The papers spoke of the "relief" that Pompey are feeling as the transfer embargo has been lifted. Really? Relief? Maybe I'm wrong, but a team who arguably need this transfer window more than anybody else in the league would hardly be relieved at a five day transfer period.

I saw Sherlock Holmes on Boxing day, that doesn't mean I'm a super sleuth. Although, it doesn't require one to figure out who the "mystery player" was that slammed Pompey's management. C'mon David James, come out from behind your newspaper column.

Pretty? No. Fit? No. Tactical genius? Yes. To be fair, i'm not necessarily talking about Avram Grant, I could well be referring to myself. I'll be honest, I could afford to pass on the cake. However, for the purposes of this article, I'll keep the focus mainly on the less than beautiful Israeli that could very well save Pompey from relegation.

Thus far this season the Carling Cup has been a bright spot in Pompey's dark an dreary campaign.
11-2 was the combined scoreline heading into the quarter finals and now, the dream of salvaging something from this mess of a season has died on the boots of four of Villa's finest. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe not.

Portsmouth have sealed their passage to the Championship, in fact, they booked the express train. They have given Paul Hart the sack and thrown any chance at Premiership survival in the bin.

I'm sorry what?

Losing last week to Tottenham stung, I won't lie. But a draw with Hull City, really didn't do anything for me. And I'm starting to wonder if the lads are feeling indifferent.

The ESPNSoccernet match report summed it up rather brilliantly, "Hull and Portsmouth settled for a point apiece from a dismal Premier League basement scrap."

Chances were scarce and goodness it was dull. And that's coming from someone that enjoys county championship cricket, it takes quite a lot to bore me. But, Hull and Pompey succeeded.

So, I guess we have new owners. After the win, the first article I read wrote off Portsmouth and all their hopes of staying in the Premiership. I was so upset that I didn't read football news for two or three days. So, I was a little surprised to see that "Dr.Al-Fahim" was out and the Saudi Arabian oil-rich brothers Al-Faraj have completed the second takeover in as many months.

Parallels are being drawn between the Leeds United meltdown and our current crisis. A large portion of the Blue Army have resigned themselves to relegation, to the absolute collapse of the club they love. But I refuse to be counted among those, because the difference between Leeds and Portsmouth is this: we can pull out of this.