spyinthesky

Lazy morning so here goes with a subjective post which will, of course, depend on length of contact/wages etc etc All hypothetical that we would entertain selling any players Boruc Nil Age related Davis Nil Ditto Gazzinga £1m Assume we would get money back Clyne £4m+ Settled down v well. Future England cap? Richardson Nil Age related Shaw £8m+ Great impact this year. Future England cap? Fox £400k Championship standard only? Schniederlin £7m+ Really come on thjs year Cork £4m Ditto Davis £500+ Decent addition to squad. At least money back Ward Prowse £1m For potential Mayuka £2m Getting better. At least money back Fonte £2m Reasonable Prem standard centre back Hooivelt £1m At least money back Forren ? ?????????? Puncheon £1m + Probably a fair bit more if judged on his general form this season Mayuka ? ?????????? Guly £500k Couldn't really see a Prem side being interested Lambert £3m Difficult one this. Age against him but strikers always at a premium Rodriguez £7m Thought he was at least £2m overrated when we signed him but now beginning to justify his fee Ramirez £12m Assume someone would give us our money back as he is fundamentally a decent player Lallana £6m+ Young and English. Could be undervalued at this momey Sharp £1m Not playing regularly for Forest which must reduce his value De Ridder £500k Perhaps a foreign side would take him for this Rest of squad - So a total squad value of + £60m I guess this must sit quite nicely on the club's books especially in comparison to our friends down the road

Usual good condition Watching MOTD and FL show over the weekend revealed how bad some playing surfaces are around the country I suppose it helps not having reserve team games, training or rugby games to contend with but this doesnt excuse some Premier clubs. Well done to the groundstaff at SMS

Football League website provides some useful info SAINTS 2011/12 2344 av away (best 5770) 2010/11 1487 2009/10 1480 2008/09 1104 2007/08 1142 Av No of away fans per game at SMS 1332 Av No of away fans attending Championship games 1508 Compare Pompey 2011/12 1166 away fans 2010/11 1165 " " (ie well less than the 'average') Bournemouths average over the past 5 years was 400

See that 'Appy' is not well liked by the Blackburn Faithful Shame he was such a success at Pompey (13 wins in 51?)

Notice that the Snooze has a big 'Local Derby' feature in which Pompey are about to hammer local rivals ...Southampton. This time it is their Ladies team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interesting to know if the Ladies enjoy a financial input from the 'Big Boys Club' Also Cheats FC are always banging on about their 'history' As I recollect it Soton Ladies used to be one of the top female sides in the country back in the Sue lopez era of the 70's

Are figures available re away support in the Prem? Notice that someone was bragging in the Pompey News that the 1,000 Pompey took to Leyton Orient was more than our following to Norwich!!

Anyone have an update on the availability of Gin Gan, Jose and our mystery new signing?

The Southampton Company of Union Men fairly tale is indeed a fabricated story to substantiate the S.C.U.M myth (hence Portsmyth FC) It was a group of Pompey fans, including 'Docker' Hughes, the predecessor to the icon who is John PFC Westwood, who started the story after Portsmouth Dockers reneged on an agreement not to handle Brittany Ferry ships which had moved up to Portsmouth from Plymouth in the autumn of 1976 and were mass picketed by groups of Soton Dockers led by Ritchie Pearce. The police were called to protect the Pompey Dockers in the commercial port down there. There are factual reports about this in the archives of the Daily Echo and the Portsmouth News whereas you will have to rely on 'folklore' passed on by the fertile imagination of some 'hard core' people down on Portsea Island, one of whom was recently fondly remembered in print by one of his peers having being seen, back in the 70's, up a tree eating his own vomit after taking a copious amount of mind altering drugs. Not surprisingly the person with an unusual dining habit passed away at a fairly early age but is still revered by some of the '657' clan.

Does anyone know how many 'Fans trust' clubs there are? One of the first, I recollect, was Non league Ebbsfleet who started with 27,000 odd members paying £35 each and they all had a say in the club's admin and team selection policy. However 3 years down the line only 3,500 members remain and the club is back in financial difficulty. Surely something similar couldn't happen to Portsmyth FC could it?

Unfortunately I am away from my Saints 'bible' but was talking to a Saints fan, of my generation, on the train and he mentioned Jimmy Greaves turning out for Saints in a friendly Can any one cast any light on this? I think I can remember an evening game under lights? I can also vaguely remember watching a Show Biz 11 game at the Dell in which the likes of Tommy Steele and Roy Castle played. Ironically later in life I played in a charity game in Bournemouth in which Roy Castle turned out (think he was in Panto there)before he some time later sadly died of lung cancer (even though he didnt smoke)

Anyone see the rather large piece in todays Times about Pompey Unfortunately only got a glance over someones shoulder on the train but last paragraph said something along the lines of ...'falling well down the South Coast pecking order compared to their resurgent neighbours at Southampton, Brighton and Bournemouth'...!! Perhaps add Plymouth and even the likes of Dover, Weymouth and Bognor in future years.

Sid, Guilty as charged my friend. Perhaps I am being unfair here but I suspect there may not be too many who have the intellect (as you have) to pick up on this crafted post!!!!. Of course others may throw their collective hands up in horror at such a lame attempt at humour at the expense of our well respected neighbours.

Meanwhile Joseph Cala is back in town He wants to buy Fatpipe Park and construct a large multi floored building out of wood recycled from the centuries old terracing soon to become available, baseing his design on plans drawn up by that well known saviour of animals and other species, Noah. However, this time, his aim is to save a particular specimen of fish for future generations of Portsea Islanders and honour one of the Pompey greats. The splendid edifice will be known as.. Cala's Multi Storrie Carp Ark...

I wonder if Fred Dineage still goes to Fratton Park and has contributed to the Fans buyout?

Did Henry say in Court that he didnt know how to text (or was that emails?)?

Shame of it is, a middle aged Pompey fan was attacked and put in hospital after the Walsall away game and, quite understandably, there was outrage by many Pompey supporters However noticed that there were one or two comments posted by 657 wannabes rejoicing in the fact that the Hartlepool 'mob' got a slap. Different perspective from the Hartlepool board. Separately, heard from someone today who has had dealings with Pompey in the past (not a great deal of money but club officials always wanted to pay by cash!!!) that Pompey leave Stoneham Lane owing a considerable 6 figure sum. Not sure if anyone can verify this but, if correct, might put a different spin on the evacuation from the Training Ground. I have always been comforted by the fact that our fan base is relatively tolerant. Can you imagine the issues if Saints had a training base in the PO post code!!

Daren, I am no Pompey apologist but, in my view, 11,000 at their place isnt bad bearing in mind the dire stuff the team plays. In all honesty I wouldn't have seen us do too much better at the Dell. Their supporters may pour scorn on our 'soulless bowl' but it attracts more paying customers as it is a decent place to watch football. It will be interesting next season as and when Pompey go down (and possibly struggle) They will be lowest ranked club on the South Coast and possibly behind Bournemouth in home crowds if Bompey go up and do well. Also there are often comments made by Pompeyites about empty seats at St Marys Back in their 'glory days' of the early 50's Fratton Park had a capacity of over 50,000 yet their highest average attendance was 37,000 at a time when most clubs played to capacity crowds. One year their championship winning side played to an average attendance of less than Hull City in the old 3rd Division!!!!

As Barry Sanchez correctly pointed out, the port has three rail access points, one in the Eastern Docks (via Northam and Canute Road past St Marys, and two in the Western Docks) Back in the 1990's East Anglian Railways looked at building a station just inside the Canute Rd Dock entrance to serve the Ocean Village/Downtown area but, more importantly to them, allow direct access to their core East Anglian market by a route avoiding the main London Terminii. The cost of electrifying the spur from Northam, building a (modest) station and pricing in the cost of this and surrounding land for taxis/cars etc never stacked up so was abandoned at an early stage. Meanwhile the Northam spur line is increasingly busy with regular, diesel hauled, car trains and the occasional cruise passenger train

I agree that the cost of a rail platform will not be cost effective Going off on a tangent how many clubs have or did have their own railway station? Hull City (at Boothferry Park) and Man Utd come to mind and Arsenal had an Underground Station renamed in their honour Also recollect that Bolton had a railway line at the back of their ground at Burnden Park

You can add Kevin Keegan, Peter Shilton, Ron Davies, Ivan Golac, Marian Pahars, Rickie Lambert et al to the list As the man with the wooden leg said ...'It's all a matter of a pinion'......

Interesting to see that leicester only got 8,000 for friday nights top of the table clash with Middlesboro Obvously conditions put a lot of people off especially as it was a TV game Lowest crowd of the season so far at SMS I reckon for a number of reasons

FF I dont think any one dobted Painey's ability. He was a class act, behind MLT and Channon in my opinion but nevertheless one of the best ever Saints players. It was interesting that Lawrie Mac got rid of him as soon as possible when he took over but it was fairly simple decision as Terry was past his best by then of course Terry is smart and so is Cortese in his own way. By choosing Terry as Club President he could pander, to some extent to the club's history (which otherwise is an irrelevance to him) whilst having a pliable and remotely located person in the post. btw there are always anecdotes about past players. The one I liked, as told to me at Ken Jones funeral last week (an emotional yet humourous event) was Terry Paine taking the mickey out of a rather inebriated Brian O'Neill who had rather a lot to drink on a close season tour and messed his trousers. Painey was relentless in his joy at Brian O'Neills misfortune Unbeknown to Terry, Brian had 'borrowed' Paine's expensive Tonic trousers so the tables were turned and Terry became the butt of everyone's jokes especially once O'Neill had sobered up!! and suffered from a weak bladder

Interesting that in all the pro Adkins articles in the Sports Echo, the only support given to the decision to change the team management comes from Terry Paine, the newly installed Club President. Of course all media comments have to be taken with a pinch of salt but, if reported correctly, it unfortunately follows a pattern that Terry has followed most of his life. A great player for the Saints but not well liked by his teammates, as David Bull's book 'A Constant Paine' will testify. Unfortunately he had an unfortunate reputation of toadying around Ted Bates and it seems 40 or so years on, he is one of the very few relics of the Saints past who is able to have a rapport with Mr Cortese but I guess that is relatively easy when you live in South Africa!!

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times is worth a read too

Understand that there was certainly something going on at the pre season games A neighbour of Adkins told me that Adkins was annoyed that Cortese came into the Dressing Room at one of the pre season games and started to dictate on team selection This made the neighbour and a few friends put serious money on Adkins departure. Not sure whether they won the bet but one put £300 on Benitez so he lost!!