Pompey's journey from Wembley to High Court

Portsmouth's late equaliser against Sunderland on Tuesday night was, however small, a rare piece of good fortune for the club. They could receive more cheering news today if they are granted a 28-day delay to their winding-up hearing at the High Court.

All the same, the Fratton Park side's story since winning the 2008 FA Cup has been one of near-constant decline. David Conn, writing in the Guardian, traces the reasons and warns that other clubs may follow Portsmouth into near-extinction:

The 2008 FA Cup final was scripted as a romantic Wembley journey for two solid clubs from football's provinces but today, only 21 months on, Portsmouth and Cardiff City meet again in a more sobering ­London setting: the companies' ­winding‑up court.

Both Pompey and Cardiff were ­hopeful yesterday that after making down-payments on tax bills of £7.5m and £2.6m respectively, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs would agree adjournments and accept plans to pay the rest in instalments.

Yet the very appearance of two of football's bigger clubs – and Southend United – who continue to receive millions of pounds in TV and other income, in a court where scores of small, hard-hit businesses will be wound up today, has concentrated minds again on the game's inability to balance the books, even in this boom time.

Since 1992, the year the Football League's First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League, and therefore not share their TV rights bonanza with the other three divisions, Football League clubs have fallen into insolvency a staggering 53 times.

For three of them – Aldershot, Maidstone and, later, Scarborough – the histories of the original clubs did truly end, in liquidation before subsequently being re-established. For others, administration meant they could be bought by new owners, who paid a fraction of the debts that were owed – except at Southampton, where last year Markus Liebherr paid Saints' debts in full. Since 2002, when ITV Digital's collapse helped push 10 clubs over the edge, an estimated £200m due to creditors has been left unpaid, including sums owed to the police, local ­councils, hospitals, universities and other public bodies, a Yellow Pages-worth of small businesses and, most unforgivably, St John Ambulance.

Although their fiscal difficulties are not as grave as Pompey's, Arsene Wenger has said that Arsenal cannot afford to sign top players due to their uncompetitive wage structure. Gabriele Marcotti, writing in the Times, does not believe this to be the case:

Wenger is a bit misplaced with his other comment, the one about not having money to spend on wages, since - apparently unlike Chelsea or Manchester United - he has to adhere to the club's rigid £90,000 a week maximum wage.

Wenger argues that, given those restrictions, it was impossible for him to bring somebody in who could help the club.

I find this very difficult to believe. Because what Arsenal lack is a reserve striker with a big body who won't fall over the ball but, in certain games, can provide the muscle which is lacking, open space for the more skilful players and generally provide the kind of presence which has been lacking.

This does not mean signing Kevin Davies and lumping balls to his head. It means getting an intelligent, mobile, unselfish guy who might be happy to come off the bench and do a job for you.

These type of players are not overly expensive. Heck, he could even have signed someone on loan with a buy-back option.

He does not need to sign David Villa or Pato. He just needs someone who can fill a role, whether it’s a youngster who might develop or a veteran who will provide cover in the short-term. For some reason though, Wenger seems averse to doing this.

Which is rather curious, since he apparently had no problem doing it in defence: witness the signings of Mickael Silvestre and Sol Campbell.