dvaughanwilliams

So is Guly injured or just dropped from the squad? Chaplow obviously not ready for his comeback. Harsh on De Ridder being dropped from the bench too, I think. Wonder who gets dropped to accommodate Billy Sharp and Chaplow when ready to play? Real selection dilemmas coming for Adkins in the upcoming games. Good to have competition for places again.

Jordan Sibley on Twitter Saints Vs Cardiff. Davis. Richardson, Fonte©, Martin, Fox. Puncheon, Cork, Schneiderlin, Lallana. Connolly, Lambert On the bench for Saints tonight are: Bialkowski, Harding, Hammond, Lee and Falque

It wouldn't surprise me if there was a conversation between UHY and Baker Tilly on this point and it could end up being decided by a judge.

I'm not entirely sure that they can use any funds raised from transfers to pay the tax bill. Under insolvency law you cannot pay one creditor at the expense of another, especially paying a subordinated creditor at the expense of a more senior one. At present HMRC are an unsecured creditor, towards the bottom of the pile and I wonder where Chinny, CSI and Baker Tilly administrators of the CVA rank. A judge could redirect any money paid to HMRC to other creditors. I think that we've been looking at the wrong creditor. I think the real problem is Baker Tilly. Chinny might be prepared to overlook a preference being established for HMRC, but Baker Tilly certainly wouldn't. They are much more likely to kick up a fuss if things aren't done by the book. In all of his dealings there have been accusations about the Android's failure to adhere to the letter of the law and bending the odd rule (secured creditors voting on the CVA, disputed debt figures etc, etc) but in this case, that doesn't look like an option.

So when he keeps talking about 2 or 3 people interested in buying the club, who are they? Are they the usual nutters that turn up trying to buy clubs or confess to murders? My bets are on all saleable players going on Tuesday evening, with no replacements.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/campaigns/passion-for-portsmouth/news/administrators_say_criticism_by_club_is_unfair_1_3454832 The News: "POMPEY’S administrators have defended themselves against criticisms from the club. Yesterday Portsmouth Football Club said in a statement that it was given assurances by UHY Hacker Young and Portpin Ltd that the club would be funded until a new owner was found. " Oops, typo there by the snooze, Portsmouth aren't in admin. It's their totally separate parent company, CSI.

I'm not entirely sure that any money that comes into the club can be paid directly to HMRC. If a company is facing an insolvency event, like a WUP, there is a strict hierarchy of who gets paid in which order. http://www.companyrescue.co.uk/company-rescue/guides/preference-insolvency-act HMRC are at the bottom of the pile as unsecured creditors. If there are any secured creditors, then they would be creating a "preference" in favour of HMRC, which a judge could reverse. If CSI are a secured creditor, or if Chinny's security over the assets of the club covers revenue from player sales, they can demand the money. Given that CSI are in admin, there couldn't be any legitimate reason for their administrator to waive their contractual right to payment of money raised.

Limpet trying to sound positive and talks about player sales being the last resort, but then goes on to say that Chinny won't put any new money in and the club has to find money from a white knight or player sales. He really is squirming.

The wage bill may be a lot higher if you add in NI, employers NI and remember the offshore 'Image Rights'. Cala was quoted saying 8 players cost £1.1m, does the rest of the squad total £0.5m? Don't think so.

It'll be very interesting to find out who the other creditors are other than Chainrai and how much they're owed. Also, at the meeting they'd have to discuss the value of the assets of CSI. I wonder what value they'd put on PFC? Also, if Chinny is a creditor to CSI, but retains a charge over Nottarf, I wonder which entity owns the stadium: PFC or CSI? Also one of the clowns on the Snooze messageboard keeps banging on about 3rd Feb as a key date. Don't know if this is from foresight, luck or knowledge. I vote luck.

With regard to paying up players' salaries I can imagine the following conversation: Appleton or Limpet calls player into office "Listen son, another club's made a bid for you. It's enough money to pay off HMRC and will save the club, but only if you agree to the transfer and waive your contractual right to have your contract paid up. If you don't accept the club will be liquidated. Either way, you won't play for Portsmouth and you won't get your contract paid up. Whaddayathink?" Of course the only ones who would fall for this schtick would be the young, dedicated, naive idealists like Ward and possibly Pearce. The experienced pros will tell him that they aren't very impressed with that offer. Unfortunately, the players that would leave aren't on the highest wages and are probably their better players. However, if a bid came in for, say, £2.5m I bet HMRC would sanction the sale despite the WUP.

How much does the new company owe Baker Tilley, liquidators of the old co, for the CVA? That £10.8m depends on who the other creditors to CSI are. If it's just Chainrai, no problems. If there are other significant creditors, it's a real problem. Chainrai is only owed money by PFC to the extent of the loan he made for last month's salary. The major loan is to CSI, who are a totally separate legal entity.

I'm not sure that the club could go into administration. An administrator has a legal duty to get the best deal for creditors and cannot run up new debts. If Pompey don't have any cash then they can't fund the administrators costs. Last time round Chainrai funded the administration, will he do it again? Also, another classic from PompeyJake: "Surely we wouldn't have been allowed to have bought in a free agent and line up more loan signings if it was that bad. I can't understand how this can suddenly just become an issue. Surely the fact we didn't pay them in December would have sent out a warning sign to people within the club and any further signings would have been delayed or stopped. Its either gross mis-managment or Admin andy trying to speed up buyers." Anyone vote for speeding up buyers?

From the Guardian, AA: "We are trying to find [a new owner] who is not going to be there for five minutes" Five minutes is a bit too ambitious it appears, are they aiming for 4 minutes? Also: "The issuing of the petition effectively means the club loses its ability to use its bank accounts." Seems to be the reason for cash only sales.

Has a list of CSI's creditors been published? I think that this is the major sticking point. CSI Debts - Chanrai - c. £20m CSI Assets - PFC, North One, Loan to PFC c. £11m Before CSI bought Portsmouth Chinny had a charge over Nottarf to secure his debt, but this was debt owed by PFC. It occurs to me that the takeover was a vendor-financed purchase (this practice doesn't have a very good reputation in the financial world). So, without evidence and speaking entirely hypothetically, Chinny lends CSI the money to make the purchase of PFC, with a floating charge over all of the assets of CSI and its subsidiaries with a condition that they use the money to repay the original loan. This would suit Chinny because he would now have more collateral to cover the debt. As it turns out all of the other collateral turns out to be as worthless as Poopey. So, if Chanrai is the sole creditor to CSI he could take over the whole of CSI, write off the loan of c.£11m to Portsmouth without needing to part with any cash and he's back where he was before CSI. If there are other creditors, eg the Lithuanian government, then this wouldn't work. If Chinny takes PFC as the security for his loan, the other CSI creditors or the equity holder (Antonov or the Lithuanians) can say to Portsmouth, "We'll have our money, please". In this case Chinny has to put his hand in his pocket for an additional £11m. So Chinny has a problem. http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/ . Does he throw good money after bad to recoup his loan? How much value would there actually be in liquidation? As a creditor of CSI he should be requesting that they pursue repayment of the £10.8m loan they made to Portsmouth as it is a significant 'asset' of the company. However, if he did pursue this debt, Portsmouth would be bankrupt, as they can't repay it. He has funded the last 4 purchases of the club. Should he fund a fifth? When I saw the story yesterday about PFC owing the taxman £1.6m I thought that all of the arguments about -10 points would be irrelevant if HMRC started to get aggressive. Now with the reports of them issuing a Winding Up Petition the club will be in admin the day before the Winding Up order is enacted, unless they find a new owner beforehand, or unless they can raise enough money from player sales to fund the company to the end of the season. When it comes to player sales, it won't be TBH who goes, it'll be the players that people actually want: Henderson, Ward, Pearce. These sales wouldn't reduce the wage bill by much and firesales never raise decent prices. The figures being bandied about for the club to survive to the end of the season were c. £5m. Do they have players that other clubs will pay a combined £5m + the cost of paying up the contracts for, with the cash being paid upfront? Also, on the cash only policy for tickets, here's another unproven speculation: what if the bank have withdrawn overdraft facilities? In this case, any money paid into the bank would go direct to repaying the overdraft and the club wouldn't have access to it, but they would have access to cash paid. Expect to see the staff getting paid with brown envelopes stuffed with notes. I hope Ben Haim has a wheelbarrow.