Paul Hart took over as manager of Rushden & Diamonds, following the departure of Barry Hunter. After an average start to the season, Diamonds embarked on an eight match winless run, leading to Hart leaving the club in October by mutual consent. Hart joined Premier League club Portsmouth as Director of Youth Operations in 2007. He was asked to take over as caretaker manager, initially for one game only following the sacking of Tony Adams on 9 February 2009. Shortly afterwards, Hart brought Brian Kidd in as his assistant. He won his first game in charge 2–0 at home to Manchester City
Portsmouth Stadium cost cutting exercises and Portsmouth suffered as a result despite the fact that the GRA had pledged a new state of the art Portsmouth stadium previously. Lee McAlpine replaced Dave Stow as Racing Manager before Eric Graham took over and in 1998 Jim Snowden left Catford Stadium to take over as General Manager from the retiring Bill Francis. During 2006 the tracks 'Inside Sumner' hare system was replaced by the 'Swaffham' In 2008 it was announced that Portsmouth City Council's long term lease was nearing its end and they were considering selling the site for redevelopment. Lease holders GRA offloaded