Frank's cousin

Like I said... we need to freshen things up a bit... this is not a criticism of the squad as i think they have played as a TEAM above their level and done us proud, but we need to ensure we have a little more depth, quality and pace for the second half of the season. The fact we are top has provided us with teh opportiunity to be more attractive to some of the better quality available. We will get through this IF we dont panic...

Everyone saying we should have must sign a striker - fair enough, but does everyone seem to forget we tried? But the deals were not right. Are we forgetting a few things? Most of us (well the sensible ones) remember and agree with taht we should maintain a stable and realistic financial base, have a model wage structure and NOT do what some other clubs are doing and blue way too much cash trying to buy our way out... we can see clearly where that leads - I suspect we had a budget, nige and NC could not get of our targets to agree those terms which is why we did not sign a striker. Come January, given the platform we have established, it might be a little more expensive for the transfer fee, but the players may settle on a lesser deal with the promise of potential promotion... we'll see. But whilst it is dissapointing to lose two consecutive away and to two lower placed clubs, no excuses, etc, BUT we have seen that this is a tough league and its not just us that slip up now we get into the tough winter months - loads of ups and downs to come, biut for now I look at the table - after 20 I would have been happy pushing for the play off place. Sitting top, even with a dip and terrible away form suggests its far from bad. Sure loads of work to do, but are we surprized that the balance of side the quality has suffered without Lambo, Chappers and Adam not firing on all cylinders? Come on, give the guys a bit of slack. As a side they are sitting top of the pile - forget home form away form and look at the stats: played 20, won 13, draw 3, lost 4 = 65% win rate... which is pretty incredible. Sure if we want auto promotion, we can not afford to simply accept this, but we also dont need to panic - its not like we dont know what is needed... our key players fit and back in and a coupple of signings to inject some freshness and spark back into a side that has out performed our expectations so far, but as can happen, is maybe so reliant on teh core, that wiothout it we struggle a little - fresh meat etc should sort that for the second half of the season, but now its abbout keeping the faith, getting behind the lads and getting them through this tough patch without Lambo and Chappers. Be disaapointed yes, but dont lose belief, and dont panic. NIge knows what's needed and I am confident he and NC will sort it in Jan. COYRS

Its not just you... a rare occasion that I absolutely agree with you - welcome to the liberal elite (don't you feel liberated?) What would be saddest about this if actually true, is how someone felt the need to take their own life because of what someone else thinks or what bullsheidt they write about sexuality - its has no baring on anything and no place in the public domain - its a personal thing. Its the reason why 'political correctness' was introduced - not to ban things that are characterised as offensive to a particular group, but to acknowledge that there are some things that some individuals will find offensive... and very personnal. IF this is true, its dispicable that any newspaper/media outlet would even consider making it a public issue - and even more dispicable that there are enough sad ****ers interested in such irrelevent gossip to buy it and keeps the gutter 'press' printing these types of story... and tehir advertisers for only thinking about the ABC (audit bureau of circulation) number, rather than any moral or ethical choice in where they spend their marketing budget.

Surely though Sergei, you have in a somewhat roundabout way illustrated the senselessness of these 'books' - NO one is denying the historical significance of these teachings and their influence on the cultural development of many nations, civilizations etc... but look closely at your examples and what is clear is that they all involve invasion, war, political strife.... all as you point out on the back of the 'good books' and the religious zealots that say it is representative of some higher being. I think there is some confusion with Thorpe's post - I don’t believe he is dismissing the importance of religion on history, but merely IMHO quite rightly feckin angry that they played such a part, that scholars may have studied them, but politicians and religious zealots have used them for their own political ambition (of which there is no doubt). The fact that they are able to control huge populations through cementing the written word (after 100s of years of rewrites and interpretation) with some mythical divine being and thus ensure a decent power base is what we should be angry at. Personal faith/belief does no harm (even if iMHO utterly misguided) but when used as a political force - it really shows its hideousness. Therefore, indoctrinating kids when they are not of an age to know any better or question the validity of the content is for me abuse and why such texts of whatever type should have no place in schools... until placed in their proper context (IMHO works of fiction/folklore that over time have had way too much influence on political, social and cultural development) and studied from that perspective. Explaining emotion and love, is relatively straight forward: ask any evolutionary biologist to explain the clear link the natural selection for pair bonding in species that bare young that are immature and require years of looking after to reach maturity and its quite simple… spiritualism, well sorry but that IS mumbo Jumbo and always about the money – there are several very well researched books (often by ‘ex-spiritualists’) who explain the shenanigans and tricks used to appeal to the gullible and vulnerable… ‘those who are desperate to believe are easy to fool’ You are right in stating in a later post that science should be open to all things… and indeed it is. You state that why should we believe in the Big bang as explained by scientists and not believe Jesus etc existed… I am sure he did, but draw the line at the son of god thing. The main difference between science and belief in the divine is that those who advocate belief (churches) expect it to be absolute, ‘no doubting Thomas’s here please’, no questioning no acknowledgement that the ‘holy books’ have been rewritten countless times and originally penned many years after what little factual evidence there was has long been forgotten, shaped and molded through the centuries to support whatever political doctrine the times called for… science on the other hand acknowledges that most of what we know (especially around the more specialist areas such as Quantum theory) …is theoretical, but it is based on direct observation and analysis of results available to date – we may not be able to see inside the atom, but the way a simple resistor works supports the theory… computers and the like work because we used the theory to build components that if the theory was correct, should do as we predict and they do… but with science everyone acknowledges that as we learn more the theories will change and so will our understanding of it… with absolute faith/belief, no one is allowed to challenge and there is no acknowledgement from the Vatican etc that they might be wrong… and that is a BIG difference.

I am kind of hoping WHU will be this years Huddersfield - push us all the way - we handled that pressure last season, do it again this and we will be champions playing our style of passing football - for me that is really important, that we do it entertaining and less Big Sam old school hoof and muscle (it may be effective, but could not take any real pride in that or the way they are 'managing a huge debt burden' to ty and go straight back up). It will be far tougher in this league, but as Nige says, together as one and as long as we recognise the value in the way we play, sometime being more important than the result, we stay as one. West Ham will go up.. our job is to go up as well and if we handle the pressure, it will be above them. Bring it on

Have to agree with Old NIck on this one. You know what its like, the media and football world shed tears for clubs that look like they are going out of business, even if entirely of tehir own making - as Corpse used to say,' in 20 od years time no one will care HOW pompey won the cup, it will just show theiir name in the record books blah blah... ' and that is sadly true. The league will not want to withdraw any share. and the sickly slime ball AA will know exactly what he can get away with - already using the media to stoke up the 'we wont get a points deduction' even though he can not possibly state this yet... which means i suspect he has the appropriate loop holes identified already...? The fact that teh sysytem allows a club, that have been in admin with debts of 120 mil, who have paid 30mil from advanced parachute payments to cover teh football debts, who have yet to provide the 20% of 20% owed in the first year to all over creditors as part of teh CVA to receive 10.8mil form CSI to fund their transfers and wages to remain competitive whilst creditors wait - is for me the crux - forget all the dodgy financials, owners and mortgages etc, How teh feck can this be allowed? As there is simply no argument that this is in effect an unfair competive advanatge (again) whilst they have outstanding creditors waiting for their money. Had teh creditors known all this, would they have voted for the CVA? would not Pompey thus still not be in admin? Seriously, throughout this whole saga, its not the dodgy owners that have have ****ed me off, that is sadly not the fans fault, but the inability of the FL to properly oversee the finances. If there was 10 mil comming it should have gone straight to creditoes...cant afford teh squad? well tough ****, sell the players and play with kids even if it means relegation... and yes I do claim the moral high ground on that one as we did it (whatever else Lowe was he at least had some sense of ethics, even if only to save the shareholder value).... but no the FL let them spend it on a squad they cant afford AGAIN and the fans show no contrition, no sense of moral outrage at the spending either the second... They will undoubtedly survive somehow, given the ineptitude and cowardice of the FL in policing their own. I just want 1 pompey fan to at least recognise that they cheated first time, and they have been cheating again and be feckin angry about THAT, not the dodgy owners that they have no control over. Somehow I doubt i will find one, as as for the football league, they should hang their heads in shame for letting this go on...and on..and on, not once, but twice.... inept, pathetic, cowardly and obsessed by self interest.

Not being up on insolvency laws, can some one explain the following: As I understand it cSI in admin, 'protects the companies' - but surely if CSI is an assett of the dodgy russian then the Lithuanians have first claim on it or not? seriously confused by thsi whole mess and the fact that AA has been apointed and is already mouthing off in the media that points deductions are unlikely seems at odds with a professional resolution of the situation (let alone the potential issue of conflict of interest) - it may well be that AA mouthing off is counterproductive given that the FL make take umbrage with someone telling them what they should/could be doing...?

Thansk Derry, insightful as always - have not seen the side play for ages since moving to Scotland. Also believe De Ridder would benefit from a few starts as it would probably calm him down a little... getting 20 mins or so means he tends to let his enthusiasm get the better of him, hencse his card tally (4 I believe) so it would probably help all round?

Did he not mention lack of width? LOL :-) ;-) How you doin' by the way?

Going to waste one of the precious 3 posts (no. 2) on a lucky fag - its blowing a gale outside in the grim North, wet and cold... but needs must and all.

It probably wont happen that often, but I have to agree 100%.

Why do faith schools out perform others... without a qualified response but a gut instinct would say its quite simple... The parents of those kids who attend often go out of their way to get their kids in them... often going to church for a few months etc... quite simply because the parents actually care about their kids education, so I would speculate that these kids get the support and input from home to help with their education, its not rocket science... and its not divine intevention ;-)

I am talking about the teaching of religous dogma as fact or without opportunity to question the basis on which it is based - to me, IMHO that is abuse (let alone the horrific stories of physical abuse that occured/occurs in some) Why, because if children grow up believers due to childhood indoctrination, then to me that is simply wrong. Therefore be it Bibles, Korans whatever, has no place in schools - until they are used in study of their history and as literature or during comaparative exercises where exploartion of their cultural influence is examined - eg an an age when kids are old enough to make up their own minds and to question the validity of it all. I would hazzard a guess that most who are true 'believers' are because of early teaching of whichever religion as fact (I have no evidenec for thsi but its an educated guess) - yes tehre are thsoe who seek it later in life @norn again' or whatever, who gravitate towards the mumbo jumbo as something is missing in their lives. I am not saying that all teh parables or teachings within these books are not valid, afterall if you select elements carefully there are some good humanitarian principles in them, but to combine these teachings with belief in a higher being is something that should be left until kids are alot older and can question it.

... well best not mention the child abuse perpretated in rather too many 'religous schools' then... but as too often you miss the point entirely. Young children are not capable of 'reason' and therefore are not able to question the vailidity of what they are being spun from the 'believers' of ANY religion, be it Christian, Muslim or Judaism (ironically all worshipping the same 'God', yet this 'unholy trinity' cant even stop fighting each other)... its why kids believe in Santa - only they are not told that if that if they dont believe in Santa, or if they explore their own bodies they will end up in Hell...

Relgious has no part in schools and to be honest should have no part in education full stop. Its something that if when old enogh some folk want to examine and follow, fair enough, but indoctrinating kids who dont know any better and dont have the minds to question is abuse.. funny how everyone woyuld agree if their child was sweat off to some WACO style cult, yet feel happy to let their kids be indoctrinated at school with what is essentially a 'larger cult' - and we get no choice as tax payers that this sheite goes on... Religeous schools shoudl not be fee paying they should be banned...

Right afternoon chaps what have I missed? Mrs C has me wallpapering the spare room and getting feck all reports on 5Live.... seems better opposition today that are on form so will be tight if they have packed teh midfield?

Mike... dont feel bad mate, you did a fantastic job and created a fantastic flag that captured the spirit of what we are about really great job. Personnally though, not sure it is such a great idea at away games, without the space and of no meaning to the home fans etc, could easily get in pretty poor condition after a few games - and it is such a great tribute to Markus, think its actually quite cool that it comes out at the mormorial games... keeps it special in a way. I think the problem is, many fans just want a big flag to use because they look pretty awesome on disply, but when you consider the message it conveys, really think it is something special and maybe we should keep it as such? Just a thought.

Because of the £3 booking fee for every game.... Must admit surprized by the general negativity towards this... FFS. If you dont want to do it fine, if you cant afford it, sorry, but its a simple way of getting tickets to all 10 games in one go and saving £35 quid... simple deal. Sure its not sale of century, think of it as a free pint per home game or whatever - but its for your convenience, nothing else and guarrantee of a seat for pompey and the last home game... what's the feckin problem? MOan..moan,..moan... oh we are top of the league... moan..moan....moan... oh the club want to encourage us to buy in advance and save a few quid... moan...moan...moan... might be a clever marketing ploy to get a few more fans in the habit of going every week...moan ...moan...moan... some of you just seem to want everything on your terms and if it aint it must be **** and a result of those evil folks in the board room... FFS...

£35 quid cheaper than 10 individual tickets, no queing, mis a match and still £up, guarranteed tickets for Pompey and last game of season etc so if you can afford it, likely to go to all anyway, seems a good deal. As they said its not an ST, so no advantage for next year, but they are not selling it as such, just a way to guarrantees tickets for the last 10 games with a £35 saving overall so anyone who moans is frankly being stupid. As to how popular it will be? who knows and yes the club may have missed a marketing trick by offeing say half of next years ST renewal discount to anyone who takes up this offer... apart form that, whats the problem?

Bah HUMBUG! ;-)

IMHO there were potential 6 penalty shouts in all - so how many did he get right? 1. Hand ball off Guly shot - IMO ball to hand an no chance really of the defender getting out of way - NO PENALTY AWARDED - WALTON CORRECT 2. Guly blocked in the area - Penalty by letter of law, but would probably have been a little harsh and Guly went down a bit easy - NO PENALTY AWARDED - WALTON given benefit of doubt (CORRECT/WRONG)... 3. Lambert held back and around neck - rarely given as seems to be seen as part and parcel of penalty area shenanigans, but as they say would probably have been a free kick if outside the area. Would have been very harsh - NO PENALTY AWARDED - WALTON GIVEN BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT (CORRECT) 4. Fonte fouled outside the area - should have been a free kick - PENALTY awarded - WALTON WRONG 5. Lambert pushed over in the box - IMHO defo a PENALTY - NO penalty awarded - WALTON WRONG 6. Lambert fouled on the edge of the box - looks like he was caught ever so slightly, but more a stumble Think Ricky was clever here after not being given the stonewaller - PENALTY AWARDED - Walton WRONG (but they do get given and difficult for the) ref to always get right For me he gets about half the decsions right, but it looks worse as the ones he gives were not penalties - think he made a genuine mistake after consulting with the lino after awarding the Fonte one, and for the second, probably making up for previous one on Lambo not given. So all in all not sure what Brighton fans or Poyet are complaiinng about - they were lucky we were poor (for most part) and rusty, otherwise it could well have been 6.

From the name mentioned above , Rhodes seems intelligent, young and from is interviews teh sort of player who would find a seet on the bus, given we are looking for younger players with potential. NOt sure if Hudders would let him go right now though given they are 2nd and woudl hope to push on. Would rather take someone younger now than another 28-30 yo TBH

Dune, as you are someone whose tongue is well and truely wedged up the arse crack of Thatch, the 'ring' of capitalism and the anus of the free market economy I am sure you will get this; (well I think i am sure) If as a buisness leader I was making my employer decsions based on value for money, graft per buck as you say, I would employ whoever would work hardest for the least cash regardless of skin tone, country of origin or whatever - afterall in taht scenario its about mee me me and nothing else matters. If I was decent employer looking to provide a fair market rate for the best workers I could find, I would employ again the best who came to interview regardless of skin colour ethinic origin or nationality (given that poland is in teh EU and I am fully entitled to employ ploish workers should I wish to - just as Brits can go and work freely in any other EU country). If however, I was a bigot small minded racist employer , i would exclusively employ those who represent my 'culture and race or nationality, because I dont want no foreigners nicking british jobs, even if they are cheaper to employ. However, most of those ignoarant racist ******s tend to employ foreigners regardless because they are laughing to themselves as they exploit the filthy foreigners - even better if they are illegals as I can get away with cash in hand for about £3 an hour and not worry about the minimum wage or national insurance contibutions - see there is often a close link between those who wear their biggotted nationalism on their sleave, yet when it comes down to their selfishness and greed takes over. So even you must see that the LAWs put in place are NOT there to prevent you employing who you want, but to try and weed out those employers who discriminate against minorities - its not right that such laws exist, but what is worse is the fact that they HAVE to because sadly there are still too many employers who DO discriminate. So yes if as a result of EXPLOITATION of foriegn nationals White males were discriminated against then it is only fair to provide legislation that prevents this. But white males are not discriminated aginst in general, the fact that many ordinary people employ Polish builders or decorators etc is because they feckin work hard for a fair wage. I have now restored 3 old houses and whilst its easy to stereotype, the best workers doing the best jobs for me to date have come from Poland and Romania - they turned up at 7.30 am on the day they said they would, worked till 6pm and had 30 mins at lunch and did a very good job at the agreed price. I have had 3 experiences with british firms where the price would 'creep' up, the works was delayed on several days because of various bull shyte reasons, and tehy would turn up at 10.30 and bugger off by 3.... Finally, what is mostly happening with the majority of foreign workers is they are doing jobs that where 95% of the applicants are foreign so if the employer is not a small minded bigot that percentage will be reflected in the workforce. So Dune, which one are you?

If you has kept this thread as a serious queston rather than the obvious attempt to hide your prejudices behind 'paint charts' - you would have gotten the obvious answer - NO it would NOT be acceptable, as neither is IMHO a Black player awards. As we can see by the reaction, it is unhelpful in erradicating the prejudices of the ignorant. But as ever you over simplify - as with any issue of 'positive discrimination' - on the surface it is WRONG - as most would acknowledge, but when placed in different context it is easy to see how it could be justified: in this case namely given the social difficulties that many minorities find themselves in (usually with the origins in discrimination), minorities have looked for role models and appraoches that may help generate aspirations in teh youth. Same as you and others fail to see he rationale for positive discrimination in the work place - again wrong in an ideal society, but on balance as you well know if there was NO discrimination any large workforce should on average reflect the make up and cultural and ethnic diversity of the local population. The fact that many minorities have been discrimated against for years and thus many work forces DO NOT reflect this, is why it exists. You know that really, but seem determined to perpetuate your nationalistic extreme bull**** for some reason.

True, but given that they are obviously ignorant of basic biology, genetics and human evolution, (let alone ethics) it does present an opportunity to try and educate the ignorant ***** sadly their mental age seems stuck at around 7 so probably wont be able to grasp the very simple concept that we are indeed of the same species and gene pool. Climate and environmental factors have in the last 100,000 years or so led to changes in the phenotypic expression of a few genes and thats basically it - the cultural differences are no more than 500-1500 years old, which given that humans have been around for about 2 million years suggests it also has feck all baring on things.