RealMancsAreBlue
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Sugar daddy leaves sour taste
You smelled a rat as soon as Sulaiman al Fahim pitched up at Manchester City.
Described erroneously at first as a billionaire, Al Fahim did little to correct the impression.
In fact, a bloke whose main claim to fame had been hosting the UAE version of "The Apprentice" was no more than the initial frontman for real bankroller Sheikh Mansour.
But that didn't stop him shooting his mouth off, demanding City win the Premier League within three years and boasting the club would be bigger than Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Then came hysterical claims Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas were on the shopping-list while a £134million bid would soon be tabled for Cristiano Ronaldo.
I wrote at the time that all this sabre-rattling bravado and general showing-off was the last thing City's new owners needed.
That if they wanted to avoid falling into the trap that had made Chelsea so unpopular, they should get rid of Al Fahim and tread a little more carefully - and modestly.
Within a week, he was on his bike. Only to turn up at Portsmouth.
How he ever got in there, God knows. How he ever passed the Premier League's Fit and Proper Persons Test is an even greater mystery.
It was originally claimed he had covered Pompey's £60m debts, though people close to the club estimated he had bought in for just £5m.
Amid escalating doubts, he met worried Pompey supporters recently, buying time (maybe, the only thing he CAN afford) by claiming £50m of investment would be on its way in "two to three weeks".
Now it seems he can't even pay the players' wages.
Confirmation of this came in a club statement yesterday where it emerged that, in fact, it was the executive directors - Peter Storrie, Tanya Roberts and Roberto Arondo - who had secured funding to ensure the players are paid.
The club then made the point that "a more permanent financial solution needs to be found quickly".
Then came the most damning indictment of all - that "the responsibility to deliver remains with the owner".
Some may draw the conclusion Al Fahim might be a bit of a fantasist.
That a man who, in his TV role as the UAE's Alan Sugar was purported to have rubbed shoulders with Pamela Anderson, Demi Moore and Leonardo di Caprio, might have a fondness for the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd. Plus a hole in his pocket.
Poor old Pompey, who only last year won the FA Cup.
Now all their best players have been sold, they are bottom of the Premier League without a point and they haven't got a pot to pee in.
As beleaguered chief exec Storrie admitted: "All of the money from the transfers and Sky TV has gone straight to the Standard Bank. There is no money left."
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What a situation for all those loyal fans who even cheered the team off after their gutsy but eventually fruitless display against Everton at Fratton Park last Saturday.
Ah, yes, Fratton Park, the most dilapidated ground in the Premier League.
It was only two years ago that previous owner Sacha Gaydamak had announced grandiose plans that would see the club leave Fratton and build a new 36,000-seater stadium on reclaimed land in the Portsmouth docks.
It would include one million sq feet of residential units, restaurant and leisure facilities and the complete bill would be... £600m!
Poor old Storrie went along with it, claiming: "Portsmouth is moving into a new dawn with the backing of Alexandre Gaydamak."
I said at the time it was yet another glorious Pompey pipe-dream.
As for the new dawn, the lights have gone out. And Gaydamak has gone.
And, in his place, a man often styled Dr Al Fahim after collecting a Ph.D in real estate management from a school of business at Washington University. Except it's claimed the school has no such programme.
Not that it would be the first case of mistaken identity down on the South coast.
Back in 1996, then Southampton boss Graeme Souness received a phone call from someone claiming to be Liberia's world player of the year George Weah.
He sang the praises of his cousin Ali Dia and his pedigree as a star performer for Paris St Germain and Senegal. In fact, it was Dia's agent.
He appeared in one game against Leeds, coming on as a 32nd-minute sub - and being replaced 21 minutes later after a suitably "dire" display.
He came in for treatment the next day and then disappeared. Many Pompey fans will be hoping Al Fahim does the same.
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