benjii

Ok, I've run the article through an online translator and it's come up with this: "Come and get me, Harry." It did struggle making sense of this rather baffling section though: as a Luton fan and, although it pains me to say it, Luton's troubles were never entirely surprising. For years the club seemed to survive on a shoestring budget, with a dodgy stadium, low revenue and small attendances. But at Portsmouth it's a different scenario altogether No, David. No, it isn't.

- oh dear.

I was thinking about that the other day! If we do get back in the Prem this must be a definite possibility. Under the old Prem regime to do so would have meant raising further debt and so it wouldn't have happened for fear of it being a white elephant should we go down. Under Marcus, we simply write a cheque for £20m or whatever, no probs!

Just said he knows we need a few more players. That it was "evident". We can probably close about half the threads on here now!

I expect it was Fulham's legendary giant away following which meant they had to ring-fence 3,000 seats in the home section, just in case.

Just over 17k..... Massive club. Massive.

With our current crop of central midfielders and centre backs, staying up would be an achievement on a -10 start.

Frankly, after reading that, Poortvliet seems like a complete idiot. Cheers for the translation.

Good stuff. Mind thoes toes on your next shot.

Just shows how badly we were stitched up by the absolutely incompetent senior management team of the business. Still, all's well that ends well!

Not per se but it depends if the average attendance in those years was less than the average attendance in the following years. Given that football crowds were probably on the general increase through the early days of the game then I suspect, in this case, those extra 13 years probably contained lower crowds.

Actually, that's just about the strongest argument there is. HTH

Because everyone knew it was actually a load of well-intentioned, but misguided, hot-air. I really can't believe there is any debate about which is the bigger club. It used to be Pompey but for the last 50 years it has been, and still is, Saints. Anyone in the country apart from a few Pompey fans would agree with that. If Pompey stay in the Prem for another five years and Saints are still in the third division it might change, but it hasn't yet. For most living football supporters Pompey are a ramshackle outfit run by a long-line of "interesting" characters who are enjoying the best few years they are likely to for the remainder of their entire existence, whereas Saints are a top level team who are suffering a blip.

Comment Number 5: "Here we go again, just when everything's starting to look promising...." !

I heard that photocopier maintenance has been brought in house.

Sammy Igo? Matt Robinson? Alan McCloughlin? Fredi Piquionne?

Well despite the vicissitudes of football and the spasmodic quality of messageboarding throughout cyberspace, at least Planck is constant.

I agree, but I think in this League it is useful to have two up front, to pressure the other side who will probably be gash on the ball and give it back to you all the time if you do so. We could play two up front and Lallana behind, but then you almost inevitably sacrifice some width in midfield unless you go 3-at-the-back (which we won't) or play a really open game. Or I guess we could play Lallana in a very advanced role up with Lambert. Great to have someone like Rasiak to throw on if we need another striker. It's a tricky one, but the reason I was so impressed last night was because I saw for the first time, a real understanding of what his position involved and a commitment to playing there in line with the needs of the team.

1 - agree 2 - he was exlcellent defensively last night. You don't need to tackle someone if you chanel them straight into your full-back.

Is this the medieval forum?

Simple, they just need to refer to the fabled "Term Sheet" (which has been signed, you know) and the much vaunted "Agreement in principle" and see what was said about the car park. What a load of ********!

I don't think anyone doubted his touch or skill on the ball, they doubted his ability to be an effective football player in a high-level professional team. Luckily, if he can keep up last night's efforts it looks like he can. There's no need for people who have rightly voiced criticisms in the past to bow down with contrition. That said, we needed to remember last season that the young'uns were being run by a bunch of muppets.

I think those that have slagged him off in the past for positional ill-discipline have been spot on. Last night he fixed it!

Excellent last night. I've slagged him off in the past, so I think he now deserves a "credit thread". I doubt anyone on the pitch covered more ground. Helped Harding out at every turn. Worked the ball well. A couple of good shots. Tireless runs into space. Once he and Lambert get to know each other a bit better they could link up really well. I would still like to see him pick the ball up in the central hole more often but that's not easy for him when he's playing on the wing. Well done lad, great game, keep it up.

Saints will be in mid-table obscurity in the Premiership in 5 years barring an unforeseen disaster or some sort of rule change and League realignment. Pompey, probably won't. So the question therefore becomes: 40 years of superiority including a Cup win, other Wmebley finals, European football and a great infrastructure followed by a 5-10 year blip OR To quote a rather profligate mutual ex-manager, "40 years of dross" followed by a Cup win and long-term ruin? Hmm... let me think