So then, now the dust has settled, let me admit to my part in the fans' meeting with Pompey's owner Sulaiman al Fahim last Friday evening (the minutes of which can be read here).
Organisers attempted to keep the meet quiet because they didn't want a media circus, but obviously if something is being organised in an open forum like the internet it's difficult to keep anything secret.
But the only media present when we arrived at Fratton Park were from the club's local newspaper, The News. And they would not have been doing their job had they not been aware.
The man himself came across as affable and keen to win over the fans. But he still failed to convince most of those present. For my part, I suggested to him that he had been very naive in dealing with the media and that he should be more aware of the bad press the club was receiving nationally and locally at the moment.
One supporter made the point that the club was currently a 'laughing stock' and it was difficult to argue with that assertion. Al Fahim was not to be moved from his main theme of the evening, however, which was that he had secured £50m-worth of investment for the club and that, one £50m debt aside, the club should be debt-free in November. Or January, depending on legal niceties.
We're not in a position to start campaigning for him to leave - though the days when the whole crowd used to chant "DEACON OUT!" and shake Fratton's rafters is still one of my happiest memories - and we have to afford him the chance to prove himself.
He wants to have another meeting with fans' representatives in six weeks' time. If he's injected that £50m we'll probably let him wear a replica shirt; if he hasn't ... well, he's bought himself six weeks grace.
We'll just have to wait and see.
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