sidthesquid

I do actually feel sorry for the decent phew of the phew, but I genuinely believe the best chance they have of rebuilding their club is for the present regime to be wiped out & for a fresh start. Whether it's big points hits and rebuilding from League One or Two, or from Conference South, it is the only way to move forward. The only way they can continue as it stands is if someone either lend Chinny & co a sum of money, or 'buys' the club from him on HP again. Either way, Chinny & Gaydy remain involved, the club can't progress in any way and the death by a thousand cuts drags on for another season or two. Eventually they will have to take their pain. We took it, Bompey took it, Brighton took it, Wimbledon and Aldershot and others took it, and most of us have regrown and gone forward. I will kind of miss them if they go, but I really don't see a way out of this now. It is a quick death or a slow one - those are their options.

Thinking we really might be entering the end-game for our fishy friends & this mightty thread, it made me consider the history of my 'relationship' with Skates FC and how it has changed over time. As a lad growing up in Salisbury in the seventies and on into adulthood in the eighties, Pompey really didn't register with me. Portsmouth as a town was off my radar, I never met any fans, and I genuinely felt a mild liking for them as I did all southern teams. I rember going to Nottarf Krap in about 1975 with a friend & his dad for a Boxing Day game. We drove down, paid on the day and never considered the possibility of trouble. The first time I was aware of the bitter animosity the Skates felt for us was in the 84 Cup game, which was a bit scary, and I remember them getting promoted and the 'Steve Baker' game & being vaguely aware that our unquestioned status as top dog was under threat, but they went down again & it went away for another decade or more. Even moving to Chichester in 1991 I was still relatively unaware of them - I never did then or now (and rarely inbetween) see many Skate shirts about. Even when they came up again it looked like a short stay, but it all changed in the relegation season. Partly it was the pain of going down and losing that assumed superiority I had taken for granted all my life. It hurt. That disgraceful game under Agent Harry hurt like every other defeat rolled into one. It wasn't just the score, it was the manner of it & life in Pentonville would be too good for that Saggy disgrace. And the Skates sealing our doom hurt too. Maybe it was just the bitterness of no longer being top dog, but their cup win hurt. But it was also the sense that they were, if not cheating, at least buying success. It felt wrong, tainted somehow, and that was a genuine feeling, not just a bitter one, after our years of our survival against the odds in the top flight. I genuinely would not ever feel happy if success came our way by that route. (And why I am so pleased we are doing it the 'right' way.) Our punishment for admin hurt and their gloating got to me. Skates started appearing out of the woodwork locally, taunting me, bragging about how they were going to the Champions League and we were finished. So I was bloody glad, delighted even, when they got their come-uppance. I became a devoted reader and sometime contributor to this thread. At the start of it I truly wanted them to suffer like I had. But the last two and a half years have been as much fun supporting Saints as at any time in my life. My lad is experiencing the good times after growing up in the bad & I no longer care as a Saints fan if they live or die. I follow this thread for the fun and entertainment of it, not as a bitter vengeance seeker. But, as a football supporter, and as a tax-payer, I still feel it is morally right that some meaningful penance should be served by the club (and their supporters) for their blatant disregard of the laws of both football and the land. If they don't, I won't get hung up about - I've got the Saints back and we are going to be permanently back in our rightful place in the local heirarchy come what may - but I will still be left with a slight nagging feeling that a cheat has been allowed to get away unpunished and I don't like that in any walk of life. And in some ways I'd like the saga to end one way or another now, to stop me wasting so much of my life on this thread. I have read almost everything on here (apart from a few of Ho's more tedious bouts of nit-picking) & it has been a brilliant soap-opera/ fantasy drama that has drawn me in. I really don't care if they get away with it anymore - so long as we are sat above them they can have Bill Gates as their new owner for all I care. So, in conclusion I would like to thik I will soon have the opportunity to paraphrase Douglas Adams and say - so long Skatey ones, and thanks for all the fish.

Here's a question for he experts - is a company actually allowed to go back into administration after wiping out most of its debts, taking on new debt(including tax liabilities) whilst not having paid a penny out on the first CVA?

This is all shaping up nicely to make page 1000 the thrilling climax of the story

Now that would be funny

I hate these teasers. It's probably shock/horror, Paul Allen's boat really is in Port Solent.

Surely there is no 'asking' price. It's all about the ability to service the unavoidable debt & running costs. Or are you suggesting he will be offering to pay someone to take it off his hands?

That one had crossed my mind too

I don't think you need a time machine to work out that a new owner won't be in place tomorrow. (Isn't it always Fridays)

But there is another fatal flaw in that argument - they'd only be able to field nine players....

Without too much thought, the following must all be on £20k+ (& some we know are on a lot more) - Halford, Ben Haim,Mokoena, Lawrence, Mullins, Norris, Kitson, Rocha, Varney & Kanu. So if you chuck in NI, bonuses, image rights & all the other bits, an average of £20K basic is probably not far off £30k to the club for 8 of the above.

It's hard to believe it could be true. 1000th page by the end of the month, anybody? My own little conspiracy theory remains that Cala will buy on HP again from Chinny at exorbitant interest rates, he will spunk what little he has on some new & overpriced players for his shot at the big-time, & when it inevitably goes t1ts up, it will emerge that Chinny still has a charge over everything, so yet again the unsecured creditors will get screwed, and Handy Andy will reappear, 'desperately' searching for a new owner to take the club forward. Then the whole process will be repeated until the PPs have run out & he lets them die. Hell - 1000th page, we're talking 2K at least on this saga.

I know it will probably never happen but there would be a certain irony in the Skates losing their two best young pros to Ipswich after heavily outbidding them on wages to steal Norris away

Or, perish the mere thought, so they can bring a Prem player in on loan.......

Neither he nor Viafara were any bloody good for us. If they had had a love child with Viafara's attitude & Fuller's potential ability he might have been good, but as it was, one was a headless chicken and the other only played when he fancied it and was more interested in diving than shooting

Just been reading the comments. Slowly but surely evolution is occurring in the mudflats of Portsea Island. About 75% of the posters can see straight through this guy already. Maybe 50/50 for Antonov, barely 10% questioned Suleiman Al Cornetto. The next spiv potential buyer had really watch out.

Oh God, please let it be him that Andy Android has been drooling over. HIs comedy potential is even greater than old Suleiman the Cornetto salesman. On a slightly more serious note, it did occur to me that this is all part of Chinny and Andy's masterplan. Get a buyer in (source of money optional - eg Antonov) on an HP basis at high interest rates, let them spunk some cash on a half-decent squad and see if they get to the Prem. If they do, everyone is a winner. If they go kaput, take the 10 point hit, as they are probably good enough to stay up anyway, and start again. This Cala guy can probably raise a £5 mill down-payment from somewhere, spend a bit on players and with a half-decent manager they are in with a shout. If it fails, Chinny has still got the down-payment and some interest, he still has the club, and he awaits another chancer ready to blow his wad on a chance of the big-time. Poopey could be quite a good money-spinner for Chiny unless the FL ever get the b@lls to stop him.

We've spoilt the fun, now. We should have waited until after Corpy had been on claiming these people were minted and the club was on the up before we outed him. Oh, well, never mind, I'm sure another tyre-kicker will along soon enough....

This man looks ideal for the Skates. There's only one signor Cala...... Mr Cala, an entrepreneur based in Italy and the USA, is rumoured to head a consortium backed by Abu Dhabi investors. His firm has interests in building undersea casinos and cruise ships and Mr Cala became involved with Italian club Salernitana last year. Jan 2012 GP W D L PTS Lecce 42 20 15 7 75 Cesena 42 20 14 8 74 Brescia 42 21 9 12 72 Sassuolo 42 18 15 9 69 Torino 42 19 11 12 68 Cittadella 42 18 12 12 66 Grosseto 42 14 19 9 61 Crotone 42 17 11 14 60 Ascoli 42 15 12 15 57 Empoli 42 15 11 16 56 AlbinoLeffe42 14 13 15 55 Reggina 42 15 9 18 54 Modena 42 14 12 16 54 Piacenza 42 13 14 15 53 Vicenza 42 12 17 13 53 Frosinone42 15 8 19 53 Ancona 42 15 9 18 52 Triestina 42 13 12 17 51 Padova 42 12 15 15 51 Mantova 42 10 18 14 48 Gallipoli 42 10 10 22 40 Salerno 42 5 8 29 17

I know the Echo is quite antagonistic towards Saints, but the News (or Pompey Pravda as I call it) is almost the PR department of the club. Is it just lazy journalism, or do they think they are helping the inbreds by not telling them the truth? You would never know from reading it that there was a problem, never mind a potentially catastrophic one, at the club. There is the occasional oblique reference to 'finances permitting' regarding signings, and a jolly 'new buyer will be terrific' from AA, but that is it. No investigation into how serious the situation really is or what their real prospects are. It is no wonder the deluded few remain so deluded. Perhaps it's all a sinister government experiment on collective delusion or media manipulation for when the financial balloon goes up. If they can persuade a small town in Hampshire that all is absolutely okay as it goes to sh1t, perhaps Mr Cameron can pull it off nationally before the next election. (you see, Ho, it really is a conspiracy.)

Two things struck me - one, that he ain't that confident his new owner is going to sail through FAPPT "Let’s have them ratified by the Football League and we will make the required announcement." And two, why does every picture anyone shows of Nottarf Krap has bins in it and fencing and so forth? This one is not up to the motability scooter one, but surely even a for a dump like that they could find a more flattering pic.

The new owner will be buying on HP from Chinny with high interest rates like the last one. It doesn't matter if they go kaput, he'll have earnt a few more mill of interest, keep the club and the unsecured creditors can go whistle. Then he'll repeat the process until eventually - 5 years time, maybe - the FL will cotton on and they'll get a slap on the wrist.

How much money would you bet against the new 'owner' being from HK or Russia & that we find a link to Chinny/Gaydy within a week? Surely nobody with no previous links or a vested interest in their survival would touch it with a barge-pole.

Things that struck me from 3 mins on BBC i-player - 1. Lallana's shot was at least a foot over the line 2. Typical crap D'Urso decision on the sending off 3. Kelvin seriously at fault for the first goal 4. Looking at the open goals we missed, ''couldn't score in a brothel' springs to mind But we did play some decent football & all is not lost.....

He played attacking midfield/just behind Forte in the 2 League Cup games & looked pretty useful - a bit lightweight but plenty of skill & confidence.