The Kraken

This is the benefit; Adkins gets to work with the majority of the squad for over a week with no games to get in the way. Saying that we'll still lose a few: Clyne to England U21, Fox to Scotland, Yoshida to Japan, Davis to NI, Ramirez to U R Gay, Mayuka to Zambia.......quite a few, actually!

Its true it does include the purchase price, that's correct to point out. Also that it didn't include the AOC transfer fee incoming. However, by the same token, as much as our revenues went up slightly in the NPC our costs also vastly increased. Not least with the signing fees of Jack Cork, Steve de Ridder, Jos Hooiveld, Danny Fox, Tadanari Lee and Billy Sharp. Add in the extra wages of a net addition of 5 extra players (MLG provided a link to an article showing that Tadanari Lee was recruited on wages of £25K per week, which is £1.3M per year) and the costs are starting to rise considerably. Now, the gamble of those costs etc were of course justified, in that we have reached the Premier League where the revenues are astronomical in comparison to previous years. That said we've since gone and spent around £30M in transfers, there's a £15M training ground to be paid for, and wages are doubtless significantly increased. All the while we've raised little or no funding from outgoing players to offset that, and while the new loan in is a concerning addition, without it we'd have had to ask "where is the money coming from?"

I'm struggling to think of a football stadium I've been to that's in a "nice" part of town. The out of town gorunds like Reading and Bolton are just soulless industrial estates. In the city centres, Newcastle is ok, I suppose. Anfield and Goodison, pretty horrible. Aston Villa, disgusting area. City of Manchester is on the edge of Beirut, Tottenham is a very shifty area. Chelsea I suppose is about as good as it gets.

I think you need to sit back and read what is being said. Accusing me of having an agenda is triflingly pathetic; go and read my post on this page and tell me where I am "pouncing on anything NC". By that token I'd flip your insult and suggest you have an agenda with anyone who dares to question anything within the club and cannot bear to hear any criticism of anything so just sticks their fingers in their ears and blissfully ignores it. There we go; sweeping inaccurate generalisations are great, aren't they?

Yep, St. Mary's location is ideal. Walking distance to the pubs of the city centre and suburbs; decent park and ride system from the motorway in operation; all manner of bus routes locally at the stadium and within a walk to the city centre; various mainline rail stations within a 10 or 15 minute walk (including So'ton Central); and all the city centre parking available for those driving in.

Andy Carroll is yet to play a full league game this season. He was injured in the first game of the season, and just made his return as a sub in West Ham's last game.

Get a grip you betwetting moron. NC haters, good lord.

This is a very good point. Saints fans, quite rightly, point out to Pompey that its really only now they criticise the former masters for their financial crippling. "Where were the questions when you were spending money you didn't have to win the Cup" is the often held mantra. Like I say, rightly so, they revelled in the glory and ignored the overspending until it became too huge a burden to ignore. Their bleating now at how unfair it is means nothing, as they challenged nothing when the warning signs were there for everyone to see. So it should be welcomed that Saints fans naturally want to take that on board. To ask questions when the manner in which the club is financed takes a massive u-turn. To seek answers to why a policy from the chairman of "no debt, no reliance on parachute payments" has been undone at once. If we're going to criticise Pompey fans for sucking it up and chasing the dream, then we need to be able to look inwards and ask some probing questions of our own. This loan may be inconsequential, it may be massive; but if the chairman himself is going to denigrate clubs who take out loans against future earnings, and then joins in with that merry band, then we as fans should be encouraged to search out why that may be.

He's not. It's clear he's loaning against television money OR parachute payments from season 2013/14. Not healthy, and entirely at odds with his previous aims and ambitions for his running of the club.

Are you actually ignoring that chairman's own words from just 3 years ago? Just wondering.

Corp Ho, the man who came out with the following: The same Corporate Ho, sorry "Banker" who now constantly claims that the Trust's offer of £2.75M for Fortress Fatpipe is fair and reasonable and Portpin should just accept it? Fisher Price must be so very proud of their idiot employee.

"Not all debt is bad" is my new favourite. It's the ultimate in ignorance of our past 3 years. MLG must be crying into his horlicks.

From the words of Nicola Cortese himself, in May 2010. Source: his wiki page, from an interview with The Times. I can only presume he's changed his mind.

And that is an indisputable approach. As you say, we'll see.

True. But possible to start raising concerns, no? Different thing entirely.

You're correct, not all debt is bad. Debt that is unexpected and completely nullifies an apparent position of "we don't do debt", well I find that concerning. Pragmatism or otherwise.

It was him, he played. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19394671 God forbid Swedish DAVE should get mistaken ABOUT anything.

Marco; where did I say I knew? I said I assumed. But I will say this; I assumed based upon the fact that the large scale construction projects I've previously been associated with (of which there have been many through my business), you'd be a f*cking terrible businessman to pay 100% up front. It just isn't done; you normally pay a deposit up front, then stage payments throughout the build, and a final payment upon final completence and acceptance. We keep getting told on here that Nicola Cortese is a wonderful businessman; yet maybe you're right, maybe he ignored all that, maybe he did pay up front.

Yep, it's entirely that black and white. Congratulations, though. Condensing it into 2 or 3 sentences is a pretty good effort.

Have you got that evidence yet that the training ground development is being paid for up front?

:lol:

Maybe Jordan is having a quiet night, perusing the mongboards, and fancied responding. Boy oh boy is Unkie Nic gonna be upset with him tomorrow for allowing any sort of news getting out responding to rumour and conjecture.

You mean apart from the fact the fanbase have constantly been spoon fed that we don't do debt, we don't countenance debt, that's not how the family operates? Yet we should suddenly accept the terms of this sudden turn around? It's a strange way to counter a particular assertion, that's for sure.

Surprised to see Jordan Sibley forced by his master to comment about anything that concerns rumour and innuendo. Rarely happened before...

How dare you say we can't afford it or couldn't fill it. Shame on you.