Broke Ass Tuesday, Part Two: Portsmouth and Notts County

SGE and Avram, wondering how they always end up in these situations

The flotsam and jetsam of English Football has washed up more in the sordid tales of financial woes. News coming from both Portsmouth and Notts County is showing that big and small, poorly-run teams will suffer in tough economic times.

Even better that larger-than-life coaches are involved with these teams; it all adds up to great theater.

Portsmouth failed to pay all their wages on Monday, and today they took out another loan to make sure that players and staff were paid in full. This was a small loan, only £1.5 million, but on top of the £15 million loan in October, on top of a £5 million loan. Their player’s monthly salary is £1.8 million. The question remains – where did that £15 go in a month? Even I can’t go on a bender like that.

But combine the scraping together to play bills with the other shoes that are dropping. They TV money, which is about £7 million will probably not be paid to the team, but used to pay off creditors. Following a meeting with the Premiere League, it looks like the transfer ban is to remain in place until they can come up with £10 million to pay off creditors. Let’s not forget Chelsea, who enjoys being the team that kicks someone when they are down, is demanding their Glen Johnson money, which sits at £750,000. They also owe money to Arsenal and Watford, and Watford could probably use the money also, being in tough straits now.

Notts County: The Sven-Goren Eriksson circus continues to roll along. First along is that Peter Trembling has purchased the club from the Munto consortium. As soon as that happens, Sven pulls a Sven, and publiclly discusses leaving if he isn’t paid, and pronto. This is all the while that they are still saying that Sven is “committed” to the process at Notts County. The next time Sven is committed to anything but Sven will be the first. Maybe he should step back into coaching, as the current coach, Hans Backe quits after 9 matches. All we need is return of Sol Campbell, and it will be worthy of an American Reality TV show.