Fans to wait for summer for investment

Al Fahim is currently in Spain where he is indulging one of his great loves, chess. He was a very useful chess player in his youth and supports the UAE chess federation and has secured an invitation to the Karpov-Kasparov battle in Valencia.

He gave several interviews to the Spanish media where he discussed chess and his role at Portsmouth FC. The Guardian picked up one of the interviews where Al Fahim indicates that there is likely to be no major investment until the summer as the 'necessary liquidity' will only be available at this time.

Portsmouth supporters, who are already concerned by the performance on the pitch, are not expected to be pleased at this news. Al Fahim is due to meet a group of fans ahead of the game against in-form Everton on Saturday.

Guardian extract:

"We're not in a hurry to sign stars and we're not going to go into the transfer market at the moment. We'll probably start signing next summer when we have the necessary liquidity to do so. It depends on how the business side of things evolves between now and then but that would be the logical stage [to do so].

"My model of a club is Arsenal. The philosophy they have of signing young players so that they can grow within the club is ideal. Barcelona are the perfect example too – they signed Lionel Messi at 13 and developed him from the start.

"We have come into Portsmouth because we see an enormous amount of potential here – if we chose this club ahead of others it was precisely because of that potential," he said. "But we have to start by giving the club the right infrastructure. We have to do things at the right time and right now the priority for Portsmouth is to create the foundations so that it can be a stable and serious club in the future."