‘You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist’.

So the white knight trots in upon his trusty stead once more to rally his troops at a time of need. As the race reaches its final juncture here we have the man for all seasons. I call him that because so far the choice of chairman elect from the Portsmouth Supporters Trust Iain McInnes seems to pop his head above the parapet and into the public spotlight when the seasons change. So far we’ve had summer and autumn so on this form we can expect him to re-appear sometime during the cold harsh winter months.

 

Over the years there have been some rising and notable speeches to rally the cause and some of the best known and loved have been uttered by the mouth of the late, great Sir Winston Churchill. What he would have made of McInnes rallying cry of ‘You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist’ is anyone’s business I guess. Aimed at Mr Balram Chanrai in a defiant gesture on behalf of the Supporters Trust bid he fronts sadly the fact remains that he will have to unfold said fist and shake on a deal for Fratton Park with the very same man if they gain control of Fratton Park. The possibility remains that as stated by McInnes earlier that this will come through the likelihood of litigation of which we understand the Trust now has a separate established contingency for. Their offer of £2.75 million made payable I understand over the course of three years is let’s face it some way off the mark of the sort of money that Balram Chanrai is looking to recoup from the club and there will be a large question mark that hangs over the offer in very much the same way that The Trust’s pot of £2 million would have ever been able to reach a compromise deal with the remaining players to stave off the genuine threat of liquidation. Whilst it’s all very well saying that the Trust had this figure in mind, the simple fact that the end compromise reached by Trevor Birch was £8.6 million in total suggests that being £6.6 million away shows the real likelihood that any agreements proposed to players would have been rejected totally out of hand.

Perhaps these two key elements are probably some of the strongest indications of why so far even the best intentions in the world aren’t exactly delivering the right answers as the Trust look to take over the club ahead of Balram Chanrai’s Portpin. The most basic element and fact in the equation right now is that despite all that has been written about what is wrong with Portpin’s bid that at present the Trust haven’t been given preferred bidder status. So why isn’t the Trust bid out in front leading the way? Why haven’t they been given the golden ticket also known as the preferred bidder status?

Now the Trust like to state in some way shape or form that their bid is based on the fact that they are Pompey fans. Now this may just be a rumour at the moment, but it’s worth mentioning until it’s been disproven that the property developer Stuart Robinson is allegedly a Southampton fan. Now if that is proved to be the case then the largest part of funding from the Trust point of view believed to be in the region of £3 million pounds isn’t from a fan at all. I for one would hope for very swift clarification on the matter of whether there is truth behind this. Of course it shouldn’t really matter who an investor supports if he’s willing to help finance a bid but it would raise certain question marks of just what he intends to gain in the long term if he isn’t actually a Pompey fan. Forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t really envisage any Southampton fan let alone one who’s occupation is that of a Property Developer to be financing the bulk of a deal out of the kindness of his heart.

Following on from the notion of a bid from the fans it remains the case that the total number of pledges is believed to be around the 2,000 mark in total despite the Trusts best efforts so far. The Trust have been heard to quote on Express FM that they hope to convert around 75% of those pledges yet the Football League have based their calculations on a figure of 50%. When the original requests for pledges were made the figure requested as we know was £1,000. As time went on a new system was put in place whereby fans could group together their pledges to reach the £1,000 total making it easier for them to show their support especially when times are hard financially for a lot of us. I believe that there is even a loan scheme of some description which would enable you to borrow the money for the pledge and pay it back over a period of time as mentioned the other week on Express FM but if I did imagine that part then I do apologise. So even with a scheme that I either made up or does indeed exist and the ability to pull together money to reach the pledge total, the total number of pledges still only reaches around the quarter mark of the total number of season ticket holders there are for this season at Fratton Park.

Whilst I haven’t seen the updated figure of the number of people who’d signed the petition stating that they didn’t want Portpin to own the club again today, the last figure I saw yesterday was 2,600 which still remains at 32.5% of the total number of season ticket holders the club currently has. I expect that number will rise by the end of the week but it’s worth noting that adding your name to this signature doesn’t cost you anything at all and it’s not currently anywhere near the number of season ticket holders that the club has.  Pompey’s average home attendance for last season whilst down 5% year on year was still 14,865 with the highest attendance of the season coming unsurprisingly against arch rivals Southampton when the attendance totalled 19,879. Failing to sell out the ground for the derby match is a massive thing especially when the fixture was played so close to Christmas time. I’m not saying this just to add flavour to what I’ve written but there’s a real big danger that if fans avoided going to see the derby game in the Championship last season, then the Trust may have quite a shock on their hands at the end total of people who go through with their pledge if asked to do so, so close to Christmas time. That’s the sort of statement that usually requires the fact that the opinions in this blog are solely mine so I’ll be sure not to miss that part out when I finish this blog.

In my most recent blogs I mentioned the fact that Mr Iain McInnes has during his time as a businessman seen 14 of his businesses dissolved and 1 placed into liquidation and questioned whether he was the right choice of person to hold the position of Chairman elect at Portsmouth FC. Now it was widely alleged through the business grapevine that investments into the Trust of over £100,000 would be met with positions within the company and if true it’s not hard to suspect that McInnes was given the position of Chairman elect on the same basis. Now I say alleged for obvious reasons but let’s face it there generally isn’t smoke without fire. It’s interesting to note that other allegations include the offer of the role of Press Officer to the Portsmouth Evening News’ Chief Sports Writer Neil Allen which if proved to be the case would most likely account for the large support that Neil has given to the Trust via his Twitter account, in articles written in The News and in person on Express FM and also a less than favourable account when it comes to Portpin. As I say these are just allegations that have found themselves being widely discussed so probably best to put them into public attention for verification from those at whom they have been aimed because that’s a fair thing to do isn’t it? If people are asking questions then surely it’s best to have them answered and nipped in the bud if they’re not true than let rumours continue to build and gain moment because let’s face it once they’re in full swing it’s quite hard to stop them.

One question I did ask today however was the involvement of Mr Iain McInnes during the reign of Terry Venables. Mr McInnes had gone on record as stating that Mr Venables had offered him the chance to become a Director at Portsmouth FC which he decided to turn down. Not quite how I’m lead to believe things actually unfolded and that perhaps he would like to recall the events of what transpired in front of one of the other Directors that made up part of the board at the same time and see if their two claims match up. It’s alleged from the answers given today that the offer of the Directorship came in return for the purchase of Mathias Svensson for the club and didn’t come from Venables but one of the Directors at the time and whilst I won’t go into details about what occurred, it's alleged that McInnes didn’t turn down the offer of Director, and that shall we say the offer didn’t materialise for him as perhaps was suggested that it might have done. On top of this which I’m pretty sure McInnes also alluded to mention during his last press conference given before today that he allegedly also benefited financially from the deal. This is a man who today of course said that no one involved in the bid is seeking to benefit financially from the Trust taking over the football club. I’m not going to dispute that claim, only allege that he has already done so in previous dealings with the club.

Personally I find it beneficial when asking questions that you do it to people who are likely to supply you with the required answers.

For the benefit the views and opinions expressed within this blog are my own.