Sulaiman al-Fahim, the Portsmouth chairman and former owner, believed that the summer transfer window could be kept open to allow the team to sign players after he purchased the club with a few days left in August.

Peter Storrie, the Portsmouth chief executive, believes that al-Fahim had the best of intentions after buying the club from Alexandre Gaydamak, but could not deliver on his promises of finance. As a result, al-Fahim was forced to sell 90 per cent of the club to Ali al-Faraj this week.

“He did the deal on August 29 and I said we would have great difficulty getting players in by the 31st,” Storrie said. “He said, ‘Can’t you get them to extend the deadline?’ He thought he could keep putting things off. When bills are due, they have got to be paid and he wasn’t used to that.”

The main one that went unpaid was the wage bill. “I went to the dressing room after the game last week and apologised to the players personally and updated them,” Storrie said.

After arranging emergency finance from al-Faraj, Storrie and the other members of the club’s executive board publicly called on al-Fahim to deliver the money he had promised.

“It was the only way we could think of getting the message across,” Storrie said. “I like Sulaiman. He had a belief he could deliver. I felt sorry for him, but we had to get him to the table. He couldn’t get the finance in time so his only option was to listen to what we said about selling it to someone who could put money in straight away.”

Storrie revealed that the club have reduced bank debt from £40 million to £10 million and he outlined the approach he expects from al-Faraj. “He doesn’t like publicity. He’ll let me run the club day to day,” Storrie said.

Avram Grant, the former Chelsea manager, was appointment yesterday as director of football at Fratton Park, a position he previously held between 2006 and 2007.