Fratton Park will be a showroom for the January sales today when Portsmouth face West Ham United, with not only players but also both clubs on the market. However, Tony Adams, the Portsmouth manager, cannot afford to look beyond the need to take three points to stabilise the club's Barclays Premier League position.

Portsmouth are in tenth place, but Adams knows that they will not stay in the top half for long if they continue to defend as poorly as they have in recent weeks and that the relegation zone is closer than it looks. Today's visiting team, who are seventeenth, only one point above the bottom three, will close to within one point of Portsmouth if they win - and they are unbeaten in four away matches, including draws against Chelsea and Liverpool.

“I have been saying all season that it is so close in the Premier League, with everyone beating everyone and with a lot of draws, so it means a lot of clubs are together,” Adams said. “But it has to be one game at a time, and to get three points against West Ham and see where we go.”

The reason for the defensive difficulties is not hard to identify. “The midfield has been ripped out of the FA Cup-winning team,” he said. “There was lots of protection in there last season with Sulley Muntari, Pedro Mendes and Lassana Diarra. It's not just about the back four.

“I am looking to strengthen, but I think there are overinflated prices in January and I am not sure I can get the right people to take this club on. But I still need to bring a couple in to do that and make a statement.”

The “statement” would be that the club are not as broke as many people have suggested. But they could not afford to turn down the fees offered for the three players named by Adams and how much of the £18 million paid by Real Madrid for Diarra will be available to reinvest - and whether other players must be sold - remains to be seen.

Adams warned supporters not to expect big-money signings on the scale of the days of Harry Redknapp, his predecessor. “We are Portsmouth FC and you have to realise who you are,” Adams said. “We have done well in recent years and brought big players in, but I don't think the situation is like that now. We have 19-20,000 in Fratton Park every week. We don't have 60,000. Economically we have got numbers to crunch.”

And Portsmouth are not alone in that, as West Ham will appreciate. “My personal opinion is that football will see a downturn,” Adams said. “I think it is inevitable. I don't think it can carry on going the way it is going. I am no expert, but basic economics would tell me that.”