Michael Eisner fighting to preserve his Portsmouth reputation as Blues totter on the brink of ownership failure
The Blues have 41 days in which to save their Championship life
The strains of the chant were unmistakable. Faint, a little brief in duration, yet comfortably identifiable and driving a powerful message.
Just two goals and 26 minutes into the Loftus Road carnage and ‘We want Eisner out’ rose from the School End Upper, emanating from an undeterminable number of supporters amid the 1,760 travelling faithful.
Pompey are battling for their Championship lives, yet Saturday’s QPR humiliation also demonstrated the Eisners are fighting to save their own fraying reputation.
Fans’ regard for football owners are usually inextricably linked with success. Although, some among the Fratton fanbase have never truly taken to the American family since their August 2017 arrival.
Relegation would represent a devastating failure of the Tornante regime, while the damage to the owners’ standing in the eyes of many would be irreparable. History shows that no Pompey owner can afford to lose the hearts and minds of the fans.
It is irrefutable that, under chairman Michael Eisner, £54m has been invested into Pompey, with around £25m spent on Fratton Park alone, while the Copnor Road training ground the club previously leased has been purchased and improved.
However, in 41 days, the Blues could be back to where it started in League One - precisely where the Eisners found the club some eight-and-a-half years earlier, amid speeches on Disney magic and Justins and Britneys.
That debatable fun has long since ended
John Mousinho’s men could retain their hard-earned Championship membership, of course, with the Fratton Park visits of Oxford United and Leicester City pivotal fixtures in the remaining eight games.
Victory in both would be essential and certainly isn’t unlikely. Irrespective of the QPR debacle which delivered that relegation thunderbolt, hope remains.
As fans demonstrated on Saturday, though, they no longer possess the patience to endure season after season of relegation battles as the Championship’s plucky under-funded underdogs defying the odds. That debatable fun has long since ended.
While the recruitment model favoured by the Eisners is perfectly laudable - and in existence across a vast number of clubs at this level, functioning impressively at some - an increase in funding is absolutely necessary.
Conventional self-sustainability in the Championships is a fantasy, likewise the expectation of being a competitive and consistently-effective side reliant on a backbone of £1m signings, loan players and free transfers has proven unrealistic.
Huge annual losses are unpalatable and representative of a game obscenely spiralling out of control financially. Yet, at this level, it is a necessary evil in order to maintain pace with rivals. Taking a stance is admirable, but futile.
Latest Pompey accounts detail a deficit of £4.3m for the year ending June 30, 2025. In total, the club have posted losses of £19.76m since the 2020-21 season - all covered by Tornante. The stability they continue to offer should never be taken for granted.
Indeed, with £9m also loaned to the club before December 2025 and another injection, potentially £5m, anticipated before the end of the current financial year, that’s another £14m of fresh funding for this season alone. A campaign which could still end in relegation.
While it suggests the Eisners are now ramping up their investment compared to recent years, in the context of the Championship they still remain one of the lowest spenders - both in terms of transfers and wages.
Around £10m spent on players over two seasons
Again taking into consideration last week’s accounts, transfer spending of £4.6m for 2024-25 is detailed, covering the recruitment of 12 players up to and including the June 2025 signing of Adrian Segecic.
With spending increasing since last summer, Pompey are likely to have outlaid a total of around £10m on players as a Championship club over the last two seasons, spanning four transfer windows.
The most expensive - £1.25m on Hayden Matthews - wasn’t even included in Saturday’s squad, while Josh Knight and Mark Kosznovszky, who each cost around £1m, are absent through injury after unconvincing starts to their Fratton Park careers.
Luke Le Roux was present, though, the permanent substitute unused in 11 of the last 12 matches and clearly not rated by the manager, despite a £1m price tag.
In fact, of Pompey’s starting XI at QPR, Connor Ogilvie, Regan Poole, Conor Shaughnessy and Marlon Pack were all free transfers and key members of the 2023-24 League One title-winning side.
In addition, Milli Alli and Jacob Brown are loans, John Swift was a free signing last summer, while Terry Devlin is the poster boy of the player trading model championed by the Blues and surely will leave this summer for a healthy profit, with Wrexham again pursuing.
Incidentally, the most expensive signings on the bench were Colby Bishop (signed for £500,000 in July 2022) and Madiodio Dia (£600,000 from Norway).
Recruitment must improve
If Pompey’s owners are to increase spending in the transfer market this coming summer - which is essential - the recruitment, overseen by sporting director Rich Hughes and head of recruitment Brad Wall, must improve, particularly from abroad. Albeit a challenge hugely reliant on financial resources presented to them.
Still, that’s very much in the future. In the here and now the Blues must focus on a relegation battle, utilising the players available to them to preserve their cherished Championship presence.
Encouragingly, free transfers Andre Dozzell and Keshi Anderson are expected to return from injury for the Good Friday trip to Norwich, albeit representing the only cavalry riding to the rescue over the next six weeks.
How Pompey need a boost, how Mousinho, Hughes and Wall need a boost, how the Eisner family need a boost. The consequences of starting next season in League One will be unthinkable for all concerned.