7 F 34 A 25 PTS 37
At the same stage last season our record was:
P 24 W 10 D 7 L 7 F 34 A 24 PTS 37
Spot the similarity?
Yes, we've done brilliantly, and we look to have better players than we did last season.
But the fact is, we just missed out on
If we're to better that this time - and let's face it, with tens of millions of pounds of investment in the intervening eight months, we should - we'll have to be near the top of our game and not fade away as we did last year.
(For one thing, we'll have to stop giving other teams a head start, which has threatened to be our downfall in recent weeks).
Squad Strength
Don't get me wrong - I'm still optimistic exactly because we've now got the likes of Defoe and Diarra this time round.
But I don't think
Thirdly - and this is where we are reminded just how far behind the biggest clubs in the land we remain - while we've boosted the calibre of our team, we've barely addressed the strength of our squad.
My rule of thumb for a team vying for a place in European competition is that it needs two players of Premier League quality for every single position.
By the start of this season, we were almost there. But since then we've lost Gary O'Neil, Djimi Traore, Matthew Taylor and - come Monday - Benjani Mwaruwari.
I totally understand the economics, but in football terms, it still leaves us short.
If injuries, suspensions and loss of form start having an impact, as they inevitably do in the late winter months, we will not be able to replace like with like in all positions.
Where are the right- and left-sided midfielders?
What happens if Baros and Defoe are injured?
Kanu still has astonishing skills, but can barely move on the pitch; Nugent has still to prove he can cut it at this level, though I hope he can.
Magnificent
This is not a dig at the club. I'd have settled for this at any time in the 40-odd years I've been supporting Pompey.
But it's a realistic assessment of our place in the pantheon of Premier League sides.
Jermain Defoe is a terrific goalscorer. Benjani Mwaruwari is a magnificent player, still under-rated for so many facets of his play.
Why should it be one or the other? If only it could have been both.
On first appearances, Diarra looks capable of becoming one of the best players ever to play for Pompey (if we can keep him long enough).
Undoubtedly better than
But while we're pretty well off for top-quality central midfielders, we're now desperately short of cover on the flanks.
Matty
The fact is that despite our phenomenal financial outlay, we remain a club that has to sell to buy.
Thank goodness that Sacha has been prepared to plough in so much money when he gets so little back through our limited gates.
Thank goodness, too, that he is trying to build foundations for the club's future, with sterling work on setting up a players' academy, a decent scouting network, first-class training facilities and a new stadium.
It's not difficult to see why we can't quite compete in terms of depth of squad.
I just think we all have to bear in mind when we're in danger of getting carried away that that's the reality.