rallyboy

agreed in principle? Sounds a bit fragile to me, with the potential to not be agreed, in principle. No time for any vagueness, it has to be sorted, now - in fact, within 48 minutes! Without seeing detail we have to assume that the Trust has upped it's offer to Chinny, perhaps committing more money that they don't have. Will that stop Portsea declaring a fantastic victory and partying like a former PM has just died? I fear not. Sensible folk will await the detail.

I reckon Chinny has a bit of paperwork to confuse them, but I suspect the judge will be lenient towards the Trust. Most likely? Trust given go ahead with conditions, and spiteful, defeated, and robbed loan shark shrugs and just laughs it off.... Or appeals, and delays them all the way to oblivion. Either way I will predict that the outcome whether good or bad will be sold to the fanbase as a glorious victory for the plucky underdog. Probably in short paragraphs. That don't flow. At all. And Penny will pop out of Greggs for a photo. When she sees that votes are at stake. So get the sick bucket ready, and make it a big one.

I think the Withdean is more their scene, though it might be a bit big for them. They could claim to have the biggest UK football ground formerly used for athletics... I'm not sure pompey would want to travel as far as Brighton - I'm just amazed that no one has suggested Moneyfields before, that would be ideal.

funny how they've been selling the ludicrous property-developing dream under the sales slogan of Trust or Bust and at this late stage they now admit that it's b0ll0x. Nice touch, just a few days before heading into court. Anything else been made up that we should know about? The projections? The business plan? The promises to the council? The £3M in Escrow? The agreements with football creditors? The assurances to investors?

The last over-developed minnow, now returning to be a small fish in a puddle. If Chinny has to justify an appeal I think he could produce quite a few reasons now that several groups have seemingly offered more money. The commercial value of the land is higher than if it just has a large rickety shed on it. The fact that a property developer has bought next door and is desperate to get his hands on it speaks volumes, and scuppers the Trust claim that it's not much use to anyone. One of the other problems the Trust has is that they can't see beyond a football club. They just value the land as a ground, and are understandably obsessed with a Golden Share, something you don't need if your plan is to build a mix of retail and residential. A judge will look at the big picture but just focus on the value and the question, he won't be interested in all the spin. Unless of course he's from the same Lodge that surely must have gently helped them and Harry walk away from previous court cases! I can't believe how courts have let them off in the past, so nothing will suprise me this week.

yep happy David Norris day, perhaps one day he might even get paid for his day. Was that the goal that stopped the scummahs going up? Give it a year or two and that myth will become reality. It was the goal that didn't change our league position nor halt their relegation, just gave the few the opportunity to have a show of strength on Southsea Common, all 15 of them. Norris, caught between hero status and the role of dirty judas villain who wouldn't leave - or is he just another man who will never get paid? Ditto Sol Campbell and Kanu - thanks for the cup.... What's that, you want your wages? Go f@ck yourselves!

when a man is tired of this thread, he is tired of life... Trousers has just become caught up in the minor distraction of being 50 odd places above them, beating the Champions of Europe, winning away at our NEW local rivals, thus securing survival and the accompanying massive financial boost. This has left him disinterested in a mindnumbing 0-0 draw at home to Stevenage - a town which I wasn't aware had a football team, let alone one who would be playing 'their cup final' in Hampshire. A season where we survive but there's the potential for Redknapp to go down, take Cotterill with him while coaching genius Appleton relegates both Blackburn and pompey, could be considered a minor distraction from a takeover that still hasn't completed satisfactorily. So the T man is excused for the moment.

and after breakfast they can complete peace talks between North Korea and the rest of the world.

They'll need a fricking Tardis and twenty more points to pull off that stunt! Wait for this bombshell.....they will be in League Two next season - if they are lucky!

Sickbag alert. So it is quite apt that the club could soon be back in the arms of the fans whose forefathers cradled it as an infant 115 years ago? A solitary tear runs down a small but plucky child's rosy cheek, but with your cash that salty droplet of despair could swell into a mighty river of hope...etc....insert puking noise. Anyway, NO club would mean NO parachute payments. But if that was the case they wouldn't be needed, as the whole PP, and more, will just go to football creditors - and if you don't need to have a Golden Share, the football creditors can whistle. So the club is nothing more than a vehicle to pay football debt at the moment, the Trust masterplan is to divert/borrow those payments as they pass through the club and delay clearing debt until 'something comes up', or they can quietly write it off. There seems little point in carrying on - am I the only one who is just starting to wonder whether the figures actually stack up?

experience tells us not to accept every local media story as fact, we've seen too many portsmyths announced as reality. Let's not forget all the stuff about appealing the deduction and the European ban, the payments that had been made to charities etc - the local paper has the task of reporting all these absurd claims, which gives any story enough rope to hang itself as truth tends to prevail in the end. I've seen no official statement that Kanu went to a tribunal and accepted any amount, his claim appears to have been lurking in the shadows unresolved. Had it been settled it would no doubt have been declared as a glorious victory. But if he has agreed something on the quiet it's likely to be on a par with the other heroes/villains deals which went from £24M to £8.5M. That would leave him wanting £1M. Which is approx next season's entire wagebill. Either way the PDT has another big hole in their projections. Talking of that, could the media PLEASE stop describing this current attempt by a property developer to take control of the club as a fan buyout? It's a minor point but it does annoy me that the media, the few, and the rest of football is being sold a dodgy version of the facts. It's a property dealer-led buyout, in partnership with a minority fan group and the local council. If a housing project was attempted in this manner it wouldn't be described as The Residents' Estate, it would be a Barratt development with social housing. Wake up few, you is being conned. Again.

cue Get in there! - plucky underdog pompey sees off jealous rivals Saints and Brighton to scoop top award. Or should that be, partnership between south coast clubs proves to be a winner?

It would be greedy to begrudge them a home win against Tranmere after we've just beaten the Champions of Europe. But they are a one man team - and he's a feckin scummah!!

do you like throwing hard-earned cash down black holes? If you've given to the property developers than we've got another lost cause for you. Please give generously to help support the rights of individuals and websites to have freedom to libel people, to dress up PR as investigative journalism, or to peddle hearsay that suits their agenda. Form an orderly queue, cash only, no cheques or cards.

I believe that this is a historic day... At our lowest point we were 53 places below pompey. Today we beat the Champions of Europe to place us 54 places above pompey. The worst thing for them is that they don't really qualify as our rivals any longer, that's probably now Brighton or Reading. It was extra nice that Rickie, the bloke who was on the wrong end of abuse from the few when we were in League One, should captain the side and score the winner that completed the historic 107 place swing in fortunes. I 4-1 have enjoyed the journey.

I'm sure there were indeed many decent football followers at Preston, and their appearance will have fuelled the media's requirement for a thinly-veiled script or cartoon plot behind every game. The plucky few who never gave up supporting the lowest-paid squad, battling for a point against the odds etc. Something to warm the heart, a chance to gloss over the facts in the name of cheap soundbites. So their poor support is only highlighted on here because of the media love-in. The mutterings of former players about passion are just easy listening for the dim to lap up. You rarely hear any club's fanbase criticised on commentary. Imagine away support being labelled as quiet, or a big match atmosphere being described as poor compared with previous games. The media needs Super Sundays and every BIG match to be bigger than the last. So pompey could take a man and a dog to a game next door and someone out there would try and kid you that it's a great effort, despite the uncertainty surrounding the club. Tis hollow PR. The facts clearly show that their fanbase has fallen away significantly, don't buy the spin, and don't blame their plight. Because today there will be many thousands who travel to away games and give great support at all levels across four divisions in England. But I don't expect ANY of them to claim to be the best and most passionate in the world, or to state that their home ground when half full has the best atmosphere in world football. That would be the rantings of a madman. So it's all a bit 19th century and cruel, but we are only mocking the deluded here. I know some 'very sensible' pompey fans, but they still try and tell me that we are jealous of their glorious history or their fan-ownership. If the few stopped making ridiculous claims we wouldn't bother to highlight the fact that their fanbase is lacking in both quality, and quantity. Their team is poor, their support matches it, no big deal. But the claims to be the best just demand to be exposed and mocked.

not sure there is a window of opportunity Mr T me old mucker - surely their 'season' finishes at the final whistle of their last game? So the deadline for their season end is then, whereas the deadline for the following season has in the past been the AGM. As has been pointed out, the FL seem to be demanding an exit from admin this season rather than an exit before next - I see no gap between those two dates. Tickety tock etc.

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.