FloridaMarlin

Everybody at least once in their life should have the privilege of attending a Harry Redknapp pre-match press conference. It really is a media f**k-fest, the epitome of mutual sycophancy and relieved desperation. It works like this. The media and Redknapp love each other, especially Sky, whose whole sports news coverage is based on the 30-second sound-bite, which Redknapp has down to a fine art (you can imagine him talking to Sandra in soundbites). The media love Harry because they know he will comment on any football topic. Desperate sports editors will send reporters along with instructions to: "ask Harry about..." The topic in question will have no bearing on the game Redknapp's team is involved in the following da,y but that doesn't matter, he will comment on it. He can't help it, he can't keep his mouth shut. Thus: "Harry, I know Spurs are playing p****y tomorrow, but what are your views on the situation at Celtic/West Ham/Stoke/Stevenage Borough?" Or: "Harry, what do you think of player X/Y/Z (who has nothing whatsoever to do with you club, but who you will inevitably say you admire as a player, and therefore give us a line to speculate that are interested in signing him)?" Harry is like a performing, one-trick pony. Ask him a question, and he will answer it, and to that end, he is manna from heaven for sports editors with airtime/pages to fill. The price tag, of course, is that Redknapp has never been turned over by a media which is smart enough to know you don't bite the hand that feeds it. Just about any journo who has worked in the English sports media has Redknapp's mobile number. For f**k's sake, even I've got it! But I suspect the tide might just be turning. And if he poops on Spurs and leaves them in a mess there are enough Spurs fans in positions of authority in the media who might turn on him.

Isn't that undermining the integrity of the PL? PL rules state a club must put out their strongest team at all times. Didn't Wolves get hammered for the team they put out at Man Utd this season? I would think that's just what Android needs, a manager who risks running up fines.

Just one of the many worms wriggling around in the financial can which Andy Android urgently wants to get to the bottom of is the question of where and how the thick end of £500,000 disappeared in the club shops. Discrepancies (brought to his attention by one of the shop employees) between invoices for incoming stock and payments show this amount to have disappeared into a black hole. Not much in the scheme of things, but this is just one of several areas where money apepars to have just evaporated into the ether. At the very least it shows poor accounting systems and lack of auditiing. But then, perhaps their accounting procedures were designed like that.

Can't see Sky pix, unfortunately, but would Terry the Builder be Terry Clarke? If it is, he's owed a fortune by the club for work he has carried out, so which hat does he put on to his thick head? Is it the fans' hat, which makes him indignant to the 'injustice' being meted out. Or is it his businessman's hat which should make him say: "I've been royally shafted by this bunch"?

I wonder if that third party is still a former striker? Back in the day before they ever got anywhere near the Prem, they couldn't afford to give a certain diminutive, tricky little striker what he was asking for in wages so they gave him the merchandising and kit licence, thinking it wouldn't be worth much. It was the year they reached the FA Cup semi-final and he cleaned up with replica shirts. Of course, the club didn't see a penny of it. Even funnier, when he left the club, he still held the franchise. Not only did he rake in the money from the merchandising, they actually had to pay HIM for all their playing kit, which he got made dirt cheap in South African sweat shops and sold to them for top dollar!

They might have got that approval had they not signed Tosic last Friday. A mate who works at the Prem reckons enough clubs were prepared to cut Pompey a bit of slack vis-a-vis early stumping up of parachute payment to push through Scudamore's desperate ring-round of clubs. But when they signed Tosic, it was effectively sticking two fingers up to everyone; Prem league, fellow PL clubs and also to the court and taxman who will almost certainly want to know why a club that is operating insovently, can take another burden on a wage bill they already struggle to meet. Other clubs felt p****y could and should have done more to ease their debts during the transfer window, but chose not to. Having seen P****y then go and sign another player they don't see why they should be given any sort of advantage by running up debts. And if anyone seriously believes that Tosic has agreed to play for £750 a week, they are living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Of all the own goals they have scored this year, their biggest could have been signing Tosic. Even if his signing was agreed before the court hearing, the fact they decided to add him to their wage bill simply sent out the wrong message to everyone, and they may yet live to regret it.

Mark Jacob - his head is directly above the steward is doing his best to look away. But the grey-haired man sat on the left with his hand on his chin has a little smirk playing across his face. That's the P****y secretary Paul Weld. He is actually a nice fella, his dad is Hampshire's scorer and he is a big mate of Brian Truscott's.

I thought god created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

Er....that's pretty much what they did. Turnstile stewards were issued with pictures of Echo sports staff to stop them getting in. They sent along a non-sports desk person, who bought a ticket and covered the game. As mentioned elsewhere, they made photographers sign an agreement not to supply the Echo with pictures. That possibly amounts to some form of restraint of trade for freelance photographers, I would have thought.

There was an incident at Bournemouth years ago when Pulis was manager and fell out with, I think, Mark O'Connor. The player was holding a conversation in a corridor at Dean Court when a door was suddenly and mysteriously shoved open with great force, catching the player on the side of his face and cutting his head open. It was almost as if the person opening the door knew the player was stood behind it, and by opening it as he did, knew he would catch him. Unfortunately, the person the player was having a conversation with was a journalist. And the conversation just happened to be about how he had fallen out with the manager.

You mean libel. Slander is via verbal communication. If you are not sure which is which, use the generic term, defamation. HTH

Back in those days, the News covered Saints, and The Echo covered Pompey. I would imagine that 1976 News report was done by no less a person than Mike Neasom, perhaps the finest regional newspaper reporter of his generation. He later became the News' hugely respected P****y reporter, but he always fondly recalled the days he covered Saints in the 1960s and 70s. Likewise, the players from those days (Paine, Channon, Davies, Gabriel, et al), along with Ted and Brian Truscott, always respected and enjoyed the sort of professional relationship verging on friendship with Mike that reporters had with the club they covered. Proof of that was in the good turn-out of past Saints players and officials at Mike's funeral a few years back. The reason the Echo and News covered each others' clubs was economic. They were both after readers and circulation in the border areas and there wasn't the sort of short-sighted, blinkered blind hatred that exists now. Back then, newspapers buyers bought what they considered to be the best product and hard it may be to believe now, but there were some who considered the News' coverage of Saints to be better than the Echo! Of course, there was always the sheer delight of reading a comprehensive report, bordering on pee-pee taking that came with a Pompey defeat, and I can remember some of the hilarious stuff John May (a Saints fan) used to write when he covered them for the Echo. But both papers considered journalism to be paramount and both had editors who realised that there were good stories to be had from the other camp. The sad thing is that now, morons on both sides would not tolerate coverage of the other club in 'their' paper. I think that's called progress.

Serious question. Can Kevin's condition in any way be connected with heading the ball? We all remember what a brave player he was, how good in the air he was (for his size, let's not forget he was not a six-footer) and how much heading the ball was part of his game. No doubt, there is some neurologist out there who will come forward and attribute it to be that, and if my memory serves me, I think old Derek Doogan was among those whose dementia was supposedly caused by heading the ball. But Kevin - like any footballer, and especially a central defender - would accept that as an ocupational hazard. Best wishes to him and his.

Probably because Ince was so bitter he couldn't be bothered to fulfil his post-match media obligations (which his touchline ban would allow him to do) and sent his assistant along instead.

Eh? I wouldn't know. Not my bag.

I wasn't defending Solent, merely pointing out the situation. If Solent's coverage has deteriorated, it's probably down the fact that they don't have to try very hard as they have no competition. Alpine made a valid point that p****y fans probably voice the same complaints about Solent's coverage. In fact, they think it's biased towards Saints simply because Solent is based in Southampton. And 19Canteen is also correct in saying that local stations have to look at a wider picture when it comes to their scheduling. One of the considerations they have to take into account is whether to hold on to the core audience it has by giving them what they want, or whether to try and attract new listeners, at the risk of alienating their core audience. Of course, holding on to your core audience might be good for immediate listening figures, but long-term it is not a good policy as older listerners tend to die off. My understanding is that they tried to attract a younger audience but they failed dismally, and in the process literally turned their older core audience off, with their listening figures plummeting down the tubes. They hastily tried to put things right. The architect of the disastrous changes, station controller Mia Costello, is currently able to look out over her lovingly-tended garden, while presenters like Nick Girdler ('allowed to leave' by Costello) have been brought back to bring the older listeners back onside. Solent controllers are acutely aware of the demigraphic profile of its core audience from Emsworth to Weymouth, largely an older audience who like easy-listening music, safe, non-threatening presenters and chatty garden-fence issues. As a public service broadcaster, the BBC's remit is to cater for all tastes, including minorities. In Solent's case, the minority in its patch is sports fans, which is reflected in its coverage.

Economics, I'm afraid old chap. Solent is the only station that can afford to cover sport to any degree. Most commercial radio stations are run on a shoestring to derive maximum profit. Although the terms of UK commercial radio licences dictate there must be a minimum of news coverage, most stations get away with it. Proper trained journalists who chase and follow up stories don't come cheaply. Nitwits who can (barely) read wire service bulletins don't. Hence, most stations provide the absolute news coverage their licence terms demand, after all, you don't want to take up space between music and advertising. There is also the question that Saints demand a money for commentary rights, and again, BBC is the only organisation around the area that can afford it as they don't have to show a profit. It could be worse. In the States, there are radio stations that don't even employ disc jockeys. It's all automated, with the adverts punctuating the music. It's all set up at the start of each programme, and all you need to man your station is someone who can programme the auto player, and sit around in case it breaks down.

At Northampton, the board told him he had to cut costs, and sold all his best players. Having sold all his best players and weakened his squad, they then fired him when they lost games.

A son of a friend is a lifeguard at The Quays (or whatever it's called these days) swimming pool. Murty was in there on Thursday. He was on crutches and looked a little overweight. He didn't look keen on his aquatic exercise, got in the pool, did a couple of derisory lengths and then got out.

According to my recently received FA Diary it the FA Premier League. I presume they would know.

Other Premier League clubs might want to ask why the FAPL are willing to underwrite p*****'s transfer activity for Dindane. OK, it's predicated against their next tranche of TV money, but is it right the league are prepared to do this? I'm pretty sure the Football League would not have sanctioned Saints bringing in a couple of players when they in adminstration. Just the opposite, in fact. Saints were expected to keep creditors happy by selling players. To be fair, Pompey have done that, but I'm still mystified as to why the FAPL have agreed to underwrite the signing of Dindane.

Therein lies Storrie's biggest problem, I'm told, trying to presuade all these immensely wealthy men that they should only take a 5% stake each. It's a bit like going to the Dragon's Den and asking for a huge great pile of cash, in return for a small stake in the business. I've genuinely got no issue with p****y being taken over, and good luck to them. But I trust you have spoken to Notts County fans about their opinions of the time Storrie was in charge at Meadow Lane. I personally would not want that man in charge of my club, but then again, if he's the only player at the table....

Doesn't contain a single quote, the writer admits it is his theory (but obviously wants us to think he is in the know) and the writer is our old friend, the trustworthy Anil Bhoyrul. I think his past misdemeanours in share-punting and his integrity as a reliable journalist have been discussed on here in the past.

Hee! Hee! Nice little spat developing here. The Times has been gleefully reporting that The Observer (owned by Guardian Media Group) is about to fold. So the Guardian are equally gleeful in their reporting of News Corp's losses. Murdoch organisation organs never fail to take any opportunity to boot the boot in on one of its rivals. Time was when media groups drew together in times of common adversity. How are Sky doing? Not bad. But if you ever read a definitive history of News Corp it will tell you that during Sky's early days, when it was struggling to get enough subscribers, it was effectively underwritten by Murdoch's British newspaper organisation. News Corp is now a global media player, but its British newspapers are still a significant part of its business and a barometer of how the company is doing.

According to a contact who works there, the PL are messing themselves at Pompey's predicament. How can you style yourself as the 'world's greatest football league' when one of your members has debts the size of a small third-world country and could go bust? It doesn't look good for your status does it? The PL 'fast-tracked' (ie, just conducted the most basic and cursory of tests) Dr Al Fathead's Fit and Proper Person's eligibility in the hope his appointment as chairman would speed up his takeover of the club and avert any embarrassing situation of a member club going boobies-up. But it looks as though he doesn't have the money which has put the PL on the very sharp horns of a dliemma. Their FaPP test has sent his hooky backers heading for the hills, and the PL has said it will monitor closely any sudden influx of money into the club, which has effectively put the kibosh on him raising the scratch needed. The PL are now desperately seeking a way they can remove obstacles to Pompey raising money, without losing face by backtracking on their rulings. As a responsible sports ruling body the PL should stand firm on its morals and rules and let the devil take the hindmost on clubs who fail to run a tight financial ship. As a platform to market the 'world's greatest football league' the PL cannot sit on its hands and do nothing. I'll bet a cooling Coors with anyone that Pompey will not go into administration and that some strangely cooked-up deal will somehow save them.