Neville Dalton is a journalist and a Portsmouth
Better late than never, I suppose.
At last, Pompey begin to open the shutters a little and let their oh-so-loyal fans in on a smidgeon of what's really happening at
Although as this is being published, reports suggest the takeover deal is on the verge of collapse, this past week has at least seen a little more transparency that means even if it does fall through, it won't be quite the shock it would have seemed to some a few days ago.
After so many exhortations to Peter Storrie and owners current and prospective to be open and honest with us, I thank Mr S for at last giving a little insight into the dark and gloomy dealings at our beloved club.
It's not what we wanted to hear, of course, although many of us suspected life wasn't exactly rosy in the Fratton garden.
But while none of us wants to see the club in such turmoil and real, real trouble, in a curious way, I suspect a lot of us are far more relieved that we now have an idea of just how bad thing are.
While the club was hiding behind confidentiality clauses and doing little but shoot messengers, the fans were suffering - many from delusion as to our future; many more from the pain of seeing a club that only 12 months ago appeared on the brink of sustained success disintegrate before our very eyes into a shadow of what we were, the very antithesis of the cavalier, small-club-done-good football team that we had become, full of a mix of England internationals and worldly players.
While many fans deluded themselves by believing that any bad news was just the invention of nasty media types who had it in for the club, many more realised that there was no smoke without fire, and more to the point, there remained a lot of questions unanswered.
It was exactly a year ago that I read of what I believe has proved to be the turning point in Pompey's recent history - the news that we would not, after all, be adding Shaun Wright-Phillips to our magnificent squad, and instead would have to sell before buying anyone else.
Ever since has followed the systematic sale of our best players - with no-one of comparable ability coming the other way; the offloading of footballers who didn't even want to leave us - and then the departure of Harry Redknapp just as the writing on the wall was becoming slightly more legible.
Sasha Gaydamak's determination to cut his losses caused by the economic recession was understandable.
But his apparent obsession with recouping every penny he invested in (and borrowed against) Pompey - until the club was bled dry and on its last legs - has taken many of us by surprise.
Who knows whether Sulaiman Al Fahim's reticence to put pen to paper has been more to do with Gaydamak's brinkmanship or his own inadequate resources?
No-one who is genuinely privy to that information is going to tell us, the mere long-suffering fans, that.
But the fact is that while Gaydamak brought us success we had only dreamed of, he has also brought us to our knees.
Of course he is legally entitled to do what he can to minimise losses of his own personal fortune. But come on: how many owners invest in football club expecting to make money?
Viable club
Football just doesn't work like that - even in the Premier League, unless you are among its elite.
And if that's true, it surely doesn't need to be spelt out that a prospective owner is hardly going to throw millions at a club shorn of virtually all its assets, denuded substantially even from the shambles that scraped out of the relegation places last season.
No. Pompey's future remains doubtful to say the least, regardless of whether the deal has indeed collapsed.
At least now we all have an idea of where we - and the club - stand.
Expectation of European places disappeared with the chaos of last season.
Now even expectation of staying up is diminishing.
But I believe most of us won't mind that, as long as we still have a club to support - a solvent, economically viable club that works with its loyal fanbase towards a future we can all aspire to, but without the boom-and-bust, Gordon Brown-style approach of the Redknapp era.
What we do mind is being lied to; misled; kept in the dark and strung along by false promises and false hope.
The events of recent months must have been particularly difficult for Mr Storrie to deal with. On the face of it, his hands have been tied by Gaydamak's determination to recoup as much of his losses as possible, even if it means letting Pompey sink into the bargain.
He has shown loyalty to Gaydamak and been rewarded and trusted by the owner in return.
All the while, Mr S has had a football club to run - a new owner to try to find; a squad to try to maintain, when the current one was being torn apart.
And as if that wasn't enough, he has had to endure the wrath of fans - misinformed, uninformed, some ignorant, many desperate. But all united by their frustration at what has been happening to their great club, and by an overwhelming determination that it must survive. Whatever.
Well, in many ways Mr Storrie has been his own worst enemy. A man of his calibre, business acumen and intelligence could have found ways of communicating with the people who mean most to the club, and to whom the club means the most.
We fans may not be shareholders in the traditional sense, but we are all tied inextricably to the club by a bond that only a true football fan can really understand.
Pensioner Fred's 27 quid entry fee is Lord Laughingstock's £270,000 investment. So is Maureen and Dave's family season-ticket bill of best part of £2,000.
For so many of us, Portsmouth Football Club is a raison d'etre, a reason to get up in the morning, and something to look forward to during the close season.
Yet Sasha, good old Sasha who waved to us from the Wembley pitch with a Pompey scarf around his neck, is not exactly putting us first as he negotiates to the very last breath his escape.
Mr Fahim might have his own reasons for delaying his investment or indeed pulling out. Maybe the due-diligence process uncovered more than he was expecting; maybe his investors were put off by the fit-and-proper-persons test.
Or maybe he just had cold feet after looking at the Pompey books and then again at his own bank balance.
But to deny there were problems; to vilify journalists whose research appears rather closer to the mark than many believed, and to give worthless assurances about keeping star players and investing in new ones is disingenuous, to say the least, and has done nothing for public relations at
In my limited personal dealings with Mr Storrie, I have found him to be approachable and a breath of fresh air.
He has brought a degree of professionalism and business sense to Fratton that was glaringly absent before his arrival.
He attends fans' forums and once had a column in The News.
And as I said earlier, his has been a pretty difficult task since having the rug pulled from under him by his employer (though the multi-million-pound salary would have helped ease the pain).
Yet as soon as the publicity turned sour, so did the club. History has proven time and again that kicking out your local paper when you don't like what they write doesn't work - and usually backfires.
I'm not condoning some of the wayward reporting that has emerged in the local press since then, but even the most diligent of journalists will find it difficult to verify strong circumstantial evidence or rumour without access to the people who know.
And what is Mr Storrie's real view of the fans?
He is probably justified in feeling hurt by some of the unwarranted and unsubstantiated things that have been said and written about him in these enlightened times of interactivity.
But for most, it's just their way of expressing their anger and frustration at what is happening to their beloved club.
It's not their fault that they are encouraged to take advantage of a medium that provides an instant platform for feelings that might be best kept to oneself or at least modified in the cold light of day.
And it's not as if it's the first time we've felt we've been taken for granted by the club.
But many of us remember the little things, like the unveiling of Diomansy Kamara, as our record £2m+ signing, only to discover that actually, we never did own him and had only taken him on loan.
Much the same happened with Lauren Robert (thank goodness!), and even Jermain Defoe initially.
But I seem to recall when he was taken to task over the lack of clarity and openness in the Kamara case, Mr Storrie seemed bemused that anyone should think it was anyone's business but the club's.
Hopefully this time everyone at Pompey will realise that while some things obviously have to remain confidential at certain times, what happens at