I tell you what it was, or at least felt, touch and go on Thursday – I was nervous but did not truly realise how nervous I was until just before the judgement was cast, it was made worse by the fact that I had to leave for work at any moment as I awaited the announcement so I feared I would not find out until my break late in the evening!
Thankfully we won the case against HMRC, and despite thoughts that they would appeal they opted against this – in all honesty I think common sense prevailed here as they WOULD NOT have won an appeal against the appeal failure and they knew it, so justifying wasting more of the taxpayers money could not be done…
Make no bones about it Portsmouth Football Club has done wrong in recent years, various people connected to it in the past have screwed us over, by that I mean the club, the fans, the community, local businesses, charities and so on – and for that people should be brought to justice, although for the reasons HMRC were looking for, given the ‘rules’ that are in place, they did not really have an argument did they?
Things have to change in football, and unless they do things will ONLY get worse!
So, we now know that the case against HMRC is done, they will not appeal so we can now sign off on the CVA – the next step after that will be exiting administration.
Exiting administration ‘should’ mean a buyer is in place, most likely Balram Chainrai – who despite my own reservations previously I feel we have to let do his thing now. When all is said and done nothing has been ‘proven’ about him has it, so as long as he pays the wages, and is fair to the club on what he looks to get back in relation to what he puts in we have to ‘leave him to it’ really…
It goes without saying that we WILL NOT be making wholesale signings, of course – assuming our embargo is lifted – some more freebies and loanees will come in, I would think, although actually paying money for a player is not going to happen, and given our position lets face it this should not happen anyway!
The years ahead will be rocky, they will be tough, and this season could be a monster but getting through them with minimal damage is the main thing and we get back on our feet – the days of ‘wild spending’ are gone, we MUST live within out means, even if this means ‘languishing’ at a lower level.
We DO have a club still, and that is the most important thing!
Finally, with the season kicking-off today, we ‘should’ be able to get back to talking about football again, and ‘hopefully’ not too far down the line the only thing we will really be talking about is this. How I have longed for the days when we can just talk about how crap, or good, we are on the field instead of off it again!
It is like a new shot at life, so lets just hope that the powers that be at Portsmouth Football Club can give us this without causing us distress, embarrassment or shame again – the ‘Football’ part in Portsmouth Football Club is what we should, all being well, be able to talk about, almost exclusively in the future, and ‘hopefully’ safe in the knowledge that we are being run in the best possible way…
Although ‘if’ it becomes apparent, or we ‘fear’, that something is not right it is only proper that we question what is being done to our club. Digging for diggings sake is no good but questioning how we can/cannot afford this and that is something to be looked at.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
