Tokyo-Saint

1-0 to the tax payers.... You'll all be saints next year. (tune - blue moon)

You think he will go to QPR then? As he has left you huns, he needs another club. Charming man, can you please keep your friends off the site?

He would never get offended by an internet mong board, would never take it so seriously.

Is that Turkish and Sturomseysaint? Bloody glory hunters, go anywhere they can put on a jesters hat.

*Reaches for large 'comedy' hat and bell.

What about those complete mongs who bang on about others saying we are the new barca or that we should expand the stadium? They really crack me up.

Notes from the fans meeting with Birch yesterday: Birch has held meetings with the Football League, and learnt last Tuesday that the club will receive no further funds over and above which is already normally due. Birch had hoped for an advance on subs, but the Football League have said the cannot help any further. Despite media hints to the contrary, Birch knew about the situation regarding Gaydamak's money. The club will only be liquidated once Birch does not see cash in the club to go forward, at which point he would bring the club to an 'orderly close', which is part of his duties. Despite talk and rumour to the contrary, Birch is not working solely for the interests of HMRC, but to achieve the best result for all creditors and the club. He made the statements he did earlier this week to, partly, flush out people who have been hovering about and looking at the club and, also, to help concentrate minds. He is still talking to the Football League and is hopeful that, by Monday, he will have had it confirmed that the club will continue to receive it's scheduled monthly distributions. He hopes the club will receive 500k in April, which will ensure things look better as regards getting the club to the end of the season. He is talking to Michael Appleton as regards the player situation. A final option might be to break player contracts, but this is a last resort and it would be treading a fine line, as the Football League could terminate our membership. The question was asked as to whether Chainrai was preparing a bid, and Birch confirmed that he expected to hear from him. He stated that he felt a bid would only go forward if Chainrai's debenture was deemed valid. Birch, no matter what, wants a successful conclusion come what may. There is other interest in the club, and Birch is meeting other people next week. As things currently stand, there is no concrete 'hot to trot' certain commitment. Club costs equate to £3.5m to see the club to the end of June, with a buyer having to fund a loss of £5-10m next year under current contracts and situation. A lawyer's letter has been sent to Chainrai/Portpin, which was sent on Friday. This is to request that Chainrai give his view and justification for the debenture. Birch is now awaiting a reply. There was an issue with the planned price reductions for the Middlesbrough game. Birch has organised working groups for each part of the club operations, and final arrangements for the price reductions had slipped through the net during a busy and short time frame, which Birch apologises for. A discussion took place as regards Chainrai. Gerald Vernon-Jackson confirmed that Chainrai had been talking to him and planned to speak to the administrators. Birch asked for opinions, and a show of hands, as to whether people would prefer a club under Chainrai or liquidation, only one person was in favour of Chainrai involvement (out of around 15-20 people there). The question was also raised as to whether people would be in favour of Chainrai involvement alongside the Trust and, again, this was dismissed as any fan involvement was felt would be minimal and easily overuled. It is confirmed that, as things stand, Chainrai and CSI are the majority creditors. As regards Gaydamak's land, Birch has tried to make contact and left messages with Bruce Van Den Berg but, as things stand, has had no reply. It is confirmed that David Lampitt is dealing with Genoa about monies owed. As things stand, the club has money to survive until mid-April but, as mentioned earlier, it is hoped that, next week, the situation will mean the club will, at least, be able to see out the season. It was decided that, in order to make an attempt to seek information and intent, that a request is made via Gerald Vernon-Jackson to arrange a meeting with Conference representatives and Chainrai. The representatives would be made up of board members of the Trust plus current Conference chair Tony Goodall.

Toki Doki saints suporta Baka desune, diajobu desuka?

Not arrogant but could easily sound or come across as arrogant, which is what I said. If I went onto a forum for West Ham and they talked about he West Ham way of hoofing it being different from other teams, I would think it sounded arrogant. (Ok bad example but you know what I mean).

I don't think Hypo or Phil mean to come across as arrogant (and I don't want to put words in their mouth). 'Saints fit' can make it sound like we think we have invented some kind of fitness level that no other team in the world has achieved. It is also not slur on Donny, let's face it you have 3 points off us this season and we have 0 from you. It is however true to say this is the fittest our team has been possibly ever (I would say better than when Strachan was in charge) and Adkins has improved players such as Lambert. Sharpe is a little off this level, however I am sure and hopeful that once he finds his feet, he will start scoring for fun.

20p in the pound.

Taken from POL, one of their reports on what happens. Plenty to laugh at here, my favourite bit being were he says, it will make a good impression to any potential owners. Feel free to pick you own from this comedy packed simpleton.... What a bloody let down it was after the final whistle, only around 500 stayed behind but hopefully we made enough noise to make up for all those that cleared off as soon as the final whistle blew. We stayed there for half an hour or so, but the stewards were trying there damnedest to get us to move and one of the older management side of them actually tried to physically move a young kid from his seat, until I had a go at him and told him to try it with one of us grown adults. He just laughed and walked away - hope you're reading this you c*nt, you should get a slap for laying a hand on that kid, there was no need for that. Anyway, about half an hour after the sit in started, Westwood and his little drummer boy fecked off, then everyone else started to follow, which made the whole bloody thing pointless really. That said, there was little to protest about really until we know what the hell is going on with Chainrai and AA - but hopefully we all made a reasonably good impression for any would be new owner that was at the ground

This may have already been posted but it is a semi decent summary by a skate. He (of course) blames everyone but Pompey and fails to point out that there has been no protest up until now. However, it does seem that for some the penny has finally dropped... By AboutMyArea Blogger, Tony Goodall* The last time the Club went in to Administration Pompey fans were assured that all the financial woes of the Club would be behind it and there would be a Football League endorsed survival and regeneration plan, which encompassed a maximum wage limit and a decent sized squad of players.* Gone would be the boom and bust days and the key to being a strong Club again would be realistic wages and a squad of quality not quantity. So it was somewhat a surprise for fans to hear at the latest Administration hearing for Portsmouth Football Club that apart from the Tax issues, currently standing at £2.4M it would seem, there was a Gas bill owed which totalled £2M and other assorted bills, none of which were small and had obviously accrued over a period of time, possibly since coming out of Administration the last time. Many fans still feel that much of the financial problems now facing the club were due to lucrative, long, Player contracts signed and sealed by Peter Storrie. What they cannot fathom is why these contracts never took in to account the possibility of Relegation, even if it was only slipped in as a safeguard, and therefore the Players' contracts reflected the lower Division in their earnings. Fans were assured following the last period in Administration that there would be a fiscal wipe down, that things would be done differently, because they had to be done differently and they were going to be done differently.* Tales were told of financial excess on players wages where Players had a reasonable weekly wage, but exorbitant payments for "Image Rights"! For those that don't know, an Image Right is the use of a players name on a shirt or poster etc.* This was forged by the likes of David Beckham when at the height of his game and fame. So it was with some relief that suggestions of a £10K wage cap were going to apply to all new signings and we would have only the staff we needed to run the club, after all a Club such as Birmingham City with better infrastructure had only 200. This was, after all, a club that had being ploughing through roughly an unsustainable £3M a month! So Pompey's latest flirtation with financial meltdown has already revealed some startling facts. The number of staff employed by Pompey has risen to near 500 in the past few years, up from the 300 plus when the Club was last in Administration. The new Administrator has revealed that Pompey were running very much in the same way they were before their previous Administration, i.e. spending way above their income, with no sign of real attempts at reducing that. Players were signed above the agreed £10k per week wage cap and others allowed to continue with crippling wages and bonuses. Pompey's highest paid player, still earns in excess of £30K per week!! That, yet again, there wasn't an outright purchase of the Club by a new owner, but a deferred payment scheme, which seemingly relied on CSI pumping in vast amounts of cash. Meanwhile the Small Creditors had not been paid - and have still not - and it seems the CVA wasn't serviced either. All this was against a backdrop of new leadership at Fratton which promised transparency and honesty.* So much for that then. Those that follow football rely on Football's well paid governing bodies to regulate the game and the clubs properly, out of this falls the Fit And Proper Person Test (FPPT).* The FPPT is, according to Trevor Birch of Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) Pompey's current Administrators, is a test run on a series of objective measures rather than subjective measures. It has to be that way because if people are rejected on a subjective basis that leads to all sorts of issues and is likely to be difficult and costly to defend against.* There is currently much angst amongst fans that the Football League allowed Vladamir Antonov and CSI to purchase Portsmouth with the backing of the Snoras bank, when only a few years earlier, in a widely available report by the Financial Services Authority, Snoras was allegedly refused a UK banking licence as there were question marks over whether it would adhere to certain banking regulations. Mr Birch's comments go someway to understanding why CSI were able to purchase Pompey.* The FPPT had already been tightened following Pompey's unenviable "First" of being the only club to go into Administration in the Premier league. However, many fans feel that the Football league gave the permission for CSI to purchase Pompey and so therefore they have some questions to answer now that CSI are in Administration.* They may have a point , but the league could not realistically have known that Snoras would have its assets seized at CSI would go in to Administration......or so you would think.* There is a story and e-mail going round, purported to be from the Football League in response to an e-mail from a Portsmouth fan, that more or less says that during the application process by CSI, they (The Football League) were misled.* If that is the case, it has subsequently been denied by the Football League allegedly although it has been widely publicised, then the FPPT is at best flawed. Certainly the Football League have not played a blinder over this one and it will no doubt lead to a further review, well at least you would like to think so, but to a certain extent football appears to be run on a basis of a franchise of Gentlemen's Clubs so it may not suit to make it more stringent, because after all, when Clubs are valued at around £1bn as both Manchester clubs reputedly are, who in the UK could realistically afford that? The other big problem at Pompey over the past few years has been Communication.* Under the highly likeable Lucius Peart, Pompey were able to reach out to their Fans and communicate.* Peart would always listen to fans groups and try and act on their concerns, the most obvious was after Pompey's relegation from the Premiership, he called three members of Pompey Independent Supporters Association and they sat down and thrashed out a ticketing policy for the 2010/11 season that realistically reflected the Division they were in, even though there were several more matches. For a club newly regulated, there was a better than expected take up of Season tickets. This disappeared with the arrival of CSI.* What seemed to happen was a withdrawal of the previous openness and this was put down to the premise that this is just the way the Russians do their business.* What now appears to have been the case, is knowing that Pompey is a club who increasingly over recent times has become more openly challenged by its own fans, the shutters of secrecy were being put up.* How many people knew there was a Transfer Embargo in operation at Fratton?* Pompey's CEO was the only one who dealt with the Football League and whilst some may have wondered if there was an unofficial embargo on, others assumed it was the Football League ensuring Pompey were not living beyond their means.* In reality we owed money to other clubs for players recently bought in, that failure to pay brought restrictions.* Only this week when Michael Appleton was getting frustrated at the Football League stance towards Pompey and finally managed to speak to the league himself, was he made aware of what had been going on.* How he felt having been hired, with that hidden, only he knows, but it shows how the Club has been operating over recent times. On Wednesday 22nd February Trevor Birch from PKF held a fans forum where he laid a few things on the line.* He was very blunt about the situation Pompey find themselves in, Liquidation is not out of the equation, in fact he was quite clear. Pompey have enough money to get through until April if the players agree to wage deferrals and other due incomes are realised. They currently do not have enough money to finish April and therefore the season.* There is little the fans can do in some aspects other than continue to go to Fratton and buy merchandise.* To that end, there has been a surge for tickets against Leeds United. Even though these are £30 each.* Fans at the recent meeting with the Administrator made it clear that too many have given up with Fratton as they felt all their money was going to pay Balram Chainrai.* Whilst Trevor Birch has made it clear that that is definitely no longer the case, he recognises that once fans stop going it is a very hard task to get them back again.* He has however taken £5 off the ticket prices in a bid to get more through the turnstiles.* Pompey merchandise, in classic fan black humour, is now seen as a "Must have" as a club who could realistically cease to exist come May. Birch's biggest challenge will be to convince fans that if he sells the club, it will be going to someone that will have the nous to run a club properly and who will genuinely listen to the fanbase. That whoever takes over is able to re-engage with the many small and medium sized businesses that have been let down by Pompey, the employees at Fratton who have had to go without payment at one of the toughest times of the year and the many disaffected fans that have moved away from watching Pompey since the 30,000 who sang and cheered long after the final whistle at Wembley in May 2010, or the near 200,000 who lined the streets of Portsmouth to cheer on the FA Cup winning team of 2008.*

It's really not difficult, you get 2 points for an away game, 1 point for a home game and if you have a season ticket, you get the number of home games that season plus 10 bonus points for giving your money up front. Then when there are big games, they publish that 'customers' with X number of points can buy tickets on this date, those with Y points on this date (i.e. 1 week later) and so on until they go on general sale. The whole system is automated and based on purchases made in the last 5 years starting from when the system came into place. There are no bonus points for hot dogs bought, pints drunk or how many season ticket holders you have as mates. This system is relatively easy to set up once you have the software and much fairer and more efficient than anything we have at the moment. It also puts an end to the ballot applications in a shoe box system that we used for Skates away.

This does sound promising but where does it leave the mates of season ticket holders? Up until now these guys have gotten priority for the big games, usually 7 days before the rest of us. All they had to do in the past was buy their season ticket holding friend a pint in the pub and tell the odd joke here and there and hey presto, they had their seat at Wembley/Fratton Park. They even had the option to sell their ticket for a nice profit to someone who really cared. If we are to introduce a loyalty system, where will it leave these guys? They will just have to stroll around in their Man Utd/Chelsea tops in May and watch the games from the comfort of the pub. It hardly seems fair to leave these guys high and dry. Perhaps NC should invite a few of them round for dinner.

For every big game it really f&cks me off that season ticket holders mates get priority over everyone else, regardless to whether they have ever been to a game or not. I can't get a season ticket but go to at least 20 games a season home and away, yet some season ticket holders mate always get priority over me. When are we going to introduce a points system based on the number of games you go to a season? Our ticket office are such amatures in comparrison to other clubs.

The 1995 FA cup match against Spurs. Not the happiest memories of the game (I was in the lower east stand and had a great view of all their goals) but better than Judge Judy if you are around and watching TV at that time.

Haha It's hard to keep up. I do some work for an hour or so and when I come back they have been locked out of their training ground, are in A & E waiting on a scan on Lawrence's leg, hiring a mini bus using luncheon vouchers to get to the game and being taken over by Dell boy. All of this on top of the usual moaning about having a small squad, being plucky and having the best fans in the world ™.

New 'buyer' made his millions in the jacket trade..... http://www.warwickcourier.co.uk/news/local/my_attacker_walked_free_after_i_chased_him_through_the_streets_1_3346628

What was strange is the amount of times they sung Pompey songs or the ever amusing and fresh 'small town in Portsmouth'. If we had sung anything Millwall related, our moaners on here would have been in tears. I thought West Ham was a real geezers club for real Ard nuts?

Whaaaaaaaaat? This is ridiculous. Although, I must confess my mother never told me to go get my fathers or anyone else's gun to shoot the pompey scum. If she had, I may have ended up in care. As for that Pompey fan on a string, well....

Taxi or bus to Stratford then Jubilee Line to Waterloo. I'm not taking my jester hat off for nobody. These colours and jingly bells don't run.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Jiadi on the bench for this one. If we have a narrow lead with 10 minutes to go, they are bound to pepper our box with hoof balls. No one better than Rahdi at dealing with this. Really looking forward to this one, although I expect it may be cold and boring. I hope we are singing, 'we are Southampton, we're top of the league' at the end of the game. Really hope we don't sing it if we go 1-0 up in the first half though!

Ooooooh you're hard (sound familiar?)

I didn't think he was that great to start with, looked a little slow on the right. I would have prefered a winger. However, when Cork went right and he played in the middle, he looked great. I think when we are winning and want to keep the ball, he is very useful. I don't think he would have been that great if it was 0-0 and we were trying to push for the winner, not on the right anyway. In this situation, some pace on the flanks would be more useful.