Pompey perked by their Indian summer

AFTER a summer of almost unrelenting misery, autumn appears to be yielding fresh hope at Portsmouth.

As if recording a first win of the season on Saturday was not enough sunshine for the south coast club, their financial clouds could also be set to disperse after Sulaiman al-Fahim, their would-be owner, entered negotiations to sell his majority shareholding in the club to a consortium led by Saudi property tycoon Ali al-Faraj.

Al-Faraj has supplied the £5million bridging loan needed this week to pay the wages of club staff and looks set to buy out the majority of Al-Fahim’s stake within a matter of days.