Will Pompey Survive the Season?

In May 2008, the city of Portsmouth is drowned in a sea of blue as the city celebrated the club's FA Cup win ending a trophy drought lasting 58 years.

Fast forward to February 2011 and the same club appears to be drowning in a sea of its own debt, with a huge anchor, a winding up order from the HMRC, tied to its feet.

The club is now a huge shadow of itself and is struggling to field a full-strength side for its current league campaign. Of pressing concern is whether the club will survive to finish the season. The chief executive officer has been laid off along with 32 other backroom staff members at the club.

Players like Nwankwo Kanu, Jamie Ashdown, Ricardo Rocha, all who were part of the victorious FA Cup team in 2007/08 have been asked to defer their wages and accept a pay cut.

The situation is reminiscent of Leeds United's decline earlier this century although it looks like Portsmouth are in a far deeper trouble. 

Relegation to League One is quite likely to happen pending the outcome of the HMRC appeal hearing on 20 February 2012 - the club have already been docked 10 points for entering administration for the 2nd time in a matter of seasons and could lose another 10 points.

Fratton Park - dilapidated and in need of a wrecking ball

Portsmouth's decline is perhaps a symbol of the old crumbling buy-the-best-stars-to-win model that many football clubs still use to this day. Portsmouth tried to buy success and got a bit of it but then paid the price for spending more than what they had, obviously badly hit by the credit crunch of 2008.

Perhaps, every football club owner and manager should have a look at Moneyball - movie and book - and learn about buying wins rather than players, i.e. investing in players who have better goal scoring stats, metres, crosses, etc. rather than just big names who will cost more just because of their name. Not every club has the finances of Man City and Chelsea - and who knows how long those finances will last?

Perhaps the new Portsmouth will adopt this model given now that they have nothing to lose - they can't get any worse than this.