Fowllyd

I think this is what Al-Faraj (or at least his mouthpieces) have been saying all along. It will all hinge on whether or not Al-Fahim transferred the debt to Gaydamak before he sold 90% of the shares to Al-Faraj. If he didn't, then Al-Faraj is correct and the money is actually owed by Al-Fahim. If he did, then the debt IS a PFC one, and they'll have to stump up. To be certain about who owes what to whom, you'd need to have a look at the contracts drawn up when PFC was bought and sold - and, particularly, what happened between the first and second sales. Given that Al-Faraj seems to have had very little clue as to what he was actually buying, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the debt was indeed transferred to the club by Al-Fahim. I'm sure it'll all come out in time, giving us plenty of amusement along the way...

Is this knowing self-parody, or just more of the usual?

Only just looked at the obits page - Teddy Pendergrass died of colon cancer on Wednesday. A great soul singer, parodied here and there but superb nonetheless. I liked the fact that he left Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes for two reasons: he wasn't happy with Melvin's tight control over the band (and the money); and he was truly fed up with people thinking his name was Harold! Anyone who only knows Jimmy bloody Somerville's version of 'Don't Leave Me This Way' doesn't know what they're missing. The original just knocks me out every time I hear it.

Yes, it's that magical £40M again: No mention there of Jacob's admission that this £40M consists of (a) loans; and (b) income such as gate receipts and so forth - it contains no new money from the owner. I fully expect to hear that the transfer embargo will be kept in place by the PL. This won't prevent the sale of players, of course, so we can expect plenty of action there too.

Hadn't seen that - I wonder what happened to all the "We don't need to sell" bluster. I reckon they know that the PL won't lift the embargo, so they'll have to sell players to pay off some debts and then (maybe) get it lifted. Even then, they'll have sod all to spend and nothing to pay salaries with, so they'll have a pretty hard job getting any new players in anyway. Desperate times, desperate measures...

Yep, the only new(ish) piece of information - loans and expected income, such as gate receipts, account for all the 'new' money that's come into Pompey since October. So most of it puts them further into debt, the rest they'd have got anyway. Priceless. Has anybody actually asked Jacob why it is that Pompey's super-rich owner hasn't yet seen fit to put a penny of his own money into the club? Or whether he ever will? Not that they'd get much of an answer, but what the hell.

I'd say that's spot on. It's worth recalling that last season a break-even attendance figure of about 17,000 was bandied about; and that was when we had the stadium loan, an overdraft and several heftily-paid players. This season we have no stadium loan or overdraft to service and most of the high earners have gone. Plus, of course, we're getting gates well in excess of that 17,000. As we move up through the divisions our costs will increase; however, I think it will be the aim of both ML and NC to ensure that those costs are matched by an increase in income, not by pouring ML's money into a hole.

One thousand. For an interesting read on vast numbers generally, have a look at this - hell, it's even written by a Saints supporter! http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0859cc5a-8224-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html

That's an interesting point. Following that Guardian article, Azougy apparently denied having said any such thing. However, in one of today's pieces in The News, Jacob mentioned the exact same sum, saying that this amount had come into the club thanks to Al Faraj. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Pompey-39would-have-sunk39-without.5971386.jp No mention of where it's all gone, though - nor of where it all came from, come to that! As for the embargo, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

More laffs there to be sure. Anybody can see that Balram Chainrai (or his company) doesn't own Fratton Park; the point is that a large loan to Al Faraj is secured against it. If you use your very own, totally owned house as security against a loan, that home is at risk if you can't make the loan repayments. Same applies to Fratton Park. Elsewhere, there's a nice little attempt to pass yet more blame elsewhere - this time onto Portsmouth City Council for not being sufficiently enthusiastic in backing the 2018 World Cup bid. Yes, if only they'd been more supportive things could be so different... I love the bit you quote there. For what game(s), apart from Man Utd, could they have even filled their ground, let alone twice over? And, for further entertainment, there's this: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Sacha39s-snub-39cost-Pompey-35m39.5971350.jp and this: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Mokoena-blasts-Pompey-owners.5972116.jp

Once again the (possibly mythical) £40M is rolled out in the first of those articles. Which begs a very obvious question - what money of his own has Al Faraj really put into the club since October? As far as I can see a great deal of what's come in has been loans - somewhere around £17M from Chainrai, then the latest instalment which has paid December's salaries. Possibly others as well, I'm not sure. And, if the owner has dipped his hand into his own pocket so generously, why have salaries still been paid late, and required a loan even to do that? On top of that, the Premier League will use the upcoming Sky money to pay clubs still owed transfer money by Pompey - why hasn't the apparently super-rich owner done something about that? It's fast become a land of pure fantasy as far as I can see - and long may it continue!

A mix of A and B. Reading the articles from The News, he really doesn't say very much at all - just bland assurances. Added to this, The News didn't ask the questions which they really should have done, which made it a lot easier for Jacob.

Frequent poster you are not, but a very good post you have just made, yes...

Hot stuff indeed!

There was indeed, though I never saw it. I'll have to see if my parents still have the two Barry McKenzie books they used to have - collections of the Private Eye cartoons. From recollection, most of Barry's efforts were expended in trying to get a 'Sheila' to 'come across' - something in which, needless to say, he was invariably unsuccessful!

I remember that - Barry McKenzie had a fabulous array of terms for various - ahem - bodily functions. He originally appeared as a cartoon strip in Private Eye, written by Barry Humphries and drawn (I think) by Nicholas Garland. Incredibly funny stuff and yes, Barry's favourite tipple was Foster's, which he would drink until he chundered/laughed at the ground/parked a tiger/went the big spit...

Great music, great producer. Interesting to see that he worked with the legendary Sam Phillips; although Sun is (quite naturally) most strongly associated with rock 'n' roll greats like Elvis, Jerry Lee, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, a number of great blues and R&B artists such as Howlin' Wolf and BB King also recorded there in the 1950s. Thanks to Spy for the thread and ESB for the links.

"Hair Pie" is an instrumental track on Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band's classic LP "Trout Mask Replica". Just thought I'd mention that - I like to be helpful.

Yes, it would be.

Ah yes - Tom Cobleigh was a fine player. Maybe a bit past his peak when we signed him. Better than Ray Wallace though.

All the puns in this thread have made me feel rather sick. I should be all retina minute or so though.

Not far from my girlfriend in Horndean then. She had to leave her car in a minor road on Tuesday evening, and has only just dug it out and driven it home this afternoon. Unbelievable really - I'm only 25 miles or so from there and it's a different world.

You really need to get out more.

A little snippet from the Guardian article linked to above - from as close to the horse's mouth as you're likely to get: Well, you wouldn't struggle over a £100,000 mortgage if you had £100,000,000 at your disposal. So where's all this Al-Faraj wealth gone then? Wasn't it supposed to be billions, not mere millions? As is invariably the case in this particular farce, everything any protagonist says to justify or explain what's going on simply raises more questions, or contradicts previous statements.

Well now, he has donned his very own personalised Saints shirt and stepped onto the pitch in several reserve games, plus a couple of pre-season friendlies. He may have been in the darts team, but I can't be sure of that.