JUST before Christmas 2008 the rug was pulled from under my feet by Portsmouth owner Sacha Gaydamak.
He told me: “Mr Adams, I will not be investing any more money in the club and we need to find £6million by the end of January or we may have to go into administration.”
I looked at the team after a 4-1 home defeat by West Ham on Boxing Day and could see a majority simply weren’t interested.
I thought to myself that I just wasn’t getting any respect here, so I gave them all a complete and utter volley.
I shouted: “You are a f***ing disgrace. Half of you are not trying and it’s unacceptable.”
I was particularly disgusted with Jermain Defoe.
I looked him straight in the eye when I said: “If any of you don’t want to be part of this club that I am building, then you can f*** off. Come to me tomorrow morning and we’ll sort you a new club.”
Thank God the next morning Jermain did come to see me. He said he wanted to go back to Spurs.
I guessed he had had a phone call with Harry Redknapp, or maybe his agent had, but I didn’t mind, even if someone might have seen it as tapping up.
Actually, I was delighted. It meant we would get in the money the club needed and we let Jermain go back to Spurs for £15m, having paid £7.5m for him just a year earlier.
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