Ken Tone

Personally I was surprised that Forren didn't come on at CB, with Clyde LB and Yoshida moving to RB. Thought Richardson looked a bit vulnerable at times

Actually it is very carefully worded, and really only says £2 million in pledges. I believe they only have somewhere around £1.2 to £1.5 million in hard cash from fans, leaving aside loans, HNWs, old corn flake packets, monopoly money, IOUs from the tooth fairy, etc

I spoke to an ex-colleague this morning, who as well as being a big PFC fan, is closely related to one of the trust's inner circle, so he is pretty genned up. According to him ....... 1. Robinson backed them yesterday, against Harris, even ringing PKF to say "how will the club run without a car park then ? , etc " 2. Their bid relies heavily on borrowing (gosh ..what a surprise!) 3. Robinson is lending them some cash, as well as buying the surrounding land. (Hmmmm.) 4. They are counting on the PCC loan as part of their sums, and my contact was at first very confident this was ok. However when I queried the conditions, eg in particular, re-payment via direct access to the parachute payments, he got a bit more cagey and said that negotiations were going on over this at the moment, and this is the last thing to sort out, because the PFA wanted them paid directly to the ex-players you know. (Gosh! Who'd have thought it!) Sounded as if they are hoping (no, expecting) to persuade the council to relax their conditions. (Won't that require a public whole-council decision?)

It's £3 million now. The trust upped its bid to make it more attractive. So today's farce eared Chainrai a cool extra £250,000 at any rate !

Not exactly. He is quoted as saying he "stepped down from the operating board". That only really says , 'took a back seat'

You're not cynical enough mate. Chainrai can't visibly own the club again.... FL won't allow it. So he needs someone else to own it. The plan appears to be for the club to pay chainrai his £18 million in installments in effect, via a high rent for leasing the ground. The club has to live within its means ,and find say £1 million a year rent for as long as Chainrai wants. The only bit I don't get is how the ground is actually transfered to chainrai. Up to now PKF have said grouind and club must go together.

But chainrai doesn't actually own Fratton does he. He holds a charge over it, yes, but at present it is owned by PFC. (Similar to owning your house but having a mortgage, with negative equity) So how does that work?

Anyone else wonder if Keith Harris will just be a puppet chairman? Come on. Hands up! (sorry .. just had to get some sort of Orville reference out of my system before I burst)

Thank goodness Robinson is a pompey fan and not a hard-headed business man. .. Oh!

Oh Malaysia? That's ok then. Thank goodness it's not from somewhere with any sort of dodgy financial reputation, or involvement with fixed matches, or betting scams, or corruption, .... I wonder who the foreign investor/buyer is, who is about to rescue Harris's own company?

Personally I still prefer the more traditional toast

FREE box seats

Not going to be like a house sale though is it? There will be cop out clauses, even if it does cost him a few thousand if he wants to back out

Especially the HNWs. At least the trust will get most of their money back eventually. These gullible HNWs on the other hand have arpparently spent several hundred thousand thinking they were about to become chairman/directors and heroes of Dr Moreau's island, but in fact just to pay some useless mercenary footballers for a few months, to allow Harris to come in and use future gate receipts etc to pay chainrai off via rent, whilst they disappear back into obscurity.

Blimey! That's quick.

No problem with being corrected. I was going on what the BBC said. Should have known better!

Isn't that what chainrai wants? Best option is someone gives him £18 million , at once or over a period of years on a 'hire purchase' arangement, but not likely. Second best option, he gets Fratton and sells it for development for as much as he can ...with no football club as tenant and therefore no planning constraint.

"As a creditor we remain agnostic about the source of the solution and welcome an approach from any credible group that might finally lead to the club coming out of administration," added the Portpin source What a curious use of the word 'agnostic'. I know Shankly said football was more important than religion, but even so.

This. The council would have to go public on changing the conditions, and it hasn't. So both the 'no other bid' and 'PPs direct to us' conditions must still apply Yet the trust keep saying their finances are sorted. Yeah, right.

Well he was about to become the youngest ever player to appear for the England U-21s. I think a 17 year old lad is entitled to feel a bit upset about missing out on that.

Sky also saying Harris is working with ex-Swansea chairman, Hamer. He led them into administration ,so is well experienced!

Having seen that I am beginning to understand why the PST keep talking about a community club ...so they can provide him with 'care in the community'. What a sad, pathetic, man. I presume the crowd scenes were 'library pictures' from a few seasons ago? Not only did Fratton look quite full , but they seemed to be actually celebrating a goal at one point.

"One corrupt bastard. There's only one corrupt bas-tard ...." Taking advice from Private Eye ......not of course that I would wish to imply that Mr Redknapp is in any way corrupt

In respect of the sale of Fratton Park, this oversight has been beneficial to the Trust as they were able to take the time allowed to improve their bid. They are now in a position to own Fratton Park outright without relying on Robinson to buy it. Loans are in place from Portsmouth City Council and another source, at preferential rates, that will enable the club and the ground to be in the Trust’s ownership from the start. These loans have been factored into the business plan and will be paid off over two years. How can they claim even the council loan is in place, let alone this mysterious 'other source' one? The council made clear in public that their loan would only go ahead if various conditions were met, eg that the parachute payments would be paid to them directly to assure the loan .. conditions that the trust cannot meet.

No , but x% of tackles = fouls, in reality. So if you make more tckles than anyone else, and indeed if your job is to break up the opposition's play in midfield, you are bound to get more bookings than other players.