Judas, traitor, blah blah blah. This is where Pompey fans are supposed to work themselves into an indignant lather about Jermain Defoe.
If you're that way inclined, before you start frothing have a read of an interview with Ron Davies in last Sunday's Observer. The original Big Ron, the centre-forward who was scoring a record 37 goals for Southampton in one First Division season while Big Ron Atkinson was still a nobody playing for Oxford United, lives in a mobile home in New Mexico. He could have played for Manchester United in the late 1960s but Southampton didn't want to sell and didn't even tell him of Matt Busby's interest. He stayed at the Dell, then ended up at Fratton Park in the twilight of his career. "Footballers were treated like cattle in those days," he said. "You went where you were told."
Now it's the other way around. When he looks back on his career Defoe might say, "You went where you were wanted."
The clubs can't stop the players moving, regardless of what it says on a contract. Tapping-up might be illegal but it's rife, and any player tempted by money or improved career prospects can effectively "down tools" with an employer to hurry the deal along. There are plenty of Fratton Park regulars who think Defoe has done just that, so poor has his form (and his health, allegedly) been lately.
But it has been like this since the Bosman ruling, and there's no point being too angry about it, especially if you follow a club the size of Pompey – or West Brom, Wigan, Middlesbrough, West Ham or any number of others. All players who have a good run of form fancy they can make it at a bigger club. They might succeed, they might fail, but there's nothing much a club can do to stop them trying.
Defoe has scored a goal every other game, more or less, and will be a big loss, but he's only been around a short while. At least we won't see any more of those withering looks from Peter Crouch that say, "Greedy bastard, why the hell didn't you pass?" Yakubu was a bigger asset and he left without too much fuss, even if he was booed by a few boneheads on his first return visit to Fratton Park.
Could Pompey afford not to take the profit? Absolutely not. Little is known about sums outstanding on transfer fees, signing-on fees and other debts, except that the situation is not good and the club is up for sale. Which is another point to take into consideration before you unload bucketfuls of abuse at Defoe and Harry Redknapp at White Hart Lane when Pompey visit in 12 days' time.
A press release arrived at the Guardian this morning from Equifax, a financial company. They mark companies out of 100 on their credit rating, and the lower the score, the more likely a business is predicted to default on payments. At the top of the scale are Arsenal and Manchester United, both in the 90s. Spurs are on 65. At the bottom, nine clubs are marked 10 or less, including Chelsea. Hull City have one point out of 100. Pompey? Zero, with an asterisk. "*No accounts filed for Portsmouth Football Club at Companies House, so automatically given an insolvency rating."
Pompey have been living beyond their means for a long time now. Match-day income must be the lowest in the League, given that there are no executive boxes at Fratton Park. I was lucky enough to be invited to the "corporate" section for the Milan game – four tables in a room way back from the main stand. Personally I like Fratton just as it is, and love the fact that Eastbourne Borough have more executive boxes than us – but serious sports economists judge matchday income as the most important factor in a club's financial health. That's why Arsenal and United are top of the money table.
Harry Redknapp could clearly see what was coming before he joined Spurs, and there are plenty who will say he was to blame for overspending in the first place. But look what it did for Pompey – a place in the Premier League and the first FA Cup win in 69 years.
A friend of mine who, like me, has seen Pompey through the bad old days, and watched them lose at plenty of grounds that are now hosting non-league football, sent me a text on the day Harry left. "What price are we to go down?" Pompey were in the top seven at the time but, let's face it, there's every chance they'll finish in the bottom three. We desperately need other teams to have an even worse run of form than us.
Never mind the loss of Defoe, it's Lassana Diarra who will really be missed – and he was always going to leave. Pompey will, in my view, regret having offloaded Pedro Mendes, who could run a game far better than any of our current midfielders. And the injury to Papa Bouba Diop could not have come at a worse time.
I fear the worst ...
