Portsmouth on the brink as they wait for a Sheikh to save them

Portsmouth's straitened finances and uncertainty over Sulamain al-Fahim's planned takeover have left last year's Cup winners sorely short of personnel, money and direction.

It was the very best of days to be a Portsmouth fan. On 17 May 2008 at ­Wembley Nwankwo Kanu's first-half goal against Cardiff City was enough to win the FA Cup and take the old ­trophy back to Fratton Park for only the second time.

It was Portsmouth's first piece of major silverware since consecutive league championships in 1949 and 1950, an achievement of which Alexandre Gaydamak, the club's Franco-Russian owner, could be justly proud.

Only 13 months later Gaydamak wants out and Portsmouth FC find themselves at a crossroads. In one direction lies continued success at the highest level of English football, and a new stadium hosting World Cup football in 2018. In the other lies trouble and uncertainty. Neighbours Southampton provide an all too relevant warning of what might happen if the club cannot find a buyer.

The heart of that FA Cup-winning team has been sold, along with many other first-team regulars. There is a crippling debt of at least £60m. And the club are palsied by the ongoing saga of a mooted takeover by Sulaiman al-Fahim, the colourful Dubai-based businessman. The deal is unlikely to be concluded before mid-July, at which point there will be only four weeks to go until the new season starts.

"I'm very concerned because nothing seems to be happening at all," said Harry Garcia, the 82-year-old lifelong fan who helped save the club from going bust in 1976. "There's hardly anyone there, it seems the best players have gone."

At that time the £35,000 Garcia helped to raise through the SOS Pompey appeal was enough to prevent extinction: now it would not pay a week's wages for some of the highest earners.

At least the wage bill has gone down, though. Portsmouth have only 17 senior outfield players, plus three goalkeepers, barely enough for a complete match-day squad. Of the team that triumphed at Wembley Lassana Diarra, Sulley Muntari, Glen ­Johnson, Pedro Mendes and Milan Baros have departed, along with other key performers Sean Davis and Jermain Defoe. Djimi Traoré has also gone, along with five other squad players.

Peter Crouch, the club's record £9m signing, and central defender Sylvain Distin have both recently voiced their disquiet at the club's predicament and may also depart. Both have been targeted by rival Premier League clubs. Portsmouth's instability is also evident in the status of Paul Hart, the temporary manager who is still unsure about his future.

If the playing numbers are down, the situation in the boardroom is no different. Portsmouth have, effectively, only two board members – Gaydamak, who by his own admission knows little about football, and the executive chairman, Peter Storrie.

Storrie is on a salary of £1.23m, which is the third highest for such a role in the Premier League, behind only Peter Kenyon of Chelsea, and Manchester United's David Gill.

As the summer rolls on, with clubs busy recruiting for the new season before the transfer window closes on 1 September, Portsmouth's dealings have been almost entirely one-way. They have sold Johnson, Davis and Traoré, with more to follow. Only Aaron Mokoena, a journeyman defensive player, has arrived, on a free from Blackburn. This all heightens the importance of Fahim's proposed takeover.

"In trouble," is the verdict of Howard Frost, sports editor of the local paper, the News, when asked what position the club could be left in. "It's so important – the defining point of whether Pompey are battling relegation or in mid-table next season. If he [Fahim] doesn't take over, by mid-July you're going to have a situation where there's no manager, hardly any, if any, new signings, and an unbelievably small squad. There is the fear that they would have to battle on next season with the squad they have now."

For Storrie, though, it is business as usual. "It's about being proactive while we await the outcome of due diligence," he said. "There is still plenty of work going on behind the scenes in the search for new players. The scouts have been looking for a long while and we have players lined up.

"They will not all come at once. I would have thought it'll be around about when pre-season starts in a few weeks time. But I can assure fans we are being as productive as possible."

Fahim has so far made an erratic stab, at best, of staying on-message and portraying a consistent public persona since he announced his intent at the end of last month. The sheikh, who brokered the buy-out of Manchester City last summer before being sidelined by the new owner, Sheikh Mansour, because of his extravagant promise to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, Dimitar Berbatov and others, has contradicted himself over who is backing the Portsmouth deal, and whether they will pass the Premier League's "fit and proper person" test.

Storrie recently denied any involvement in the takeover by Sir Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League, and Thaksin Shinawatra, the disgraced former Thailand prime minister and ex-Manchester City owner.

Fahim has also been the focus for disgruntled ­customers of Hydra Properties, the Abu-Dhabi real estate business from which he was recently removed as chief executive – a coincidence of timing, according to his ­spokesman.

None of this, of course, will matter to Portsmouth supporters if Fahim does take charge – he is yet to submit the paperwork for the Premier League's approval – and maintains his promise to make the club a force. ^­"Everything I have seen makes me sure that we can build a great football club in the years to come," Fahim said when he first voiced his interest. "Portsmouth has incredible history, and its fans are some of the most loyal in the world of football.

"I look forward not just to working with them, but listening to their views on how they want to take the club forward. I am the investor, but this is their club and their community – and it is a privilege to be taking charge."

When precisely this will be is unclear, even to Fahim and his advisers. The likeliest time would be towards the end of July. The Premier League say they have sent out the relevant forms, and while no deadline has been set for dealing with those documents, it is in Fahim's interest to act while due diligence is still being carried out on the club's finances, as the League say they would take two weeks to complete their "fit and proper person" inquiries and issue approval.

Should the deal fall through for any reason, Portsmouth will have very little time in which to build a stronger squad. When asked what the club's Plan B was, Storrie declined to comment.

Paul Banks of the Portsmouth official supporters' club surely speaks for all Pompey mushes when he says: "We're just hoping everything does come to fruition. A few of us had the pleasure of meeting him and he put over a good impression."

Fahim was not a fan of football as a child and is hoping to make serious money from Portsmouth. How he does so from a club with the Premier League's smallest ground – and the only one with no executive boxes – is a challenging question. But football supporters are, by definition, optimistic souls. As Banks adds: "It's very difficult. All we can do is hope."

guardian.co.uk