rallyboy

Richie has scrapped the development squad now. Bit of a desperate move when developing your own players is the only way forward. If their academy goes the same way we know they have finally stopped trading and put the cat out. Pity really, we were told before that it was the envy of all other clubs. (Portsmyth no.283)

That must be the £20M that pompey are due from Tesco after the council give them the land for nothing. (anyone who hasn't followed the thread in full must wonder what the frick we are on about half the time)

in between dealing with alleged sex offenders the council has opened the door for Tesco to do their thing by lifting restrictions. While the club is excited at the prospect of a 'significant cash injection' towards ground redevelopment, I suspect the real outcome will just be a car park. Plus landlocking by a supermarket, and a massive profit for big-hearted Robinson.

So let me get this right, you want £20M, but you refuse to release 52% of the 'shares' for reasons of ego - and the people who are bankrolling the other 48% aren't allowed to sell by the restrictions imposed by the Trust manifesto? That means you have created a business model that prevents outside investment of any consequence, unless you do a full U-turn and abandon any claims to be fan-owned... As you have ringfenced the business and restricted new funding, other than from a handful of property developers, or donations from children of white supremacists......I'm out.

Leeds United struggling to make ends meet on Championship income? A big club with a proper history and a massive fanbase unable to compete... That doesn't bode well for a small club two divisions lower with ancient history and a modest following. I'm not sure this whole fan gig is going to work.... In fact I'm seriously starting to wonder whether the figures actually stack up. To progress they will need someone to come in with £20M+ who only wants 2% of the business, so the property developers and fans can all retain their power. I think they have got themselves in finance terms, into a little bit of a pickle.

They have been unlucky. Buy a club riddled with ENORMOUS debt, sell season tickets so cheap that you cripple your cashflow, appoint a crap manager and there you are all set to rip up the division. As long as you don't pay over the top for a dodgy keeper or ship out the only quality player in the squad it's a great plan - what could go wrong?

The meltdown begins?? Where have you been for the last four years! Presumably the game was too big and fatty for the ref today. Or the Torquay players had the advantage of being sleepy.

Connolly must be wetting himself with laughter! As we all are.

Am I right in thinking that England stalwart Mick Mills was an apprentice at pompey and they disbanded their youth set up back in the 60s and let him go? I'm sure they wouldn't make that mistake again. #harry

No surprise - overlooked for the job, taken off coaching, playing role reduced. 1 out of 10 for man-management, though time will tell whether it is a masterstroke or another clanger. He may have fitness issues but Connolly's value to the team has been obvious from day one. If you are competing at a very high level and you have a squad full of quality you can afford to make a stand and send star strikers to Juventus or Oxford as a punishment - it supports a club's reputation for integrity. However, if you are fighting for every point to save your job in the dirty basement of League Two and you have no reputation, you don't have such luxuries. The next task is to write Connolly out of history - never rated him, apart from winning us matches single-handed when surrounded by a team of carthorses, what did the dirty scummah ever do for us?

Less cheek from you Lord T - nothing wrong with living in the 80s! I'm currently on a steam-driven Nokia, every individual letter has to be painted by a monk.

Indeed Nick, it is decent away support for League Two - BUT NOT THE BEST IN THE WORLD! In some cases they have taken about half of what we did to lower league grounds, in some cases a quarter - and we can't match the travelling support of people like Leeds and West Ham, so we don't crow about it. That is the difference. They have forgotten what big clubs like us do, so they think they are at the pinnacle of everything. Something big is about to happen, I can feel it... Only because I'm going offline for a few days and I know I'll return and find 15 pages to plough through! So when I go quiet, panic ye not, I have not abandoned nutjobbery. I haven't been abducted by Kora who is using me as a sex slave, I haven't been shot by an arms dealer, I'm not doing favours for Avram behind a skip on an industrial estate, I'm not petting monkey-chickens in a designated area, I'm not swigging a Vodka and come on the veranda, I'm not even buying discounted leather goods next door to an underwater Saab dealership and casino. I'm just sitting quietly and awaiting the return of my computer.

just sat down to enjoy their latest goalkeeping calamity and Meridian didn't show their goals... Is this the slippery slope to non-league? They think nothing of showing us Basingstoke Hedgehogs against Poole Squirrels in all sorts of minority sports, have the few sunk so low that even Fred has now abandoned ship?

That is the greatest typo ever! Absolutely spot on - look at her, she's gagging for a vodka and come! Shaken, not stirred. Remind me not to have a drink at Andy's... As for the bleating about criminal owners. We discovered he was a crook within two minutes on here. He was a crook. The FSA said he was a crook. pompey ignored all that because they wanted Lithuanian pensioner's life savings and laundered drug cash - and only moaned about the FaPPT when they realised that he was a crook WITH NO AVAILABLE MONEY.

Carson has bucked the trend there, he hasn't made it to full hero status and he's already dropped into the villain zone. I still can't see them managing to get out of the division first go, there are too many equally poor teams around them. If this comes to pass their feeble survival will be heralded as a mighty victory. It's what the few want to have read to them by people who stayed at school beyond 13 - they want escapism, fantasy, heroes, and tales of plucky children from rightwing-extremist families. They don't want balance sheets, reality checks, league tables or cashflow forecasts. So I still think they'll have a great escape to celebrate. But it would be funny to be wrong.

lowly.

IMO Barker just made it quite clear on Solent that he has no time for Connolly. He wants players who train, 'we can't rely on people for 25mins'. Yeah Richie boy, ship out your best player. Either way they get another bus ride to Southsea tomorrow.

Those figures are a stark reminder of how much trouble they are in - it looks horrendous in print. So I think they need to pay £1.8M this calendar year, which should be possible with PPs - but good luck with finding next year's £1.6M! It's fair to say that relegation would render them totally and terminally insolvent. Alfie is going to have to deliver papers to every house in Hampshire AND clean cars to get them out of this mess.

I think GM is referring to the next predictable attempted rescheduling. Regular readers will remember that the parachute payments have always been the answer to everything and that all was fine because they were ringfenced. As debt went unpaid and they were spent on wages, this was downgraded to earmarked and in reality I believe they just keep spending money that they know is needed sometime later. I owe someone £10 next week, I have £10 in my pocket, shall I save it and pay my debt or buy shiny stuff and worry about it next week? My understanding was that the PPs nearly cover the player debt, so as long as they don't continue to splash out on stupid wages and save some money from their other income, they will be able satisfy the terms to exit administration, thus completing the current takeover. History and the attitude of the PDT would suggest that they will have a shortfall and will once again go begging to the former hero players to save the club again by taking yet another cut. Let's remember this debt was originally £24M and the players have already done them a huge favour. If that is their only plan, from what I've read of Dave Kitson he would rather dance on their graves than take a further cut. Turn the music up!

Ladies at football? And not there just to serve drinks or to pretty-up the bookies desk? Whatever next! If it carries on down this dangerous path they'll let one own a club one day and that'll signal the official end of football.

brave, strong, and by the sound of it, correct decision from the club. It's easy to tell-off your own players but still play them - but this sends out a message. He's lucky that there has been a change, Cortese would have popped him right there and got Boruc to bury him later. I'd rather the club punished players and had some integrity and standards, unlike clubs that are happy to sign convicted rapists and criminals, or who overlook misbehaviour from their best players for commercial reasons. The only surprise is that we are nearly in February and Osvaldo still hasn't got a red card yet. I wouldn't write his Saints career off - but the ball is definitely in his court, he owes us, and his next ninety minutes in a Saints shirt could well decide his future.

please, please, post stuff just to move that picture up the page and out of sight. Meanwhile I'm off to the Antiques Roadshow to get a price on my Halfords towrope. I believe it was the original that towed the damaged HMS Victory back from Trafalgar, was later used as a heavy duty doglead by Churchill as he walked the royal Corgis around Southwick prior to D-Day, and was last seen keeping back the two million fans on Southsea Common. In the same skip I found the shroud of Turin and what appears to be the complete skeleton of King Alfred, minus a bit of pelvis.

As it becomes more likely that a former owner is going to be convicted of serious offences, at what point does football admit that pompey and their players were clearly financed by organised crime, using laundered and stolen money? Or are we meant to sweep that under the carpet with the promised financial investigation? The blue carpet is getting too lumpy, and is nearly touching the ceiling.

I thought the Lido was going to use the swimsuit as a marquee for their grand opening? Either way they won't be losing any more games to flooding this season at Fatpipes. On her recent showing Penny just needs to 'dive' onto the pitch and that will clear any surface water.

We were all that age once!.....though I don't recall me and my brother being used as media tools to attack religions with fabricated BNP-supported claims, or as poster boys for misleading PR campaigns for the extraction of cash from the community. But it was a long time ago so I may have forgotten. Either way, the cheeky little pluckster is old enough to know not to chuck a grand down a black hole!