Cliff Grantham explains why Portsmouth's penniless owners were only too happy to seek help from a man with financial problems of his own
There can be few better ways to diffuse an explosive situation than to announce that a former England manager is to take over the running of your club. Indeed, short of beating Sir John Hall to Alan Shearer’s signature, Martin Gregory could not have hoped to pull off a more impressive or audacious coup.
So it must be with a mixture of irritation and concern that Pompey’s young owner reflects on the only grudging appreciation he has received from the Fratton faithful for his part in Terry Venables’ arrival. The protesters who have plagued his life over recent months, even forcing a pre-season friendly in France to be abandoned at half-time, have agreed to call off the dogs, but only for the time being.
There is certainly no lack of enthusiasm for Venables, but even if Pompey were now to sign every member of his last England team, some people would still find reason to question Gregory’s motives, a reflection of the alarming decline of the club under his stewardship, symbolized by the steady outflow of talent and the pitiful state of Fratton Park.
Six years after the Taylor Report, the club is no nearer to a new or redeveloped ground. The capacity has fallen this season to a risible 11,000 and the club’s debts are piling up at the rate of more than £50,000 a week. The ignominy of relegation to Division Two was only avoided on the final day of last season and even then only on goal difference.
Martin Gregory’s biggest problem is that he is not his father. When the now incapacitated Jim Gregory took control of a financially-ailing Pompey in 1988, he brought with him a wealth of experience, an impressive array of contacts (including Venables) and a personal fortune with which to indulge his pastime. Gregory junior lacked all three and has often appeared a reluctant inheritor of the keys to Fratton Park, his amiable but diffident manner making him seem unsuited to the high profile world of football chairmanship.
Some would argue that he has brought many of the problems on himself. He displayed a staggering indifference to the club during his early days in charge. He refused to meet supporters, shunned the local media and eventually put the club up for sale, beginning protracted discussions with a consortium of buyers who talked big but lacked financial muscle. Gregory foolishly allowed himself to be photographed toasting a deal before negotiations were complete. The deal subsequently collapsed and cynicism at Gregory’s commitment to Pompey has been rife ever since.
The For Sale boards have now come down around Fratton Park, but the precise terms of the deal struck with Venables remain secret. However, it appears that while he is currently a paid consultant (with an unlimited remit), Venables has the option to acquire a majority holding for a token sum at any stage over the next three years. Whether he chooses to do so is what will now keep many of us awake at nights. Certainly the stakes for Pompey and its current owner are high.
Gregory has calculated that if anyone can provide a catalyst to much-needed investment, Venables can. Better to own a minority share of a going concern, Gregory seems to have concluded, than to allow Pompey to go on bleeding his Blue Star Garages company dry of funds (Blue Star has repeatedly been forced to bail out Pompey, even loaning the club money for players’ salaries this summer). The early omens are encouraging. Publishing millionaire Terry Brady, father of Birmingham’s Karren, came on board shortly before Venables’ arrival, and others, we are told, are ‘waiting in the wings’.
Of course, the script may not be played out like this. Venables is being careful to keep his options open. “I may be there a year, I may be there ten years,” he repeatedly stresses.
Factors beyond the control of Pompey fans will ultimately determine whether he stays or whether he goes. But in so far as we can influence events, the general feeling is that it is time to bury the hatchet and get behind the club. Venables may have come, as he puts it, because no one else asked him, but hats off to Gregory for asking.
Providing he is not forced to spend more time with his lawyers over the coming year, Venables is the best hope we have. Not withstanding his undoubted ability, any England manager who favours Anderton over Le Tissier is alright in my book.
From WSC 116 October 1996. What was happening this month