Cash-Strapped Portsmouth Forced To Axe 85 Members Of Staff
No further redundancies for the time being...
By Joe Whitbread
The south coast club, who had 166-full-time employees and 154 part-time workers before the cuts, arranged times for groups of staff throughout the day to discuss their fate.
Andronikou added, however, that no players were going to be made redundant as they were protected by the Professional Footballers' Association but that Chief Executive Peter Storrie had taken a 40 per cent pay cut.
He also announced that other staff had agreed to work fewer hours and that "one or two" players offered to take pay cuts.
Former training ground manager Tug Wilson, who was one of those who lost his job, told Portsmouth Today: "It's been a very bad day for a lot of people but it is not a sad day for me. I've worked here for eight and a half years and I've enjoyed my time at Portsmouth.
"I wish the club all the best and all the success in the world.
"I feel bad for other people who have lost their jobs. Some of them will need that money to pay mortgages, although I'm not in that position and hopefully they will all be re-employed once the club finds a new owner.
"No-one wants to see the club go under."
Pompey are due in the High Court on March 15 as HM Revenue & Customs seek a winding up order against the club.
They became the first Premier League club to enter administration at the end of February after collecting debts of a reported £70 million.Become a fan of Goal.com UK's Facebook fan page for all the latest news and insight into everything related to the beautiful game!
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We've had two tremendous matches today, so lets hope the intensity keeps up in the next clashes!
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Here's the thoughts of Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, who felt his side deserved a point from the game.
"They were the better team on the night and that's the story of the day.
"We have to keep fighting, pick ourselves up, get the confidence back and challenge in the other competitions and in the second leg of this tie too.
"They punished us on every occasion; they scored some quality goals and they deserved to win."
Full story HERE
“The score made it look like it was an easy game, but it certainly wasn't.
(Strange... it looked pretty easy from where I was sitting, but hey.)
“I do not think it's over yet. I remember a clash between Milan and Deportivo la Coruna when Milan was also ahead by four goals, and in the end Deportivo eliminated Milan.
“I went into the Arsenal dressing room after the match to speak to Robin van Persie. I had agreed with him to swap shirts – my sons are big fans of his and he brought two for them. They will be delighted.
Van Bommel went on to talk about a possible move to PSV in the future, but was quick to point out his terms for the move.
“I've spoken with PSV, but we don't have an agreement yet. The club has to decide what they want.
“If Louis van Gaal turns out to be the new coach, I won't go.”
"Tonight everything went in the right direction and we did a very good match. You don't start a match thinking to win 4-0, but at the end i think we deserved it coz we played very well."
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