spyinthesky

Redmond has been poor this season (and to be fair so have a number of his team mates) Interesting that the guy who runs Crystal Palace reckoned that in a time of inflated transfer values, especially for English players, Redmond represented the best value last season. Is the fact he has underperformed big time this season down to the individual or the Manager/ System. In my view it is probably 75/25. I just wonder if Redmond would be better suited on the right than playing on the left where he continually has to check back to play a ball into the danger area. One thing for certain, Thierry Henry he is not. (Who suggested that, was it Sir Les?)

Like it!! Got to try to get some humour from somewhere even if it is misplaced!!!!

1. Sell VVD and Bertrand and net £50/£60m 2. Put all money on relegation at 7/1. 3. Keep Pellegrino to the end of the season to ensure relegation is certain 4. Sell remainder of players with any sort of value for £150m (may have to accept a write down on original book value as most of them have badly underperformed this year) 5. Pay 20% of the net return ( 20% of approx. £500m) ie £100m to Kat 6. Kat gets to control the club again with a decent return from her original 80% of the sale plus £100m plus access to the Parachute payments and she starts the process all over again. 7. Us tormented supporters get a new manager, new board, new players and hopefully see more entertaining football and a few wins to enjoy. 8. A number of Bookmakers get into financial difficulties and have to withdraw their sponsorship packages from rival clubs. Happy days!!!

I tip my hat to all those going to Old Trafford (understand we have sold out our allocation) to suffer what is likely to be another thrashing Reminds me of when I used to go to away games on a regular basis expecting to be hammered at the likes of Old Trafford, Anfield, Goodison Park, Highbury and White Hart Lane. Mind you worst was the 7-1 League Cup thrashing at Watford when we actually had a decent side and had won the first leg 4-0!!!!!!!!!!! The 6-2 defeat at Charlton, the year after we won the cup, was another demoralising result made worse by having to sit amongst Charlton fans in the little main stand they had at the time within an enormous bowl of a largely open terraced stadium.

Decent post For any club outside the top 6 the chance of 'failure' is ever present and next season we could be down in the Championship trying to do well against a number of well supported sides with better support than us. We have been on an upward curve since the Liebherr takeover but the constant loss of good players and managers (I don't necessarily blame the board for this btw) was always likely to come home to roost. As has been said elsewhere the general malaise has permeated down through the ranks to the much vaunted youth section. Like quite a few on here I was concerned that the less than inspiring performances at the tail end of last season was an indicator of challenges this season. That said I doubt that many of us (even a card carrying pessimist like me) would have forseen the disarray the club is in currently. The first team squad should be good for a mid table finish but I have to say the Manager and Coaching staff seem to have royally cocked up with team selection and playing systems. Team spirit is sorely lacking and injuries (which we have generally avoided up until recently) are beginning to kick in. I will renew my season ticket next year but can envisage lots of familiar faces around me departing and we will all have to put up with the re-emergence of lots of Premier shirt clad part time supporters in evidence around the city. As a long standing supporter I have been through it all before. I feel sorry for the younger breed who have been used to the club doing well and not having to go through the current struggle and pathetic performances. I also feel sorry for those having to endure the long trip to Old Trafford for yet another insipid performance

Good post

I had hoped that we might have been interested in signing Maguire from Hull and play him alongside VVD or as a replacement when Virgil shoots off elsewhere. Of course it is difficult to make direct comparisons after last nights game but I do suggest that Maguire didn't look at all bad value at circa £25m (or was it less?) versus VVD at around £60-£70m Our Black Box definitely needs a reboot!!

I have no complaints about the team that was sent out to play However every outfield player was inept Only 6/10 performance could be given to Bertrand and many armchair fans will be surprised that, in my opinion, Forster was our best player. Leicester won at an absolute canter You cant blame the Manager for the individual's performance but he does have to take responsibility for the shape and enthusiasm of his players, both sadly lacking. If we do escape relegation this year some major surgery needs to be done to the team as well as an in depth review as to how the club is being run I bet the new owner is a happy chappie!!!

CB I agree with you in most respects. The only things that would have been of benefit at Stoneham would have been proximity to Parkway Station and the fact that an impressive stadium would have been seen my millions of motorists a year passing by on the M27

I think you are not far off the mark re the Toys R Us site as I assume the Pirelli factory was still in situ in the late 70's However I am pretty certain that the expected capacity was 25,000 Would be good to get a definitive answer

Also looked at a number of alternative sites in/around the city Main options were the current West Quay site (25,000 capacity just after the 76 Cup win) and the site off Stoneham Lane (also 25k capacity)

Agree with the 'decent price' comment Reportedly £33m Ok pretty basic in design but brought us into the modern era at a cost which would probably be at least double now

Spot on comment That shot was unstoppable

According to a piece in yesterday's Programme, we appear to have opened our 12th Pre-Academy programme, this time in Portsmouth ...'as we look to increase opportunities for all young players in the region'..... Feel sure this initiative will be accepted in the normal welcoming way in the area!!!

I can understand the negative feelings with regard to Pellegrino My default position is to keep faith with the Manager PROVIDED he has the support of the players and the Board. I have no idea how Pellegrino stands in this respect. My view is somewhat coloured by the decision to keep McMenemy in post after he presided over us being relegated in his first season in charge However as a balance to this, getting rid of Branfoot was entirely the right decision and if younger supporters think things are bad now, the Branfoot days at the Dell were a particularly bad period in our history.

I think we all agree that unless things run round quickly we will end up near the Relegation zone this year and, if we continue to be abysmal in front of goal there is a reasonable chance of us going down. This begs the question how many players would be here to 'enjoy' the challenge of competing in the Championship next season. As Philip Neville said on MOTD a few weeks back, individually we have players who will be coveted by other clubs, and I reckonthe value of our 'saleable' players must be around the £200m mark, although may be decreasing as our performances continue to slide. ie Foster Cedric Bertrand Romeu Lemina Ward Prowse Hojberg VVD Hoecht Redmond Tadic Boufal Gabbiadini Yoshida Davis plus freebies for Piet, Gardos and possibly Claisie Perhaps our new owner would look at a wholesale fire sale and recoup most/all of his investment leaving us in a 'Sunderland' type situation based on the remaining squad of players ie McCarthy Targett Mc Queen Stevens Bedanak Sims Reed Gallagher Austin (if he will accept reduction in wages) Long ( Ditto) Seager Hesketh Plus any youngsters who Les and the coaching staff think worthy of promotion. Otherwise it is likely to need a £50m+ investment to ensure we can challenge for an instant return. I would hate for us to go down but perhaps there are advantages about being in the Championship, I suppose eg seeing a goal or two and actually winning some games. Also there is the possibility of returning to proper derby games if Pompey come up through the League 1 play offs!!!

I agree with this comment On paper we had a relatively successful season under Puel but most of us recognised this only papered over the cracks. Goalscoring was a problem so we sold one forward (right decision in my view) and expected Gabbiadini/Long and Austin to fulfil the role(s) of striker. This was taking quite a risk as Long and Austin are no more than Championship level and Gabbiadini is not really I suitable main striker for the Premiership, although, to be fair, he started off OK last season - before falling away. During the summer we held onto VVD and Bertrand (which fans appreciated) and bought Bedanak (why ?- another Gardos clone?) and Lemina (v good so far) and Hoecht (OK so far) However the lack of a robust striker who can actually cause problems to opposition defences either in the air or with pace has been a major mistake. We now have a club with (another) defensively minded coach, players with ability not playing as a team, lack of effort, no real options in crucial areas (eg in goal and upfront), no young talent coming through as evidenced by poor results from the U21's and youth teams And finally, uncertainty with the motives/involvement of our new majority owners!!

Spot on comment

It seems rather doubtful at the moment that dear old Ron will be in post when Everton move to their planned new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in 2020 As an aside, much as I liked Goodison Park as a proper old ground (albeit with crap sight lines etc), I have never seen Saints win there in all the various times I have ventured north with the Saints.

Re Henry Redknapp, presumably the Pompey News and their intrepid band of readers, various local councillors and odd MP (and I mean 'odd') have given up their campaign to get a knighthood for their one time Manager?

I am sure I read somewhere that PSG have already sold 170,000 Neymar shirts At say £50 a pop that's £8.5m gross revenue (probably pays Neymar's wages for a week!!)

Apparently there is a story in today's Birmingham Mail which puts into question the financing of West Midlands clubs (Vilia/Birmingham/WBA and Wolves) who are all owned by Chinese interests being able to get finance out of China where the Govt is becoming increasing strict in allowing funds to exit the country. Presumably our new owners will be similarly affected

Well done for turning up One of the recorded 48 away fans!!

I try not to join in with criticism of Fraser However I think he should have done better with the second goal I reckon he thought the game was over at this stage and went in half hearted with his challenge using his legs not his body to smother the ball Poor effort in an overall extremely disappointing team performance (Yoshi and Romeu excepted)

In case anyone from the club monitors this site, I think we are due to play Liverpool at home on 10th February and not Sunderland!!! Recollect there was a problem with correct score last year. Just being pedantic as otherwise the programme is OK