trousers

I'm thinking Birch too. With AA you more or less knew what was coming next (I.e. some hair brained scheme or other) but there's more of a surprise element with Birch as he has a veneer of normality about him, ergo it's much more entertaining when he comes up with something ludicrous.

The Football League have invited Pompey to participate in League One next season as long as they accept the conditions of participation. One of those conditions is a -10 point penalty. The points penalty will become applicable once Pompey accept the invite, which hasn't happened yet. As of this moment on time, Pompey are not actually a Football League club. As such, pre-season league tables shouldn't be showing Pompey at all to be completely accurate.

Neil Allen on TalkSport this hour

Lens played in another PSV friendly at the weekend

@pn_neil_allen: Touching interview today with @GregHalford15 over his #Pompey sacrifice. There are players out there who do get what clubs mean to fans. Shame there aren't any journalists who get what a morally corrupt club means to c.£130m worth of creditors.

PFA chief Gordon Taylor alluded to his members offering that very compromise to the "potential new owners" last week but, once again, the British media and press simply glossed over it. To me, Taylor's comments last week were amongst the most important we've heard throughout this saga but they were never followed up by the media/press.

Because the two potential new owners (Chainrai and The Trust) have made their offers of taking over the club conditional on the players relinquishing what they are owed. If the players chose to ignore these demands and instead hang on for the parachute payments they (supposedly) wouldn't get them because the club would be liquidated and the parachute payments would then be withheld and redistributed to other clubs by the Premier League (so the prevailing wisdom goes) So, in other words, the players are being forced to give up what is rightly theirs.

Do we know the date of the last parachute payment? Sometime in 2014? I'll set my alarm.

Are you certain about that? Doesn't the fact that the leaving players (bar Kanu) have 'voluntarily' re-negotiated what they are owed (and the repayment terms) then it's a matter for the administrator to transfer the responsibility to 'NewNewCo' rather than the tab being picked up via FC 'insurance'. Doesn't that only kick in if the players stand their ground on existing contracts? I've no idea.

That's the question no journalist on the planet has had the ingenuity to ask the football authorities yet.

I'm as convinced as a man with a hunch can be that JWP will be in the starting line-up vs Man City

I know I bang on about it but I remain bemused as to why the football authorities spent years and no doubt millions of pounds in a court of law to protect their precious football creditors rules when clubs such as Pompey can ride rough shod over them. An extended deferral and diluting of payments makes a mockery of a set of rules designed to offer 100% protection to players etc. Pompey...bending rules since the beginning of time...

Source?

Indeed. And, a thought that crossed my mind....Does anyone know how the Gibraltar FA are funded? Would be 'mildly entertaining' to discover that the British Taxpayer has indirectly helped pay for Pompey's extravagant trip...

Excellent summary. Shame the media have chosen to airbrush such inconvenient statistics over the last few months.

So, the trialists are leaving at the same rate as the established players....hmmm...

http://m.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/pompey-boss-appy-with-break-1-4108566

@alexread11: #Pompey's 2nd home #WeveBeenThere5Times http://t.co/u4Sqak23

@GregHalford15: I'd like to thank everyone at #Pompey for everything they've done for me. Supporters have been truly amazing What, even over the last few weeks when the 'bestest' were hounding you out of town with venomous hatred? Yeah..."truly amazing" You gotta love the fickle world of football fans...

Read it* (*quite possibly the poorest play on words in Saints Web Forum history)

@pn_neil_allen: Hearing of superb financial gestures made by Huseklepp, Norris, Varney and @GregHalford15 which #Pompey fans will applaud. Details tomorrow. So, that'll be the Football Creditors rule neatly sidestepped then. Good job the football authorities battled for years in the courts to protect that one... Just intimidate the players to settle for less....simple... Sigh

Am I the only one not to understand the tactics in this cycling malarkey? The bit about how teams (your own and others) affecting the result in what is an individual medal event. Why don't the best competitors simply just try to get from start to finish in the best possible time? Why try and turn and individual event into a team event?

Yep, but on the verge of being fit

From someone not usually first in the queue when it comes to dishing out praise to Saints... @Moose_talkSPORT: Southampton were brilliant today well done to @jordansibley and all his staff (apologies if already mentioned and not sure if he's talking about the game or the hospitality!)

Agree, most likely. Or... the story was planted by Saints to send a shot across PSV's bows re: Lens? I.e. "if you don't accept our £n mil bid we'll look elsewhere"...? I assume they both play in similar roles? (p.s. I've not been keeping up with the situation re: the Lens bid the last few days so this could be a poor theory on several levels)