sidthesquid

The 1970 Cup final epic between Chelsea & Leeds got me interested in football. I have no recollection of it before then & my parents weren't interested either, but that match, where I started cheering on Chelsea & my brother Leeds gave me the bug. Then in September my father & I went with his friend & his son to the Dell to see the game v Derby (4-0 Channon 2, Davies 2) and it truly was love at first sight. Our friends never went again, but my father and I were hooked and hardly missed a game since.

Fair play for that, but the tester is Donny & Barnsley, not Chelsea.

My early prediction is that we'll fail to win our first home game. My long term prediction is that we are gonna do okay.

What impresses me about Corpy is his tenacity and thoroughness in trawling back through thousands of old post - hia and others - to find things to justify himself with. My only conclusion is that trade is a bit slack in the old kebab-shop and he has a lot of time to kill at present. Personally, I really can't be Rsed to try that hard to prove some point I made a year ago might just have been right.

I'm getting quite bored of him now. He reminds me of Stanley who used to appear on the main board. Arguing with a nit-picking pedant, especially a smug one, is not much fun.

John McGrath, Denis Hollywood & Brian O'Neil for the Pompey games

£750000 has been reported in various locations, which makes him a bloody bargain. Same as Varney to Skates.

I wondered that. I thought a troll, but surely a troll would at least try & sound superior or sarcastic about it. This seems like he genuinely believes it. Dim it is.

I'll answer your questions for you - 1.Finding an institutionally corrupt business with a very high turnover in an industry with no regulatory control isn't generally that easy. A football club not only foots that bill, but adds a bit of credibilty & glamour (alright - not much in this case, but they don't live locally) to their business aspirations. 2. I'm not convinced they are loaded, though Dubai Phil assures us otherwise. I'm sure there is some money, but there apeears to be a lot of smoke & mirrors, loans & promises, in their transactons. And certainly more than a hint of dodginess about its origin. 3. Norris was reputedly on a decent crack at Ipswich & they wanted to keep him. Don't tell me, he took a huge paycut came to Poopey for the first rate facilities, the sell out crowds and the chance of the Prem. He came for one last big payday. 4. I really can't be arsed to trawl back through your old posts, but as I remember you were boasting mercilessly that these were probable signings at worst, if not a done deal, from your contact, not just paper talk. I would concede that as a wind-up merchant you are right up there, but it has to be said, you are also a very annoying little pedant.

That one is right up there, I have to agree. Good old Corp, never let's you down.

Nobody has that much gardening leave. Perhaps he is a gardener by profession. Or a Parky, perhaps.

Can we exempt the 'let's all laugh at the Pompey takeovers' thread from this, though, please

The point of the thread is that he came here with a great reputation and ultimately failed dismally. Branfoot came with no reputation at all & we all knew that Agent Arry was a ****.

The team that got to the play-offs was good enough to go straight up. Only his tinkering with winning teams stopped that. And then, like Branfoot before him, replaced talent with dross. Skacel seemed to live off one good season with Hearts & has done nothing since. BWP found his level in League 1 & that was exactly the point with Euell - his best days were way behind him. I don't think he had much hand in Jones's development either.

In some ways Burley was the biggest flop of all. He came with a brilliant reputation, started okay then proceeded to sign some of the worst players ever to wear the shirt and make Ian Branfoot look like a master tactician. Also two of his signings - Skacel & BWP would be right up there on the list of flops. (Don't get me started on the like of the Jason Euell on £14k/week.)

In some ways Pearce is the sanest signing they have made in recent years. He's not a Prem player on Prem wages, he was a good deal because of the sell-on clause and his reasonable, but modest, talent (apparently they were fighting it out with the Posh for him)reflects something approaching their new reality.

I guess Skates were always in the box seat for this one - they only had to pay just over half the best offer to do the deal. Unless, amusingly, the other fifty per cent goes to Chainrai, because I read somewhere he was entitled to all transfer money. A decent enough player, though you definitely wouldn't swap him for Jose & probably not even for Dan Seaborne.

There may not be a 'first home game curse', but our record is truly shocking. Since 1990 our record for the first home game is P 20 W2 D 7 L 11, played in 2 grounds and under 13 different managers in 3 different divisions. It may not be a curse but I would think there are very few teams in the league who consistently start worse. Throw in a poor, if no worse, record on Sky and you can see why I am not hopeful. No curses or druidery - just harsh statistics.

Don't forget the 'first home game' curse. When did we last win? We're doomed from the start..... Or maybe we just accept the inevitable and recover to another great season, like the last one

Terrible, terrible, outdated negative decision. I thought the multi-ball system was brilliant. It keeps the play going, helps the attacking team maintain momentum & most of all, it means the ball is in play longer, which is surely what us paying customers want & deserve.

In no particular order - Lundekvam, Golac & Pahars are the three stand-out players. All three were great servants of the club and great characters in their own way. Monkou probably fourth. Oh, and Niemi of course. There's quite a long list of least fovourites, too

That. Tbh he was never going to get many games in the CCC for us. 30+ games for Udders in League One might kickstart his career.

My wife hates football. Always has, always will. She'll never ever go to a game, even to watch my lad play. However she never complains beyond a moderate moan, and accepts that footy is non-negotiable. And bar a funeral (not even a wedding) home games are sacrosanct. Fortunately my son is Saints through and through, so we can outvote her. To be fair she accepts it is a 'bloke' thing and gets on with her own life. Incidentally, after my father & I started going to the Dell in the early 70's, my mother wanted to know what she was missing and went once, becoming instantly hooked and barely missed a home game until her death 5 years ago. (I'm embarrassed to admit how many games - including Poopey away - I have been to with my Mum!)

Exactly that. But still £14k/week is huge wages for a struggling CCC team

Boringly I suspect he was on £20/week at Stoke, Skates agreed to pay £14k/week of his wages to loan him. But £14/week, which is probably top 10% of earners in the CCC,for a mediocre centre-half who spent half the season out of the team just re-inforces their stupidity and their disregard for their financial state. If you assume their other 5 loanees were on something similar, that must be another £3-4mill in wages(inc bonuses, NI etc) to add to the figures we already knew didn't add up.