OBLIVION ... Grant's club are in
trouble
They came up £2m short as the transfer window closed
last night.
Not even the last-minute, £3.5m sale of keeper Asmir
Begovic, 22, to Stoke will be enough to keep them in business.
Pompey had been banking on selling enough players to
pay a £7.5m tax and VAT bill before a High Court winding-up order
next Wednesday.
They raised £9.5m by flogging Begovic and £6m Younes
Kaboul to Tottenham. But £4.5m of that is accounted for.
Now they must find yet another buyer to pay off the tax
man or they will become the first Premier League side to take the
administration road at the added cost of a nine-point
deduction.
A club insider said: "The end is very close. Unless
someone comes in with a load of new cash within the next week, the
club will almost certainly go bust. If the winding-up order is
upheld, we simply can't pay the Inland Revenue."
Chief executive Peter Storrie was in desperate
negotiations with a number of potential investors last night.
Premier League chiefs have told Spurs to hand them the
£6m fee for Kaboul. They will then deduct £2.7m to meet instalments
on four Pompey transfer deals still not paid for. On top of that,
the club must pay £1.8m in wages.
Avram Grant was able to sign Valencia's ex-Everton
midfielder Manuel Fernandes, 23, on loan but missed out on Werder
Bremen full-back Dusko Tosic.
Begovic has signed a 3½-year deal at Stoke, snubbing a
Chelsea offer to be their No 2.
Stoke chairman Peter Coates denied Pompey claims
Begovic was 'tapped up' before a move to Spurs could progress.
Coates insisted: "As far as I'm concerned, the transfer
was done properly and above board."