redkeith

France 4 has the FA cup. When we played united last year, they had 3 games back to back from 1 pm. Also, no Clive Tylsley commentating, which is a great bonus.

I used to work for Lloyds, and accumulated a few shares in my time, which I kept hold of, as I knew that directors bonuses were linked to 'shareholder returns'. buzzwords for share price and dividends. Since I left, the board failed to do any proper due dillegenge on the Hbos takover, missing £15,000,000,000 of bad debts that ws on the books, the share price has fallen by 90%, and there has been no dividend for 3 years. The genius CEO who oversaw this still received a £2 million bonus last year. There are a few things that could be done to curb this. - No bonuses to directors if no dividends are paid to shareholders that year. - The cost of any redundancy payments caused by downsizing should be taken from the bonus pot. This might make them think twice about chucking people on the scrapheap, just to get a shortime boost to the shareprice.

Initially, I thought that the article was refering to the fact that Reading and Doncaster now get bigger home gates than they do. Instead, it is a fun packed trip around Fantasy Island, where Saints stuggled through the 80's ( finished second, Uefa cup place etc), where Russian Bankers ( hem, hem) can loan themselves millions to build a new ground , and that if you build it they will come. They think that millions will pour in from corporate hospitality if the build new stands. Saints Coprarate clients were the first ones into the lifeboats after relegation, so the idea that IBM and Vospers will be queing up to buy boxes at Fratton ( with hot water in the ladies loo) is just laughable. However, their current gates do make it possilbe to knock down the North Stand, to begin turning the ground and still accomadate all of their home support in the two remaining home stands.

It was good, although I had the solent commentary on, in case the feed went, which was 5 seconds ahead, so I knew Feilding would save the Guly shot. The feed broke up for the last 15 minutes, any techies out their have any ideas why. Could it be my line speed slowing down, or does the feed build up a lot of temporary internet files that gradually slow down the buffering ?

It was Tony Currie that he marked in the Semi Final against Leeds, not Trevor Francis. Francis played for Brum in our 5.2 win at St Andrews in an early round. Not sure if Manny played in that one.

Brighton are almost as dirty as the Skates. We are not only the top team south of the Thames at the moment, but the cleanest too !

Colleter deserves his place for putting Poyet out for a few months at the Dell. I would have Fernades in as well. To all those people saying that he wen't round in circles, I would argue that when he did release the ball, it went to a Saints player. Would you prefer an Aron Lennon/SWP style of winger, who gets to the line quickly, and then fires it aimlessly into the middle ?

The value of the land has just gone up because the Ruskies have declared an interest in buying it. Gaydmark knows that the ground cannot be turned round and developed without his bit of land, which makes it much more valuable than it would be for commercial or housing purposes. Also CH's idea of Portsmouth Council using as CPO to buy land and then hand it over to a Private Company is just ridiculous, unless PC built the stand and leased it back to the club. Hard to justify at a time when council jobs are being cut. Also it should be remembered that a previous incaranation of PFC still has started repaying 20% of the business rates that were outstanding when it went into admin.

Being so early in the sreason, losing one game can have a big effect on your League position (14% of avaikable points). If we had lost at Ipswich,Millwall, Barnesley , Brum or Forest, they would now be midtable, while Leeds would be 6th had they won at St Mary's. I have seen Skate fans rationalising that they have played lots of teams in the top 8. Perhaps those teams are in the top 8 because they have taken so many points off of Pompey ? You can only beat what is in front of you, and so far I have heard nothing much to worry me on the commentarys, other than the first half at Leicester, and the odd 20 minute spell. Of course this could all change if we get some defeats, and players no longer have the confidence to pass and move ( like Blackpool after xmas last year ), but until then I am optomistic.

Finally got to see them in Paris last year, outstanding. Malkmus is still going strong and his new album 'Mirror Traffic' is the best cd if heard all year.

What about Mark E Smith. Can't sing a note, but more stage presence than the entite X-Factor output, and made more albums than the Rolling Stones.

I used to use MYP2P to find match streams but someone has taken it down. Does anyone know any similar reliable sites to find free streams online, as I can't afford Sky at the mo ?

If you are using IE , clear all your internet history, and then try again. It took a long wait to sign in, I think that I was getting impatient and hitting the button twice. Bon courage !

Does it maybe go back to 77/78 at the Goldstone, when one Saints fan jumped over the fance into their end, and everyone ran ? Once they realised it was only one guy, a dozen or so Brighton fans turned round and pummelled him for a while, but then another dozen Saints climbed over the fence, and half the end emptied out onto the pitch. I'd imagine that we might hold a grudge if some other team had taken the milton with one van load of supporters.

Van Gobbell was a hero for squaring up to Cantona in the 6-3 mauling. 3 months later he was pushed into the stand by a midget winger at Elm Park as Reading went 3 1 up.

Gaydmark was funding it all from trading on the Russian Stock Market (if I can make money on a falling market I'm sure Sacha could) ? It was obviously pure coincidence that he stopped being able to provide this support after his dads bank accounts got frozen . And to imagine that having to pay back £30M tipped the skates over the edge is laughable. They were already behind on their Tax and NI payments before Standard Bank called the loan in. Standard were just ensuring that they wouldn't be involved in any CVA when it all went boobies up. On top of all this, after this loan was repaid they carried on racking up bills signing such talents as Dindane, and Ben Haim on big wages and hiding behind the excuse that the Premiership needs to be competitive, so they had no choice. I can't recall the PL ordering Derby to go on a spending spree when they were rock bottom. But no, have it your way. If standard hadn't called in that loan, it would have all been ok. You would have been able to avoid relegation, and would now be sitting pretty in the PL, ( apart maybe from the other £120M that you owed to other clubs, HRMC and various charities ).

Ruby Trax is well worth looking out for, some great stuff on there. Fatima Mansions did a version of 'Everything I do' as if it was sung by a stalker! Scary stuff. Also had Vic Reeves sending up the pompus 'Vienna ' by Utlravox .... 'Hitler Dwelt in this town, and Van Morrison was born here..' genius. My all time favourite though has to be a version of 'If I was Your Girlfrend' from and old BBC recording of an Eels concert. Makes Prince look like a big girls blouse, but then he is.

From the last time we played them, we have lost Thomas,Perry, Wiago and Antonio, bringing in Oxo, Fonte, Butterfield, Cork and Guly, all better players. They have lost James, Diop. O Hara, Dindane, Belhadj, Wlson, Utaka, Yedba, Osowu-Abeye and Piquonne bringing in Ashdown, Ward, Rocha, Halford, Lawrence, Kitson , Varney and Norris. Up until the second goal on 75 minutes we were all over them, and if it weren't for James we would have been out of sight by the hour mark. If we play at the same tempo, I think we should do 'em.

This story in the Guardian makes the various Ruskies at FP look like schoolboys. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/03/baseball-fans-dodgers-owner I particularly like the way he pays his kids for non existent jobs, and pays a psychic to watch the games on TV and think positive thoughts.

I think that it may be an accounting thing. Players contracts run from July 1st, so it makes sense to have your income matching up, in the same financial year. I can see that it is a bit of a short period for some people, but once you get used to the idea, you can save money in May and June to help you fork out in July. Also, most clubs need the season ticket money to keep paying the bills over the close season, I don't think that Saints do any more.

According to the CVA projection the Skates are supposed to raise over £8M in player transfers this summer. I see another excuse for non payment of the CVA on the way . " Sorry , we can't pay the CVA at the mo, due to accidentally spending the £8Million on players"

As someone else said, assists can be misleading. I can remember a goal that Steve Williams scored against Norwich soem years back. He received a short square pass from Keegan, on the half way line, and set off on a mazy run , beating 5 or 6 Norwich players before curling it round the keeper insde the far post. Keegan quipped to the press afterwards " In America I would get an assist for that "

This is not giving shares, if you have to pay the first 74 pence of a sale to the government. At the moment. you can buy Lloyds shares for under 50p, and so would be 24p a share up on the government 'gift'. This seems much more like an admission that the two banks concerned will not reach the goverment's floor price in time for the next election, so that they will not have that money available for a pre-election tax cut. This scheme sems to be the next best pre-election bribe. A potential for a bit of capital gains, but only if the fund managers fall in love with the banks again.

The big question that the skates should be asking is " what are the restrictions on squad numbers and transfer fees while the CVA is still outstanding ?". I would hope that the FL haven't forgotten about the CVA in all the excitement of yet another bunch of owners have passed the Fit and Proper Test. Instead, they seem to be more worried about the amount of money that the Russians are going to divert from SAAB to build their superteam.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11701_6991595,00.html An interesting snipit from Sonko, moaning about how unfair it was that the Skates weren't anle to break the 5 loan players rule. Also reveals that they were paying Stoke £14,000 a week for him. It will be interesting when they have to publish the accounts for last season, to see how far over the CVA limit ( £13 M ? ) they actually were .