Fowllyd

Put me down for one too - and I'm with Mouldy Coat on the message!

Media fawning is one thing - and even then it's more along the lines of "OMG who thought this would ever happen? Best roll out the tired old clichés about wonderful fans, passion and all that then." And let's not forget where today's papers end up... More to the point, perhaps - how can they not be 'allowed' to go pop? It is, after all, a simple matter of economics (or what passes for it on the IODM). If the players won't walk away, Chainrai won't take over and the Trust won't be able to. I can't imagine that the PFA are going to persuade the players to take any hit, especially as it would mean money intended for them going elsewhere. So what's left? Since CSI went pop it's always been the case that without some wealthy yet idiotic individual stumping up many millions, they'd go to the wall. To me that's still how it looks.

Mine's very much in the air and, as a Pompey manager of a decade or so back might have said, I'm pretty sure I got it up there first... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?14620-Pompey-Takeover-Saga&p=1411469#post1411469

Bloody hell, big respect there - I never knew Tommy McCook had covered Liquidator. Presumably it was a saxed-up version compared to Harry J's...

Seconded, top stuff indeed. Chapeau.

Yes, you're quite right - and I'd have loved to have come up with it too! So it's a big old to FloridaMarlin.

Or just pop it in the freezer - it will defrost quickly and toast perfectly. That way you'll always have it ready and to hand.

Inverse proportionality. It's all the rage down there on the Island of Doctor Moreau. (With thanks to Waterside.saint, who I think coined that one (courtesy of HG Wells of course)).

You're missing the point. It's not about the number of fans, it's about their quality, their passion - you know, all those things that we sad scummers lack...

Astonishing and wonderful. Not only do we have a British winner for the first time ever (and probably the first Briton since the late Tommy Simpson to even look capable of winning it), but we also have, in Chris Froome, a rider who looks like a shoo-in for a future Tour win - or several. Plus, of course, Cav shows once again that he's the greatest sprinter around right now - untouchable when he's on song. And let's not forget David Millar, who rode a fine Tour as well.

I can believe the first part of that, but not the second.

Adrian and Phil -

Yes, that looks about right - and, as with so many other things down on the Dark Island, they have their own very special version of it!

It's getting harder and harder to work out which posts on the News (and similar sites) are actual Skate fans and which are Saints taking the p1ss. Assuming that this is a genuine Skate, which it probably is, the bit I like best is this idea of "getting our points back" - as if something that's rightfully theirs has been taken away. They don't seem to get the point (pun fully intended) that the Football League is not imposing a penalty here, it's setting conditions for the golden share to be handed over. In other words, they're saying "You're not part of our members-only club right now; if you want to join, here's what you have to do." Hell, they've even explained in full why they're imposing these conditions. Even Birch's comments have made it clear that there's no appeal process - he's just trying to persuade the League to change their terms and conditions for membership. But, given the manner of the News' reports on the subject, it's hardly surprising that the issue is seen somewhat differently down on Portsea Island.

It's what Karma was invented for!

They've got the wrong word there. The one they want is internment.

Is that Tommy Forecast on the right?

It puts me in mind of the apocryphal story of the club chairman who, having just watched his team clinch promotion, joins the jubilant players in the dressing room, only to say: "Well done lads - now we're up we'll make sure we get some decent players in to keep us there!" I guess it's all part of being a footballer (or a player in pretty much any team sport, come to that). Still and all, it must be hard to take. And it's in just these areas that the manager really needs to earn his corn.

An excellent analogy, if I may say so.

It's a yummy slice of humble pie for me then! I just couldn't believe that, after what's just happened, they've effectively outbid another League One club for Gillett's services. But then again, I suppose it should come as no surprise. OK, so Gillett will cost a lot less than some of their existing senior players, but how the hell can they make any offers at present, let alone ones which a club like Doncaster can't match?

Are we perhaps getting a little ahead of ourselves here? If Gillett has been offered a contract which is way above what Doncaster can afford, then how can the club making that offer be Pompey? They can't sign anybody at present, and no player (and certainly no agent, come to that) is going to sign for a club which is (a) under an embargo and therefore not able to sign any players; (b) highly unlikely to be able to pay said wages; and © about to start the season on -10, always assuming they get that far in the first place. Save your righteous wrath; whoever Gillett's signed for, it's not going to be Pompey. If it is, I'll happily consume my share of humble pie; but for any player to sign for Pompey right now would be the daftest thing since General Custer said "Yeah, there's a few Indians over there, but nothing to worry about."

I think absinthe is quite readily available these days, but it's not quite the drink it once was. This is not a bad thing in many ways, as it doesn't make you go blind or mad any more - no methanol in there now. La Fée Verte is still a popular brand. Incidentally, I've noticed that some supermarkets (well, Waitrose anyway) sell a pastis which is really nice - better then Ricard and many times better than Pernod (not that the latter is hard to achieve). Only mentioned that as I love a good pastis and because pastis started life as a 'safer' version of absinthe. I love the golden-coloured Mescal with the worm in the bottom of the bottle - not sure if it's quite the same drink that Malcolm Lowry described in Under the Volcano though...

I think it's more the case that Allen sees it as imperative that the high earners leave, so that either bid for the club will go forward (I'm guessing he'd prefer a PST buy-out to Chainrai, but the chances of that are somewhere between slim and non-existent). So, in Allen's little world, the high earners leaving and forgoing payments to which they're fully entitled means that the club will continue to exist, whereas the high earners insisting on getting all that's owed to them will mean liquidation. So he doesn't really care about where the parachute payments go - he just wants PFC to continue to exist. He quite possibly does think that a successful PST bid would led to money being put into the club to rebuild it, but that's just guesswork on my part.

Bombay Sapphire, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Christ, Allen really is an arsehole, isn't he. A man whose paper lapped up all the excesses under Gaydamak/Redknapp/Storrie with no questions asked, and which excitedly called CSI the 'real deal', is now accusing a typical signing of the Storrie era of killing the club. Did Ben Haim write his own contract? Was the club somehow forced to pay him £36K per week, plus another £14K on top of that for 'image rights'? No, thought not. But now it's TBH's demands which may kill the club. There really are times when the sh1te spouted by Allen and his playmates stops being funny and flips over into straightforwardly nauseating.