THE administrator appointed to find a buyer for Croydon Village Outlet handled a similar situation at a former Premier League football club, the Advertiser can reveal.
Andrew Andronikou, from Hacker Young, handled the affairs of Portsmouth FC after the 2008 FA Cup winners went into administration four years ago.
At the time, he was highly critical of the way the club – which has since dropped into the fourth tier of English football – had been run.
He was quoted as saying, in 2010: "Portsmouth is an example of how not to conduct business in the world of football.
"If you overspend and don't budget accordingly you cannot rely on money from the owner or the proprietor coming in to bridge the gap, and in that it's no difference to any other business."
Andronikou came in for some media criticism during his time at the Fratton Park club, with some suggesting he was a little too high profile.
Darren Lewis, a Daily Mirror journalist, wrote in the summer of 2010 how the administrator seemed "to be enjoying his 15 minutes [of fame] a little too much."
He continued: "From the moment he arrived he allowed himself, for reasons best known to himself, to be pictured holding a Pompey scarf above his head as if he were the new chairman rather than the man brought in to try to stabilise a sinking ship.
"Since then there have been a number of occasions on which Andronikou has given the impression that the fame is going ever so slightly to his head.
"Not least the time when he was spotted signing autographs at one of Portsmouth's home games ahead of their relegation from the Premier League."
With the flamboyant Marco Cash – and his promises of Croydon's answer to Harrods and bare-bummed antics at the town hall – on the way out, it seems the man now holding the fort is no shrinking violet either.
He this evening told the Advertiser: We are looking for a buyer and to preserve as many jobs on site as possible.
"We are trading as normal and a number of the concessions are trading independently of us."
