Michael Eisner at Portsmouth FC's celebration party on Southsea Common

Chairman Michael Eisner shares his delight and looks back over the achievements of this season

Transcript

00:00Firstly, congratulations to the Women's Adventure Team this year, champions. How does it feel?

00:05Well, when the sun came out, it only made it better. 125th anniversary of the club,

00:11kind of a brand new frat in the park, and winning and moving up both for the women and the men.

00:17Can't be better than that.

00:19And it's only kind of June last year, I think, that you kind of incorporated the Women's Team into the ownership.

00:25So to achieve this in the first year for the Women's Team, how's that? I mean, was that quicker than expected?

00:31Well, we've been a supporter of the Women's Team as long as they've been around.

00:34They were a major team almost a century ago.

00:39But in the last year, we decided that we would take them in-house, work with them, work with Jay.

00:47And what did they score? 75 goals? Amazing.

00:54Better than you could have hoped for at the start of the year.

00:57I've never heard of anybody scoring 75 goals in a season. So yes, amazing.

01:02Obviously, with the men's team as well, you've been here the whole time of League One.

01:07There's been some criticism over the years, but you've always kind of stood firm and kept your policies.

01:12How does it feel today to be rewarded with this reception and the championship?

01:18Well, we came in when they went from League Two to League One that same day, actually.

01:26And we said at the beginning to rebuild Fratton Park, to own a training ground, to rebuild the training ground,

01:35to bring back to the glory of what Fratton Park was. It was going to take a while.

01:41And it also takes a while to get the right club together, to get somebody like Rich Hughes in, to find somebody like Tomasino.

01:52All that takes time. And if you don't have the patience, you shouldn't be in any business.

01:57So I think, frankly, it happened, I think, fairly quickly. But some people say it hasn't. I think it happened quickly.

02:06Obviously, it's a big step up. Some massive clubs in the championship. And obviously, the wage bill then goes up further.

02:12How prepared are you for the championship? Obviously, it's something you've forecast for.

02:18I think with Rich Hughes and Andrew Cullen, with John as the coach, I think we're very well prepared.

02:29Rich has been preparing for the championship all year. Even though we were at the top of the table, we didn't know we'd be advanced.

02:37But we had a suspicion we could be. So we are ready. That doesn't mean we're going to be the top four at the end of next season.

02:46We could be. But more likely, it's going to take time to build a club in a patient, sustainable, and I underline, sustainable way.

02:56We don't want to move up in an area where we take on debt or we go broke or any of those things.

03:04So it's not just about who the players are. It's how you run it.