rallyboy

If the players they want to offload take a 50% cut on their contracts, pompey will have to find about £750,000+ to pay them off. That's a lot of pledges. I wonder what's likely to happen... Players agree to massive paycuts but still leave with the abuse of the few ringing in their ears? (And they never get paid.) While equally poor replacement players are signed on equally ridiculous terms because the chance to play for such a massive club in packed stadiums was too much to resist. That and the unsustainable wages and length of contract not on offer elsewhere. We are all locked in a relentless cycle of groundhog seasons as the Trust persists with the policies of doom that brought the club to it's scabby knees. Overspend, fail, gamble, fail really badly, walk away from debt, and repeat. This thread will eventually consume itself.

That'll be a heart-warming Chris Evans interview when a previously-pleasant kid pops up on national radio tomorrow all cross-eyed and sweary - singing about Savile and paedos, ringing a little bell, and trying to explain an imaginary dock strike.

If the minister is really that impressed by the suicidal business model that produced a crowd of 17,000 he could propose selling warships for £100, or paying workers 50p an hour. He's just desperately pandering to locals and harvesting votes, but there are two heavyweights already on that mission and he is on their patch. Unless he's willing to squeeze into a 2-man lycra tent and flop off the top board with the agility of a wardrobe, he's too late for the title as the top self-publicising Trust-loving MP in the south. Re the attendance, the whole point of discounted season tickets and matchday giveaways is to a. Pack the park to inspire the players. b. Encourage people back by showing them a great game. That'll be 0 out of 2 then. TOTAL matchday income from that huge crowd is £40K? The same amount Man City will get from about 850 people. And not even enough to pay Kanu's wages due this month.

If it were a horse that idea would have been shot at the first motorway services on the road to Cheltenham.

‘I didn’t think players at this level had long contracts – until I came here.’ I can't believe that a manager would take a job without checking the details of it, even if the job was presented to him on a plate by his mate. The same mate who sanctioned those long contracts... Barker will be moaning next that the club has some financial issues that he wasn't aware of. Must have been another shock when he discovered what division they were in. Who will be brave enough to tell him about the end of the PPs?

Citizen journalists! That's the way forward - I've got a phone so I can be a TV cameraman, I've got a pencil, I'm Paxman. I've had my haircut by my Nan using bacon scissors and I can read the PTS thread so that makes me an investigative journalist despite the fact that I'm clearly a PR stooge with a specific message to deliver. Whoops, I seem to have missed the thin line between stating that a former club owner sold landmines for a living, and actually naming someone else as a crook. I appear to have been sued because I have no grasp of the libel laws, maybe I'm not a journalist after all... So yes, newspapers have sadly had it and online content is the way forward if they manage to sort out revenue streams, but Marlin may be right, you have to be very selective about where you gather each version of news available. And that's before you even worry. About the writing. Styles. Used to deliver all the spin.

The fact that his fine work is published next to an advert for microwave chip pans that can be bought in pairs to save money, tells you what sort of audience he is pandering to. Presumably his making-up of stats and the glossing over the mostly-empty away section just to big-up a little club pootling along in the shadows of ALL of its neighbours, goes down well with those who like their main vegetable intake both microwaved and in a nostalgic deep fat fryer. I think perhaps that this publication and 'journalist' are better off giving up on educated football fans and sticking with their core readership - the sector who believe that Iceland is a delicatessen. Like a scabby mongrel infested with fleas, they deserve each other.

Gobsh!te have agreed a new deal of sorts, all sounds a bit half-hearted, though the Property Developing Trust has a rather worrying business model. As our member and shareholder base increases our administrative costs also increase so any additional revenue to offest these costs are welcome. The more donations you get, the more money you need to cover costs? Nice. Beautifully written too.

Not only do ITV have awful commentaries, if not on HD they also show their stream as if it is being filmed by Townsend on his old Nokia. Nothing like watching football being played on a flowing green sea. Is it Matt Smith who is.....incapable.....of....finishing a simple....sentence....in under....a minute? BUT the thing that really gets me is that some do not even know the laws of the game. He's onside! No he's not, you do not need daylight, he is clearly head, chest and one leg offside! He got the ball. Yes, but he followed through with his studs at knee height, it's not 1972. He's not that type of player. Yes he is, he just did it. There was no intent. Yes there was, and if you have played the game at any level or just knew your stuff you'd have a better idea of whether a player meant that or not. They lack belief. No, they lack technical skill, judgement and fitness. What a free kick, there's no keeper in the world that would have saved that. Yes there is, it was three metres inside the post. What a brilliant save. No, it was three metres inside the post. He wanted it more. No, he read the move and was quicker. His shot lacked confidence. No, he misjudged the cross and shinned it. Sport can be dramatic enough without them trying to write it as a soap opera and give everything mystical depth and meaning. Just show us the game and stop spouting crap.

Don't tempt me. But..one of the comments on there is he could learn a thing of two from Avram in how to conduct himself. Really? In a completely unrelated made-up example - If I saw my season ticket money being used to pay for a club car to drive my team's inflamed manager to a bargain basement industrial estate brothel where he would wander in wearing his club tracksuit, and pay scabby crackwhores to pull him off at halftime, I think I might be asking questions rather than rewriting history and giving him a glowing character reference. It's wouldn't be the fact that he sent his little star striker out on loan, what he does in his own time is his lookout - but the fans picked up the tab! If the same gravedigger-faced bloke also dragged the team to relegation before walking out to what he described himself as a bigger club, after having the front to stand up and deliver a hilarious rallying cry full of cliched b0ll0x about how great we all are, I don't think I'd be holding him up as an example. Nor would I be rehashing tired old template articles aimed purely at distracting the easily-led and hard-of-thinking from an impending cashflow crisis ahead of a daunting game away at the league leaders. But then again I'm not that easily-led. Methinks history is being rewritten again, and the more unsavoury bits have ended up on the cutting room floor.

Defoe did say farewell to the few - by waving one finger in his rearview mirror as he went up the A3 at a pace usually reserved for traffic units with film crews aboard. The one finger was to indicate both the number of times his wages had been paid in the previous quarter, and the marks out of ten he awarded the Fatpipes faithful for their passion, general bestestness and ability to pack-a-park. Do our homegrown and developed England quartet outdo their bought-in England players who still haven't been paid? Silly question, but I 4-1 believe that it had to be asked.

I believe they gave away 10,500 season tickets at bargain basement prices to get in quick money, so as predicted at the time, their cashflow now must be horrendous with less than 3,000 paying customers including concessions every fortnight. They are now giving away tickets for upcoming games to pack the park. A park which ironically, is only packed when a bigger club come to town. When I say A bigger club, that'll be us. So they are currently taking maybe £100K a month through the turnstiles? That's like a drop in the cesspit when you recall the amounts being paid to the former heroes. Must be time pretty soon for another loan and takeover by their friendly partners.

It just took me ages to get along the M27, the open-top bus tour has gridlocked half of the county. I've not had the misfortune of personally witnessing their current style of play, but from what I hear Mr Barker only has one plan. Stifle creativity, strangle the opposition with ten men behind the ball and keep a clean sheet at all costs. If this works, then try and create two or three chances. This plan works....until the opposition score - then there is no plan B. The other things that strikes me is, if you are going all out defensive and looking for someone to nick a goal out of nowhere with a half-chance every half hour, there is only one man for that job in League Two - and pompey are paying him to do that for Oxford. Perhaps if Barker had kept Connolly they might be nearer the play-offs than the bottom? So for me Barker's right up there with Whittingham, Grant, UnAppy, Hart, Cotterill and every other loser manager that they have heralded as a coaching genius and England manager-in-waiting. Keep up the good work.

they need that bigger stadium as soon as possible, then they can sing their classy songs in even greater numbers. I make that about 2,800 paying customers tonight. The same numbers as the other small clubs in the bottom tier. (portsmyth no 962 - we make much more money than other clubs with our massive gates)

I spy a little unrest amongst the natives, not about the team, but about the local media coverage... There seems to be a backlash against the template approach. I think like the rest of us they've finally had enough of plucky player A pledging to do this and blue army hero B bravely battling against that - the main message seems to be, forget the shallow rallying cries and get some points! Which would have been a great plan, had they thought of it five years ago.

donkeys managed by donkeys.

Their chairman considers less than 35mg a pass - or 95mg if they lose the paperwork.

They do have a lot of moronic followers, but sadly I wouldn't have to look too hard to find some equally deluded ramblings on our own main board at the moment. The only consolation is that the few have gone for both quality and quantity whereas our fanbase has a lower ratio of idiots. As a club, they are certainly the bestest though. We lose to an appalling pub team 3-1, but they outdo us again and ship five goals on a northern allotment. This battle to be the most disappointing club in Hampshire is one that we just cannot win.

Presumably Man Utd or Chelsea will come in for villain Jed and give them about £8M in development fees, that will give Richie a promotion warchest. Add in the £10M from Robinson, increased full price season ticket sales plus the next couple of parachute payments, and they can build the new stadium during the summer, just in time to welcome England back after our dominant World Cup victory.

stop it, you are making the Bear all frisky and we don't want him offering us somewhere to hang our teatowels.

a substantial cash injection that is totally ring-fenced by Portsmouth City Council So Robinson is giving some money to the planning authority....for pompey to use in the future. A question for the Nutjob planning experts - is it standard practice for a developer to give money to the council to look after for a business?

I think the historic protection made reference to open air leisure or something similar, but the councillors seem to have a policy to take it beyond the wording and to protect at all costs both the football club, and their own votes.....but not in that order. Robinson has been shrewd enough to put a big protective arm around the club and to to march them through all security imposed to protect Fatpipes and seems to have nearly landlocked the stadium and freed it up for future development. A bit like the guy who kindly takes the arm of your Gran and assists her all the way to the cashpoint. Luckily Robinson is their mate and has their best interests at heart, and the Trust board is oozing with commercial experience so they would see a trap if it was forming. So that's all good. They'll be fine. Robinson and the Trust are equal partners in this, similar to the way in which hostage-takers form a bond with their captives. And we all know how that relationship tends to end.

I'm not sure that the club ever actually owned the whole lump of land - didn't the great hero Mandaric obtain it for himself under various companies before officially knocking down a small hut, and scuttling away with a nice profit? Once the ownership of the club and land went their separate ways it was always going to end in tears. It hasn't yet though, we are just approaching the interval for ice creams and pop. The tears will come later - when the new arena doesn't.

there are access rights for mobility scooters.

Some people are just victims.