Corporate Ho

Why do you keep posting this crap? Pompey didn't have the highest wage bill in the division. It was high certainly as we had some players like Nugent and Utaka that we couldn't offload but it wasn't the highest. Let's say we get average crowds of 14,500 (it was around 15,500 last season so lets take it dowen slightly) at an average of £26 a seat. That gives you £8.7m. Add in a couple of cup games, the commercial side of things, TV money etc and income is probably goning to be around £12 - £13m. Of course, CSI might put some cash in themselves (they have a budget as Philly keeps reminding us and even if it hasn't gone up from last year Philly says they have £3.8m left for this year) so that makes £15 - £16m. We only have 21 players at present and whilst Ben Haim, Kitson and Lawrence are on big money and Varney and a couple of others might be on the wages posters on here have speculated on others are on far less (Futacs who we signed recently is on £2.5K a week). If Benjani was going to re - sign for Blackburn again why was he traing with Stockport when we signed him? You're talking ****e again (as usual). So her won't be on the ridiculous wages people here have specualted. Even if all our players were on an average of £15K a week that would bring the wage bill in at around £16m. Of course there are other costs but it's not an average of £15K a week. You are all talking out of your arses - again. The CVA doesn't restrict us from paying people £100K a week but as Rallyboy says (correctly, for once!!) the FL have to approve everything we spend so we couldn't do that. Interestingly, given that agreement we have with them that so many of you think CSI bought the club to launder money. How are they going to do that if we can't spend freely? ROTFPMSL. Not this old ****** again. Pompey's players are all mercenaries whilst Saints are all there for the love of the club. Do you really think Fonte would have dropped a division if you hadn't offered him silly money to do it, especially as your fans keep telling me he's PL class? Why did Lambert throw his toys out of his pram when you wouldn't agree to sell him to Newcastle last season? Do you think if Liverpool came in for Lallana he'd stay? Talk about deluded Very poor crowd. If only we could have got the sort of crowd you got for the "Save the Saints" charity game you organised when it looked like you were going under. How many tickets did you sell for that one? Cotterill had a sudden realisation: "The Pompey fans are right, I do talk loike a scummer"

Adrian's original post said Cotterill has signed 5 "strikers" on big wages. Kitson would be one, Varney could be another (Blackpool wouldn't go above £12K to sign him, depends what you count as big wages) who are the other 3 strikers on big wages? What is Benjani on a week? What's Futacs on? As for Norris, He was on a free from Ipswich and they offered him less than he was on before to stay so he could be conceivably be on £10 - £12K a week on a three year contract. Regarding Fonte and Jaidi, I took it from your main board in a post by one of your revered ITK posters. I could also mention that when Cork signed he was reported to be on somewhere between £15 - £20K a week.

You make a great point. Actually, no you don't. What point are you trying to make. I was saying there could be any number of reasons why Lampitt left the FA, posted a few possibilities and then said there were also rumours of some other possibilities that I wouldn't post on here. So, what was your point????? According to Transfermark.com, you spent £2.5m in 2009/10 and £2.3m in 2010/ 11. Then add in the very high wages you were paying for L1 (£19K a week for Fonte and £13K for Jaidi was it?) How many more times do you cretins need to be told, they can't touch the parachute payments. As for Liebherr's intentions, do you really think he bought you because he was desperate for a football club or because he thought he could make a profit by selling you on? Once again, I feel compelled to write WTF are you on about to one of Philly's posts. WTF ARE you on about here Philly? What are these "big wages" they're on Adrian. Apart from Kitson, what are the others being paid every week. You seem to have inside information on this, maybe you coudl share it with us? I trumpeted CSI taking over as a "new dawn" did I? LOL. Is your information on this based on the fact that he was at Fratton at the Blackpool game? He was there to watch his son play for Blackpool Well excuse me for not getting too het up about a Pompey fan journalist who can't even get the owners company name correct. What he wrote was based on their commets about spending money to improve the toilets. At no point did they say this WASN'T picked up during due diligence, just that they couldn't believe it hadn't been done before. Philly, why don't you tell us how you know they didn't perform full due diligence, rather than just speculating that because they're Russian (apart from Chris Akers who's English of course) they thought they were getting a good deal. I mean, you've hardly covered yourself in glory with your ITK knowledge have you - that they still own SAAB, that they were dropping their bid for Pompey to buy Bournemouth and on and on.

I said that you were running at a loss on transfer fees AND high wages (85% of turnover according to your last accounts published). Are YOU too stupid to understand written English? You made losses of £7m plus the year the accounts were for so add in losses for the following year (hard to see how you made a profit following losses of £7m) and you may just about have broken even by selling Chamberlain. Maybe. Before your high wage bill kicks into this years turnover. As for our increasing gates, I posted that before Tuesday and the crowds before that game were (in ascending order) 13438 vs Reading 14354 vs Cardiff 14935 vs Blackpool. Which seems to be increasing to me, not sure though, what do you think?

Once again you seem not to be able to read clear English. It doesn't say there weren't toilets. The wording he uses is "proper toilets" which I assume he means they weren't of the best standard. However, if you're so keen to treat their word as gospel then Pompey fans should be in for a good time with them: "We will put money into the academy and we want to improve the facilities, our training ground" "We decided we'll be long-term investors, we don't want to sell the club - we have a five-year development plan. For us it's a long term investment" "Our main goal is to give supporters confidence that we are stable owners and that we have the passion and money to support the club's long-term vision." "Currently we're working on how to expand our territory around Fratton Park," Antonov said. "We'll do our best to buy this plot of land back to the club again."Dubov added: "[The ground] is a priority for us, right now we're doing some investigation and working with the lawyers, we're working on it." Now, I was taking all that with a large pinch of salt but if you're telling me to believe it all because I shouldn't doubt them . . . . Well, I'm basing what I said on your last set of accounts that were released that said, amongst other things: Saints made a pre-interest and pre-tax loss of £7.76m in the year ending 30 June 2010. In virtually a year after Markus Liebherr rescued Saints from administration and wiped out its existing debt, it had wracked up a loss before player trading of £6.68m. The accounts also show that Saints lost £1.08m in player trading during the financial reporting period. It also reveals that they owe just over £7m to creditors in the next year and £14.68m after more than one year Now, I know that's the season before last but as you didn't make anything substantial from transfers last season it seems safe to assume that your losses kept on rising at similar levels. You've pulled in a lot of money from the Chamberlain sale (whether it was all up front or in installments is another matter) but it was well publicised that your wage bill was very high compared to turnover in the year in question (85% of turnover according to the accounts) so while your gate money may have gone up it again seems safe to assume that your wage bill will have also. Some posters on here have acknowledged that you could be in financial problems but you simply don't know for sure. The accounts don't paint a great picture. tell me again why that makes me stupid The forensic investigation "could" throw something up or it might not. There's no "issue" at the moment is there? Similarly with the court cases, only Storries relates to the club, not REdknapp and Mandaric's cases. The story about you looking to sell isn't a Pompey rumour, it does the rounds quite regularly. How you would know it's not true unless you have access to the Liebherr family I don't know. Might be true, might not. Not sure where the heading for administration one comes from, not heard that not have I heard you don't own St Mary's. I saw one saying you don't own your training ground and that seems to be partly tru - don't you actually only lease half of it? How many in the last 20 years? None really. We were ready to go with the Farlington scheme years ago until the Tories stopped it and then we've had the Gaydamak and Mandaric ideas but no real attempts. The point was the "opportunity" is there if they want to take it. Whether they will or not is another matter

Depends how you define opportunity I guess. I mean, Brighton aren't exactly a great opportunity as they're not for sale, you may or may not be for sale but the Liebherr's will want to make a profit on what they've spent and you're running at a loss due to transfer fees and high wages (according to your accounts) so some might see you as an opportunity, some might not. Then there's Bournemouth who they looked at and maybe bid on (depending who you believe) but don't seem to offer great prospects for growth. Then there's us. Mid sized club, decent history a decent fanbase if you can get the set up right and the possibility to expand the stadium if you want to. That's a decent opportunity. As for the debt free and no tax issues, I assumed he meant that with the CVA in place there were no debts or tax issues they'd have to take on themselves as the CVA means those are self funding. As I said to Rallyboy above, maybe they see it as an opportunity. It's not cost them a massive amount of cash compared to what some clubs would cost and it fits in with their portfolio of sports companies within CSI. As for the value of the stadium, why would it be aliability? The value is based on the worth of the land. And are you REALLY that stupid to think there weren't toilets? probably the most appropriate time for me to reply with a PMSL. As for Lampitt, there could be any number of reasons why he moved to Pompey. Why do people normally change jobs? Could be he was under pressure at his old job at the FA. Chainrai may have offered him more money than he was on. Maybe he has ambitions to be CEO at a PL club and sees this as a stepping stone to help him achieve that. Or maybe he's a giant shape shifting lizard who's laundering millions of pounds that you keep telling me CSI haven't got through PFC with the help of backhanders to everyone at the FA/ FL/ PL/ UEFA/ FIFA. Obviously the last possibility is the most likely because it's so believable

You are, of course, assuming he was doing a good job at the FA and that they were desperate to keep him. Assuming that he wasn't under pressure and needing to find another job when Chainrai saw an opportunity to install the perfect figurehead to front his CVA plan. There are a couple of other whispers about Lampitt and why he might have taken the job but they're not going to get posted on a public forum and before you get excited don't relate in any way to some massive cover up. They're for far more personal reasons

I'm glad you agree with me on that score because many posters on here (Crabby and eastleigh Dole bOy among them) seem to use one quote taken from a Pompey messageboard and post it to show how all Pompey fans feel. It's ridiculous and something I keep saying (seemingly to no avail). the "****ing morons" comment was aimed at your many fans who believe there's a global cabal of football governing bodies taking bungs to allow CSI and Lampitt to launder money through the club. Would you not describe someone who believed that as a "****ing moron"? I struggle to find something more apt. Poor crowd last night admittedly but read the quote properly. Only 500 tickets were at £9.50, not all of them. Everything else was full price. I'm not saying it's "in hand". I said that the CVA says we need to average crowds of 14K to service it. You lot said we wouldn't get that last season but we did and we're pretty much doing it again this season. I think CSI will have to act on Cotterill though or the crowds will start to fall - Cotterball's not popular. Nick Nack, no-one believes FIFA is clean but you're suggesting full on collusion between the PL, FA and FL not to mention UEFA and FIFA. Leavinga side the fact that the PL and the FL/ FA hate each other and would do anything to stitch each other up none of them would care if we were caught money laundering. In fact they'd probably be pleased as they could demonstrate how strictly they'd punish a team caught doing it. If they were going to cover up for a team it would be one of the big boys, not Pompey. On the subject of your season tickets, we sold about 11- 12K that season if my memories correct

Poor holepuncture, always thinks he's being so clever and yet again posts something that's got mistakes in it. 1. We didn't play Hull on Saturday, we played Blackpool. And whilst the crowd wasn't massive it's more than we got against Reading and Cardiff when they brought sizeable followings. That means our gates are increasing. You're top of the league and your gates are getting smaller. 2. The 16K season ticket thing was for two seasons ago. And that was based on Fahim's takeover seeing a decent spend on new players. You're really behind the times aren't you? My point about ****ing morons was based on the poster who believed that every governing body in world footbll was involved in a cover up of criminal dealings at PFC involving Lampitt & CSI bribing people to allow a money laundering operation to be run. Would anyone not describe someone posting stuff like that a ****ing moron - or anyone who thought it had some merit? Anyway, maybe next time Holepuncture posts something he might manage a whole post with no errors in it. PMSL

Your "one season in five" scenario is really likely isn't it? So, we'd get promoted one year, then come down again so CSI could spend the parachute payments fr four years but then time a promotional push exactly for the following season? PMSL As for the thoughts of the one Pompey fan you quoted, does this mean he speaks for everyone? If so all Saints fans on here believe that the twin towers were brought down by a US government plot. They must do because one of your posters started a thread on it. What a dumb ****ing argument. Yes, exactly. Err, WTF are you on about? FIFA have been proven to be corrupt. Quite how that proves (or even suggests) that the whole of world football are engaged in a massive cover up of a global criminal plot at PFC I'm not sure. Do you genuinely think that Lampitt and CSI are paying bags of cash to the FA/ FL/ PL in order to orchestrate an international money laundering operation and that everyone at said organisations are going along with it? And that no-one in the media has got a sniff that all this is going on? Or are News International part of it too? I mean, SKY & the PL and all that. Are they all really giant shape shifting lizards as well? You absolute bunch of ****ing morons. Imagine what anyone sane reading that idea would make of it.

Not as simple as you appear to be. How many times do I have to explain this before you understand it? Victor Muller is NOT CEO of CSI. He's CEO of Spyker sports cars. That was his position when Antonov bought the company and he retained him a CEO of Spyker Sports cars (which is a different company to Spyker itself) just as he retained Lampitt as CEO of Pompey. Here's the link to the CSI page so you can have a look again and try to muster up enough brain cells to understand the CSI company structure. It shows Antonov, Dubov and Akers as co - founders of CSI and then lists each company under the CSI umbrella and shows who heads that individual company up. How thick do you have to be not to understand that? The amounts you list are correct. However, our debts to football creditors were £22.4m (it's listed in the CVA, take a look) so your "fact" that all the parachute payments will be swallowed up by them is wrong. Also, I don't believe it's ever been reported exactly how much of that parachute payments was advanced during our last season in the PL so I'd love to know where you got your figures from (a link would be genuinely interesting to see if you've got one but I suspect you haven't and the "facts" were probably taken off an ITK'er on here). The initial advance wasn't paid to football creditors anyway, they were used to pay the players wages as Chainrai wouldn't put a penny in. Anyway, Assume we had ALL of our first year's payment advanced for players wages and have paid the football creditors with more of it that still leaves £10m to come. Unless my maths are wrong? ROTFL. I think you're the one having trouble making one and one equal two. I think you've come up with 1 + 1 = 1000. So let me get this straight, the FA/ FL/ PL/ UEFA/ FIFA are all desperately covering things up for Pompey because they're all implicated in some grand conspiracy and CSI have bought us because they know they can pay these organisations off so they can launder money through PFC. That's what you're saying, yes? Quick poll - how many of you think this is a likely scenario?

[TABLE] [TR] [TD=class: ar8blkr][h=2]International magazine "The Banker" recognized Bank SNORAS as the best bank in Lithuania in 2010 07/01/2011[/h][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: ar8blkr]The prestigious world banking and finance magazine "The Banker" recognized Bank SNORAS as the best bank in Lithuania in 2010. The award to Bank SNORAS was the result of the consistent expansion of the activity and network as well as the growth of all main indicators. "The Banker" assessed the banks by taking into consideration their abilities to guarantee positive return to the shareholders and the possibilities to gain a strategic advantage. During the three quarters of this year, AB Bank SNORAS has earned LTL 67.46 million of activity profit before taxes and provisions. Due to the active activity in the reporting period bank SNORAS increased its market share by almost 2 per cent, having won it over from the Northern European capital banks operating in Lithuania. This year, Bank SNORAS receives international recognition for the second time - international magazine "World Finance"chose Bank SNORAS financial group as the best financial group of 2010 in the Baltic States. http://www.bbp-net.com/en/cat/28/id/1120/ The Banker Magazine (from Wikipedia) The Banker is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by The Financial Times Ltd. and edited in London. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding Editor, Brendan Bracken of the Financial News, who went on to become the chairman of the Financial Times from 1945-1958.[2] Since its founding, the magazine has claimed a dedication to the international perspective through features, interviews, multi-media applications and events. The Banker is the world’s premier banking and finance resource, read in over 180 countries and is the key source of data and analysis for the industry. It combines in-depth regional and country coverage with reports on global financial markets, regulation and policy, cash management and securities services, commodities and carbon finance, infrastructure and project finance, trading and technology, clearing and settlement, and management and governance issues.[3] The Banker is read most widely in banks, financial institutions, multilateral corporations, central banks and finance ministries around the world. Approximately 60% of its readers are CEO/President and CFO/Treasurers of their organizations.[4] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Not trolling or trying to ruin any debate. Phil was the one who posted (idiotically in my opinion) that because CSI are Russian (conveniently forgetting that there's a third one who's English) they'd have bought Pompey without thoroughly checking the business because they'd been convinced they were getting a good deal. He's talking about people, whatever you or I think about them, who run businesses across Europe including banks and who are worth an estimated £800m between them. It was well reported that extensive due diligence was carried out (it was even commented on by people on here about how long it was taking) so how is pointing out that Phil's latest "exclusive" is completely and utterly ridiculous? As I posted links to, GM have now said they're 100% happy for Antonov to buy into SAAB (perhaps they think the FBI got bum information - WMD anyone?)) and the Swedish government (again as I posted) carried out their own investigation into Antonov and again found no criminal links. As for Spyker and CSI, how many more times do I have to post this. Antonov bought the sports car division from Spyker but retained Victor Muller (who's also head of Spyker cars itself) as CEO, just as he rretained Lampitt as CEO of Pompey when they bought us. Nothing sinister, no conspiracy, no link to owning SAAB because he doesn't. He'd like to buy them but isn't linked to them at present. No, we didn't. You are completely and 100% wrong. We did take on some loan players but the scenario with the youth players you're talking about happend last year in the NPC. All the loans we had in place the year you're referring to were at the club by the time we beat you 4 - 1 in the cup which was early Feb. Two of the articles you've posted links to talking about us getting an advance from the parachute payments are dated March. Proves conclusively that we didn't pay for loans with advanced parachute money I'd say.

Ah, the famous Rumafia article. Leaving aside the fact that no-one has ever been able to prove anything that was in the article I have two questions 1. Wouldn't he have known that his business partners Russian Railways already owned a club? It's quite an important thing for him to overlook 2. I ask again, if they wanted to launder money, why Pompey when there's so much focus on the financial side of the club? Serial defaulters? Who else have they defaulted on payments to then? As for promises about buying their way back into the PL, who wants rash promises? They aren't allowed to spunk mega money on players due to the terms of the CVA - as I keep posting but no-one seems to understand. As for living in your shadow, the level of gloating on this site is reaching epidemic proportions but things can change very quickly in football. What happens when the Liebherrs decide to sell you? (as they will). You can't control who buys you. You could get the next Carson Yeung and be back in administration and L1 before you know it. Enjoy it while it lasts because whilst you might get promoted and spend 20 years in the PL it could all come crashing down around your ears The value of the land HAS started to decrease. Latest report is that Gaydamak wants around £5.5m for it which is considerably less than even a year ago. I'm sure he's aware of the localism bill that becomes law next year and must be worried about the effect that could have. As for CSI "bleeding us dry" - PMSL. What the **** are they going to bleed? They can't touch the parachute payments and unless they keep up the CVA payments the club will be folded by the FL. Whatever they're here for they're not here to bleed us dry. [ You can read that the parachute payments can't be touched until 2012 here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/portsmouth/7620926/Portsmouth-suffer-Premier-League-parachute-payment-blow.html "Portsmouth will not benefit directly from Premier League parachute payments until 2012 at the earliest because the money will be paid directly to the club’s football creditors"Which makes the comment that we've already had two thirds of it wrong also. Parachute payments are paid over four years. You also said the PL advanced money so we could buy players to finish the season. 100% wrong. They didn't advance any money until March by which time the transfer window was closed As usual, wrong on so many counts: 1. How have they weakened their bargaining position? Gaydamak knows they're the only ones who will buy the land. hardly a stunning revelation for him was it? 2. A Swedish Govt investigation into Antonov found no connection whatsoever to organised crime. General Motors also publically stated they were happy for him to take over at SAAB. If you look at the second article it says that the Swedish prime minister will turn against anyone who wants to short-circuit the approval process of Antonov. Hardly the damning indictment you'd expect from a head of state for a criminal, is it? http://www.mondotimes.com/3/news/19177 http://www.saabsunited.com/2011/06/gm-approved-of-antonov-a-long-time-ago-swedish-government-caught-unaware.html PMSL. So one quote can now represent every Pompey fan? Maybe I should quote people on here who have posted things along the lines of "I have a few mates who are Pompey fans who are decent people and feel ashamed about what happened". Then maybe you could apply those feelings to every Pompey fan instead. What do you say? 1. Their press conference wasn't about detail, it was about their overall objectives. Now we know what their aims are we can start to ask the questions but seeing as it was a recorded interview, how do you suggest we should have asked them at that time? 2. The "grubby little bank Snoras". You mean the one that won a " Intyernational Region Bank of the year" award from The Banker magazine that's the most respected international financial publication? That grubby little bank? 2.1. SAAB's not connected with them. I ask again, what other of their companies has "issues"? I'll give you a clue - none of them, you made it up ROTFPMSL x 1000. Philly, you're "speculating" (suggesting) that CSI, a group of people (including Chris Akers who is ENGLISH and was CEO of Leeds Utd) who run international companies including banks didn't realise that there was a CVA in place when they bought Pompey? Is that really what you're trying to get people on here to believe? I'm sorry, but that is priceless.

You mean the price of land has suddenly started to increase without me noticing? Gaydamak's making almost nothing from the land. The club have moved their offices, the club shop and learning centre to other premises so all that he's left with is the car park one day every two weeks. In addition, when the localism bill becomes law next year PCC can declare the land an "asset of community value" and that means it can't be developed for anything except the football club. They could even force through a compulsory purchase order on the land. So he's paying a mortgage on land he's making virtually nothing from. Why wouldn't he sell if a decent offer came along? And Tesco are very unlikely to make an offer at present because they know that the co-operation of the club and council is fundamental to any plans they have for a superstore there.

1. They said in their interview they didn't want to spend massively on the playing side, but they've spent over £4m since taking over which is, as people on here have pointed out, about the 3rd or 4th highest in the division. Gaydamak will sell the land eventually as it's no use to him and losing value every day. depends how serious CSI are about developing the ground. They might, they might not. And what exactly does "they want to invest in the academy" mean? I'd suggest it means that they plan to invest in the academy. 2. What other businesses do they have that have "issues"? None as far as I can see. Are you talking about SAAB, believing (like shifting sands Philly) that they own it? (which of course they don't). I wasn't aware they had "issues" at any of their other businesses but perhaps you can enlighten me. As for why they bought us, as I keep saying (over and over again) I think they wanted a football club to go with their portfolio of sporting businesses (Isle of Man TT, Powerplay Golf etc) and we were available at a reasonable price for a club our size. people on here keep banging on about "why didn't they buy Bristol City/ Reading/ Sheff Weds/ Utd" but Madejski wants £50m+ for Reading, Weds & Utd have their own problems and as far as I know Bristol City aren't for sale. What other clubs are for sale they should have bought instead of us. I think they bought us because they wanted a football club within CSI and we were available. Simple as that I think you're wrong Philly. You're right that they wanted a club but not for an ego thing, because it adds to the CSI sporting brand. Not sure why we should be having "sleepless nights" becauase we weren't the first club they looked at. So they looked at other clubs - big deal. They wanted a football club because they run a portfolio of sporting businesses and a football club fits into their overall strategy. I'm still waiting for any shred of proof that you know what their budget for PFC this year is too. Care to post a link?

OK girls, couple of questions for you. 1. Do CSI have money or are they "potless". I'm confused as to the general consensus on here as both possibilities have been voiced (quite often by the same poster) 2. If you believe they wanted a club to launder money through can someone please, please, PLEASE explain to me why they'd choose Pompey when it's under such close scrutiny by the football authorities and any expenditure has to be approved by the FL, the parachute payments are ringfenced by the PL and what they can actually spend (including on players) is controlled by the conditions of the CVA (and again has to be approvedby the FL - and don't talk about CVA payments being pushed back as that was approved by the FL too). Just one coherent answer as to why they'd choose Pompey as a money laundering vehicle, when they could have chosen plenty of other clubs without that focus and restrictions on it will do. You bunch of ****ing one track minded blinkered retards

3 points. 1. I said in my post that they didn't promise us a new stadium so not sure where you've got this from? Not sure why everyone on here finds their original use of arena so funny when it was clearly just a mistranslation on their part (arena being a common word for football stadium in europe) 2. I didn't say it was a new dawn either so not sure where you've got this from either 3. If they wanted a club to launder money, why buy Pompey? Every transaction has to be approved by the FL, nothing can be done without their say so. The owners are actually limited to what they can do with the clubs (even as far as how much they can spend) by the terms of the CVA. Does that sound like the sort of club you'd buy if you wanted to launder money? Fourth point - you seem to be a moron Well, the Sheffield clubs are in a right state and both need new stadiums just like PFC. Like Bristol, they're two club cities meaning a split supporter base and both have problems of their own. Bristol City is, as far as I'm aware, not for sale and Rovers are in the lower leagues with no history attached to them. I see no reason (as I've said many times before) why anyone who wanted to launder money would buy Pompey when we're so closely monitored by the authorities. If anyone could explain to me a logical reason why they would I'll listen but no-one has so far. As for reasons why they'd buy us, I've said before that I think they just wanted a club to add to their sports portfolio. they may have said yesterday they've become "addicted" but then you lot seem to happily believe that Liebherr had somehow become a massive Saints fan in about 6 months and swallowed theat line. What do you expect owners to say? The CVA is in place so they know how the finances are stacked so they've bought a club that's relatively high profile (two cup finals in the last few years) that they can add to a sports portfolio. Can't see them investing massively but that's OK, I'm just pleased to have a club to support.

I actually thought they came across as OK. They didn't promise a new stadium in 5 minutes, said what their priority areas were (and it's hard to disagree with them on those) and were upfront that they weren't going to pump millions in on players (although they've spent a fair amount so far). Nothing really to complain about from what was said. Actions speak louder than words though and Pompey fans have seen too many false dawns to be fooled easily but if they're true to their words I'll be happy enough. No trolling on the earlier post either, genuine replies to a couple of inane comments

Presumably you can find a well used quote to support this claim because I don't ever remember him saying that. Did he really say that or have you just made it up? Proved right about what Philly? You're the one who said they were going to use the EIB loan to fund Pompey. I even posted a quote from you saying they owned SAAB. You made yourself look a complete cock with that quote (even more than usual I might add). Would you like me to post a link to it again so we can all see what a real ITK'er you are? ROTFPMSL. How about their annual budget that never changes, any reply to that one yet? ROTFPMSL again. Let's face it scumlettes, whatever they said you'd have been cracking one out over your keyboards putting your own unique spin on it. However, seeing as all you talked about when they came in was that they'd bought Pompey to launder money, is that still what you think, or has that angle been conveniently forgotten on here now?

WTF are you on about? Faraj was a Saudi. the company he used to acquire PFC was Falcondrone. Fahim's from the UAE and had backing from Falcon Equity. No confusion on my part. If you're suggesting they're connected why didn't Gaydamak sell to Faraj in the first place, why bother with Fahim? It's you who seems confused (again). When you say a senior PL person came on board I assume you mean Lampitt. He was never at the PL, he worked for the FA. Bang goes another Dubai Phil theory

And that's the point HP, it's not just the owners we've had this decade, you can go right back to Deacon in the 70's and all of them have leached money out of the club. You've had a pretty stable club in that time. We've had constant hassle. No wonder fans are ****ed off with it. Even back in the PL we were being charged more for tickets than almost every other club and never saw any improvement in infrastructure. I'm amazed as many still go to games as they do. There was a poll on POL last week and it was split almost exactly 50/ 50. The Cotterill supporters think he did a decent job last season in keeping us up with all the upheaval and that he should be given time and a chance to see what he can do now he's assembled a team of his own. The rest think he's a clueless **** who should be booted. I'll leave it to you to decide which way I voted Not sure what you're suggesting here Phil. you seem to be saying that Faraj DID have backing but they pulled out sue to the FAPPT criteria. That seems an odd suggestion when we know (the PL confirmed it) that Chainrai was part of faraj's original consortium that Gaydamak refused to sell to choosing instead to sell to Fahim (presumably because of the disputes between Chainrai and Gaydamak Snr). So why a Swiss based investment fund would use a non - existent/ mysterious Saudi to fron their vehicle seems an odd one to me. I think most on here are aware that fahim DID have a backer/s but they bailed after finding out about the FAPPT. My point about budgets still stands. You suggested that a budget from last year would be exactly the same this year. My point was that budgets and funds are different from year to year. Or do you dispute that?

Chez, my post wasn't aimed at you, just that yours happened to be the last in a long list quoting Lawrence's comments. I'm no fan of Cotterill either but I think he was trying to say that promoted teams often do OK for a couple of years but then see their best players picked off by bigger clubs which weakens the team and they get relegated leaving them with players they can't afford. But you're right, several interpretations could be applied I wasn't looking for a "bite" just pointing out that Andronokou let slip that Chainrai owned Falcondrone which was supposed to be owned by Al Faraj. That means he lent money to himself and defaulted himself to get the club for nothing - yet no-one in the media seems to have picked up on that.

Portpin is definitely Chainrai's company. The question SHOULD be if Chainrai and Falcondrone are the same. Falcondrone was the company supposedly owned by Ali Al Faraj but Andronikou said in court that Chainrai owned it. If so, Chainrai loaned money to himself, defaulted on the payment and acquired the club for nothing as a result. Philly, any answer on my question as to whether your sales budget has changed since last year or the year before that or why you thought Antonov could use the EIB loan to SAAB to fund Pompey? I've asked a couple of times now but you seem strangely reticent to answer Can't see a problem with Lawrence's quote. Plenty of teams start a season well and fall away. Look at Blackpool last year in the PL or Doncaster who were near the top of the NPC after a few games last year. As for Pompe fans being "stupid" to say it about you I seem to remember that on this forum's predecessor the year we were promoted most of you were patting each other on the back saying we'd blow it

You are completely wrong. The charities have been paid in full. They haven't been "paid under the technical blanket of the CVA". If that were the case everyone would have been paid. Similarly, you're wrong when you say Lampitt's has said many times that the small creditors under £2500 have been paid - he's never said any such thing. The promise to pay creditors under £2500 was never a "legally binding document" it was a verbal promise made by Chainrai. You're wrong about the charities, wrong about Lampitt saying the small creditors have been paid and wrong about it being codified in a legally binding agreement. Congratulations, you've probably got more things wrong in such a short post than anyone ever has before. You look a complete chump for bleating on about the charities when you've been proved wrong twice now. Just give it up and post yet another one of your lengthy posts full of swearing. They're so funny FC, I agree with your last paragraph about the NPC. It's a decent, competitive league with lots of team of a similar strength teams in it. You could go up this season and see Liebherr's family spend £100m on you and you'd probably get a top 10 finish. It's insane. But here's a thought that might stop the financial craziness - don't let owners load debt onto the clubs when they're buying players (or even buying the club itself). make them personally responsible for any financial problems. That would address the issues