rallyboy

saving it for a rainy day? Are you expecting things to get worse? Mack me old mucker, a tsunami has just blown through the club and you're all waist deep in fatty water...if the days get any rainier you'll be able to sell moorings at the Portsdown Hill marina. Just cough up the spare cash to the creditors now, you know it makes sense.

this is a new problem. Please can we have players for free, please do us a favour and pay them too, pretty please, we've not got two pennies to rub together. By the way, we just had a £4M bonus that we've tried to keep quiet and we're going to use it to rip up the league next season... The old story of selfish priorities, it used to be no money for creditors, plenty for wages - now it's no money for loan fees, but plenty to buy the ground. But having said that, Stevenage are well out of order, they should try and help the smaller clubs.

Under The Packed Park Rule, 10,000 = 25,000 - so he is already 2.5 people. When you consider that he is five times more passionate and bestest than fans of other teams, that gives us 12.5. In direct comparison to his nearest rivals who all wave hankies (x4), boo their own side (x3), and who all leave before the end (x5), our lone pitch invader is now the equivalent of 750 fans of lesser clubs. Assuming that these 750 pitch invaders are the result of two CVAs, the real figure of pompey faithful tearfully storming the play area at Crewe was approx 375,000. I would also suggest that the portsmaths dept gets together with the portsmyth dept to tidy up the detail. Crewe is so close to Manchester that I think we can safely say in future that the losing streak ended at Man Utd where 375,000 pompey fans stormed the Old Trafford pitch at the end. It has been written, it is now fact. No one can dispute it, even in a court of law.

Yeah, I'm battling against the forces of evil, and I have nothing to hide nor fear, it's all true I tell you! In fact I'm so confident of my legal standing that I will immediately go into reverse and get the article pulled. But if it comes to it, I'm going straight into court with my £1,500 legal team, and we will triumph!! Football fans can't be pushed around!...though I believe that people who print rumours as truth can be pushed around quite a lot... But there vwill be no defeat, it will be a victory for fans everywhere! The winning blogger of freedom will be carried to the court steps by the faithful, banners aloft, pudding basin haircut blowing gently in the wind of change, reputation enhanced - it will be like Crewe away, middle-aged men will tearfully tell their great great grandchildren that 'they were there'. Unless they adjourn...or the case last more than four minutes, then the glorious warchest will be empty.... But no, that won't be the end of it, they can take our houses and all other assets but they will never take our freedom! We shall continue the fight, running up legal bills the pope couldn't pay, and then when we lose, we just won't pay the bills, or we'll offer 1p in the pound. Yes, let's try that. I can see no way that anything could go wrong if you embrace a legal battle against a consortium of millionaire businessmen when you have the Trust behind you, and the sort of financial clout that those bighitters bring to the table. If you are armed with a pen you have a mightier weapon than the sword! Which was funnily enough the last thing that guy said in Canary Wharf shortly before he was gunned down in a puddle of his own blood, mixed with the blue contents of his favourite Scheaffer. Next problem for the Trust's media partner is, how brave do they feel about repeating the content of the blogs? Not very I wouldn't have thought, which in itself will give an indication of a likely legal outcome if a stubborn defendant insists on following this through all the way to court, the equivalent of going over the top at The Somme armed with a small branch. For your own sanity mate, give it up now.

While I'd have sympathy for any blogger who tried to expose wrongdoing which damages their club, that's not how I see the case here. Joking aside, there is clearly a PR campaign orchestrated by the Trust, embraced by the local paper and bloggers alike, and they have all tried to define the current ownership dispute as black and white. Harris bad, Trust good. That is the message being firmly rammed down everyone's throats. Some might observe that this fresh appetite for investigative journalism in pompey has been VERY selective, as well as a massive U-turn. They are years behind in embracing this type of work. The Trust is portrayed as beyond question, and those that point out any issues, or ask about HNWI's track records have been shouted down, threatened, or vilified online. The Harris bid is the target, no one on the other side has been investigated - presumably as that would be off message. Despite nutjobbery aplenty exposing previous pompey regimes on here over 1712 pages, there was none of this blogging when things were rosy. No one to the east was interested in the business history of the child-maimer, the mafia, or the loan shark. Investigate journalism and blogging was dismissed and suppressed, no pompey fan wanted to hear it. They were winning games, their owners were lovely people, heroes, it didn't matter where the money came from. But now the new agenda demands that we all embrace these wonderful pieces of inspired journalism. Previously it was just the work of jealous nutjobs, now it's the work of informed and respected investigators - because that fits nicely into the Trust's PR message. It's a media campaign that glosses over the clear fact that this is no longer a fan buyout, it is now a property-developing consortium trying to secure a bargain at the expense of creditors, with a minority financial interest from fans. Spin, spin, spin. It's a cartoon soap opera for the easily-led to embrace and enjoy. Harris and Chanrai the panto villains - the Trust, bravely battling the forces of evil. Give the people what they want to hear, and keep it simple for them, black and white. And when people tell me that the blogs have been really well researched, yes, I've read every page on this thread too, and that's where half of this amazing research started life. So I'd have little sympathy if a thinly-veiled press release overstepped the legal boundaries purely to promote the plans of property developers. Whereas a group who tried to drive criminals out of a club so it can be reclaimed by people who want to clear debt and return the club to the community would be a fantastic enterprise and worthy of support. But no one is writing about a plan like that.

Cheer up! yep, they beat Crewe - glorious. Get the open topped bus out.....AND order some streamers! Tonight they're going to party like it's 1899. And on the liquidation thing, the reason they are still alive is that they keep conning people that they will clear debt, then they don't pay it. Companies, clubs, players - they have all agreed debt repayments as a favour and on every occasion they have been shafted. One could suggest they are idiots, one and all. Any creditor that voted for a raping deserves it. As for worst day ever - we had best day ever a couple of weeks back, swings and roundabouts - we had four months playing on the swings, they've had one day sat on a roundabout in Crewe town centre. Finally, looks like only one team will make progress on us today, meaning three beneath us have missed a golden opportunity. And there's Mack, the only bloke in pompey who loves Arry...or does he?...

short term they are fine. They have a few million to play with, promised to others but burning a hole in their pockets, they'll have season ticket money too, and with no player wages until July, all is well... Until the council want their money, and the former heroes start demanding theirs, and the other clubs want theirs, and the CVA drags on, and the floating charge stops floating and lands on their desk, and running a football club solvently, turns out to be harder than they ever imagined. And that's before they fall out with their new boss, Mr Robinson, and his mystery backers - if they can all shrug off the loan shark. But their biggest problem is likely to be their oldest addiction - the need to spend more than they can afford. If they budget and stick to it they could steady the ship over a couple of years. But they won't do that, they'll present their manager with a plucky promotion warchest as demanded by the faithful who never gave up - and when they sign their first player outbidding a League One side, the next administration will sail into view beyond the Isle of Wight, and start steaming gently towards Southsea Castle. Slowly but surely it will chug through the Solent, like night follows day...tis their destiny.

I'm still curious to establish the detail of this life-saving £4M, an amount that slid quietly into the projections under the cover of darkness. If it is a PP bonus then surely they'd have shouted loud about that when it happened? - funding boost success for brave Trust etc. Or are they worried that Chinny didn't know about it?... Perhaps they thought that all of those businesses that have been shafted might say, 'tell you what, as you have just been given £4M out of the blue, and seeing as you were fully funded prior to that, how about as an act of goodwill to demonstrate that you have changed your spots, you divide this extra cash between the creditors and actually PAY SOME FRICKING DEBTS'. Or maybe they thought that the football creditors would claim it if they knew? After all, the PPs were designed as a free gift to cover wages when relegated, so it would be nice to pay those wages rather than what they did yesterday which was delay passing on this gift for even longer. Either way it is a payoff from the era of those nasty criminals who started to mismanage straight after the final whistle on cup final day, so no doubt the Trust will decline the windfall as it was earned by the people they want driven out of the club. What's that? Drive the criminals out, let them take their debt and crimes with them, but you'd like to keep the cup, and the PPs? Yeah, that works. Though that little present from the big clubs could wipe a lot of historic debt....but only if the new owner really wanted to shrug off the criminality of recent history. I suspect they'll spend it on shiny stuff instead. Looks like Saints and the rest of the Premier League has once again baled them out and given them money to clear debt - and they'll keep it, again. No need for a thank you.

PS. Hey Harry, we've got millions of pounds washing through the club, how about we set up a top academy? HR. Why, we're not down to the bare bones are we? PS. No, we're in pole position to build a future, you can scout the best talent for miles around, we can poach all the players from little Saints and plucky Brighton, those two losers are screwed bigtime!... HR. Sounds boring. PS. Not at all, it's a challenge, and you will be seen as the messiah who created a new era - it could even lead to the England job...a knighthood... HR. Well Pete me old mucker, that all sounds cushty for sure, but what's in it for Rosie? PS. Rosie? HR. Rosie Lee - me! PS. The chance to make history, to build a club from the academy up, a new ground, a new era, they might name a stand after you... HR. Any cash? PS. Well you'll be VERY well paid, plus your image rights, and the boss will buy something random off you in Monaco for £200K, but more importantly your CV and coaching reputation would look amazing when you go to the inevitable England interview. HR. England?...That must be well paid...it might be better than playing the computer game on the sofa... PS. Yes, you can make your mark on the national game like your old muckers Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst did...think of the legacy... HR. Tell you what Pete, that's terrific, and let's just hold that whole academy thought for the moment, because I've got another idea... PS. Set up several academy bases, maybe strike a deal with a big European club, a network of coaching excellence? HR. Sort of - how about we just trade as many players as possible, dozens of them at a time, quantity over quality, get a lorry to move them, pay ridiculous wages, and put ourselves on win bonuses, and a cut of all deals, plus add-ons? PS. And plough the profits back into club development and build a world class academy? HR. No! Are you aving a larf mush? Forget the academy thing, it's a crazy idea! PS. So you'd rather chuck millions down a black hole, wreck your own career prospects and line our pockets before investing in the future? HR. Yep. PS. I'm in. And so it came to pass that the club that took the decision to buy an FA Cup and pay for prossies instead of wisely investing money gathered from the maiming of children, theft from pensioners and local charities, did moan about their bad luck when the blatantly predictable happened. And football did feel sorry for them. Not.

interesting statement below from one of the dissenting councillors, all he wanted was the meeting they were promised with Birch. He makes it clear that the councillors were rushed into a vote and had no chance to ask about conditions that couldn't be met and why the price of the club had nearly doubled since the loan was requested. When the loan was agreed in August one of the conditions was that the club should be purchased for £7.66m. If this condition couldn't be met then the loan should be refused. There was scope for 'minor amendments' yet the club is now being purchased for a staggering £13.56m - I would contend anyone to argue that this massive increase in the purchase price is a minor amendment. In simple terms it just seems that pompey have ignored the PFA and their members, ignored the stipulations of the Football League about football creditor debt and the only way out is to divert the PP money from the football debts to the council. They just keep storing up problems for the future. I reckon they will be trading insolvently again by October. Cost of fan buyout - £13.56M Amount raised by fans - £1.3M I make that 10% ownership, less than Harris offered them for free.

is someone misleading councillors about housing potential? So the Dell holds 228, Highbury is home to 655 properties - yet they only want to budget for between 40-80 at Fatpipe Meadows? As already pointed out, from that document it is clearly a non-starter for any loan - tis worthless wasteland rendered useless by contamination and offers no security to the lender. What are they up to this time? If this nonesense is designed to support the court case, it doesn't help the loan. Or is the council trying to discourage all developers? Which doesn't help Robinson - unless his surveys already show that this council report has been made-up during a temp's teabreak.

The fact that they still need this loan confirmed makes it quite clear that the Trust is not ready to complete, despite the official line about 'bring it on, we are fully funded!' But this rubber-stamping exercise could be a tetchy affair - it only takes one mischievous councillor to stand up and point out the screaming herd of elephants in the room - pompey cannot meet the council conditions for the loan. Will someone be brave enough, or will they sit quietly to avoid the abuse that is heaped on anyone who draws attention to the actual facts? My money is on the loan being quietly approved with little reference to the issues surrounding it, and once the Lidl bubbly is cracked, some local politician will waddle into a photo opportunity and perform tricks for votes. It will be a celebration, hurrah for the taxpayer, bravely taking risks to shaft themselves again. but there's no risk rallyboy you nutjob.... No, of course there isn't, the council will pick up the tab WHEN it goes wrong, it won't be local taxpayers getting shafted again... This loan is nothing more than a borrowing suicide pact between the council and taxpayers - the property developing trust can't afford to repay it in the timeframe without creating more debt. Can the council help finance the local association for the blind, or the Salvation Army? No, those greedy selfish ****ers can jog on, the council have important people to help - and those old ladies visiting the city as tourists can pay to have a **** from now on. At a time when services are being cut and wards closed a local council is happy to set itself up as a low-interest bank propping up a criminally negligent business that has habitually raped the local community. Nice call councillor. But no one will challenge this for fear of losing votes, the facts will be ignored. The fantasy business plan initially offered has proved to be hopelessly out of step with events, and today is even the chance for someone to challenge the figure of £300M a year that the club brings into the city. But the bestest can't be questioned, even though their version of transparency seems cloudier than Ms Winkelman herself.

so Plymouth have a travelling support approx twice the size of pompey's. I guess they must just be glory hunters, you wait until Plymouth are struggling, then we'll find out what they are made of. They might not have won tonight but at least the other results went their way.

Anyone else struggling to keep up? My understanding was that Sodje was a battling hero who was going to smash opposition forwards and give everything for the shirt....so is he now a villainous borderline-perv who let the plucky lads down and will be fined all of his wages? And The News itself was a villain in 2009, but isn't the paper now a fan-supporting hero of the publishing world?... Though as the paper is the only one to decide who is in which catergory as each day dawns, can we believe that they are now heroes?... Or are they spinning their own spin, within the spin that they are spinning for The Trust? I guess that the manner in which they glossed over the horrific detail of the administrator's report for three days before cherrypicking the more palatable elements and reporting developments from August as news would suggest that they are still the Trust's heroic media partner of choice. Odd approach though - they've had long enough to dedicate a business reporter to this story who has a basic grasp of the facts. Which means only one thing. The Daily Nutjob still leads the way as the 24-7 international online news portal of all things blue and few. It's the thread that inspired and assisted Hall's 'trailblazing' investigations - I'm sure he'll give us a mention in his thank-you speech when he takes his plaice on the top table at the Skate of the Year Awards. Where The Nutjob leads, others follow. Whether that is three days later, or six months later if they don't really understand the report and need to edit the content to suit the agenda of the easily-led.

is that ethical as in building a new business on debt from day one, dressing up a property deal as a fan buyout, threatening anyone who asks for actual details, and attempting to negotiate down for a second time football creditors who have already given up thousands to help the club survive? Yes, that all sounds very ethical. Shouldn't she be up in Eastleigh helping them lose that seat? Oh no, the bakery closed didn't it. Must be a Greggs there....

yes, there is an alarming gap opening up between PP to come, and the football creditor total.... That problem is all of their own doing, there was enought to cover it before the last couple of spending sprees. They risked their entire future to buy a point at SMS, and a point at home to Bournemouth. Time will tell how wise that gambling approach was. And those smug Nutjobs all pointed out that they were borrowing from the future and ignoring debt but hey, what do we know? The Trust will need at least £3M in cash to meet the shortfall of those FC debts before they even think about buying a stadium or funding a CVA. Serious question - Is there anyone out there who can demonstrate how the Trust business plan is viable? It seems to become less realistic with every passing month. I recall doing a rough guesstimate a while back and seeing how they could be solvent in about year four if they service the debt carefully and keep a strict wagecap, but now I don't see how they could survive into year two. The only way that I can see the Trust still being in business by Christmas 2014 is if they blow off more debt and shaft more people. Honest trading will lead to liquidation. We've all pleaded before, please someone, put the beast out of it's misery. It no longer has any dignity nor quality of life.

Final whistle isn't just for the Oldham game. Unless they find a miracle the season is over. Cups stolen in previous years are but a distant memory. Keep on losing and they'll go straight through League Two. Even if they survive the court case they've had it. Don't know what word sums up their situation really...

I've suspected for a while that Birch has been borrowing from the future, risking wages because he knew that there were PPs on the horizon. The fact that the PPs were due to go to football creditors wasn't his problem because he'd be long gone by then. Unfortunately for him it's taken so long that it is starting to become his problem. He can still see his fees in the account so that's okay, but whatever else happens there can't be much of a cashflow future beyond the last home game. We had the perfect weekend the other week and another pompey loss today will finish their season, it will be over. Fact. End of. Bar the maths... What odds on Lee Barnard scoring to all but confirm their relegation, and Rickie scoring his 100th goal to beat Pardew's team? Surely we couldn't have another weekend that good.... I'm hoping to see Barnard celebrating wildly in front of the massed ranks of the blue army - if he can see them from the pitch.

it's a bit much when the league can't seem to clarify the deadline - poor old Guy doesn't know whether they will be wound up at the final whistle of the season, or at the AGM. The men in blazers have a lot to answer for, firstly imposing all those nasty owners on the poor club, and now punishing them twice for the same crime. I'm struggling to see how that late date for the court could be any worse for the Trust. There is no time to sort things out. Birch must be buried under problems - the court case, the charge on assets, the lack of Trust funds, Harris and his merry band - would you deal with all that on no fees? I think not. So I don't buy the capped fees tale - it's up there with players costing nothing. I miss those squirrel barbecues under the stars, the Slaughter in Gibraltar trip stowed away on a fishing boat, and those cycle adventures to away games, they were good for team bonding. They will have to call on every mason and secret society favour in the legal system to wriggle off this hook - and they used up too many of them the last time they walked from court. If you keep gambling everything, it's only a matter of time before your luck runs out. The net is closing.

pompey's wages were high, as they reached from gutter to sky, when the figures came back, they didn't quite stack, so they shafted local businesses, charities, the taxman, continued gambling their future on overpaid players and got into bed with loan sharks and organised crime while ignoring the debts, pleading poverty, and paying their manager to bother prossies behind a skip in Horton Heath.

The gobby few still like to boast, that Thierry loved them the most, but will that keep them warm, when their pitch is a lawn, and fapipes is nothing but toast? or for the post-watershed market - He answers to Uncle or Mr, admitting he couldn't resist her, but his tactics were wrong, as he tugged at the thong, and played one up front on his sister.

River of Hope revisited. As the sun set today on another day of mobility scooter racing, it may have been just a single tear that ran down a ruffian's cheek onto a threadbare blue and white scarf, but it spoke volumes. For as we huddle tonight on the fire escape of history with the long shadows dancing across the spot where Avram proudly ranted, they are no longer tears of pain being shed, but a physical sign that things are at last getting better. The hand of history is on our shoulders, a corner has been turned, the scent of ownership hangs heavy in the air - and that means that Thursday could be the greatest day not just for pompey, but for the whole sporting world as the Trust leads football fans of all colours and creeds to the promised land. Imagine a world where pompey are debt-free and hailed as the biggest fan-owned club in the world - well dream no more, that is all just about true now. For that little glinty brave droplet that fell from a youngster's face upon the hallowed ground that costs £20 to park your coach on, was in response to the news that a court date to set a court date, had been set - and that little tear opened the floodgates all across the proud city as news spread of the fantastic non-adjournement victory. That small child's tear swelled the famous river of hope and turned it into the mighty flood that will burst it's banks and wash the criminals from Fratton Park, allowing HMS Trust to sail in on the morning tide of pluckitude. Today there was no more the glorious success of adjournement, this time it gave way to the doubly glorious success of non-adjournement! And that's where our street ruffian comes in. Muddy of face and passionate of nature, he is the future of the sleepiest giant in world football. Tales of packed parks and dock strikes fill his little head, allowing him to dream the undreamable. And that's what this battle is all about. This good fight isn't about the majority shareholding of the property developers, or the greedy villainous creditors still banging on about their money, no, this is a fight to preserve a child's dream. Because this small chap is only old enough to know the unsavoury side of modern football - a once proud sport now sullied by commercialism, and people demanding that their invoices are paid. He wants a club to support tomorrow, and the next day, and perhaps in April too - even if he doesn't recognise the bloke on his club calendar. And that's why he needs your support. Tomorrow the Trust takes a massive step towards owning quite a lot of something that hasn't really been clarified. They will proudly stand up to a judge and claim the keys to a new beginning - they will literally grasp destiny. It will be a new blue dawn that doesn't include criminals or debt, a fresh start for a generation of children who deserve a future. Oh yes, to others it might just be a mad notion that will be lit by the morning sunshine over the brave old fortress, but for the faithful, tomorrow Justice Closing Down Sales will hand over the keys to a small child's dream, and that's all any of us would ever want. So for that reason alone, we all need to wipe the tears from the scarf and support the Trust. And also, any scummah c@nt who doesn't support it will have their f^cking car torched.

Putting liquidation and civil war aside for a moment, crunch time is here. They head next for the mother of all must-win 6-pointers. Defeat at Oldham on Saturday (with Lee, Lee, Lee Barnard scoring the winner and celebrating Orient style) would leave pompey at least 12 points from safety - with S****horpe at home to Hartlepool as well, it could be 13 points from safety. So I reckon they are potentially 4 days away from pencilling relegation firmly onto their calendar of mystery players. Yes, technically another defeat won't relegate them - but in reality their season could be over by Saturday teatime.

not saying it isn't true but do we have any proof that the administrator has capped his fees? I could have missed the statement in all the excitement... I've heard these things before that start as a pub rumour and before you know it portsmyth is portsfact. The 'fan buyout', the '100% fan ownership', 'the lowest wagebill in the division' - all blatant myths that were held up as facts. If Trevor Bodge has capped his fees, I bet he hasn't capped the legal fees or agreed to cover them - and I bet they are now doing bugger all work. People with high hourly rates tend to become less-driven when working for free. Not a good point in the adventure to lose the full focus and attention of the man running the show.

I saw the Whitecaps game and I also saw Tschen La Ling play in a friendly and score a towering header at the Archers end - he looked really good. Those games also get confused with the famous Spurs reserves full house at The Dell when KK made his debut. 4-4?