Yeovil Saint

You might have a point with Keegan, as good as he was he was only with us for two seasons, though it's worth pointing out that when we signed Keegan he was reigning European Footballer of the Year - are Pompey going to sign Messi for next season? But Channon, was way more identified with Saints than Merson or Stone will ever be with Pompey. He spent the vast majority of his career with us, won 45 of his 46 England caps while a Saint. I feel that players can only really be classed as one team's legend, Keegan belongs to Liverpool as a player, Newcastle as a manager, Merson's Arsenal and Stone Forest. EDIT, sorry missed the sarcasm, sorry.

The thing is that if it was allowed to happen, it would be seen that there's a couple of hundred of them max. Just think about that, a tiny fraction of the Blue Few.

I actually agree with this - If it turned out that Markus was a gun-runner or something, I don't think it would really matter to us Saints fans. I'm not sure high spending got you the Cup, it was more a slice of luck that got you there (Ipswich, Plymouth, Preston, Man Utd, West Brom and Cardiff is a pretty easy set of draws). We got to the final and you did without spending money we didn't have. Spending money you didn't have got you into the Premier League and kept you there. But remember, Saints stayed in the top flight year after year with team payrolls that were regularly in the bottom three. It might not have been pretty, but we did do it without our owners putting a penny into the club for a decade or more. I wouldn't say that the FA Cup win was tainted, every team that's won anything in the Premier League era has bought it but is it really as good a memory in hindsight as you're making out, is it worth what Pompey are going through now.

Loved the advert underneath the Times article. "Portsmouth, Have a Laugh Buy Your Tickets Now to See Top UKComedians in Your Local Comedy Club"

Simpler would be better, we could leave it what it's always been called... Krap nottarf I'll pledge £1.54 that I've just found down the back of the sofa (10x the net worth of Al-Fahim) towards that.

Here's a quick cheery thought to take us into the New Year. If players can walk if they aren't paid and PFC can't get the money to pay players until they get transfer fees and you want Belhadj or some other Pompey player, why would you pay? If you don't pay Pompey, then they can't pay Belhadj, so he can walk to your club for nothing except a signing on fee. The Premier League offices are closed until Monday, so if that's going to happen it'll happen then.

That's pretty standard, your average bank account doesn't attract much interest so if you're talking about millions, (the payroll that I used to deal with was £3.5m-£4m per month) then you move it into the account to arrive on the day before it's meant to go out. But in all the time I did it, I never got it wrong, it's not a difficult job to do, it only becomes difficult if you don't have the money. As it seems like even the directors of PFC don't know what's going on then that would explain the confusion at FP.

Redknapp was on SSN earlier saying that Spurs aren't interested in buying David James. That'll lower the money they can get for him and it's a odd thing for Redknapp to say.

Going into administration gives them -9, they aren't there yet. Not playing the players is a matter between them and the players, it's not a breach of PL rules.

SSN reporting that the players haven't been paid.

It doesn't really matter how much SG's worth, no-one likes to lose a few million when they don't have to. SG is reported to be owed between £29m and £35m out of the total debt of £60m-£90m. What are PFC's assets worth? If you sold every player on the club's books, about £15m? Fratton Park itself, about £10m? PFC doesn't own anything else of note does it? So if PFC did get wound up, SG gets about £10m-£15m of his money back, if Pompey stayed in the Premier League and continued being a going concern, SG would get all his money back - eventually.

PES, I think you're being too pessimistic about the future of Pompey, I can't see a chain of events that leads to Portsmouth being without a football club. Even if they do go under as a club, that happened to Middlesbrough and Bristol City in the 80s, those clubs stabilised a division or two lower. If Fratton Park was taken then it would be a little harder, but even AFC Wimbledon and Maidstone United are within 3 divisions of where they had once been. Saints and Pompey, in some form or other, to be rivals long after we've both shuffled off. I live in Yeovil now and Yeovil Town's traditional rivals are Weymouth. You might say that it doesn't make sense anymore, Weymouth are 3 divisions below Yeovil and look like getting relegated again, but that doesn't matter. Despite some Yeovil fans trying to create a rivalry with Rovers, Exeter and Bournemouth you can't manufacture that kind of thing. Yeovil's biggest rivals are still Weymouth, and ours will always be Pompey, even if you fell to the Wessex League or something. If SFC had folded in the summer and we had started up a Southampton 1885 club, wouldn't the first game between S1885 and PFC have been special, just like all the games we've played in the past. The corporate structure of the clubs involved mean nothing, it's a team representing the best city in Hampshire against a team representing that slum down the road.

I'm going to call bull on the rumour. The penalty for administration is -9 in the Premier League, not -10 if the guy at the FA was in the know, he would know that. A ten point deduction for not paying players - well, it's already happened and no points deduction, there's nothing in the rulebook about it and the FA can't make up a rule like that on the spot, PFC would sue them and win. It's not the FA who would appoint administrators, it would be PFC themselves or the courts. PFC would be allowed to start a season in the Championship as a club in administration, look at Stockport for an example. Nope, it's a nice thought but I don't buy it.

Yes, but everyone (in Portsmouth) knows that it takes months to import money from offshore

The point is that on 23rd December, PFC were issued with a winding up petition from HMRC, on 29th December Mark Jacob decided to spin a **** and bull story to the Guardian about how PFC's financial problems were behind them. Either Jacob doesn't know what he's talking about or he's a liar. Either way it doesn't bode well for PFC. I don't want Pompey to disappear entirely, but it is enjoyable watching the most stupid set of directors (and that includes our previous lot) play the Iraqi Minister of Information.

That's exactly the thing - in theory every creditor will be paid in full as long as Pompey remain a going concern, they still have money coming into the business and steps are being taken that will mean they start making a profit by offloading the high-wage earners. If Pompey remain in the Premier League next season then they will probably be okay. But if the creditors pull the plug now then they will certainly not get all their money back. HMRC aren't in the same position, they would like all their money for sure, but they are owed billions from businesses all the time and their number one priority is to put the fear of god into any business thinking of not paying what they owe. In the long run that'll get them more income than being seen as a soft touch. Hence they will often be the first creditor to go down the winding up petition route.

Probably they got the last £2m to HMRC in used readies and gave it to their new finance guy to pay it over to the taxman.

It's supposed to be a clause in the standard player's contract that all players have. But I've not seen the contract so I don't know. It would make sense for Pompey to risk the winding up petition if they absolutely have to make sure the players are paid this month.

Pompey owe a reported £10m to HMRC and had arranged a payment plan which included £2m in December and £2m in January, I assume in addition to the approx £1.5m they should pay for the payroll PAYE. HMRC issued a demand for £2m on December 23rd, giving Pompey seven days to pay up. This must be the £2m that Marc Jacob said had been paid in December because it doesn't make sense for HMRC demanding something that they had already agreed would be paid in January. It remains to be seen if the winding up order is for just the £2m in default or if they are now wanting the whole £10m+

A bit of an odd statement by Marc Jacob though in the Guardian piece, Regarding the wages, Jacob added: "No, there shouldn't be a problem with the salaries. We're confident." I've been involved in cashflow before - PFC know exactly how much is going out in their payroll, they should know if there's enough funds available in the bank to cover that. Jacob's words make me feel like there's not enough money in the bank right now but he's thinking that there should be enough money coming in today to cover it (maybe from an early transfer fee?)

Since when does extended highlights mean we'll show all the goals and the final whistle. Plus was that the most uninterested commentator ever?

Anyone as long as it's not Birmingham again. Just did a mock draw and ended up with Tranmere or Aldershot (away)

First of all, any team formed while Southampton FC is in existence couldn't start in the Blue Square Premier as there would be no vacancy. It would have to start much further down the pyramid. Maybe the Hampshire Premier League would accept Southampton 1885 however without a team, ground or money to guarantee fulfilment of fixtures even that's a long shot. But in my view starting a new club while we still have the old one is asking for trouble. We wouldn't be in a Wimbledon situation where the old club disowned it's past or even an FC United situation where the team is only popular because Man Utd fans can support a "United" team without the cost of going to Old Trafford. The closest parallel would be to Enfield where a splitter team took about most of the support both both clubs are below the league that the old club was at. I would support a new Southampton club in a heartbeat if the old club died, but while the old one is alive it deserves our support even if Lowe was in charge.

Absolutely Yes. If Southampton Leisure Holdings plc and Southampton Football Club Ltd ceased to exist, then any team founded as Southampton would be our Saints. We might have to start off again in the Conference South, Southern League or below, but the spirit and the soul of the club will remain. An "AFC Southampton" would retain the history and tradition of our club and if it comes to that, no matter which league they play in, I will support them.