Fowllyd

The link's not working for me; I just get their "sorry" page (as opposed to any of their other sorry pages).

Judging by the thread title, it seems that even that isn't so easy!

By all means: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/misc.php?do=whoposted&t=14620 Trousers is, as one might expect, King of the Nutjobs with a stonking 3,354 posts. First Lord of the Nutjobs status must go to rallyboy though, for both the quality of his posts (he has learned well from Pompey's own quality not quantity approach) and the fact that, as a registered user, he can only post three times a day, making 1,421 posts quite an achievement. Speaking as a humble foot soldier Nutjob, with a mere 446 posts in this thread to my name, I can only salute those whose post counts register in the thousands... Actually, make that 447.

How exactly are the trust going to afford it? As far as I'm aware that FL is insisting that all football creditors are paid in full (or as fully as they've agreed to be). This means that somewhere north of £8M has to be found for these payments; in its initial proposal the trust stated that no more than £2M would be paid to football creditors. Where has the additional £6M appeared from? If it's been extracted from funds earmarked for elsewhere, how will these other costs be met? That's one example of a huge hole in the trust's plan; others have been highlighted by other posters as well. Try as I might, I really can't see how the trust can do this. If the money were used to start a totally new club, at whatever level it took, free of all the baggage and debt, then that would make sense. Trying to buy and run the existing club on the back of fewer than 2,000 pledges of £1,000 each makes no sense at all.

So kind of like a Skate Tony Lynam then?

The £7M being mentioned comes from the Land Registry documentation; it's the price stated as paid for the property at its last sale rather than a valuation. As for Ho's famous Tesco valuation of £20M, that's just laughable - no change there then.

You must be pretty near to where he is then, probably in the same room at a guess. Stick with him wherever he goes and, when you can see him signing, could you let us all know? Just don't blink, or you may miss the moment.

Seconded - to Lazlo78 for that and its follow-up.

I have to admit I'm struggling to see what's in it for Chainrai this time. Portpin gave a fair old list of things they didn't like when they withdrew a week ago; what has changed since then? Yes, they can see parachute money disappearing on the short-term players (though I'd imagine that they're costing massively less than they would if they were on real contracts), but the amount due to former players hasn't changed, and I always considered that to be the clincher. After all, if those payments will account for the bulk, if not all, of the parachute payments, what's left for Chainrai to get his mitts on? That said, I'm looking forward to the next chapter(s) with a big grin...

Not quite, no. The players had a vote on the first CVA, but they're not secured creditors in the normal sense, so they got a vote with the other unsecured creditors. Chainrai was always a secured creditor, owing to his charge over the assets of the club. The other unsecured creditors were HMRC plus all the businesses who hadn't been paid for goods, services etc.

Yes, that's correct; the stadium owners are PFC2010. Which would, of course, provide a different outcome in the event of liquidation.

Ah, I didn't realise just who 'oldredeye' is; if this is the case then I guess he'd know. Then again, given the Trust's ability to live outside reality, it could be a figment of his or someone else's imagination.

No argument there, especially given the source of your info. But did he or she say when the next parachute instalment is due? That was the bit I was querying, as I've seen it mentioned but nothing more concrete.

Is this definitely the case though? I've seen it quoted on here in a post from (I think) the News web site, but apart from that I have no idea. Is there any authoritative source for this?

That's pretty much how I see it, yes.

So what exactly are you expecting Chainrai to do? Fund a spending spree which will gain them promotion this season or maybe next? Then spend even more to see if he can get them to the Premier League, then sell up? That would mean serious money being poured into a bottomless pit, with no guarantee whatsoever of a return. However I look at it, I really can't see that happening. And if not that, then what?

Ditto. I'm firmly in this camp. Let it all unfold; it won't be pretty if you're a skate fan, but there'll be plenty of entertainment for us nutjobs...

Well, time will tell I guess. But bear in mind that the League hasn't acted in this way ever before, for any club - at least not as far as I know. They have become all too aware that the laxity of their regulation of clubs has led to disasters such as Pompey's and, from what I can see, have now decided to do whatever they can to prevent it happening all over again. Look again at the conditions for any new owner to be allowed membership of the League - this is something new and a strong indication that the League is finally getting to grips with the situation. They obviously don't want Chainrai to simply carry on with another new company and another secured position which doesn't reflect reality; they aren't negotiable on the points penalty, in spite of Birch's mitherings on that subject; they have stated clearly that any new owner will have to adhere to strict conditions and supervision (in other words, it won't be a case of "You've passed the test, therefore you're OK and can do as you please", as has happened before). Will the League stick with this? As I said before, I expect them to do so. They have set out their terms and conditions very clearly and, in so doing, have given themselves all the ammunition they will need to take further action if their conditions do not continue to be met. Yes, it's true that they don't want to see clubs liquidated, but they've also had enough of clubs taking the p1ss. As for chances that Chainrai is about to fund some great surge back to the Premier League, or even the Championship - try putting yourself in his position for a minute. What does he want? As much money as he can extract. What's the best way to get that, with least risk involved? I can see a couple of possibilities, but neither of those involves ploughing money into the club to fund promotion campaigns, especially when the start point for such a campaign is -10. Even if players are available on frees and/or low fees, they still need to be paid; the only way that Pompey will be able to pay over the odds is if Chainrai puts money in. Besides, they'd need a decent manager to accomplish much, and I see little indication that they've got one.

Seems to me you're missing a couple of major points. First, Chainrai wants to get money out of the club, not the other way round. Do you seriously think that Appleton will be given some kind of fabulous transfer kitty? Or indeed any kind of transfer kitty? He'll have to make do with frees, loans and bargain-basement buys. Plus, of course, academy graduates. As to the Football League, they've put in place some very strict, non-negotiable conditions upfront. I fully expect them to hold any new owners to those conditions, with further points penalties available at the League's discretion even when the golden share has been granted.

Both Phil, as always. Well, you did ask...

I can kind of see where the bit about the academy is coming from; however, it's ridiculously optimistic, in line with the rest of the PST proposal. What they're saying is that the academy will cease to cost them any money to run after two years, as it will be financed entirely by player sales and sponsorship. Good luck to them with that then! No, they are fuller of sh1t than the clogged toilets at Fortress Fratton.

This looks the most likely outcome to me. And it's one that will provide plenty of entertainment for a couple of years yet...

I really can't see this happening. It's clear that Chainrai is only interested in getting as much money as he can out of Pompey; he'll know full well that trying to up the price by funding a charge up the league would be a long and risky process. They start next season on -10, which will be nigh impossible to overcome; so that means at least two seasons in League One. He'd be very likely to spend far more than he'd have any chance of getting back, and he's not going to do that.

It's already too late to reschedule everything; in fact, it has been for quite some time. If the League refuse to hand over the golden share they will have to run League One with 23 teams. And, if the League aren't satisfied that their conditions have been met, and that Pompey will be able to complete their fixtures, then they will indeed withhold the golden share. In other words, the League are doing pretty much exactly as you'd wish them to do.