EastStandBlue
Life President
When Portsmouth’s 4th owner of the season presumably won the club in a game of pass-the-financially-defunct-parcel, did nobody explain the basic rules of English football?
The news that Portsmouth have applied for extraordinary circumstances to the Premier League in order to sell their players outside of the transfer window isn’t exactly surprising considering the sense of impending financial doom surrounding the club, but the sheer arrogance of the move is brilliant.
Not content with requesting their relegation parachute payments a good six months ahead of schedule, Pompey officials presumably swaggered into Richard Scudamore’s office this morning, bearing a beleaguered and desperate expression, starting with: “Hey, Rich… You know that transfer window? how about we smash it because we’ve got no money…” Before turning into some form of Judge Dredd in blue shouting: “We are above the law!!”
It’s a move that is ironically both shocking and unsurprising at the same time.
We’ll ignore the subtle questions of ‘Who’s allowed to buy them, then?’ and ‘What about the other clubs who are skint?’, What is more pressing is exactly what situation do Portsmouth expect to be in within the coming months?
Requesting this kind of intervention from the Premier League will open the club to having to accept derisory offers for players worth far more. Every club will know too well that this is a last gasp move of sheer desperation, so any offer that closely resembles market value is likely to be accepted. So, why are Portsmouth officials willing to do this now instead of waiting till the window opens? The only sensible answer is that they might not last that long.
It’s akin to the signs of an impending apocalypse, first the players aren’t paid for months on end, then the HMRC come knocking and finally the club make farcical approaches to the League in order to grant them a way of raising a quick few million.
Portsmouth rushed to deliver their state of affairs to the high Court yesterday in a move that, according to them, put to bed with rumours they are about to go into administration. It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines here, Portsmouth are facing a danger far greater than that...
The news that Portsmouth have applied for extraordinary circumstances to the Premier League in order to sell their players outside of the transfer window isn’t exactly surprising considering the sense of impending financial doom surrounding the club, but the sheer arrogance of the move is brilliant.
Not content with requesting their relegation parachute payments a good six months ahead of schedule, Pompey officials presumably swaggered into Richard Scudamore’s office this morning, bearing a beleaguered and desperate expression, starting with: “Hey, Rich… You know that transfer window? how about we smash it because we’ve got no money…” Before turning into some form of Judge Dredd in blue shouting: “We are above the law!!”
It’s a move that is ironically both shocking and unsurprising at the same time.
We’ll ignore the subtle questions of ‘Who’s allowed to buy them, then?’ and ‘What about the other clubs who are skint?’, What is more pressing is exactly what situation do Portsmouth expect to be in within the coming months?
Requesting this kind of intervention from the Premier League will open the club to having to accept derisory offers for players worth far more. Every club will know too well that this is a last gasp move of sheer desperation, so any offer that closely resembles market value is likely to be accepted. So, why are Portsmouth officials willing to do this now instead of waiting till the window opens? The only sensible answer is that they might not last that long.
It’s akin to the signs of an impending apocalypse, first the players aren’t paid for months on end, then the HMRC come knocking and finally the club make farcical approaches to the League in order to grant them a way of raising a quick few million.
Portsmouth rushed to deliver their state of affairs to the high Court yesterday in a move that, according to them, put to bed with rumours they are about to go into administration. It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines here, Portsmouth are facing a danger far greater than that...
