rallyboy

I don't think so Ken, that would suggest that a slightly different version of events is being spun to gain sympathy. Furthermore I find it difficult to believe that anyone would try to influence the easily-led and make them lap up every dubious story given to them as fact. Then again I only see the good in people.

Has Hall spent his newfound wages on personal grooming and sacked his nan from cutting his hair with bacon scissors? If you run a thinly-veiled PR campaign under the guise of investigative journalism and your reward is a job from the winning candidate, there will be personal expenses - that's business. At least he now looks like a man who can afford the legal costs that are the predictable result of launching a legal battle against people who shoot each other. Removed the article but stands by it? There's a thin line between brave and foolish. And I thought we were assured that there were no problems with the blog. Maybe that was just big talk to maintain the spin around the Trust being the only answer? But this development is not an unfortunate twist of fate. Like most of pompey's woes, this situation was completely predictable, and on reflection, must have been a risk worth taking in the PR campaign to steer the fanbase away from other bidders. But once again, just like his great club - you've had your fun, got the result you wanted, now it's time to pay up. They must be running out of buckets.

Not really, they scooped his signature from under the noses of dozens of other suitors who offered way more money, but he chose to leave us and join them as they are a much bigger club... Though I haven't seen him fill in the standard template press release about the bestest most fantastic fans....he must be the only one in that squad who hasn't tried to buy popularity through shallow statements. Then again he's the only one there who does his talking on the pitch. The poor bloke is surrounded by the runts of a non-league litter. They don't need a transfer window, they need a bolt gun, or a big bag and a canal. Perhaps DC recently played in front of more passionate fans, in quantity, and who were a lot more supportive as he played a significant role in our return from League One?

Gaydamak seems to be painted as a panto villain there - but I thought he was a great hero who guided them to plucky cup glory? They need to get their story straight before going public. It seems that Terry the builder covered his back when he realised he'd been shafted. His friend is helping with storage. Otherwise known as securing your debt. If the Accrington tv highlights were anything to go by they should take one of those oak chairs out of storage and put it in a keeper's shirt. And if there was ever a myth with portsmyth written right through the grain, it's that their old Woolworth's table was made with oak from HMS Victory! For a new company that hasn't even got around to filling their first accounts, they seem to be interested in a lot of old stuff that isn't relevant to them and belongs to other people.

Whether it was Wembley or home games, the eternal attendance debate was settled ages ago. We won, it was wrapped up before halftime. There was no right of appeal. They just need to clutch onto their glorious selective history, keeping the trophies, ignoring the wars, brushing out the changes of name, glossing over the multiple insolvency events. Brand new pompey, a fresh start, free of historic debt, no connection to the criminal past - but still trying to pretend it's the late 1940s and wanting to cherry-pick from history. Can you really distance yourself from the child-maimer who bought the cup using laundered blood money and didn't pay the players, and still celebrate the cup? Err, no. Not if you genuinely want to be a new business, fan-owned and respected, playing on a level playing field. Pay the bills and you get to keep the stuff. Tis the rules.

I go away for two days and they open up a new myth factory - all on the back of a glorious point at Accrington Stanley. The rewriting of history is laughable and deluded in equal measure. It's as if the Oxford debacle and ground evacuation has been wiped from the record books. I'm interested to hear of creeping wages and crass behaviour... Normally I might dismiss that sort of talk as wishful thinking, but on this occasion I suspect that it may come from a reliable source. Any more snippets that we ought to workshop into comedy routines?

before one becomes a role model for Barcelona and Manchester United to enviously copy, perhaps one ought to get a safety certificate and open the ground - it's called prioritising. But no, pompey blaze a trail! - a pioneering digital revolution, set against a backdrop of lardy plumbing, unsafe stands, and looming cashflow-crisis...next thing they'll be going on about their catering and radio station being the envy of the world. This isn't running before they can walk, it's like claiming Olympic 100m Gold before the fastest sperm has even thought about going out on manoeuvres.

to hand? You'll need a fricking truck to move that list.

Don't underestimate the power of a packed park. Oxford looks pretty intimidated when they visited the fortress of fat - many of their players froze in the cauldron of noise and looked like rabbits caught in headlights. The famous blue army 12th man really makes a difference, and it was mainly that world-renowned passionate home support that helped them avoid relegation last season.

Same old hype - battling pompey give a good account of themselves against top opposition....err, it was Bournemouth, reserves, and the BBC said that the boys in blue barely created anything. The city is shrouded in spin. If we could be slightly critical of the board for a moment - the lack of transparency in general is one thing, but assuring a rabid fanbase that the wagebill is really low, is odd, and a bit dim. Of course they're going to bay for more players, they won't accept that ALL of that money is needed elsewhere. They've been brought up on a diet of insolvency and a culture of writing off debt, telling them that there's money about is like asking Avram to pick up a lady in a lorry park late at night, and expecting him to offer nothing more than a lift. He'd take her straight up the Junction 2 slip road, before dropping her safely home. I see no U-turns yet. New owners, same strategy.

The trickle of info on figures could suggest that it doesn't include the PPs, if it does they are already terminally insolvent. As for Whittingham looking to follow last year's plans, Clapham is indeed correct - bring it on! Warning - very long and complex sentence coming up..... Though one might ask - if you were already on the limit of your wages budget and you asked for more, and it was found from somewhere, if then the following week Aldershot, a potless basket case (no offence) take your youngsters on loan, presumably without reducing your own wagebill, why the feck would you look to extend beyond your already blown self-imposed wagecap once again by replacing them? This would give the impression that you have no respect for your own budgets, and are still overspending like a club hellbent on self-harm, and destruction. Though I'm sure that the PPs will cover it.

They built a new path for football to follow...and they came. In their thousands. Pouring into the fortress like a blue wave of optimism. Carrying with them the hopes of a city, and football itself. Hampshire was gridlocked from dawn as the swelling blue river of expectancy burst it's banks. And there he was. Washed ashore on this fresh tide of hope, the future of the club - a small rosy-cheeked urchin who had feared that this day would never come. But it had. Like a frail twig carried on the shoulders of a mighty blue river, our little cliche boy returned triumphant. He had stood in the same spot last season, teary of cheek, surveying the green turf that had faded through a bleak winter like the shattered hopes of a misled creditor. On that fateful previous visit he had turned to a man with furrowed brow and innocently asked 'please father, can we have our club back?' Well the innocent dream of that plucky child came to fruition. On Saturday. There it was, out there on the pitch in blue and white, as if Dagenham and Redbridge had come to town in last season's kit. And in this great moment of pride and glory, our small child defiantly held aloft an even smaller card. On its own it was just a bit of card. But when you put it together with other similarly plucky bits of card, it became an army of card - like a really big bit that had been cut up. And so it came to pass. From those small bits of card a message was sent to football worldwide. A shining beacon for others to follow. The biggest community club in the history of the universe had arrived, and our young friend was standing proudly shoulder-to-shoulder with people of a similar height, shoulder-to-waist with others. The trumpets sounded, the faithful roared, mobility scooters revved, and eleven brave blue warriors took their place in sporting history. Doubters had said they wouldn't be able to pay the debt, and that the financial projections were fantasy. People had sneered and said that the ground wasn't up to standard, even saying that they wouldn't be able to sellout and would have to pretend. These foolish few had even suggested that the squad didn't have much quality. Well those doubters look pretty silly now! At 3pm on Saturday the all-new and pluckier blue army took the first step back to the Premier League, watched with envy from all corners of the country. An acorn of hope had been planted, watered in by the hopeful tears of a nation, because pompey are every real football fans' second team. That small acorn took hold and within half an hour it had become a sapling. The first goal of the new era burst the net in front of the incredulous Oxford fans. Still high from their triumph in the boat race, the bicycle-riding students couldn't believe that their hopes had been dashed, though many were still reeling from just being in such exalted company. But yes. Their hopes of an upset were dashed. A towering cross was met by a blue head and the club had established a foothold on promotion! Boaters were thrown to the ground - the fortress rocked, three points secured. The club had indeed taken its first step towards basecamp - next stop the League One title, then onward to the summit of British football! Where a small child will no doubt emotionally plant a tear-riddled flag of hope. But enough of the future, today we should just celebrate the first win of the new era, pausing briefly to laugh in the face of the jealous doubters. Result pompey 1-0 Oxford att 33,990.

MLG, I love Claude - you have my personality sussed! Meanwhile, have they paid back any loans yet? Somewhere out there in a creditor's back office the fatpipes clock is ticking.

I like that, a new record for the fastest and most orderly mass evacuation of a League Two ground in history - 10,000 back out through the turnstiles before the 80th minute! Maybe that will bury the portsmyth about dirty scummahs leaving early while the fatpipes faithful cheer every last kick. In the past it was Thierry Henry, now it's Dave Kitson who left the field to mass applause with his team in total domination, and paused briefly to tell the locals that they are the greatest fans he has ever played in front of...sort of. But now the pressure builds, on Bournemouth! The game this coming week is now massive for them. The plucky blue minnows from League two will raise their game, after all, it is pompey's cup final, their only chance to have a pop at their local rivals. And that's why it isn't fair on Bournemouth because pompey will give it everything in their big game, let's just hope the ref is big enough to cope with such a massive fixture. I'm guessing it's a sell out? And if it isn't, just reduce the ground capacity until you hit the figure of tickets sold.

it's getting a bit embarrassing now, I thought this thread's golden era had passed - it's like people still insisting on giving you lavish Christmas presents in March. I 4-1 think that the few have just had a wake-up call. And there's me going to be seeing three of them tonight... I wonder whose fault it all is this time. Trust out!

that Stevenage reject that they are creaming themselves over and announcing his signing as if they have scooped half of Europe, sounds like a one-paced donkey who will be a goal threat in both boxes.

Rosie, horses, dogfood? - somethings afoot....or a hoof.

Ten new faces arrived during the summer, with many turning down better deals elsewhere. Whittingham said: ‘I think we’ve been very lucky as a club and management team. There are players with us who could have better financial rewards elsewhere. New summer but same old b0ll0cks! How many times have we heard this and then the accounts have eventually proved it to be all lies. Remember how signings weren't costing anything, living off squirrels in tents, and how pompey had the lowest wagebill in the division?! Lies. Why start a new era with the same templates for press releases? I see no transparency.

it's ridiculous to think that they will be out of money by the end of September. They have millions pledged, record-breaking sellout attendances, Parachute Payments to come, and a robust business plan put together by a top group of experienced executives. My guess is January.

Sell out! Trying to create more space? The ground is full, or it isn't, make up your mind. 18,200 is a great effort, but let's not pretend that they haven't in the past few days just reduced the capacity to the exact number sold, and are calling it a sell-out! If we are struggling to sell the last 1,000 at SMS just close off a block and we'll call it capacity. Or perhaps we don't bother spouting off in the media about little victories.

with all due respect to my learned friend, and not wishing to tread on the toes of the multitudes more pedantic than myself, I believe the takeover is only technically complete when the full terms of the takeover deal are met and all of those charges are safely removed. That day is about four years away. In the meantime, though casually labelled as a takeover thread on day one, the aforementioned beast broke it's humble shackles like a green-tinted Lou Ferrigno, and went crazily off-topic many moons back. It has evolved over several years and is now an unofficial news portal and discussion area for ALL things blue and few. But back to the original question, I suspect brink-of-playoffs obscurity, which will be sold to the easily-led as a fantastic season. I also expect to see overspending, mismanagement, a lack of transparency, delusion, and of course, blame being put elsewhere when something bad and blatantly predictable occurs.

so few shares, so many shareholders. The bulk of that investment was donation, and some still don't realise as they didn't read the small print. Their grand is being chucked into the pockets of journeyman footballers, even as the arena itself crumbles around them. Infrastructure, sustainability, transparency. The Holy Trinity on a seemingly godless island.

With the current amount of spin about corporate sales and sponsorship being way higher than when Chinny was in control, I presume this is just reducing the size of the ground to meet the tickets sold, thus allowing a claim of 90% soldout! If the remainder don't go, they can close the rest of the ground and technically call it a sellout. In their hour of need when they spectacularly failed to pack-the-park they should have just reduced the capacity. Jobs a goodun. In fact that idea of mine is 24% up on the same idea I had for the whole of last season, and way above what I projected it would be - fantastic news! Let's spend some money on the back of that obvious success. The fat still flows, lubricating the wheels of spin.

let's not forget, just like West Ham, the scummahs don't own their own stadium, they're £100M in debt because of free tickets to terrorists and hefty fines after the dock strike, they didn't pay their CVA at all, and they all leave at half time - booing their own players, while strangling orphaned kittens in the car park.

it appears from the statement that the only concern with paying higher wages was the percentage against turnover, not their own broken budget promises to the people who donated £1000. If their wages are now approx a third of their projected income for the year, (I think they might be sensibly ignoring the PP for these stats) I can see some gaping holes in the future cashflow. Guesstimate time! Wages - £1.5m? Means a total Income of about £4.5M, which kind of makes sense. (ST £2M, gates £1.5M, sponsorship/TV £1M) Then we have Robinson + council wanting £3M? - pretty sure both want that back fairly sharpish. They might decide to shaft the council - what can they do? Nasty council picking on the biggest pluckiest fan-owned club in sporting history! Robinson is different, they must pay him back, or he'll chuck them out on the street like his role model Chinny did. Add in all travel/hotels/club houses/agent fees (deliberately moved out of wages budget to fool league) and I guesstimate that they will need to average 14,000 to break even. And of course a percentage of CVA must be due this year. There are still fans that think selling season tickets cheap and giving away games means that they make more money longterm. No, let's try it again, that income is big because it is here now, whereas that other income is now smaller AND far away... Meanwhile those other greedy businesses in the city are still raking in £13M from every home game. Could be a harsh winter for cashflow, just around the corner.