Ken Tone

The trouble is that many (most?) clubs are paying more in wages than they can afford and the whole market is ridiculously inflated. So if a club sticks to what it can afford, it will almost automatically be at a disadvantage. As long as the Portsmouth living-above-their-means-then-reneging-on-debt scenario can happen, or as long as another rich (probably foreign) bloke with more money than sense, can come along and pay way over the odds, (eg chelsea), sensible clubs will always be fighting with one hand behind their backs. The only answer is to give some real teeth to the financial proposals and really force clubs to live within their means. As it is , I look forwards to Spurs going broke when Redknapp leaves and someone adds up the sums, and Chelsea going broke when Abramovitch wants his money back, but there'll always be another one to replace them.

Which last Friday?

"expert" and "talksport" ...interesting juxtaposition! Havinmg said that I am curious about who woud be the administrator. It presumably depends in who actually decides to put them into administration. The club can do so itself can't it, voluntarily? They can't want AA again surely to god? Whereas if it is Portpin, ie BC who puts them into admi , he obviously will want AA ...though HMRC may object.

loan not sale I hope?

I understand Cala is about to enter into a Sindy-cate with Corp Ho.

If that is correct, the only logical explanation is that we have other irons in the fire ...maybe an ex-'Iron' in fact? ... and are waiting to decide which is the better deal. Brinkmanship ..may work well or may backfire if other clubs wade in at the last minute and nick players from under our noses.

I hope the source declared the money on his tax return!

It would make some sort of sense if the manager also had to pay a percentage of the loss when he buys a £15 million player and turns him into a £1million one! I'm definitely in the wrong business.

That Lee fella's really let himself go since we signed him.

This agreement by Mandaric to pay Redknapp 5 or 10% of any transfer fee pofit was absoluely crazy. How common is it in pro football? It's an incentive for the manager to behave badly. All Redknapp had to do was sign lots of players on low fees or Bosman frees, put them on a long contract and wait for any one or two of them to be sold later. Big bucks for him. The fact that the rest of them stay languishing in the reserves on a big wage is no loss to him ...just to the club. In fact when you look at Redknapp's record it's no wonder he's such a wheeler dealer. He makes a packet from any profit but makes no loss from any loss to the club. Win win for him.

And yet reportedly they've turned down an improved bid from Ipswich for Pearce and Ward, of c £1.4 to £1.6 million. WHY??? It's like they have a death wish. All I can think is that the deluded few plan to hang on to all their players for now, then go into admin after the transfer window closes but before the WU hearing ...on the basis that the administrator would then be unable to off-load players till the end of the season. However I think if they get a real administrator this time he'll have to consider letting players go out on emergency loans just to reduce the wage bill. (I'd happily add Pearce to our squad btw, with our shortage of CBs. And it would be wonderful to get him from the skates for nothing on an emergency loan, just to rub it in.)

Ball boy in front of the Chapel?

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2588488,00.html Good grief! Didn't expect that

I think that is very likely. It is also very unlikely that HMRC will apply to put them into admin, so most likely is a voluntary admin by (nominally) PFC. The question then would be are PFC's directors and Lampitt really able to do anything independently ,or are all of them puppets of Chainrai? If they go for AA , that would be a pretty clear answer to the question. Or can/would CSI put the club into admin, as creditors? So in effect AA would then be selecting the administrator. I have a pretty shrewd idea who he'd choose! HMRC can object of course. Not sure how certain that objection would be to succeed.

Your post arrived whilst I was writing my last. So there is another source. That's good. Which horse for curiosity sake? Adkins's or Lee's?

So if that journalist is genuine, and correct (but his tweet is the only source?), it would seem reasonable to expect that the OS will announce his signing today. We could do with a morale boost after Monday.

My reading of the likley outcome is from now..... a) They get a buyer soon. If so surely would have to be another nutter/crook, but might put the end game off for a while. Not very likely b) More likely is that they go into admin just before the winding up hearing. (It will be interesting to see who is appointed administrator ... could it be AA again?!!!! ) Then by selling players, messing about with the parachute payments etc they should be able to scrape along till the end of the season, albeit with a points deduction, which is what the FL will prefer to them disappearing mid-season. The crunch will then come when they are due to make payments under the CVA, but have already spent some or all of the parachute money that was earmarked for this. They may or may not be able to renegotiate the terms. So for me the most likely future now is admin, points deduction, and another crisis as they get relegated. Next season they may start as a skint L1 club, or they may fold during the close season ---about 50-50 I'd say.

Sorry to intrude in all the personal arguments going on on this thread, but as a genuine, no-hidden agenda, question ....do we know for certain he is now in the UK, and does anyone know any more about when he will actually sign his contract and be confirmed as our player?

But he'll have a few years on premier league wages. That's what the parachute payments system does: allow teams near relegation to carry on as if all was well, buying players, putting them on big wages on long contracts, knowing they'll be baled out by the parachute. So Maynard probably thinks ... I will do well in the few months and impress lots of other PL team who'll buy me when Wigan go down, and if not, well there's the ( trebled? quadrupled?) wages to console me till my shiney new wigan contract runs out.

Only for tax purposes

Even if we were to accept your figures (and clearly no one on here does), you still have to explain to me why anyone other than a money launderer would want to buy portsmouth FC. Given that CSI put c£10.6 million in to just cover the losses of part of a season, the club is obviously still leaking money dramatically. If you offered anyone sane the club for £1 with no outstanding debts, they'd still turn you down. Your expenditure far exceeds your income. Redknapp left you with this legacy of overpaid players on long contracts and to everyone else's amazement Lampitt etc have carried on with that. (eg £19 k a week for Lawrence! Madness.) With no income flow from outside of football, a stadium that costs money just to stop it falling down and is no use for other lettings (eg concerts , international matches, conference use or similar), no other assets, and crowds likely to be in the low teens or even below 10,000 as things get worse, PFC just isn't a viable championship club on a day to day basis, never mind having the debts to pay off. Your only hope is to sell Ward, Pearce, Henderson and anyone else that any club offers for, asap, to pay off the tax bill to stay afloat. Then offer to cancel the contracts of any other players on high wages so they can sign for someone else on a free. ..not that many will take the offer, but a few might because as a free they might be able to negotiate a decent wage. Then you need to stop this bleating drivel about having a small squad and promote some of your youngsters into the first team squad like any other club would, then lose lots of games, be relegated, and lurch on from crisis to crisis till you reach L2 or maybe the conference, with the rest of the expensive players contracts finally run out. Then, finall,y you can start to re-build back to about the L1 /championship borderline level, which is the natural home for a club of your size and support.

Yes, surely a ground share with Havant is the most likely? As to thiose bringig up the old "can't sell Fratton for houses" line, I've never seen a convenant on land yet that a big developer hasn't found a way round. If Tescos or a house-builder think the Fratton site is worth it, they'll just make an "amenity payment 2 or something similar to the council, nominally to be used to replace the 'loss' to the community.

Sadly I fear you're right. If guilty, then a fine and suspended sentence seem likely to me. Community service would be interesting, but I bet the media would soon be running a feature on how lovable 'Arry was coaching East End kids to stardom.

There is a third alternative: PFC could sell immediately Ward, Pearce and anyone else who might actually get a fee, and so pay the tax bill to avoid the winding up order, and then by giving free transfers to most of the rest of the first team squad or cancelling contracts by mutual agreement, reduce the wages to a level where the club might just scrape through the season financially, playing the youth team ... much as we did. It's called 'living within your means'. It would of course result in relegation, much as it did for us. It's called 'living within your means'. I felt perhaps I needed to repeat that , since it seems such an alien concept to pompey fans. Then in L1 if you still sell any player who looks half decent, you'd continue to scrape by, with even smaller crowds , still unable to pay for decent players and end up relegated again. Eventually you'd reach a level that matches your crowds and 'stadium', and your income will finally balance your expenditure. Then maybe Chainrai will be able to find someone at least almost honest to pay him some of the money he says he's owed (no idea who really owes what ..it's such a mess ) And then you'll potter along for the foreseeable future in L1, or L2 , or even the conference, competing with the likes of Bournemouth and Swindon in good years, or Havant and Basingstoke in the bad years. I think personally I'd prefer that to your being wound up. Have fun!

It amazes me how the media have been touting Redknapp as future England manager and Tottenham as possible champions , with no mention whatsoever of either this trial itself , or the slightly inconvenient possibility that Redknapp might actually go to jail ... and even if he were only fined, would the FA really want him as England manager if he were found guilty?