Sky Sports are reporting that Trevor Birch has done a deal to sell Portsmouth Football Club to Portpin, a week after Balram Chainrai ruled himself out of taking over.
The deal is expected to be completed in the next two weeks as the Pompey Supporters Trust's bid has reportedly failed in two key areas. A statement from Portpin says that it is "to take action to avoid imminent liquidation of Portsmouth."
Fans have understandably reacted angrily to this announcement given the positive vibe that was surrounding the club since Saturday. It is expected that protests will be in place for when Oldham visit Fratton Park on September 1st.
However, the grim reality is that Chainrai was never going to go away and the Trust's bid has always been seen as an alternative to his bid. The PST simply do not have the money to complete a viable take over of the club and thus Portpin's return was going to be inevitable.
This could mean that all of Michael Appleton's hard work in building his team will be undone as Chainrai tightens the purse strings in an attempt to bleed the club dry of any money it might make whilst keeping losses to a minimum.
The worst thing about it is that unless someone stumps up a hugely significant amount of money to stop Portpin taking over in a couple of weeks (and it may already be too late), then that little ray of hope that we have seen in the last week or so will soon be extinguished.
There will undoubtedly be more to come from this story, but it seems like this depressing saga is set to continue.