Welcome to the Pompey Chimes End of Season Special. After a few weeks off due to unforeseen circumstances, the Chimes is back with a close-season special.
Club News
Well the season has ended and Pompey have secured Premiership safety. Pompey’s last home fixture was a 1-0 defeat to Wigan at the JJB stadium (match report here). Not a great match, and I suspect that most people had their eyes on Villa Park anyway, given that we were safe. Still, the season is now over and we can now look forward to the transfer window.
The reserves ended their season with a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham reserves, and women also ended their season in defeat against West Ham, losing 3-0. The only Pompey team to put up any spirit on the season’s final day was the Academy, losing a nine-goal thriller against Leicester City by 6 goals to 3. Check out the Pompey site for video highlights and match reports.
The end of season awards gala also recently took place, and Glen Johnson rightly swept the boards taking as many awards as he could get his hands on. Check out the Pompey site, as well as this article here.
Well the biggest news of the week, and arguably the season, is the fact that Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim (Dr SAF) has agreed to purchase our beloved club, in a deal that echoes the Manchester City deal while back. The story unsurprisingly broke on Vital first and the initial article can be found here.
If you haven’t already done so, please take a minute to read Dave’s Toast this week for a brief summary of all the news involving Dr SAF himself. You can find his article here.
Pompey’s official statement can be read here, and Rug’s comprehensive guide to the takeover and what it could mean for us is outlined in his fantastic article “What a Difference a Day Makes”.
Chix also takes a look at the possible reasons why Dr SAF may have purchased Portsmouth FC here. Well worth a read, and please remember to leave your comments and thoughts on this article, as well as all the others involving Dr SAF’s Pompey Sheikh-Up.
Also check this article here out, as it has some player reaction the pending takeover.
Squad News
Squad match reaction is now replaced by transfer rumours, and the papers have wasted no time at all in getting Pompey linked with various players. In fact within hours of the Wigan game ending, Blackburn’s Aaron Mokoena stated that he had agreed to join us when the transfer window opens in July. Read about that here, as well as why it may not go ahead here. The latter article also mentions details on the futures of Sylvain Distin and Sol Campbell – remember this was written prior to Dr SAF’s takeover, and so may well be inaccurate now given our new financial circumstances!
It has also been recently reported that Crouch and Johnson are waiting to see if the club’s future under Dr SAF will be bright, but are in fact preparing to jump ship if not. Read all about that load of old tosh here
It is not just players who are looking to come in or go out, as the managerial situation is constantly being reviewed. There have been calls for Hart to leave, Hart to stay, and other managers have also been linked to us now we seem to have zillions of pounds.
Those favourites are Erikson, where you can read articles relating to his linkage to the club here and here. Bilic is in the frame too, and you can read a little bit more about that here, and for some reason our old ‘friend’ Mr Redkn*b has been linked, and you can read about that here.
Gino’s Fact of the Week
Why does Portsmouth have a star and crescent for a badge? Well, apparently King Richard I of England adopted the star and crescent as a royal badge, from the Emperor’s standard of Governor Isaac Comnenus, after capturing Cyprus. Back in England, ‘a crescent of gold on a shield of azure, with a blazing star of eight points, or rays of silver, between the horns’, was granted to Portsmouth as the heraldic crest of the newly incorporated Royal borough. This was incorporated into the city crest, and finally adopted as the football club’s badge.
Gino’s Teaser
In light of Barcelona’s Champions League Victory, Gerard Pique had won the Champions League two years running, having played in United’s Champions League winning squad in 2008. My question to you is, can you name two other players to have won the Champions League two years running, with two different clubs?
See you all next week, when hopefully the Dr SAF deal will be finalised and full details will hopefully be given!
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