Momentous week

This has been a momentous week for Pompey.

After 43 days Al-Fahim has sold 90% of Pompey to Ali Al-Faraj (prompting my coining of "Al-Faraj is no mirage"). Al-Fahim has retained 10% and the title of non-executive chairman for now. Apparently he sold for £2. He has put £5 million into the club.

Ali Al-Faraj is a very private man unlike Al-Fahim. This makes it difficult to work out his wealth but Peter Storrie, the chief executive, refers to him as a Saudi Arabian billionaire. Peter Storrie has been confirmed in his role under the new owner. Mark Jacobs, a lawyer, has been brought on to the board as the new owner's main spokesman and to lend his expertise to the board. It would seem the composition of the executive board (before take over consisting of CEO, Finance Director and one other) will be reformed as will the financial structure of the club. Apparently priorities are still the infrastructure, new training grounds and stadium. Fratton Park will probably be redeveloped into a 36K seater with the option of adding a further 9k seats as and when needed. The new stadium at Horsea Island is now firmly on the back burner although might re-emerge as an idea and as a fact as we approach World Cup time. I think the redevelopment of Fratton Park is a good idea but our current crowds are 17-18k which is still below the current 21K capacity. It seems the club have still some way to go to get that support figure up. What happened to all the Champagne Charlies who were queuing up for tickets for Wembley? A lot of debate is now taking place about season ticket prices for next season. Peter Storrie wants the club to be able to break even and the new owners to supply the money for transfers. I think this is how it works at Aston Villa.

The first action of the new manager was to bring in Avram Grant as director of football, which seems to have taken Peter Storrie by surprise. However there have been expressions of support for Paul Hart and reassurances that Grant is not a threat to the manager's job. I hope this is true as I think Paul Hart has done a terrific job under almost impossible circumstances. He has gathered together a team of players who want to play for him and the club. They need and deserve stability. I seen no gain to be made in managerial change now. I would hope to see Paul Hart see out his two year contract until the end of the 2011 season. I would hope that as technical director of football Avram Grant will be very helpful to Paul and to the team. Perhaps now we don't need an assistant manager but just a striking coach. Hiring Grant was certainly not a cheaper option.

As for the team, I am certainly impressed by the players collected together under the most difficult circumstances. Boateng bought from Spurs (and whose contract is probably about now being paid for) has proved to be a brilliant bargain and an eye opener for us. Yebda on loan from Benfica and Dindane on loan from Lens have proved to be good finds already. O'Hara, on loan from Spurs, has filled in the position at the base of the midfield diamond remarkably well. He won't be available for the next game, which is against Spurs, who rate him highly. In the January transfer window, they will probably want him to return to them but I think we should be prepared to make a firm bid for him and if necessary pay over the odds. If that proves impossible we have to find a replacement now and bring them in as soon as the transfer window opens. The replacement has to be able to offer the team exactly what O'Hara does now. The squad needs reinforcing in January but Pompey should avoid stars. They should follow the same criteria they used in the August transfer window to bring in quality reinforcements without upsetting the salary structure or the stability of the squad. We don't want anyone in the present team to feel unsettled but injuries have revealed some weaknesses and deficiencies in the squad.

I am hoping we can contain Spurs even with Defoe, Crouch and Kranjcar and the Spurs manager all wanting to prove a point. It will be tougher without O'Hara in that spot in front of the centre backs. If we had Ice Man and Diop returned from injury, I would feel more confident in playing for a draw by restricting the Spurs' scoring. We may have to settle for the same left back formation which saw us safely through the away game with Wolves, i.e. Wilson and Ben-Haim. I did wonder if there would be any merit in using a third centre back such as Mike Williamson in the hole in front of the centre backs. This would provide a five man defence and limit the ability to spring forward into counter attack that O'Hara provides. It would also throw a lot of weight and responsibility on to Brown, Boateng and Yebda if we keep Dino and Tommy Smith upfront. Of course we could revert to just one striker upfront but I think this is counter productive at home.

I would settle now for a 1 -1 draw but would love to see us pinch a 1-0 victory by some fluke of the game. We are owed a few and six points should see us climbing out of the relegation zone if other results go our way.