stevegrant

And Pompey fans should be incredibly worried by anybody who comes in and claims that Option 2 is the best option. All that would facilitate is a changing of the guard, and the club would still remain completely insolvent and unsustainable.

I didn't think he'd been convicted (or even tried) for the illegal arms dealing charges that has seen him on the Interpol wanted list for years - I was under the impression the relatively recent guilty verdict was a fraud charge?

Nail. Head. He knows exactly what's going on, because he (or, more accurately, his father) is still the owner, but these comments cast doubt on the views of those who have managed to piece enough information together. I'm absolutely stunned that Scotland Yard have been going after the relatively small-fry Mandaric, Redknapp and Storrie when there's a MUCH bigger picture in this whole episode, IMO.

Correct. From what I've heard from people who have been doing some proper digging into this, Ali al-Faraj apparently has even less money than me, and that's saying something. My belief is that the beneficial owner is still a certain Israeli who is currently in hiding in Russia having been convicted of fraud in abstentia in his homeland, but of course can't reveal it properly as his assets are supposedly frozen. As you rightly say, there is no way on earth that a Saudi would appoint Israelis to run the finances (or indeed any part) of the club. It's all a big cover-up that will hopefully unravel in the coming weeks and months.

MK Dons would be the ones causing the delay. We've no reason to do so. I agree that it shouldn't make any difference, but as it's an evening game and an early kickoff, I suspect a lot of people would have needed to take time off work in order to make the trip, and even though we may ultimately get more than enough tickets to satisfy the demand anyway, I expect many people wouldn't be overly happy to book time off work for a game that they (in theory) might not be able to get a ticket for. As a result, now there's only two weeks before the game, many now won't be able to get that time off at such short notice, so won't be able to go.

My suspicion - and I have absolutely no evidence to back this up - is that they're delaying it for as long as possible so there's not enough time for a lot of people who would have travelled to get their tickets, therefore we end up with a smaller travelling support.

Arsenal or Wigan away. Pompey would be far too much of a distraction and even with their current woes, I'd still expect them to beat us quite comfortably. Maybe next year...

Bless them, they're so tied up in their web of lies that they're confusing themselves.

Reminds me of this fella...

Curbishley still can't take another job yet as he still hasn't negotiated his West Ham payoff.

Good point, I'd forgotten about that one!

Well yeah, certainly not complaining given the amount of **** they got away with all afternoon. That incident that particularly annoyed me was when Gillespie blatantly dived over on the right touchline. The ref gave us the throw-in rather than the free-kick he was looking for, so he must have seen the dive, but didn't book him, and instead decided to book Trotman for having a go at him.

Thought it was a dive at the time and that video's not altered my opinion, to be honest!

On behalf of the admin and moderator team, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I don't think anyone could suggest that 2009 has been a boring year for SFC, albeit a pretty turbulent one, and I think I'll probably have universal agreement when I say that I hope 2010 will bring a much more positive outlook. We certainly seem to be heading in the right direction as far as that's concerned! Still, the conversation and debate on here hasn't been dull whether it's through the tough times or the slightly better recent times, so thankyou to everyone who has contributed this year. Without your participation, this forum simply wouldn't exist. I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that the forum will be undergoing some major upgrades in the not-too-distant future. I am hoping it'll all be done by the new year, but a lot of it depends on various problems with the newest version of the forum software being ironed out. The upgrade will involve a period of downtime for the forum, but I will try to schedule it for a time that is least inconvenient to the majority. Cheers Steve, Baj, Mik, Rob, Lee, Ray, Ali, Andy and Toby

Until the club goes into administration, the PL are powerless to impose any sanctions along those lines. They've done as much as they can in terms of the missed payments to other clubs with the transfer embargo, although I'd guess that another late payment of wages might force them into action. The FAPP test (love that acronym ) isn't designed to ascertain whether the person has money, it's designed to prevent fraudsters and the like from becoming owners or directors. The Israeli fella they've brought in to do the finances isn't officially on the board, although one of the articles linked above suggests that the Premier League are seeking to "clarify his position". Also worth remembering for libel reasons that the allegations of tax evasion are just that at the moment, allegations

It's the first on my list, tbf

Delighted that he's doing so well, to be honest. Partially from a selfish point of view as I'd been wanting him to be the next Saints manager every time the job became available after Strachan left Unfortunately, most football club chairmen in this country wouldn't look at the fantastic work he'd done in jobs abroad (both club and national teams), but based his entire aptitude on his admittedly dodgy spell at Blackburn. You don't get a job at Inter Milan without being pretty useful.

If the wicket at Durban is likely to turn, Rashid will be in. If not, it'll be Wright, IMO.

Yep, Part has arrived, but they've shifted his game back to the end

All of the players have finally arrived, so it's Game On!

Can someone do me a favour and find copies of the particular smileys you're after? Not promising to put them all on the list, but will probably do most of them.

Shaping up to be a very good game now. Why is it that our tail-enders have had to bail us out in the last two series? Bell and Trott's dismissals were ridiculous - they've both played with Harris at Warwickshire, they know he doesn't turn the ball!!

Given the reaction from within British Airways itself, I wouldn't have thought they'll get as big a vote next time around - it would be fair to say that all BA cabin crew have been given a somewhat "frosty" reception from their colleagues in the last couple of days.

Not a cat in hell's chance, there'd be hell to pay from the other 19 clubs. As I said a few days ago on another thread, the Premier League are probably hoping Pompey get relegated before they go into administration, for two main reasons. Firstly, they can wash their hands of it and say "not our problem"; secondly, to the ill-informed majority, it seems as though the Premier League is untarnished by it. The last team in England to withdraw mid-season was Aldershot in 1992 - largely thanks to this man. Bloke comes in promising money but it soon transpires he doesn't have a pot to p!ss in... where have we heard that one recently? It's certainly unlikely (although Stockport are in particularly dire straits right now), but I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

On the face of things, you would expect that Watford will ultimately be OK. They have two particularly prominent and wealthy fans, but both of them are involved to varying degrees with the club anyway (Lord Ashcroft is the largest shareholder and Elton John is the honorary president), and they're still f**ked! Pompey, I genuinely have no idea how that's going to pan out. Without some sort of RBS-esque bail-out, it's hard to see how they could get out of the situation they're in, or why anybody would put money into the club knowing that it'll disappear into one of many of the financial black holes.