What is your opinion on Portsmouth owners Tornante? 10 Blues supporter groups have their say on Michael Eisner era
Chairman Michael Eisner and his family have owned the Blues since August 2017
Last week marked the release of Michael Eisner's wide-ranging interview with American journalist Graham Bensinger, when he talked about Pompey, plus John Mousinho addressing Tornante's spending strategy.
As a consequence, The News decided to contact 15 recognised Pompey supporter groups to canvas their views on the Eisners’ ongoing Fratton Park ownership, which began in August 2017.
Each group was emailed and asked to contribute 350 words - with 10 supporter groups subsequently sending in their opinions.
And here they are, unedited and in full...
Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust
(Donald Vass, chairman)
When Portsmouth fans first learnt that a billionaire was interested in buying the club in 2017, many dreamt of a swift, fairy-tale return to the Premier League. Instead, progress under Tornante has been incremental rather than rocket-boosted.
Their substantial financial commitment is undeniable – they’ve invested over £50m to date, helping to modernise the club and safeguarding our future at Fratton Park. Those calling for new ownership would be hard-pushed to find someone else willing to pour so much of their own money into the club.
Fans ultimately want to see investment on the pitch, though. With the club once again battling relegation, some have concluded that our playing budget is out of step with what’s needed in the second tier. Concerningly, recent comments from the head coach suggest he may well agree.
When we last ran our annual supporter survey in March 2025, over 1,000 fans responded. 68 per cent told us that they were comfortable with a smaller playing budget if that means Pompey aren’t reliant on large, continual investments of cash to cover the wage bill - as many Championship clubs are.
I’m interested to see what supporters tell us when we poll them again on this topic next month; my sense is that opinion has drifted, and that fans increasingly believe the club’s current budget isn’t sufficient to compete in the division.
We’ll put the results of our survey to Tornante at the club’s Heritage & Advisory Board, where we meet them several times a year to review the club’s overall strategic direction. We often have robust discussions – I’ve got into arguments with Michael on several occasions! – but I’ve always had a sense that they run the club sensibly, informed by the club’s past financial trauma. They prioritise stability over short-term success, and that’s to be commended.
But next year will mark 10 years of Tornante’s ownership – and currently there’s a risk that both the Men’s and Women’s team could be relegated back to the same divisions they began that time in, undoing a decade of steady progress on the pitch. The mood amongst supporters would be mutinous if Tornante allow that to happen.
Portsmouth Armed Forces Supporters Branch
(Jeff Harris, treasurer)
‘I feel there is growing concern among fans about the level of investment in the playing squad under the Eisners’ ownership. There is no denying the stability that the Eisners have brought to the club since taking over in 2017. The infrastructure improvements and the redevelopment of Fratton Park have all been positive steps. However, footballing ambition ultimately has to be reflected on the pitch and that is where I and many supporters feel more needs to be done.
‘Portsmouth is a club with a proud history, a loyal fanbase, and clear potential to compete at a higher level. With the team pushing to establish itself and build momentum, there is a strong belief that additional investment in players is necessary to give the manager the tools required to compete consistently.
While sensible spending and sustainability are important, there comes a point where caution can feel like hesitation. From a supporter’s perspective, there appears to be a perceived lack of urgency or movement in strengthening key areas of the squad, particularly when other clubs around us seem more aggressive in the transfer market.
‘We understand that recruitment is complex and that smart, strategic signings are better than reckless spending. However, ambition must be visible. Supporters want reassurance that the ownership is willing to back the team decisively when opportunities arise. The fear is not just about missing out on individual signings, but about missing out on momentum, the chance to truly push forward rather than simply consolidate.
‘The Eisners have earned credit for stabilising Pompey and protecting its long term future. Now, many fans feel the next step is bold footballing investment. Portsmouth deserves a squad capable of matching the passion in the stands. For the club to progress and achieve its potential, greater backing in the transfer market feels not only desirable, but necessary.
‘Ultimately, supporters want to see intent translated into action, a clear demonstration that on field success is being prioritised with the same commitment as off field development.’
South Wales Association of Pompey Supporters
(Adrian Foster, chairman)
Be careful what you wish for. The modern game is littered with cautionary tales. Supporters of Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester know only too well how fragile stability can be under unsuitable ownership.
Pompey fans, of all people, understand the consequences of turbulence in the boardroom. Against that backdrop, we have a lot to be grateful for.
Under Tornante, Pompey is in a far healthier position than it was a decade ago. Yes, Michael Eisner’s recent comments felt clumsy and dismissive of supporters who stepped forward in the club’s hour of need, but misjudged words are not the same as mismanagement.
The club now owns its training ground and Fratton Park has seen tangible improvements. Infrastructure, often overlooked in the pursuit of quick success by previous owners, has been strengthened. Finances seem controlled, and these are foundations that mean we are better equipped for the future than we have been for years.
On the pitch, their appointment of Mousinho looks increasingly inspired — an intelligent decision and a gamble that has succeeded.
Now, however, comes the next step. Stability alone should not be the end goal — it is the platform. With foundations in place, this is the moment to build. That may require calculated risk in the transfer market and investment to ensure momentum is not lost.
Big spending guarantees nothing, but ambition is essential. The consequences of failing to do so are clear: we risk losing one of the most promising young managers in the game, and there is only so long we can expect results to consistently outstrip budgetary input.
To give greater perspective, a poll of members to gauge opinion on Tornante’s tenure at Pompey placed the ownership’s performance somewhere between “OK” and “good”. Not a single respondent described their performance as either “great” or “poor”. That feels like a fair reflection of the current mood among many supporters.
Tornante has restored order by building on the hard work of the fans who saved the club. Their challenge now is to match that prudence with boldness and turn stability into the success Pompey fans deserve.
Chichester Supporters’ Club
(Andy Gaffney, chairman)
Pompey stand at a genuine crossroads under the Eisner ownership. Nearly a decade on from the takeover, it’s fair to say they have delivered on parts of their original vision.
Promotion to the Championship was achieved, survival in the first season was achieved, and the club is debt-free with a vastly improved stadium. In an era where reckless ownership has crippled clubs up and down the pyramid, stability matters. It could have been far worse.
Yet stability alone does not guarantee progress. The Championship is a brutal, unforgiving division: you can spend heavily and still finish mid-table, and there are no assurances of success.
Many fans love the league for its competitiveness and authenticity, especially compared to the excesses of the Premier League or the financial struggles of League One and Two. But loving the Championship is not the same as being equipped to survive in it.
The Eisners pledged a self-sustaining model. The question now is whether that model is viable at this level. With one of the smallest budgets in the division and average gates of around 20,000, the financial gap is stark. Recruitment has too often leaned toward “risk” — players with injury concerns or unproven pedigree — rather than hardened Championship performers. January’s window exemplified a reluctance to ‘go for it’, while rivals invested in proven quality.
Infrastructure upgrades have been substantial, and a new North Stand feels essential if revenues are to grow. Ambitious ideas — hotels, commercial outlets, even a multi-purpose arena — show imagination. But commercial performance has lagged behind potential.
Other clubs have turbocharged global profiles through smart branding and storytelling; Portsmouth’s thousand-year heritage feels under-leveraged.
Perhaps the greatest success of the Eisner era is the appointment of John Mousinho. If the club fails to match his ambition with investment, there is a risk he will outgrow it.
Ultimately, the choice is stark: inject the £10–20 million annually needed to establish Championship security, or accept a perennial relegation gamble.
Calling for change is easy - finding a credible, willing buyer is not. What fans deserve now is clarity: a transparent three-year plan that defines whether this is a hobby, or a serious attempt to compete.
Portsmouth Women Supporters’ Club
(Ian Chiverton, chairman)
When the women’s team was taken over by Tornante in June 2023 the news was genuinely well received. The team were immediately given funding to move from amateur to semi-professional status. Portsmouth Women then gained promotion into the professional Women’s Championship (now the WSL2).
After winning promotion on the pitch, it took significant work and funds to gain the required licence for promotion off it. Due to the wage budget provided by Tornante the recruitment of a large number of experienced players, which is common when teams join the professional leagues, did not transpire.
Jay Sadler and his team secured survival despite not winning a game until 15 matches into the 20-game season. Ahead of their second season in the renamed WSL2 we again did not see an influx of experienced players we might have expected. It was clear Sadler was again running on a very tight budget, instead commonly bringing in young loans and free transfers.
This season the women sit bottom of the WSL2 and are at risk of being relegated. On the pitch the team lacks the investment needed to comfortably secure our place in the WSL2. Sadler, his staff and players give everything each game, but the squad lacks financial investment to give us quality in depth.
The team also still play at Westleigh Park whilst they wait for an overdue move to Fratton Park. A delay the club have stated is due to the pitch needing to be upgraded.
We are grateful Tornante funded all expenditure required to get us promoted. However, a lack of investment since promotion has meant Portsmouth Women have been unable to make progress.
We have not seen any significant progress off the pitch in areas such as an expanded girls Professional Game Academy (PGA) which will provide a long-term legacy of young players for the women’s side.
It’s hard to watch the team struggle every week due to lack of investment in the playing squad. We had hoped promotion would be the first building block to a bright future, but the women’s team desperately need more investment to keep moving forward.
Pompey Independent Supporters Association
(Barry Dewing, spokesman)
PISA saw under fan ownership how complicated it is to run an EFL Club. It's easy to spend other people's money but trying to keep control of costs is a massive problem in the Football Industry.
The Tornante ownership have chosen to fund PFC through equity and that's welcome when our club is trying to compete in a league that is financially a basket case.
We await much-needed measures to encourage sustainability across the football pyramid. The outstanding appointment of head coach John Mousinho coupled with Richard Hughes as a sporting director has seen them given time to create welcome stability not found at most Championship clubs.
In trying to gain a secure foothold in this league, everybody including the ownership are learning of the need to have a mix of ready-made players along with those who can develop and grow with PFC, such as Terry Devlin.
We're also starting to have players sold at a profit, while seeing the likes of Toby Steward and Tayo Singerr show potential which could indicate that the extra funding put into our Category 3 Academy could be starting to bear fruit.
However much finance is provided, the fact remains that it comes with no guarantees.
At Academy level all clubs need protection from the vultures at the top of the pyramid who are easily able to scoop up the best young talent with little in place to stop them.
Looking at Fratton Park, it's now a 20,000-plus capacity ground to be proud of, but the need for a 30,000-plus stadium with associated revenue generating facilities remains a source of much frustration amongst the loyal Pompey fanbase.
So much unfulfilled potential remains untapped. We're reliant on numerous stakeholders finding a financial solution to open up development of the whole area surrounding Fratton Park.
Major improvement in transport infrastructure across the Island City is essential and would need to align with efforts to greatly improve the Portsmouth FC infrastructure.
PISA hope this regime has the will and motivation to find the answers needed in bringing to an end this seemingly never-ending saga.
PFC Coalition
(Steve Gibson, spokesman)
Three years ago, the Pompey Coalition set out our reasons for believing Michael Eisner had no viable plan to grow revenues, and no ambition to transform the club both on and off the pitch.
We believe he has broken a number of promises he made at the Guildhall and in subsequent statements: to expand the stadium using ‘world-class architects’, to invest significantly in the academy, to finance “many, many losses” in the Championship, and to set us on a realistic path back towards the Premier League.
Michael Eisner’s recent interview has reinforced our view that he has no plan and no ambition for Pompey. His comments that he bought Pompey because it had ‘no value’, and that he ‘built it from scratch’ belittle our club, our history and the fans’ incredible efforts to save it.
He admits he bought the club as a ‘fun asset for his family’. But we are Pompey, a proud club that is the heart of our city, not a plaything for a rich family to bond over. The fact that Michael Eisner has now revealed he has apparently transferred ownership of the club to his sons, with losses financed by loans to them, only reinforces our concerns.
We also believe that John Mousinho is a once-in-a-generation manager who is desperate to take this club forward. But as he himself has said, we cannot compete in this division with one of the lowest budgets.
We cannot compete if we are not even in the market for a fit Championship centre-back, let alone a proven striker at this level. John is not asking for a fortune, he is simply asking for the tools to do his job. It would be a tragedy if we lost Mousinho because we failed to back him properly.
Mr Eisner, if you back the manager and deliver on the promises made regarding the stadium and academy, we will support you. However, if those commitments cannot be fulfilled, then it’s time to step aside and allow someone with the ambition and passion this club deserves to take over.
Scandinavian Supporters Club
(Jean Robert Tankred)
I am absolutely content with the club in the hands of Tornante. Show me an owner who is more sensible than the Eisner family.
From the first day they have had a plan for the club, slowly rebuilding it, and with the redeveloping of Fratton Park as a main priority, thereby making sure that our home in time would be ready for the step up into The Championship.
This is where we are now, and, despite having one of the smaller budgets, we have shown that we can nevertheless be competitive in this league.
And yes, to some extent it is tempting to wish for a more ambitious approach, like going more for the ready-made Championship players, but at what price? We’ve tried the full overspending mode, and with a result which almost wiped out the club. That is not a road we should venture down ever again.
Football has changed since we last were a Premier League club, and especially the Championship has changed a lot. The kind of money you now need to be a contender for promotion is staggering.
For a club of our size, we need to go a different path and do things with a long-term view, and at a slower pace. It takes a lot of patience by the supporters.
Where the journey under the Eisners will end, nobody knows. All we can be sure of is that they will leave our club in a much better state than when they acquired it. Can we really ask for more?
Clan Pompey
(Richard Brook, chairman)
No one can argue that the Eisners have continued to invest following the hard work fan ownership who stepped in, after more than a decade of financial mismanagement, spending the next four years bringing Pompey back from the brink and making it a credible and respected football club once more.
But comments following Michael Eisner’s interview regarding building the club up from scratch were poor and certainly didn’t put his stewardship in a good light.
There has been investment in infrastructure and Fratton Park looks better for it. There have been marked improvements at the training ground, and managers and players say first-class facilities go a long way in persuading a player to sign for a club in a very competitive market.
More investment, though, is needed here if the model of developing young and hungry players to reinvest their transfer fees back into the playing squad will finally start to bear fruit.
Loyalty to managers should be commended, they do give their managers time, but Kenny Jackett was here a season too long and should have gone after the Oxford play-off defeat, but they got the timing right with replacing Danny Cowley, and struck gold with Mousinho. But is that more down to Hughes and Cullen’s judgement?
Regarding the playing squad, we need Championship-ready players who stay fit rather than gambling on players with poor injury records and risks on players from abroad. Spending millions on players will always be a risk, for every Ephron Mason-Clark there will be a Tom Cannon, but no-one can argue the budgets need increasing.
As Mousinho said last week, serious conversations are needed to see where the club is heading, a question that definitively needs to be answered and communicated to the fans. But will Mousinho be around to lead this or will it be too little too late? Does he see his managerial ambitions elsewhere?
We need clarity if there’s an appetite for genuine improvement season-on-season (none of this Premier League fantasy on our current spending) or season-on-season of gambling against relegation?
South West Supporters Club
(Chris Barrett, chairman)
Before our promotion to the EFL Championship, I was fully behind the Eisner family. Their investment off the pitch has been invaluable, and the improvements are clear every time you visit Fratton Park. I also felt their spending on the playing squad was appropriate and competitive at League One level.
However, since promotion, I believe there is a degree of naivety in thinking the club can continue to operate with a similar level of on-pitch investment. The financial landscape in the Championship is very different.
Competing against clubs that receive, or have recently received, parachute payments creates a significant gap that cannot be bridged through low-cost recruitment alone.
At this level, survival often depends on experience and proven quality. Few other Championship sides are relying heavily on scouting lower-cost prospects from markets such as Scotland or Australia. While long-term player development is important, the immediate priority should be bringing in experienced players who understand the demands of the division.
That said, I still believe the Eisners are the right custodians for the club. Their long-term vision, stability, and commitment to improving the club’s infrastructure remain strong foundations for future success.
However, the reality of back-to-back seasons spent in relegation battles, along with growing frustration among supporters, should serve as a clear warning that the current approach may need to evolve.
This is not about abandoning a sustainable model, but about recognising that the Championship requires a different level of investment to remain competitive.
While comparisons are often unhelpful, the approach taken by Wrexham has demonstrated that targeted investment in the playing squad can be crucial in maintaining momentum and achieving continued progress.
I remain optimistic about the club’s direction, but hope recent struggles act as the wake-up call needed to ensure the team is properly equipped to compete and secure its place at this level.