The Kraken

Apparently Morgan was in Oceana with Steve de Ridder watching the game yesterday.

Away from home, against the better sides, I'm simply not sure to the wisdom of putting both Lallana and Ramirez in the team. Attacking-wise, of course, they're very good and give some great options going forwards; but having both of them in the side leaves the defence vulnerable, so many of Everton's threats came from surges from midfield that we just didn't respond to. And IMO our defensive naievety is also increased by having Rodriguez and Lambert on the pitch. At home there's a case to be made that they can play together, or certainly a formation akin to that. Away from home, not so much. I don't believe the formation in itself is the problem; its the players occupying those positions. I'd have preferred someone like Chaplow at RM yesterday (ideally a fit Jack Cork or JWP there with Morgan in the middle, but injuries prevented that). We're simply not going to drop Lallana on the left, so its a moot point, but were in not I'd also look to shore up the left side (if Ramirez is going to play through the middle); and if we do sign a decent LB then LM is a job that Fox could potentially do if/when fit (only in tight away games though).

Who knows? I can't speak for anyone else. But I would certainly point to the fact that a 1-0 defeat is better than a 3-1 defeat, and would show signs that we're improving defensively.

To be fair to him, on the BBC website (which shows all of his interview) he says that we're conceding far too many goals. That said, he followed that up by saying "Are we too adevnturous? I don't think so". In some ways its good to see a manager who sets up his football team to have a go, and not park the bus. But I think we can still do that, while also selecting a slightly more defensive line-up that will protect the back 4 much better. Expecting Lallana, Rodriguez and/or Ramirez to effectively defend the wings and provide adequate defensove cover to the full backs is a little naive IMO, and we're being punished for it.

Who has said they expected us to win? There's a massive difference between expecting to win, and setting up a team that will likely offer much more help defensively than playing 4 attackers and conceding three goals before half time. It is possible to set up the team more defensively and still play football. We just haven't chsoen to do that yet. 18 goals in 6 games is a damning indictment of that fact, even taking into account who our opposition have been.

Exactly what TDD said. When I saw we were going with effectively a front 4 of Lambert, Rodriguez, Ramirez and Lallana I just knew we'd ship goals against a side who haven't had too much trouble scoring and are very much in form. At home, that type of lineup has a chance of working. Away, when we need to keep it much tighter and will naturally be defending more than attacking, its almost suicide to put out those 4 players and expect them to do it defensively.

Strange that, when it's a schoolboy with a female teacher (rather than the other way round) the natural reaction is "Wahay! Get it in there lad!"

If there's grass on the wicket, let's play cricket. Too much?

Nabil Hassan ‏@NabilHassan79 #Pompey Supporters' Trust have finally accepted they are not PKF's 'preferred bidder'. Only Football League can save them and stop Portpin. And the POL natives aren't best pleased.... But the Trust aren't giving up just yet...

Just

More than £2M in fees just to give the club back to Chinny, which he could have done many, many months ago. You have to say; that's an absolutely awesome job by Tricky Trev. He'll be in line for a bumper bonus this Christmas from PKF. Agent Trev

Neil Allen ‏@pn_neil_allen#Pompey Trust report; 'At the time of the AGM, it appears Portpin is now the preferred bidder, although they still need to convince the FL'.

There was England Women on BBC a week or so ago, if that floats your boat. They qualified for something or other, I wasn't particularly paying attention.

:lol: Bravo, sir

75000th post party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's something that I'm curious about (and surely any right-thinking Pompey fan, if there are any, would wonder the same): Trevor Birch is currently running the club on a budget that he has determined himself. His (exorbitant) fees plus all his cronies at PKF who are continuing to fill in their timesheets at a rapid old pace are of course an enormous drain on resources. However, I'm curious as to what the weekly playing budget is right now; and how does that fit in with either Portpin's or the Trust's business plan? I ask, because in the original propsals submitted, Portpin's and the Trust's budgetted wage bills were of two different amounts. Portpin pledged to run the club with an average player wage of £1,600 per week or so. The Trust had a more optimistic figure of £2,500 per week (that is until they realised that £2M in player defferral payments was a deal-breaker and upped it to the full £8.5M; the effect that had on the players wage budget is yet to be known). So my point is this; is the current player wage bill in line with the budgetted wage bills in either of bids submitted? If so, which one? If not, is it currently higher or lower than the budgets received? And (perhaps most importantly) are the two bidding parties actually aware what the wage budget is at the moment, and whether they can afford to retain the entire playing staff should their takeover be successful? It seems a fairly valid question to me, but one that's never been asked, its just assumed that Tricky Trev knows what he's doing. As far as i can see, the only thing that Trickster has got spot on is drawing this whole saga out for as long as possible, running up huge bills from PKF, which will surely be paid from the £3M parachute payment recently received which was previously set aside for an operating budget. The actual feasibility of, you know, running the club beyond a takeover is seemingly being lost in the background.

I think the point is; there's a movement afoot such that you don't have to do that. Make it easier for the "seller" to communicate with the consumer, and vice-versa. And also encourage clubs to engage with their customer-base. I'd have thought that could only be a good thing, but what do I know?

There we have it (again). It's not the money on offer that's the problem, its the month to month nature of it. Lowest wage bill in the division, my arse. Do the few still actually believe that?

Perhaps you should let the FSF know that SFC don't do Customer Charters, because we have the internet? How silly of them not to realise.

Top (L-R): Balram Chainrai, Neil Allen, Ali al Faraj, Tricky Trevor Birch, Peter Strorrie. Bottom (L-R): Sasha Gaydamak, Sulaiman al Fahim, David Lampitt, Lord Voldemort, Andrew Andronikou.

Can he also play at left back?

Its like waiting for Christmas, keeping an eye on the clock and waiting for it to tick over....

Why not just facebook message him, tell him you have screenshots of your transaction and all of his details, and that he's got 48 hours to return your money or you'll go to Stevenage Police with it and let them handle it. Either that or visit him at home and f*ck him up.

Can you stop applying logic to the situation please. This is not the time for rational thought; the locals are clearly clamouring for unsubstantiated and irrational nonsense.