rallyboy

so have pompey been punished twice for the same offence? Doesn't seem very fair. Maybe they will get those points back and stay up - and football will be the winner. And what's admin again?

Paul Hardyman explains how their 'academy', once declared in a portsmyth, as the envy of all other clubs, is in limbo at the mo. But we cannot make decisions until we get a budget from any new owners. The Trust is the sole preferred bidder, they have exclusivity to complete, they have full and realistic income projections, and they are fully funded. I can't see how anything could possibly go wrong. So why can't they give the academy their budget for next season? The court case shouldn't change anything, that is merely a nailed-on rubber-stamping exercise, and the bid is fully-funded. So why the delay in giving internal departments their budgets? Perhaps they are reluctant to offer contracts that they can't afford to pay? Yes, that'll be it - pompey are traditionally cautious when it comes to investment, especially on wages.

oh yes, CVA 1 hasn't failed yet, they could still have someone come in tomorrow and pay it in full. And when that day dawns, Avram will drive slowly up Derby Road but won't even wind down his window, let alone open negotiations - he'll just keep his eyes ahead, sweaty hands firmly on the wheel, ignoring the screams from little Avram that bounce around his head most days. Also night will fail to follow day, the Vatican will announce their first Islamic Pope, and the few will show humility and admit that their club cheated. Yes, that will be quite a day when CVA1 is honoured in full. Less expenses. So despite some timing issues and missed payments, CVA1 is technically fine and dandy....until CVA2 wipes it out. Only then will the points penalty be due, and hopefully it will be applied at a time when it still acts as a punishment. IF they sort everything before the FL deadline.

The Slumberland Award for the Sleepiest Giant, or The Lord Lucan Trophy to recognise low-profile administrators? The Trust should at least have been nominated for the largest gap between reality and their financial projections - or perhaps a quadruple award in the most misleading PR campaign category for the best atmosphere in world football, the 'fan' buyout, the lowest wagebill in the division and the largest travelling support? It is a surprise that they didn't get something, I guess it's just another sign that the league can't handle them as they are too big. I'm just pleased to see that they retained the Ronnie Biggs Flicking-the-V's Trophy for dodging justice, a piece of silverware that they actually earned - and after three consecutive victories they now get to keep. They can now proudly display another little gold V sign around the club crest.

that piece on Spain rings a few bells - hospital services cut, tax unpaid contributing to hardship, gross mismanagement, and overspending. While Saints mess about with some pipedream of a Barcelona-style set up, pompey are just following the blueprint that won the world cup. They truly are blazing a trail and pioneering a new way for the game in Britain. Bigger clubs like Stevenage and Bury could learn a few things.

NO, NO, NO!!! They were solvent and fully funded right up to the final whistle of the cup final, it was the economic slump that caused the problem, not a fall in the price of landmines, they were just unlucky, could have happened to anyone. Which reminds me of a point that gets overlooked such is the length of the list of crimes. Even if they are claiming that they were unlucky with the funding, let's not forget that this particular sand castle was built on limbless children, victims of civil war, and more recently pensioner's life savings and organised crime - so the whole lot has been stolen or earned through arms dealing and money-laundering! Which means that even when they were nearly solvent, their money was soaked in blood, guts, whores, drugs and misery. Thankfully their top investigator exposed it all. Oh, actually he didn't, he just took his 1974 pudding basin haircut up Wembley Way and celebrated with lucky heather.

I guess that makes pompey v Coventry a massive game - a minus twenty pointer. Interesting article in The News about Ertl being a cult hero. When I say interesting, I actually mean, a few random words speedily gathered purely to fill space, when you'd rather not tell the readers that the second bid has doubled and there is trouble ahead. Cult hero? Putting aside all the sickly praise heaped on him in a machine gun paragraph style, does no one check copy anymore for spelling mistakes?

it's the ongoing problem - sympathy.... Their form has been appalling, their season has been hilariously woeful, most of the fans have given up, and that losing run went on SO long it became boring. But if you start to feel pity for the sick beast and develop mild sympathy, the manky thing turns round and tries to bite you. They start gobbing off about 4-1, blaming others, ranting about the best atmosphere in world football and all the other mad myths that surrounds the patient. It's simple. After a long history of self-harming, the club committed financial suicide, while the few cheered it on all the way like a bunch of toothless simpletons. So barring anyone standing up now and saying 'on reflection, that cup win was a disgrace and idiotic, I don't think we should even claim it as ours', sympathy is scarce. Even with lenient authorities I still maintain that they have been punished in some form, look at the league table - League Two with minus ten has a nice ring to it. Walking away scot free is what happens to Wigan players when they launch dangerous assaults disguised as tackles - pompey have not walked free. Their blatant spin just adds to the annoyance - even in their death throes they are claiming to be the biggest fan-owned club in the world. If it happens the facts suggest that they will in reality be neither big, nor fan-owned, but still they make ludicrous claims. So while I'm not a great fan of liquidation, until someone shows a little concern for creditors, introduces some honesty or humility, or admits that they've been financially doping for the best part of ten years, it's very difficult to argue against the use of a sturdy bolt gun.

with his meteoric rise through jobs in the last year I think he never recovered from the blow of being overlooked as the new Pope. All those people who loved him can now welcome home a great hero, especially as he left unfinished business at Fatpipes - he only ushered them out of the Championship and set them on their way to League Two. If he could lead them into the Conference I think he'll feel that he has demonstrated to the big clubs what he is capable of, if you give him the chance. His CV looks like a car crash.

has The News given up reporting current events and is instead only running reports from games they won in the past? No sign of the massive development (!) in the takeover bid but loads on an away win at Wigan and some random victory over Spurs. Also lots on Jimmy Dickinson even though he died in 1982 - when his memory was honoured by fans of all clubs. Not so much The 'News' - more of a history pamphlet that is carefully rewriting the subject as it happens.

swap new Aston Martin for ****ged-out Montego Countryman, and I think we all agree. Whoooosh being the sound of Moneypenny rushing to Tesco on hearing a rumour that there are gullible voters in there en masse, and sticky buns are on a three for two deal, next to the all you can eat buffet...

UnAppy and Blackburn aren't safe - he's only a handful of points from getting two clubs relegated in the same season. At least he didn't make it up when he claimed pompey had the lowest wagebill in the division. And we'll always remember him for The Slaughter in Gibraltar holiday.

One small sentence sums up this gig. It's not a fan buyout. They told us Avram was a fantastic manager, but his pompey record is appalling. They announced that Cotterill was a future England coach, his record was woeful. They were sure that Appleton was an international manager in waiting - yet he is ushering Blackburn down the table. So it's the same old spin, pity about the facts. We didn't believe any of that, and we don't buy the fan ownership myth. If the fans get their way, their club will be owned and controlled by property developers. Don't believe the hype.

Isn't Doncaster the club who thought we were the bestest ever and gave us a painting to remind the rest of world football how bestest we are? I see that some random pompey player has been slotted into the Friday press template and has spouted some nonesense about the plucky troops not fearing Doncaster. Let's see how battly and plucky he feels after 90 minutes. Beating Bury with their £100 a week players is one thing, the mighty Rovers might be a different kettle of.....water. And thanks for the new page, that previous one had run out of steam.

I've been out all day and all we seem to have established is that some blokes live in a house and it's not in portsmouth. Time we left this page, let's start a fresh one.

Looks like the Trust has suffered a massive funding blow... A JUDGE has given a drug user time to deal with his habit before he is sentenced for stealing cash from Pompey’s function room. Daniel Powell has pleaded guilty to taking nine till bags from Fratton Park containing £1,160 in loose change. Was that the gate money from the first half of the season or an offer for the ground? Either way Mr Powell is now a HNWI and fully-funded to complete a takeover.

I would pay good money to see Barcelona V pompey right now. The only problem might be if the likes of Messi freeze with fear in the big match atmosphere of the cauldron of noise created by the Fatpipes faithful. Argentinian local derbies, Champions League finals and World Cup finals won't prepare you for... The best atmosphere in world football. Probably need a team of refs as well as the game would be too big for just one man. That away stand at Orient looks smaller than I remember it. Last time I was there it ran the whole length of the ground, and was full. Have they shortened their pitch by fifty metres, or were a few thousand pompey fans locked out?

Normal service resumed. Oh well, at least 'pompey' beat Barcelona 2-0 the other week, that was claimed as a great victory all over Twitter. Wonder how the second leg went.

Connolly is a hero! I give him three weeks before his status reverts back. As for pompey being held up as an example of how much bigger clubs should treat their staff... I don't see Reading leaving a trail of shafted backroom staf or getting sued by former players, and I didn't see their manager bothering prossies behind a low mileage Transit. No, I think they are okay for staffing advice. Next week - pompey explain to Arsenal how risking a few quid now could pay dividends in the long run.

from recent FL comments I suspect they are looking to carry it over. We all know that it's unknown territory and different to others, but it's a punishment, and using the power of a private members' club to use discretion, the FL like to carry them over so they actually punish. Let's not forget that the Premier League sanction did nothing so they got away with that one - as well as everything else. I expect them to survive the court battle, but they won't dodge the points penalty, so I suspect it will be -10 in League Two. Unless Connolly fires them to safety...

back from the dead, back from the dead, David Connolly brings them back from the dead. He's so deep in undercover operations now that he's gone native - it might be time to pull him out...

let's see if the mighty Bury with their £100 a week superstars can thwart poor plucky pompey, the club that defied the odds and survived to become the biggest fan-owned club in the world. I expect the club from the big city will strut into town, but get a lesson from the brave underdog. And before they get too excited about winning their basement battle today at the Trust party that will no doubt pack the park, with the two club's wagebills, this is the equivalent of Man City against Wigan....if you can imagine pompey as Man City! Good news for Tesco, bad news for car boot sales.

So what happened earlier? 1. Penny slipped up. 2. Penny has traded him in for a newer model. 3. Penny's other half works in tax for an accountants, but sees HMRC internal memos. 4. Penny's other half works for a company that works for HMRC and she is splitting hairs. My money is on 3. Though I was amused to see that letter again where she said we are not asking to be let off paying. Despite the fact that the main thrust of the multiple administrations and failed CVAs that she has stoutly supported is to be let off paying. I also liked the way she clearly explained that the former owners have nothing to do with the current club, so new pompey is not responsible for anything that went on previously, but I suspect she too wants to keep the cup and the PPs The cherrypicking of history. As for Urporky.

yes we are the bestest, Alex Ferguson says so, and we weren't losing 5-0 at the time so everyone else is jealous of us now. #fact This thread is just a little bonfire, started by FF with a single match and a set of accounts from Peter Storrie. The fire is often attended by a rosy-cheeked Trousers who stands alongside it with a sturdy stick and keeps worrying it, and looking at that post count he has become The Keeper of The Great Fire. Many Nutjobs bring their old furniture, gas bottles and wood, while I like to throw on a jerry can of unleaded occasionally, just to help out. I miss the days when Ho would stumble in and try to smother it with dry kindling and newspaper, while wearing his petrol-soaked shell suit, and a car tyre as a hat. In the quiet times it has reduced to smouldering embers, only for something like a News web chat or a court appearance to pop up and fan the flames back into life. But as Felix Baumgartner plummeted from space he thought to himself, that looks like the Great Wall of China, and that's the Atlantic, but what's that little pall of smoke rising from Europe? Well Felix, the Nutjobs are still playing with that bonfire, sending smoke signals to the rest of football, cooking up old chestnuts - and using long sticks to prepare toast. Breaking news - A webchat with Penny? - that is going to be a Nutjob massacre - Hopefully there'll be no mention of pies, sticky buns, her support of tax evasion, tax cuts closing hospital wards, local services lost, or the fact that she'll say anything if there's a vote in it.

so Bury were paying wages of £5K-£7K a year when pompey were paying that a week, and UnAppy had the cheek to stand there and tell everyone that pompey had the lowest wages in the division. Thankfully Micah Hall was on hand to expose that farce. Yes, I recall him questioning the truth of those statements and exposing the club's ridiculous wage policy as they gained a sporting advantage through financial doping. Though on reflection I'm now thinking that perhaps he didn't actually do anything, because it wasn't on his PR agenda. Maybe that was shortly before he took up his role as football's finest investigative blogger - the man whose not afraid to ask the questions that support the Trust. It must have been The News that did the big piece - The Lies about pompey's Wages. Yes that would be where I read it.... Or maybe it was just a few Nutjobs on here and other clubs' forums who asked why the hell they were paying so much. But the few denied it. Pity they didn't have someone to expose these things when it really mattered.