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Avram Grant, the Portsmouth manager, has hit out at the broken promises that have left his side staring relegation from the Barclays Premier League in the discount Mbt shoes face.

The Israeli took over as manager when Paul Hart was sacked in November and was led to believe that he would be in a position to add four players to his side last month.

But with the club struggling to pay their players for the fourth time this season, and needing to sell Younès Kaboul and Asmir Begovic to balance the books, Portsmouth have only been able to recruit Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, the striker.

The Kaboul and Begovic deals were negotiated behind the backs of Grant and Peter Storrie, the chief executive, prompting both men to consider leaving Fratton Park. Both opted to stay, but Grant admits that the failure of Ali al-Faraj, the owner, to deliver new blood during the transfer window has hurt their hopes of survival.

Grant, whose side play Fulham at Craven Cottage tonight, said: “I’m not a quitter and I’m not afraid of problems — for me a problem is a big challenge and I came here with a big MBT Shoes challenge. But I’m very, very disappointed with the situation off the pitch and I’m very disappointed that people cannot do what they promised me.

“When I came to the team, I knew the situation was not good with the football side, but they promised me everything was good with the financial side and that we would bring four players more. So we made a lot of progress on the football side. We showed a lot of character and were thinking about the next step — to stay in the league.

“We needed to bring in players so that the squad could be good, especially as we had a lot of injuries in the team. There was a lot of pressure on a very short squad and we didn’t have time to let players who were coming back from injury ease their way back into the squad. We’ve had injuries, as we thought we would have ghd hair straighteners, and instead of bringing in two players, we sold two players. I’m very disappointed.”

While Storrie said last week that he and Grant had every reason to consider their positions, the Portsmouth manager has concerns other than his own future.

“I’m trying not to think about myself now, especially when we have a game,” he said. “I’m trying to think about the club because I don’t think that I’m the main issue.

“The main issue is Portsmouth Football Club and the fans. I’m trying to think what is best for them. Of course, I don’t feel we did the best for them off the pitch. But on the Mbt shoes pitch, we are always trying to do the best.”

Another day in the apparent meltdown of Portsmouth began yesterday morning with the club website going offline because the bills had not been settled.

It ended with the manager and chief executive in the dark over the likely sale of the club’s most valuable player. Today? Probably a delay in the payment of players’ wages for the third time in four months.

Peter Storrie, the chief executive, is understood to be “very unhappy” about negotiations carried out behind his back for the transfer of Younès Kaboul to Tottenham Hotspur — as are Avram Grant, the manager, and Mark Jacob, the executive director. The talks were handled instead by Daniel Azougy, the Israeli lawyer employed by the club’s owners to look after Portsmouth’s finances, despite his convictions for fraud and obstruction of justice in Israel.

Storrie said that it was up to the owners if they wanted to sell players, but that ignoring his experience in conducting transfer negotiations left his position close to untenable. “In many ways it probably has,” he said. “If there is a need to sell a player and get a fee, then I feel I am the best person for the ghd hair straighteners situation.” Tanya Robins, the finance director, resigned last week after being sidelined in favour of Azougy.

Kaboul joined Portsmouth in August 2008 from Tottenham, now managed by Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager at the time, but about £2 million of the original fee paid by Portsmouth is still outstanding. But if the move will be as unpopular with supporters as it is with Grant, it may be unavoidable.

It is assumed that the players’ wages will not be paid on time today, while staff received an e-mail yesterday warning them that they face a delay. It is understood that payments to consultants and contractors are much farther in arrears.

Without an injection of funds, the club could not pay the £1.75 million wage bill as well as financing the signings they hope to make now that the Premier League has partially lifted its transfer embargo. The club are allowed to sign players only on loans or free transfers, but they must still find additional wages, loan fees, agents’ fees and signing-on mbt sale bonuses. The club received very little of the £1.6 million reported to remain from their share of the television payout, with the League setting some aside to pay Watford and West Ham United instalments due on the transfers of Tommy Smith and Hayden Mullins respectively.

The chaotic state of the club’s finances was emphasised yesterday when Times Online revealed that the official club website had gone offline as a result of Portsmouth’s failure to pay the company that hosts its online presence. “It’s down because we haven’t paid the bill,” a club source said. “We haven’t kept to the payment schedule.” The site was back up by mid-afternoon after Juicy, the club’s Bournemouth-based digital partner, announced that the two sides had agreed a new payment plan.

The disappearance of an official club voice ghd hair straighteners from the internet in such circumstances is a damaging blow to the club’s standing and a PR embarrassment, but worse could follow.

Portsmouth face a winding-up petition from Revenue & Customs on February 10, and some club insiders are concerned that events may follow a course similar to those this week at Crystal Palace, where administrators were called in the day before a winding-up petition was due to be heard.

Neil Warnock is staying on as manager of Palace despite their slide into administration and the loss of ten Championship points. Palace have debts estimated to be £30 million Mbt shoes  and need to raise about £4 million to see out the season.

Mbts   Portsmouth’s troubles deepened last night as it emerged that they are struggling to persuade the Premier League to lift the transfer embargo in time to strengthen their relegation-threatened squad next month.

The South Coast club have been bullish about Avram Grant’s prospects of reinforcing his new squad when the transfer window opens on January 1, but it has emerged that, in a meeting with Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, last week, the Portsmouth board were told that the embargo will remain in place unless they can find at least £10 million in order to satisfy the immediate demands of their list of creditors These include Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Watford and at least two overseas clubs as well as Alexandre Gaydamak, the former owner, and HM Revenue & Customs.Mbt.com  

Portsmouth owe money to Chelsea over the signing of Glen Johnson, since sold to Liverpool, and to Tottenham Hotspur over the acquisitions of Jermain Defoe and Younes Kaboul, but the Premier League says the payments due to Watford, over the summer signings of Mike Williamson and Tommy Smith, are the most pressing.

Scudamore has told Mark Jacob, Shoes Mbt  the Portsmouth executive director, that it would be disastrous if a Football League club were forced into administration because a Premier League club could not afford to pay transfer fees due under the terms of an agreed contract.

Portsmouth, like other clubs, will receive £7 million in broadcast revenue from the Premier League at the end of the month, but, unless Ali Al-Faraj, their latest owner, can refinance their existing debts,Mbt shoes     that money will have to go straight to their creditors and towards financing the club’s £2 million wage bill for next month.

Portsmouth would like to invest some of that money in Grant’s squad, but the Premier League, which imposed the embargo under the terms of its moves towards greater financial regulation, will not allow the club to register any new players until they have indicated an ability to pay the sums due to other clubs before January 31.Mbt shoes sale