AFTER Portsmouth’s fight in the courts to avoid administration this week, The Legends were asked if the situation at Fratton Park is an indication that the bubble has burst in English football.
MALCOLM MACDONALD
I don’t think it has burst but it is a major warning to the rest of the country that things are not well. The warning signs are getting greater and greater.
Portsmouth have had four different owners this season and it has become clear the owners getting involved do not have the best interests of the club at heart.
There have been all sorts of rumours flying around about transfer deals dating back to Harry Redknapp’s days in charge and if someone is owed money then eventually they will start to demand it. They get fidgety. That goes without saying.
I read recently that Roman Abramovich had reduced Chelsea’s £750m debt to nil in recent months.
Manchester United’s debt is in excess of £700m. That’s a third of the debt of the entire top 36 clubs in Germany. That can’t be good for any club, or any league.
Manchester United and Chelsea can maybe get away with being in that position, but the likes of Portsmouth, Fulham and Wigan certainly can’t. Look at Newcastle, that is a club which has had to be careful in the last year.
Other clubs are going to follow suit, Portsmouth will not be the last. The warning signs are there for all of the clubs, those warnings have to be confronted.
BERNIE SLAVEN
THERE are a lot of clubs struggling. Eventually the bubble was always going to burst, I’m not saying it has but it is ready to burst. It’s a great shame.
I have been there as a player. Remember I was at Middlesbrough when we had to train in the park, suffer relegation and hit liquidation. There might not have been the money around that there is today but it’s the same situation.
I sympathise with all of those players at Portsmouth who aren’t being paid. It will be hard, no matter how much they are on, to concentrate on playing football.
But I think Portsmouth will be just the start. Whatever happens to them in the coming weeks, you will find more will follow suit. They are not the only club to have been spending beyond their means.
The guys that have helped to put the clubs into these positions need to have a look at themselves. It’s like Leeds. A few years ago they were in the Champions League semi-final, now they are in League One.
There’s no solution either, it’s too far down the line for that.
If Portsmouth do go mind, the rest of the division should worry. Sunderland will drop closer to the relegation zone, losing the two points they gained from games with Portsmouth. It is just a mess.
MICKY HORSWILL
IT has been a bubble which has been under threat for quite some time and eventually it had to burst, and I think it has.
It’s been ridiculous how clubs have been spending and spending. From the small clubs to the big clubs, they have all been overspending, it’s been an absolute joke. I can’t believe that no-one attempted to stop this earlier.
If Manchester United, the biggest club in the world, can hit troubles with debts of more than £700m, what chance to the other clubs have? Imagine if the Glazers decided enough was enough, the club could go to the wall.
It’s the same with Liverpool. If Hicks or Gillett decided they’d had enough then Liverpool could go under. It’s extremely worrying.
The authorities, the game’s governing bodies, should have put a salary cap on things years ago. To see players being paid between £60,000 to £120,000-a-week for years is ludicrous. It was bound to come to this.
I know the broadcasting rights are largely responsible, but imagine if Sky TV hit trouble. Then what? How could the clubs sustain their outgoings without Sky’s money?
This is going to affect every club in the country. It’s Portsmouth at the moment but there will be other clubs struggling – it happened to Luton, Leeds and Darlington too. But there are sure to be Premier League clubs and one will be hit hard, even if it is just to show that things need to change.
Listen to The Legends weekdays 6-8pm and Saturdays from 1pm on 100-102FM Real Radio
Read their views every Saturday in Northern Echo Sport.
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