saintbletch

Man Utd?

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm sure your comments about just serving tea and needing pity weren't aimed at me. As I've said before on here I'm a BA fan and have always been treated well by BA crew. I'm also a great supporter of unionised workforce but not Kanute-like attempts to turn back the tide of 'progress'. I guess one of the benefits of not being directly involved in a situation is that I can see both sides. I can certainly see that BA management has tried to capitalise on this situation but I can also see that changes need to be made to BA's cost base - and urgently. And to suggest earlier in this thread that the dispute is nothing to do with money is surely disingenuous? I can see that the dispute is obviously very important to a large number of BA staff - hence the high degree of support for the strike ballot (leaving aside the alleged support from staff that were no longer employed by BA!). But from the outside and looking at some of the language you've used on here to describe it, it looks like the dispute is now more about distrust of your employer and specifically Willie Walsh. And when things turn personal like they appear to have done, a lot of logic follows the desire to give-and-take out of the window. I think the most potentially damaging thing is this idea of using Ryanair as a pejorative term. Ryanair is an airline that has pitched its product perfectly for the times we live in. By contrast BA and other premium airlines have got it badly wrong. And as you've said, you'd have to lay a lot of the blame for that at the door of BA management but you'd also be blind to not see that their cost base stops them from being able to react as perhaps they would like to. Don't get me wrong I loath Ryanair, its management and its petty and misleading policies. But when the 12 days of Xmas strike was called, all of a sudden I can see little difference between Ryanair's fleecing of their customers and BA staff's apparent desire to alienate theirs. Except of course that with Ryaniar you always knew what you were going to get. I think industrial action in times of recession that hit the man in the street is incredibly ill-advised. Ask the Posties. And ruining someone's Easter holiday that they've saved for all year will only further serve to alienate you from the people that ultimately pay your wages. It takes years to build up an image like BA has/had, and apparently only 12 days to wreck it. I can see why becoming Ryanair might be anathema to BA staff who are rightly proud of the company's history and its differences. But I'm sorry to say it but for these economically uncertain times, Ryanair has the frills/no frills balance right. So competing with them and their like has, to some degree, be part of BA's future. Surely? I'd love to think that when the world-wide economy picks up, there will be a discerning customer out there that wants to pay for the difference BA clearly can provide. But with BA's cost base and a £3Bn+ pension deficit they may not be in the best of health to provide that service if and when it's needed.

Looks like those figures could be about right. This from the turn of the year... http://www.southlondon-today.co.uk/tn/Sport.cfm?id=50162&headline=Southend%20asking%20for%20up%20to%20%C2%A3250,000%20for%20Lee%20Barnard The bottom line is that it looks like Saffend really need the cash and Roy Keane previously claimed that it would cost Ipswich £250K to get Barnard from Southend. Is there a link to the original Mirror story?

Some context for these discussions. Japan Airlines has just filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors. I recognise that this could be all about how badly run JAL was and little to do with the health of the premium airlines. But it would make me think whichever side of the debate I was on. It's a shame the FF has gone off line because I would love to know how these young stewardesses and stewards on low starting pay struggling to live in London feel about having to work alongside older, longer-standing employees whose terms and conditions are far superior. Does it ever occur to the young stewards and stewardesses that they HAVE to start on such a low wage BECAUSE the older crew is paid on Ts&Cs that were drawn up when the travelling population was discerning and prepared to pay a premium? If so does this not create friction? Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Hmm. I'd be surprised if someone lent this money without some other security because as you say their finances are in a parlous state and whether it was known that the PL might withhold their TV money, I think I'm right in saying that HMRC was already knocking on the door. You can't offer up the expectation of £7M coming in in January as security for a short-term loan. It might make the lender feel happier that there will be some positive cash-flow but it didn't ever guarantee that the lender would have seen any of it. So if I had been lending them the money, I'd have wanted another chunk of land or some such as security. What other assets do they still completely own that might have some realisable value? Player's registrations? Could they start to get loans against player's registrations? It's a bit Tevez/Macherano though isn't it and I thought the PL/FA closed that loophole. It's all a bit of a bloody mess.

Hope this gets around the swear filter...

Good post and I wouldn't be disappointed if all of that came to pass. But I think we're more likely to get into or closer to the play-off positions.

Genuine gratitude for you taking the time to poste a summary of the player and definitely in jest. Also glad that you don't condone arse shooting for footballers. Not wanting to bring the tone of the thread down but it was the "up the arse" of your previous post as opposed to "in the arse" bit I was referring to. From what I read of JO's injury it was more at a distance/Forrest Gump style than one that required the insertion of a firearm...I should have left this well alone...moving on...

A mixed bag then - probably worth a 6 month contract. Thanks for the summary Unisaint although I think we can do without talk of gunshots up the arse thank you very much.

Hmm, one worrying comment in the OS article that might rule out further CM signings (Danns, Stock). As LJ's best position is arguably CM, does this mean we're no longer looking to strengthen there?

The answer is actually written as an acrostic using the first letter of all of the posts on this thread. So in an amazing twist of irony, you actually have to be arsed to read through the last 3 pages of the thread to get the answer. Either that or nobody knows...

...the more he sounds like a highly secretive Swiss banker?

but I don't believe anything without a link. Ward Signs...

This was mentioned earlier in this thread - although the source was 606 and RocketSwanie so I think everyone assumed it was not necessarily accurate.

Presumably Belgian domestic violence will fall too. To truly appreciate Hoegaarden you have to have arrived for the Spa Francorchamps F1 Grand Prix late on a Thursday evening in the pouring rain, put up a tent in the pouring rain and then quickly nipped into a supermarket to buy 96 bottles of cheap lager for you and your mate to drink over the next 4 days. That first sip...oh my God...what have we done. But after 4 days had passed and Damon Hill have won, I have to tell you I love it.

Dr. Peace? Sounds more like a new age rapper than a general practitioner. Presumably "Dr. Peace" is only part of the story? We surely have specific medical advice about limbs and joints and other important footballing parts of the body?

I THINK you're right. Despite the fact that Luton had a completely new ownership structure, the club was punished for the actions of the previous Directors. But then I'm not sure if that's an FL rule or an FA rule. Either way you can be sure that the PL will differ punishment until PFC is relegated, when presumably they luckily won't have jurisdiction.

I wonder. Saw him play for Yoevil a couple of times on the TV and for Wales if memory serves. At the time he looked like a player that had really benefited from leaving us and getting some experience. Don't know what happened to him at Forest though.

I'm not disputing that you have paid the 'talent' PES. I'm disputing whether you can afford to pay the 'talent'. From where I sit, it appears that you were only able to afford to play the 'talent' by not paying the likes of HMRC, Watford, Udinese, Chelsea, et al. And if I remember correctly the term used to describe a business that can't pay its debts in the order in which they fall due is "f***ed". And using HMRC to finance your Premier League campaign is gaining an unfair advantage over your 'peers' in the league that haven't also been extended the same facility. And that ultimately could get the Premier League into hot water - especially if you somehow stay up and solvent.

Their indebtedness and the collateral against which the debt is secured has made identifying the beneficial ownership a joke. I think I remember that when we got into financial problems we tried to pull the wool over the Football League's eyes by suggesting there was no link between our Plc and the Football Club. Mawhinney said that the FL conducted a forensic analysis of our accounts and concluded that the two entities were inextricably linked, we were docked points and here we are. Mawhinney said he owed it to the other clubs in the league to ensure that we didn't benefit from over stretching ourselves financially. Fair enough. How can the sleepy little Football League act so quickly to guard its reputation and protect its members but yet the Premier League is allowing itself to be drawn into this shambles? They are becoming an impotent laughing stock. And forgetting the Premier League's reputation, how about the teams who think they might finish in the bottom 3 or 4 of the Prem' this year? Surely they must be putting pressure on the Prem' to clamp down on Pompey. PFC has demonstrated 3 times this year already that they have 'benefited' from 'talent' that they plainly cannot actually afford to pay. What if a team was relegated and by some chance Pompey managed to stay up, surely they'd turn to legal proceedings to see if Prem rules had been enforced correctly? It could be a nightmare.

Attitude? Both sides need a clean break?

Hmm. This had been troubling me. It surely points towards at least some Israeli element in the ownership.

Have any of the Pompey players offered to defer their wages during their "problems"? If I remember correctly a few of our pros made that offer. No matter how shallow and badly timed it might have appeared at the time.

[Avram performs his personal homage to John Travolta's Greased Lightening] Why this club is auto-cratic It's err-atic It's bor-acic It's sphincter tightening, sphincter tightening So sphincter tightening, so sphincter tightening...

It's a formal legal process that results in the dissolution of the business. Anyone who is a creditor or a certain amount can petition the courts to wind the company up if they can show that they have tried to get their money back without success. I think the company would then be liquidated where assets are sold to pay creditors. A football legal expert (ex-Bournemouth Chairman) said that this is quite drastic but doesn't actually mean much unless other creditors (specifically the banks) get spooked and also file petitions. He felt that Portsmouth would pay the 'Revenue somehow and that they'd continue to try to find new capital. Now also on Sky Sports News.