S-Clarke

Would be nice to see some evidence behind it, but it wouldn't really surprise me in the slightest.

i was hoping they'd have done away with him before now anyway!

Sam Hoskins

you'd be the first one to start a reactionary thread if one of our first team were injured in this game tbf alps.

that's what i thought, but i'm not sure what else we expected tbh. You couldn't expect the likes of barnard/fonte/jaidi/harding/dickson etc to play again, just 2 days after their last match, in the buildup to the first game of the season. and it's also sensible not risking the likes of lambo/morgan and co. Always had a feeling this would be a saints XI game.

why?

Just to bump this one back, this is one thing i'm not so sure about Duncan. Nicola and Markus want the best for this football club, i have no reason to doubt that at all. They have invested money and time in planning the redevelopment here. All i've ever questioned is the way Nicola, in particular, has gone about certain aspects of the restructuring process. I think this image on his company home page sum's the guy up passionate and wanting to show off his new purchase. Doesn't really strike me as someone that's looking to sell off asap. (look at his tie). That image is new as well, only came on there within the last 4/5 months.

i was quickest

Saints team Vs Eastleigh: Bialkowski. Saville, Reeves, Pulis, Martin, Tafazolli, Chamberlain, Robinson, Doble, Hoskins, Isgrove. just a saints XI then

bit of a bargain really..

Not sure why they've got Charlton 2nd, i think they'll struggle to get into the top 6 myself.

I think he'll end up staying with Arsenal now, he really played well in the friendly games and has kind of made wenger setup and take note, it's probably worth him staying around as he'll probably be required at some point.

we haven't left it too late though, we'd have left it too late if we needed upwards of 5 players, then you could use the gelling reason. but we need 2 players, maybe 3, they shouldn't need to gel and should intergrate into the team without much problem. So i don't see a big issue with ''leaving it'' late, we already have the basis of the team here that has gelled over the season - we just need a couple of additions to make certiain positions more competitive.

the fact that they are trying to sign all these championship players is worrying enough, but the fact that they are being rejected on all fronts (by the players and the clubs) would be a real worry if i was a blackpool fan. could they beat derby's record?

Hopefully stuff like this will be answered at the fans forum. Should be quite tasty and hopefully reassuring.

yeh, first ever ted-bates trophy game. we played it in the spare week between the league and fa cup 4th round, as we'd already been knocked out.

PompeyScot is at it again ''Pompey offer contracts to Ashdown and Jordan - Today, 05:13 PM According to SSN. Now, leaving aside what you think about this, that doesn't smack to me of the sign of a club which thinks it's going out of business this week.'' i'm sure they've been made aware already of HMRC's views and the likely outcome from the judge, yep. I remeber we said the same sort of things when we were signing Ryan Smith / Cork on loan etc ''a club about to go into admin wouldn't be doing that...''.

nope, i'm not saying anything like that. All I'm saying is im not sure about how Cortese is going about things, i have no doubt that he has the club at the heart of his interests and works with the best intentions, but i just query if he's going about it in the right way. But as you said, let's just get back to the flaming football.

that was the view from an employee at the club, not my opinion.

Apparently reading want upwards of £1m, which is madness for a player they were just going to cast-aside 8 months ago.

He's gone back to preston now.

http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/squad/first-team.aspx that is currently their available first team squad, they don't even have a GK atm...ashdown still hasn't signed a contract. Crazy times. and you can be sure that the likes of Utaka and Boateng (esp. with his world cup) won't be there for too much longer....and without the ability to replace an already depleted squad, surely relegation is a certainty?

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11674_6289869,00.html? no more signings for the skates

Yep, no problem with people changing their minds. There are some things i think as a supporter base we have to accept, as they're trying to accelerate our growth and success - things will change, and we all know that people hate drastic changes! If they're going about it the right way is another question though. I don't have sources as such, i just know a few employees that are still at the club and they tell me it's not the nicest of places to work, the ''behind the scenes'' videos are all a bit odd too - it's like they're all forced to read off a script saying how well Cortese has done. I also knew of people that were ruthlessly got rid of a year or so ago, but i won't post that on here as I'm aware Nicola probably searches the forum, he strikes me as the sort of guy that wouldn't worry about getting it shut down if he reads something he doesn't like... but at the end of the day i just want to focus on the fottie, i like the team we have and cannot wait for Saturday, i hope we have a fantastic start and push all these stories to the back burner.