The Kraken

Hey Frattoniser; that guy you just banned on POL isn't me, looks like you just banned one of your own :lol: Nice little hissy fit about it though

They're not even loosely saying it, DD. Loads are saying that they don't want the Premier League, they don't want to throw money at it like the fackin scummahs are doing, they just want a financially stable club. That sentiment will last around 1 or 2 games, after which the inevitable heavy defeats incurred under Chinny's financial austerity will finally hit home, and the clamour for "investment" will start up all over again.

Wahay, the wage bill rises ever further. One of the smallest wage bills in the division.........

Hang on; you mean Tricky Trev is going to miss another deadline, and extend the process even further? I'm genuinely shocked at this revelation.

That's what I thought too; but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Either way; they're well over L1 average, yet continue to claim poverty and one of the cheapest squads in the division. Go figure.

From POL about PKF's report and squad finances.... Lets assume those figures to be correct (as of the date of PKF's report, 16th August 2012). So, at that time, Pompey's player wage bill was 83% lower than £10M, or £1.7Mpa. Working on a first team squad of 20 players, that's £1,634 per player per week. Hey, congratulations Pompey, that's around about the League 1 average!! well done!! Oh, but hold on. As I said, PKF's report was published 16th August 2012; so it wouldn't include details of any players signed after that, would it? As of 16th August, Pompey had released all of the high wage earners and signed 10 first team players either on loan or on 1 month contracts (cut and paste from BBC online says that on 16th August itself Pompey signed Kieran Djilali, Mustapha Dumbuya, Jon Harley, Brian Howard, Izale McLeod, Lee Williamson, Simon Eastwood, Jack Compton, Luke Rodgers and Liam Walker). Do PKF's figures include those players? Well, lets assume they do. However, since then (and after PKF's report cut off date of 16th August) Pompey have signed (either on loan or 1 month contract): Mikkel Andersen, Kevin Long, Josh Thompson, Paul Connolly, Jordan Obita, Connor Clifford, Gabor Gyepes, Jonny Ertl and Darel Russell. Some of those players didn't arrive at the club until (according to BBC) August 31st, so there's no way they can be included in PKF's report figures. Players that left Portsmouth since 16th August are Sam Magri (youth) and Kieran Djilali. So in total another 9 players joined the club, with 2 leaving, so an additional 7 players. I'd say that puts a little bit of a dent in the theory that Pompey are paying average wages. £1.7M was paying for 10 incoming senior players, plus whatever is being paid to the youth teamers (in fairness, not a lot). It's fairly clear to see then that the addition of 7 extra players blows the budget well above the average of League 1 (£1.5k - £2K per player).

Apparently the Trust's bid has not been submitted yet; it will be going in later this afternoon. So Tricky Trev can put his feet up for the weekend and start sifting through the bids from Monday morning; at an average wage of £299 per hour I'd suggest its not going to be a quick decision. The conspiracy theorists are out in force on POL; its quite a sight to behold. Currently my favourite is that Al Fatty is just a pawn in Chainrai's bid to establish a value for Fortress Fatpipe well above the "market value" of £2M - £3M, so that Portpin will have some ammunition if/when he goes to court against a winning PST bid. Oh, and that the Walsall manager is talking out of his arse, Pompey can attract players that others in the league can't not because they pay more but because its "sour grapes, Appy is just a better manager/negotiator than him, plus players want to come to PFC and PLAY not just pick up a pay packet." So there we have it

Do we? Or are you just hearing what you want to hear. The original Taylor Report stated that drunkenness and unruliness of a minority of fans aggravated the problem, but the blame for the disaster rested at the feet of S. Yorkshire police. Also that the drunkenness and unruliness was not significantly more than would be expected at any other similar event. Heysel and Hillsborough were two entirely different events, and simply cannot be used for comparison by any right-minded individual.

Sacking Adkins this early would be a monumental error this early in the season. The performances alone against the Manchester sides have been enough to suggest he has moulded a very good team, with some obvious flaws. Which are entirely forgiveable given that he clearly highlighted the need to bring in 1 or 2 centre backs, 1 or 2 keepers and a left back, and prior to now we only brought in one reserve keeper.

Ah ok. I think it would be a bit of PR own goal to start pressing for a civil suit right now. And I'm sure the families want justice and to bring criminal prosections first; so that those responsible (for the cover-up especially, if not the actual events of the day) can finally be held to account for their actions. I wouldn't judge the families at all if they choose to pursue a civil case and compensation; God knows that the Justice campaign must have wracked up hundreds of thousands of unpaid hours from the families just to get where we are today. The resident Austrian will probably be apoplectic with rage about such a suggestion, but it would sit fine with me (just so long as the criminal proceedings are given full priority, as I'm absolutely sure they will be).

Who was saying it? From the families?

I shouldn't worry about Alpine's opinion in this matter; this thread has shown the unneccessarily bitter and resentful side to him. For someone who supposedly has children, I find it quite incredible that he takes such a contrary stance in this all. I also find it unbelieveably arrogant to think oneself qualified enough to tell families, who have spent 23 years campaigning to finally start to get some justice, that they now need to "move on", and what is best for them. Thankfully most people recognise those types of comments for what they are, and they're best confined to the bin as they're barely worthy of debate. If that's his opinion, so be it, its clearly an firmly entrenched one so its probably best left be.

Who is talking about financial compensation? The only goals I've heard so far are to overturn the verdicts of accidental death, and then pursue criminal proceedingg. I've heard nothing yet about civil cases being brought.

That'll give the trust bid some credibility

Chinny has changed his tune somewhat. So much for being a reluctant owner :lol:

Them ill at Gordleton? Doesn't sound very good to me.

Conservative and Labour governments have (rightly) admittedly their cuplability in how its taken until now to start to reach justice; there is simply no room for political points scoring, the past actions of both parties has been tawdry in the extreme.

So the list continues of those in the know who claim Pompey are spending above the League 1 average. There's going to be fun and games if Chinny or the trust take over and they haven't revised their £1.5K per week / £2.6K per week average player wage allowance. I fear Appy could go into meltdown at the unfairness of it all. Or they'll continue with quality over quantity and have a squad of 13 senior pros.

Food Factory?

A little flavour of what we can expect to see in the days and weeks ahead...

To be fair to him, when you get used to playing in front of home league crowds of 7,500 then even playing in front of Pompey's dwindling fanbase is a step-up in comparison (for now).

Had it been your kid(s) that had been lost at Hillsbrough, what outcome do you think you'd be hoping/searching for? Genuine question. I don't have kids, and I'm not closely attached to those that lost relatives in any way; but nonetheless I can't see any other reasonable course of action than a trial for the senior police and decision makers at the time (those who were at fault on the day, and those that collaborated for the ensuing cover-up), with all evidence to hand. It'll be a bit of a public witch-hunt, of course, but I don't see anything else as being sufficient for such an orchestrated cover-up of this nature.

Yesterday's revelations revolve around what happened on the day, and the immediate aftermath. There is the argument that Downing Street was fed the same lies from S. Yorkshire police as the press were; they were lies that No. 10 would have found very easy to live with of course, and I don't doubt there wasn't some exaggeration from politicians. That said, if it came from senior officers who briefed the government, then I see it as fair enough that the government took the immediate stance they did. What is unforgiveable (and why Cameron and Miliband both apologised yesterday) is the utter failure to seek the actual facts when doubts became clear, and to clearly and objectively re-examine every single facet of the incident. Instead we saw a railroading of public officials and a whitewash of the true facts of the matter, and its an utter disgrace that that took 23 years to reverse. Every single government, from the government at the time to the previous Labour incumbents (who, finally, set the ball in motion for the truth out) should hang their heads in shame, and should consider themselves culpable to some degree for the extent of the cover-up.

You'd like to think Tricky Trev has ushered some of that funding in PKF's direction too; setting deadlines and letting them slide time and again is expensive work, you know?