Fowllyd

Yep, the first time I went to the Newport was on my 16th birthday, in January 1976. I honestly don't think it's changed one jot in the intervening years, except that the foliage has encroached on some of the garden furniture. Rickety pub furniture in the back bar, what look like (and probably are) old bus seats in the front. They still do ploughman's lunches and wonderful ham sandwiches; crusty bread, home-cooked ham, a few pickled onions, all washed down with a pint or two of HSB. Heaven.

A true star, acted with many of the greats and had a remarkably long career. His performance as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet was just superb.

Move Lloyd James into central midfield instead of Armstrong or Tessem and play Ivan Golac at right back. Oh, and Chris Nicholl must surely merit a place in central defence.

So you can't back up your assertion that "Pardew obviously wasn't sure if he would have a job with us next season" then. So why make it? If it was so obvious then I'd have thought you might have something to back it up. But, like other claims you've made (Saints winning every other game under Burley, for instance), it fades into nothing when challenged.

If I were to state that Pardew was obviously sure that his job was secure, all through last season, you would no doubt ask me for something to back up my assertion. As it goes, I'm making no such assertion, as I simply don't know one way or the other - but can you back up yours? And by backing it up I mean rather more than referring back to the same old tabloid articles which contain no attributable quotes. More generally, it seems to me that people are assuming that a statement expressing concern about results in the league (which is all that the rumours are based on from what I can see) is tantamount to a statement that the manager is likely to be sacked. I'd have said there's a large distance between these two positions. It's quite possible, of course, that Pardew felt that his position was not totally secure. But then I shouldn't think there are more than one or two football managers in the professional game who don't feel that way - hell, even Sir Alex Ferguson's position has been called into question over recent years. I think it's called the nature of the job.

Get behind St Mary FFS.

But isn't HMRC planning on going for the directors of PCFC (past and present) once it gets liquidated, as per the proposed CVA? If they can sting Storrie and others for a considerable sum, then that should stand as a pretty powerful deterrent to others. I doubt anyway that directors would plan to fall behind on their tax payments; it's more likely to happen as a result of a failed gamble or, in Pompey's case, reckless spending in the assumption that there'd always be somebody there to pick up the tab. Latterly, of course, they carried on spending even though they knew full well that there was no such person there, which takes their wrongdoing to a whole new level. Which is just what Storrie promised to do, come to think of it.

Maybe, but at least if he were Alps he'd have had just the one alias all these years...

I'll go for a mixture of © and (d), though I also think there's more than a small chance that he believes that (e) will be the case. It seems from the earlier part of your post that a fair-sized coterie of their fans haven't twigged that having a £10k per week wage cap, as suggested, doesn't equate to paying lots of players £10k a week. But then such thinking would be a little advanced for them I suppose.

£500? I do them for half that price!

Front page of today's Guardian sport section: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/15/portsmouth-fa-cup-winners-crisis-club Lots of quotes from many of those involved. Not sure if there's anything new there, but it's an interesting read.

If he stays well away from Horton Heath you shouldn't have any problems...

Good ideas in both of these posts - and not just the one about free pies. It seems to me that you can cap expenditure on players' salaries by either (a) a straightforward maximum limit, or (b) a proportion of a club's turnover. Of these options, the latter is easier to maintain, as there's no need to review the total each season to account for inflation and so forth. However, the former could be easier to police, as you'll be stating that certain expenditure should not exceed a pre-determined figure. And a flat-rate cap would also help to prevent a small number of clubs dominating by dint of being global brands. Both options, of course, are open to some level of abuse. Our fishy chums down the road have already shown this with their sparkling and innovative use of image rights - they used it to get round tax, but it could so easily have other purposes. But any abuse could be easily checked by rigorous regulation - the authorities demand a fully audited set of accounts for each season to be presented on the 1st July each year. All payments and other benefits to players must be included, as all will be considered as salary. Any team found to have overpaid will be docked points for the coming season, with the number of points docked linked to the level of overpayment. Any club found to be attempting to disguise payments to players will be either heavily penalised or thrown out of the league altogether (I'd favour the latter). I agree, too, with the point in Ribbo's post about agents. However, if the measures I've suggested were put in place, I reckon the power of agents would wane anyway What chance of any such policy being put in place, I wonder? At a guess, I'd say zero in the Premier League (at least for the present and near future) and a shade more than zero - but not much more - in the Football League. But the game has got to where it is now largely because of shockingly lax regulation; failure to regulate will only lead to greater grief in the longer term.

I too remember that well, though I could never bring myself to believe the stories that he was on his way here. And didn't certain bookies apparently close their books on that particular bet at the time? Or, at the very least, install him as a hotter than hell favourite?

Subtle difference, but I think it reads better this way.

Um, didn't Liverpool beat Newcastle United 3-0?

Second left, middle row could be Angus Deayton in a bit of a temper - and the one next to him with the hood is definitely Trevor Brooking! Who'd have thought it, eh?

Second from the left on the top row looks like the sort of chap who might sell you a photocopier, or try to buy a football club - dodgy type altogether in my view.

Thanks Ron, you're a gent - I'm heading for eBay right now!

No. F*ck off and support Yeovil.

I thought this was going to be a thread about former Saints players who have taken up jam making and pickling for pleasure or profit. You can imagine how disappointed I feel now.

I share your puzzlement on the SOA and the apparent lack of comment on the discrepancies between it and subsequent figures being given for Pompey's level of debt. But the stay of execution wasn't based on the SOA; rather, the registrar ordered it to be produced at the initial winding-up hearing. Shortly before the second hearing (at which PFC would almost certainly have been wound up) Chainrai put the business into administration. I'm not sure what legal status the SOA now has, if any.

And there, I think, is the answer. Pulis was signed not as a player, but as an allegory. And what a great job he's done in that role!

Having listened to some of the Quay Radio programme, I noticed that Andronikou referred to Jacob and Azougy as 'former directors'. Yes, I know it's only a casual mention on a radio show, but I still think it's quite damning - and it just goes to confirm what was suspected all along.

Yes, I must admit I'd forgotten about that possibility! It could well be that something along those lines is the endgame (or a possible one) for Chainrai, but I reckon his prime motivation is to get his money and then get out. Any property scheme would be fraught with difficulties, not least that the local council would be loath to allow such a thing, even if PFC were to be wound up. Time will tell, of course. I seem to recall that Corpy has claimed on here that the club has never actually had a penny from Chainrai, though if that is the case I'm struggling to know what they used to pay wages etc for several months running. Come to that, I'm struggling to see how they hell they're paying staff now!