The Kraken

I just think it looks a bit plain. And naff, if honest.

^^ Looks like a training ground top to me.

Nixon's comment on its own may not have said much about prioritisation. But combined with the summer's activities I felt it spoke volumes. I felt his comment gave confirmation to the fact that, with a CB, we had for whatever reason failed to do what we had done successfully with Rodriguez and Ramirez: highlight a major, expensive target early on, and pull out all the stops to get him (JRod was concluded quickly, Ramirez was an epic saga, but we got our men that we identified up front). We just didn't do that with a CB, like I say for whatever reason that was, but we didn't. As you rightly say our transfer activity for CBs was massively disappointing, and the committee were clearly at odds over who the main target was in the run up to the closure of the window.

You're a very funny guy.

Did people actually believe this? I certainly didn't. It was clear we were in the market for a CB, we were linked with enough but nothing came through. Nixon fairly clearly said that we couldn't decide which CB we wanted; not that we weren't going to get one. That's how I remember it anyway. My criticisms at the time were not that we weren't looking for a CB, but that we hadn't seemed to prioritise the signing (and willingness to pay bigger money) over and above those of Ramirez and Rodriguez, who I didn't (and still don't) see as anything but luxury signings at that time.

Not the mongboard's finest hour; so many on here who didn't like such spurious nonsense (actual truth, as it turned out) being peddled that they again attacked the man rather than the ball.

Alan Nixon seems to completely disagree with you, Baz. The guy who got our transfer dealings spot on last year thinks we're going to eclipse what we spent last summer.

Je suis en désaccord. J'aime beaucoup Jack Cork, et avec Morgan Schneiderlin ils sont les premiers noms sur la feuille de match, pour moi.

Don't be silly. The list of good things far, far outweighs the list of poor things, but lets not try to pretend the poor things don't exist. They do.

Two new CBs. 1 wide player with skill and pace. 1 striker in the junior Drogba mould. Not too much to ask then......we won't get all that, but that's the minimum I think we need to challenge the euro spots, which seems to be the club's ambition. If Forren gets fit or whatever and can prove to be a left footed Ivanovic then all the better, but I very much doubt it from what I've seen so far.

That. You can get some decent looking boards for all styles and once painted you'll not know the difference to olden ones. Bugger going to all that effort to strip them down.

Almost Rank Xerox, so I wouldn't be averse to that. Although i really have no issue with the fact that other clubs play in red and white stripes. Its us, its what we're known for, and trying to create a new brand identity out of white and grey pinstripes isn't for me.

I liked the adidas mock up earlier in the therad, so whatever that is! My ideal would be a smar recreation of the Rank Xerox; fat chance, I feel. God only knows what wacky creation we'll get this year. I'm fully expecting to be entirely underwhelmed by it; I just hope there might be something I might choose to buy for 5 a side and that doesn't have the terribly naff massive sticky label plastered over the front (which it clearly will FFS).

Something like that in red and white would be perfect, please. I can't see a return to red and white stripes this season though.

Seems like a perfectly good and effective marketing policy to me. Cheap seats for kids, and a decent enough strapline. They've got enough propaganda down there with the Portsmouth News, all their Pack the Park b*llocks and such like, so they need a variation on the theme. Plus they have a concerted drive to get more kids to turn up. Pretty good move really, its not as if they're going to do anything with the thousands of empty seats they're likely to have. Still, this thread seems to have turned from one mocking genuine issues to mocking decent ideas, just because its them. So I shouldn't be surprised.

I hope you're not actually basing Pompey's whole marketing campaing on the strength of of one poster.

Can they not do both then? You seem to suggest the two are mutually exclusive.

So you're saying that pretending Fratton Park has a rocking atmosphere is a better marketing tool than reducing prices to around £3 a game for kids?

Without knowing who the shareholders are or how many of them there are, I'd guess its impossible to know that. I'd much prefer to know who we're owned by and all that, and I'll keep asking the question about our debts, loans etc. But I'm not sure if all the information is going to be too easy to get to.

Me too. People are quick to note the great spirit within our squad, di Canio wants to see something similar from his. Seeing them all f*ck about as if on a jolly must have brought home to him that he has a squad who are happy to go through the motions and collect their massive pay packets by doing the bare minimum to survive. I'd much rather have a manager who never settles for second best, I imagine MP would have reacted just the same.

At the last count Cortese was a director of the club but it was owned by the shareholders "the estate of Markus Liebherr". So presumably they could remove him or any of the other directors if they so chose. Of course, the current ownership situation is unclear.

Rightyho.

What is "fan" short for?

Depends what you're trying to ascertain, I'd have thought. If you're comparing managers overall then yes, maybe finding similar matches is the way to go. If you're assessing the notion that MP has improved us a team and is immediately getting better results, then I feel it better to look at the past 28 games as its 14 each. Neither method is flawless, of course, just an indicator.

Unless you're one who wants to go looking for trouble, message boards are where the warriors mostly come out to get stuck into the rivalry and hatred thing. I have in the past and continue to work with Pompey fans and its just banter (although pretty hard to take when we got thumped down at their place). Even after the 1-4 at home it wasn't rubbed in too much; probably because deep down they knew they had players they couldn't afford, and we were 2 divisions below.