Neville Dalton is a journalist and a Portsmouth fan of well over 40 years.
I’ve so far shied away from wading into the debate about what went wrong at Pompey this time – and the gloomy prospect that is our club’s future – partly because even to this day I still do not understand enough of what has gone on to pass a cogent, meaningful judgment, and partly for fear of sounding even more negative at a time when positivity seems to be the order of the day.
But after a pretty eventful week – even by Pompey’s standards – I do want to make a few observations… while there’s still a club to talk about.
Mismanagement or competence?
A lot more to this than I can comprehend, but there is clearly evidence that the club has been run less than transparently in the past, and that certain regimes have been trading beyond their means.
Sometimes it’s a fine line between one and the other, but whichever way you look at it, Pompey have not always operated on a level playing field with their rivals, and it’s no wonder some of them are less than sympathetic as they watch us flounder in embarrassment and genuine concern for our future.
What surprises me is how so many fans become polarised in their views of our administrations (and I don’t mean that thing we’re in right now), proclaiming the latest owner as the answer to all our prayers… shortly before condemning same as an evil asset-stripper whom they never trusted anyway.
Even Admin Andy seemed to get similar treatment at various stages. Maybe the lesson is to regard new owners/administrators with a little more caution and scepticism than some of us have in the past – and maybe even be less judgmental when they’ve gone, too.
Fan-tastic support
No two ways about it – Pompey fans have earned much respect and admiration across the country and beyond for their loyalty to the club.
The way in which the latest crisis has galvanised the people of the city and all those who love the club has been impressive, and will undoubtedly help would-be buyers appreciate that it might be a business worth saving, not to mention encourage others to provide much-needed income at the gate in the coming weeks.
The work put in by the Pompey Supporters Trust and Pompey’s 12th Man enterprises is admirable and may help in the short term.
Yet I fear Pompey’s fan power may have been somewhat over-hyped.
Save for those short-term aspects I referred to, I can’t for the life of me see how declarations that the club will never die will provide any tangible help in ensuring it doesn’t.
How the fact that some remained behind after a home defeat to Ipswich can be, as one local-radio man put it, “what football’s all about”.
That’s not to criticise such actions. They are yet more evidence of how absolutely vital the club is regarded by its fans.
But no-one should be deluded that this means the club won’t die, or that the supporters provide a way out for the ailing business.
Take a look at the Pack the Park campaign.
Against Leeds on Saturday, a fixture in which the visitors invariably buy up their full allocation, the Park was not packed.
There were an impressive 17,500 inside the stadium, approximately 14,500 of whom were Pompey fans, more than half of whom were presumably season- or half-season-ticketholders, and whose payments would already have been absorbed into the club.
But the fact remains, the Park was still not packed, even at the end of one of the most amazing weeks, even by Pompey’s nigh-incredible standards.
The empty seats around me at kick-off time on Saturday.
A week of shocking details of bigger-than-anticipated debts; of evidence of still living beyond its means, “a Championship club paying Premiership wages”, despite the traumas of our last brush with administration.
Of emotive warnings, emotional appeals; of players selling discounted tickets to fans at the ticket office and agreeing to postpone a date with their still pretty hefty pay packets; of some fans even buying tickets for fellow fans they’d probably never met.
And of a direct appeal from the administrator, pointing out that not only could their attendance help keep the club going to the end of the season (yes, it appears the position is that dire), but maybe help persuade a would-be buyer to part with his unsuspecting cash (or more probably, come up with another borrowing-against-debt plan in the hope of better times ahead).
Reality check
Even with all these amazing developments, Pompey were still 2,000 short of packing the Park.
I don’t blame anyone for staying away. Some, I’m sure, would have loved to be there but for other commitments. Others might still be suffering the disenchantment of recent misadventures.
Many, I’m sure, just cannot afford it, and of those who felt they might possibly have been able to, a big chunk would probably have had higher priorities in these straitened times.
And that’s against one of the division’s bigger clubs. What are the chances of fans packing an even larger section of the Park for the remaining (maximum) eight fixtures?
My point is not to doubt or undermine Pompey’s terrific support, but to question the extent of the role the fans can play in saving the club or even reconstructing one from the old one’s ashes.
It’s not to suggest any rights or wrongs, or to come up with a solution to Pompey’s ills – it’s merely a reality check.
It is evident that the trust is keen to secure a proper, formal role in any future regime at Fratton, and on the face of it, that has to be a good thing.
Keeping an eye on what is happening on behalf of the fans is a sound ambition, although whether any new management would brook any real influence is another matter. Management by committee rarely succeeds.
For fans to have clout, I imagine they need to have dosh, and while some obviously have (and once again, what a gesture it was from some supporters to offer to buy tickets for the Leeds game for some of those who could not afford it), the majority clearly does not.
Buy a share in the club? We didn’t even buy all our discounted tickets for the Leeds match.
And as for starting anew if the real Portsmouth Football Club should – as seems quite feasible – die, well, I really will take my Pompey beanie hat off to those who invest the time as well as the considerable money necessary to create a new club that meets FA rules for “continuation”, albeit potentially in some relatively obscure league.
In reality, though, any new AFC Portsmouth/Portsmouth City/Portsmouth United is not really connected to the current one. Even summoning the resources to be able to play at Fratton Park would be an amazing achievement.
Would it really be true that Pompey – our Pompey – hadn’t died?
Would it really be that different from following Moneyfields or Havant & Waterlooville?
I repeat: this is not criticism of the trust’s enterprising hard work, or of the fans’ campaign to squeeze more bodies through the turnstiles.
I admire both tremendously.
Nor is it to cast doubt over fans’ passion and affection for the club: you don’t have to attend Fratton Park to love Pompey.
All I’m saying is that love alone will not save the club.
And after yet another abuse of its position as a Football League club, so soon after its previous less-than-entirely scrupulous behaviour in the Premier League, I’m not sure anything can.
Let's hope there's a decent would-be owner out there who thinks differently.