Corporate Ho

My trip to Vegas was a business one and happily, the people I was meeting there phoned just as I got to the airport to say they couldn't make it. Which meant that rather than spending days away from home and not get back until Xmas Eve as planned I got to spend the weekend with my wife. Bad luck for her but good luck for me. Also, posting on here wasn't the last thing I did before I left, but as I only have three posts per day it was the last post I could make. And as I didn't have to make the trip posting on here wasn't the first thing I did. In fact as usual I didn't post on here at all over the weekend nor yesterday. Which sort of ****es on your chips claiming I'm obsessed wouldn't you say? If I was obsessed, I'd be on here at weekends and in the evenings? Fair point? Hope Santa brings you the gimp mask you want for Xmas :cool: Ba Da Tish Far from substance less. Just that when a deal is being put together for so much money lots of things can change. I'm not looking at Adams leaving as a sign of new investment. I was just told the this group don't want him. Not sure that Adams was appointed as the cheap option - not in the way you mean anyway. Think it was more of a case of Gaydamak knowing he was leaving and appointing TA meant that there would be less compensation to pay if he was let go, rather than bringing in a name like Allardyce who'd be on biggish money and a long contract with lots of staff. Adams was the cheap option in that respect. That's three posts. Off for Xmas now. See you in the New Year for more fun and frolics

To be fair Nick (you answered reasonably so I'll offer you the same courtesy) I don't believe Gaydamak has ever been actually quoted saying what he wanted for the club. Figures have been bandied around in the media as anywhere from £1 (a figure you all liked on here) to as much as £100m. If you can provide a quote showing me that Gaydamak stated he wanted £20m for the club I'll happily admit you're right but don't believe you are. As far as the strength of the Rand is concerned, if these guys are anything like the other South Africans I know this could be a way of getting some of their money out of the country - who knows. All I know is what I've been told and that the guys looking to buy are a group of individually wealthy South Africans who now have the finance for a bid pretty much in place. The info came from someone in a position to offer specifics, not a fan who heard a rumour from a mate. It could all go tits up of course. Time will tell.

Was told late last night that the SA group looking to buy us had a hitch in their plans but that they now have the finance to buy the club pretty much in place. They have around £60m and Gaydamak wants £65m. Have been told that the deal should (unless something else crops up) happen some time in January. Have also been told that this group don't want Adams and that he's likely to be moved out before the deal is announced. So keep watching. How's your search for new owners coming along? I hear administration is a definite possibility for you in January. Depends on who the new supermarket would be. I hate Tesco and shop at Sainsburys in Farlington. But it's relatively small. Nowhere near as big as the Sainsburys at Hedge End. Which, of course, is only a couple of miles away from Tesco at Bursledon/ Hamble. Supermarkets need bigger stores these days because they need more space to display the non - food stuff they're making so much money on.

Agree with you about Gaydamak. He's always said that he's here to make money so no surprise he's looking to sell up. Not sure you're right about the stadium/ shopping part though. That report sensationalised some of the aspects of the plan but the commercial aspect of it is largely for a supermarket which is hardly going to take people away from Gunwharf and the proposed Northern Quarter redevelopment of the town centre (if it ever happens). The biggest problem is funding the stadium although with two of the supermarket chains keen to be involved (one for the new site and one that wants to redevelop Fratton) it takes a lot of the financial pain away. I was told that the club would have already been sold if Gaydamak hadn't insisted on retaining the contract to build the new stadium for one of his companies (the buyers were middle eastern and wanted to build the stadium themselves with their own companies). We'll have to agree to disagree on Defoe That's it, three posts for today. Off to Vegas now where I'm told it's snowing :confused:

Like I said Granty, my point wasn't that this £35m would be put into Pompey anyway. It was just to reply to so many Saints posters on here who have said that Gaydamak is selling Pompey because (a) he's skint (he clearly isn't and you're right, he owns other companies besides the one he sold. The Sunday Times estimated his net worth at around £100m) and (b) that he has no money of his own and it's all his father's. This proves that neither of those are true.

Interesting quote from Lauren isn't it. I posted the other day that I'd heard Johnson was off, probably to Liverpool (don't believe poor old Harry has as much money at Spurs as he expected, he's being linked today with a move for Steve Finnan on loan ). However, I'm not sure how Defoe is going to rejoin Spurs in January seeing as Premier League rules prevent a player from rejoining his former club within 12 months of leaving and you may remember that due to a problem over Man City's registration of Benjani we didn't formally sign Defoe until after the transfer window closed. I guess Spuds could seek special dispensation from the League to sign him but it goes against all their rules. Wouln't rule out him going back in the summer but even then we'll be making a very nice profit on a player they sold to us. Is a minimum of £35m skint these days? That's how much Gaydamak sold his stake in a Russian company ( Antanta Pioglobal) for recently. Not suggesting he'd pump all this amount into the club but to suggest he has no money - as has been done many times on here recently - is clearly way off the mark. Please also note, that was his stake in the company, not his father's. How does that sit with your lots repeated posts that he has no money of his own?

Where did I say a takeover would be announced before the game tonight then? Seems you have trouble reading clear English Unlike you eh, Nick Nack? I posted a response to the ******** you wrote about our game against Milan (their "understrength side etc) in the post on the Muppet board which I notice you've completely failed to respond to, largely I suspect because it makes you look like a complete chump. http://saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6033&page=2 Not quite so Billy Big ******** now that the fee's been confirmed as around the £20m mark are you? :smt033

One of our players is apparently worth more than your entire club

I've been told that Pompey's financial situation is nowhere near as bad has been suggested by the media. Gaydamak sold his stake in one of his other companies for £35m recently (Antanta Pioglobal if anyone wants to look it up) so while he won't want to use all of that cash on PFC it gives him some breathing space if it's needed in an emergency. Don't see a firesale happening in Jan. Diarra will be off, the only question is to who. I was told that Man Utd had bid £16m for him (they failed with a £12m bid back in the summer) but that Man City are willing to go to almost £20m to get him if they need to (!) but Real Madrid are supposedly showing interest now at around £20m so we should make a decent profit on him wherever he goes. There might be a shock move for Sol Campbell to Newcastle if they'll match his wages and that would be fine with me. Gets two of the highest earners of the wage bill and Kaboul's looked good when hes played. The only other one I can see leaving is maybe Johnson. Spurs have of course been linked but I've heard that Benitez is interested. Would be hard to turn the move down for him if that happens. Not much news on replacements for anyone who's interested but we're definitely interested in Orlando Engelaar (Dutch midfielder who plays for Scahlke) and also Patrick Viera.

I don't think either are shocking. The facts your crowds are falling are what I'd expect given your position and lack of investment. It's exactly what I always pointed out about the crowds we got when we were in the lower divisions with Deacon and then the Gregory's not investing and selling any decent players we had. No doubt if you continue to lose/ get relegated your crowds will fall even further - as ours did. Then if you get a modicum of success (challenging for promotion etc) they'll go up again. Looking at Pompey across 24 seasons from 1980 (all but one of which was spent outside the top flight) we averaged crowds of around 13,000. I'd suggest that a few more years with a lack of success will see you getting crowds of a similar size.

Half full? Crowd was 19416. I make that 94% of capacity. Not bad considering Newcastle sent some of their tickets back. Let's think and see if we can find someone a bit closer to home for you who are genuinely seeing their stadium being less than half full, shall we?

I see Nick Nack is still declining to comment on the above. Let's talk about people "running away" now shall we?

Oh dear, looks like Nick Nack's "disappeared" again. Seems the going got too tough for him/ his statement proved unfounded (is that one of the most pompous phrases he's ever used or what?) Or maybe Roger Moore's shut him in a suitcase again

Dear, oh dear Mavis. You do seem very selective in your views. Yes, Milan missed some chances but you have completely ignored the fact that Crouch also missed three very good opportunities in the first half as well. Not only that but given that you noticed that Milan fielded a "weakened" team it's funny that you didn't notice that Pompey were also without four of our best players in Diarra, Defoe, Kranjcar and Campbell. Still, that would negate your pathetic argument, wouldn't it? 1. If Spurs want to pay us £3m + for James we'll happily take it. 2. The format is different now. However, we would still have gone out in the first round if we hadn't got through a home and away tie just like you played, so not that different after all, eh? As for them being no - hopers, they finished high enough in a decent Portuguese league last year to qualify for the Champions League qualifying round and were only denied a spot in the group stages by an incorrectly disallowed goal. So not exactly the "no-hopers" you're trying to paint them as.

No, Nick Nack, I don't post either when I'm not at work or when I'm too busy - which has been the case for the last week or so. Regarding the sale of Pompey, I'm told things are progressing nicely and that an announcement about a takeover could even be made as early as next week at our UEFA Cup game. Don't you think it's strange that Gaydamak spent months denying the club was for sale only to admit that it was out of the blue? What do you think could have prompted him to change his mind? See if your senile little mind can propose a couple of possibilities Mavis.

PMSL. So when Storrie says this he's the man to listen to but when he says we have no financial problems and that we won't be selling players in January you tell me he's a liar and that we're going bust. I love the way you lot change your tune when it suits you. As for us being a small town, I think you'll find that we were deemed a city many years before your little dump and in theory, you still shouldn't be classed as a city given that you don't have a cathedral. Portsmouth has two. Would you like one of them as you can't seem to afford your own?

Indirectly, e. I am definitely not an ITK'er. I just happen to know someone quite high up at PFC who tells me a few things from time to time. However, this info came via someone I used to work with who is involved in the potential deal and passed on the info as he knows I'm a Pompey fan.

"Unfortunately for me it looks as though the Chinese group (whose bid isapparently still on the table) are going to be outbid by the South African offer (see story below from the South African newspaper). Would rather the Chinese lot won as they seem prepared to put more into the club but Gaydamak will make more from the African one, not just initially but also an involvement in any stadium that's built. There's also a group from the UAE sniffing around who met with Gaydamak last week. Looks like I've ended up with egg foo yung on my face over the date on this one" http://saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4319&page=3 I guess being such a retard you couldn't read what I posted above in the original thread. Or maybe you were so pany wettingly excited at the thought of proving me wrong you couldn't wait to have a dig. Maybe a bigger boy could read it for you so you'd see that I've already held my hands up to getting this wrong. I've been told that Friday 28th is when a deal to buy PFC could be announced (not definite but could happen) by the South African group currently in discussions with Gaydamak. Any news on a new stadium would, of course, follow some time after new owners took charge.

Latest I've heard is that it could (that's could, not will) happen next Friday (28th Nov). Nothing definite, just the date I've been given. You all love a Friday takeover rumour, don't you?

Unfortunately for me it looks as though the Chinese group (whose bid isapparently still on the table) are going to be outbid by the South African offer (see story below from the South African newspaper). Would rather the Chinese lot won as they seem prepared to put more into the club but Gaydamak will make more from the African one, not just initially but also an involvement in any stadium that's built. There's also a group from the UAE sniffing around who met with Gaydamak last week. Looks like I've ended up with egg foo yung on my face over the date on this one but I'm still willing to bet that we get new owners before you do. SA group to bid for Portsmouth ‘in 2 weeks’ A consortium of South African and British-based businessmen will make a formal offer for Portsmouth football club within weeks, Prosport International’s Mike Makaab confirmed yesterday. Describing himself as a “contact person” on the consortium’s behalf, Makaab told the Sunday Times: “I am confident that a bid will be made within 14 days.” Makaab, a football agent with some foreign-based South African footballers on his books, would not divulge the names of the backers of the bid. But he rejected the claim that the financial muscle came from either Sundowns owner Patrice Motsepe (as rumours this week have suggested) or local and offshore mining capital. In clarifying the role of Greg James, owner of the JAG investment group and the majority shareholder in Prosport, Makaab claimed that James being in Portsmouth this week was simply coincidental. “He was simply there to explore synergies between his JAG sports foundation and Portsmouth’s very strong community-oriented development programme,” Makaab said. James is also the CEO of the Central Rand Gold mining group. The Portsmouth plot is further thickened by the fact that Makaab and Israeli football agent Pini Zahavi are well known to each other. Zahavi is well connected with Portsmouth’s owner, Alexandre Gaydamak, and might be keen to create a role for himself in a post-Gaydamak era if Gaydamak sells the club, estimated to be worth about £70-million. Makaab acknowledged that these were not the best of economic times, but said that carrying debt was part and parcel of life in the Premiership. He said clubs had significant assets in players, stadiums and training grounds, although Fratton Park, Portsmouth’s home ground, was small and the club had debts running into tens of millions of pounds. A good time to buy, then? Makaab was polite but coy with the Sunday Times, saying: “A lot depends on the numbers — if numbers don’t work out, deals don’t happen. One has to heed the economic climate, obviously. ” http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=885192 If you bothered to read the story properly the dispute is between Defoe and his agent, not any irregularity by Pompey. D minus, must try harder

Funny, you lot seemed to put some faith in it too. Look at the number of posts on this thread before and after that story broke in the media. You lot were gutted when that potential takeover deal was reported - otherwise why did you all go so quiet?

Not moving goalposts at all. It's you who chose to judiciously edit what I actually wrote in the quote above. What I said was that if you wait two weeks an announcement will be made. Why didn't you post the full quote? More developments in the papers this morning. I also understand that Gaydamak is meeting with one or possibly two other buyers this week. Seems like intereste is hotting up which may well push the asking price North. FYI, Gaydamak is far from skint himself. Only last month he sold one of his companies in Russia for £35m. A key figure in the potential sale has emerged as Greg James, the chief executive of Central Rand Gold, the South African gold mining company, although he has moved to state that he would not be a direct part of any takeover group. "I can categorically say that Greg James is not buying Portsmouth FC and nor is he fronting a South African consortium that is seeking to do so," said Bobby Morse, his spokesman. James' role, though, could be that of a fixer and Sacha Gaydamak, the Portsmouth owner, who is open to offers for the club, discussed James' extensive contacts with him when they met in Portsmouth over the weekend. The agent Pini Zahavi was also present. James does not want to become an investor at Fratton Park. Having worked as a senior board member at the Switzerland-based private commodity and raw materials company Glencore, which is associated with the publicly traded Xstrata mining group, he is now channelling his energies into Central Rand Gold. The company was listed last November to raise £75m for its venture to bring back into production the Johannesburg mines. It traded at a loss in the most recent financial period because of heavy spending on machinery and labour, not to mention licences for the mines which it was officially granted at a ceremony yesterday, and it intends to begin production after the turn of the year. It has more than $100m (£65m) in the bank and sources at the company confirmed the money was solely for funding of the mining venture and not the purchase of a football club. But James' meeting with Gaydamak cannot be dismissed lightly. He is an adviser to Prosport International, the leading South African sports management company, which represents more than 200 footballers. Yet it is difficult to imagine that a man of his wealth and influence was in Portsmouth exclusively to discuss January transfer business or the setting up of a link between the club and young African players. James is a passionate sports fan and his charity, the Jag Foundation, offers opportunity to disenfranchised South African children through sport. His contacts are in the field of sport as well as business and he would seem ideally placed to recommend new investors to Gaydamak, whose club has reported debts of £32m and a wage bill that devours a huge percentage of turnover, which itself is restricted by the cramped confines of Fratton Park and the lack of premium executive facilities. Portsmouth refused to comment on the takeover talk yesterday - there are also rumours of interest from groups in the United States - and they maintain that the club is on a sound financial footing. I hear in addition to the ones mentioned above both asian and UAE groups are interested. How many potential buyers are in for you? Remind me again :cool:

The glue that held us together? PMSL. Joe Jordan was the Derek Smalls of PFC - like lukewarm water. Starting to tear at the seams eh Mave? 9th in the Prem is tearing apart is it? If Jordan was so important and irreplaceable don't you think Adams would have offered him the asst manager role? The fact he didn't speaks volumes. From what I've been told if we have to replace Jordan we'll need someone to put the cones out and hand out bibs for training sessions. He'll have less senior position at Spurs than Kevin Bond - I think that says it all. As for a takeover update, I understand it could well happen this week or next week. A bid is on the table from the group I mentioned last week which I hope goes through as they have extremely wealthy backers that makes Gaydamak look like Michael Wilde. Howver, two more groups are in the running and Gaydamak's waiting to see if either of these bid more. I've been told that both of these have less to spend on the club should they actually bid and be successful. One is South African (mentioned in the papers today) and the other is middle eastern but don't know where from. Could be the Pini Zahavi thing mentioned in several papers or could be arabs. Interseting times though

You should know, rent boy. :cool: I see the concept of smilies has passed you by. Het (notice correc spelling). LOL Nope. Start of this week. See date of my post on first page of this thread for corroboration. Hoppy the Hamster Who says it will be Crouch? I'm talking logically. Mavis is using women's logic - ie not actually listening to what I say or processing the facts. I reckon I do everything with far more panache in any case 1. We all have laptops now Mave. They can be carried home with you. 2. Ref Ladyboys - see my previous post regarding transference. It's a topic you bring up with worrying regularity. It must be the Norris in you. :vom:

1. Look Mave, I know you're not that bright but as I've explained dozens of times I DON'T POST ON HERE AT WEEKENDS, ONLY WHEN I'M AT WORK. That's why you saw no posts from me after we lost to Wigan until Monday. Do you think you can finally grasp that concept now? 2. Why do you find it so hard to believe that I went on holiday? It's bizarre. Was told that an announcement should be made in the next fortnight. Papers wrong as usual. Looks like Diarra is off to Man Utd, not City in Jan for £16m. Clause in his contract allows him to go to a champs league club. Good profit of £11m on a player webought a year ago though. Defoe could also be off to Man City for around the same fee. Again, a massive profit. He's going because Adams wants to play 4 - 5 - 1 more often. Most of the cash will be reinvested in the team. As for Mavis' increasingly desperate attempts to paint me as someone who only recently started supporting Pompey (could you come up with something to back that up Mave rather than your usual "I've met people like you before" - where did you meet them? On one of your Saga holidays?). I've seen Pompey play in all four divisions, as I've said before. Maybe the 60% of your fanbase that you seem to have lost over the last couple of years are the ones who have become City fans? Cue Mavis whining "You can say you're James Bond on the internet, no-one can prove anything.