rallyboy

HNW individuals funding the business?? That can't be right, that would mean that pompey are overpaying wages to gain a competitive advantage, trading insolvently, and were being secretly bailed out by property developers on the offchance that they'll make a killing. And all of that has been denied in the past so that claim by the Trust must be wrong. If it were true it would mean that they really are addicted to insolvency and beyond cure. And the HNW individuals perhaps need to be relabelled individuals. I can see those suckers going the same way as the bloke who paid for Appy's holiday. Put money in, wave it goodbye. Does that mean 11 weeks = £1M loss? That's quite a burn rate for a company that has already made redundancies and slashed overheads. So to compete at the bottom of League One they will operate at a loss of £5M a year. The best thing to come out of yesterday was that all those mad Nutjob claims about overspending, outbidding Championship clubs and inflated wages were spot on. They really only have one thing of value left in that whole sorry mess, but all parties are circling... Birch is spending them in advance, the property developers want them, the Trust is wholly reliant on them, the former players are owed them, but Chinny will trouser them! - the final parachute payments are the only thing keeping the sick beast alive. After the £8M payout, there is no future. They can gather the family, get Bono in to wail an acoustic number, and switch off the machine.

so did they get the keys?... if that was a glorious victory then I'm going to get us promotion only using reluctant academy players shoe-horned into a Total Football system reminiscent of Ajax in the 1970s.... Sounds like they have a month to find another property developer who wants to empty his bank account without delay. Can't see this victory helping the promotion push. A handful of fans acting like animals outside the high court is always great PR as well - I'm sure it was passion rather than abuse that was being spouted in the street. If that was a good day it demonstrates how crap life must be to the east.

even as they stare into the abyss, the spin keeps on churning out of Fatpipes Arena.... Pompey have been warned they will be facing a side lifted by the prospect of playing at Fratton Park tomorrow. Caretaker boss Guy Whttingham believes teams are upping their games when they travel to meet the Blues. He said: ‘We need to get over the hurdle of playing at Fratton Park, where teams see it as a place they are lifted. ‘We have to prepare for a Preston side looking forward to playing at Fratton because of the atmosphere it creates. ‘The opposition want to come and do well because of the history of the club. Yeah, little Preston, a team with no history, fired up because they get to play against one of the historic giants of world football in a packed stadium! Poor little pompey are suffering because refs and now players regard a day in their city as a cup final. A staggering bit of PR flying in the face of facts. They need to get real - and soon, in fact in about five hours time, because they could be in for a shock.

the club future hangs by a thread yet only one family makes the trip to court. Perhaps Justice 'closing down' Sales will put the poor sick beast out if it's misery tomorrow. Though a 28 day course of painkillers costing £250K seems more likely. The reporting from court is amusing but I miss those funny articles about players who want to turn Fatpipes into a fortress and how some random Barnet reject knew there was only one club he wanted to go to after he had 90 letters of rejection, yes, the biggest sleepiest undeveloped giant in the world where packed crowds frighten refs....please get Avram to make another funny speech on the court steps, and if he can't do that he could accuse Chanrai of misleading the judge. If anyone can make it stand up in court it'll be their favourite uncle. For those reasons alone we need them to survive - for what would we become if we didn't have people to look down on? Well, technically we'd be QPR, but you know what I mean.

and we were thinking that it was the Trust who were the poor relations of the deal, looks like their £1M will buy them full control - of nothing in particular. IF Robinson is potless, as a property developer I'm sure he can raise some funding for a deal that might net him a couple of million. I reckon he must have a few million squirreled away, but if he hasn't, what sort of person is likely to take a punt and lend him money at an alarming interest rate?.... Though that interest rate will rise a percent with every abusive comment in the courtroom corridors. The high court is definitely their second home now, could even be their first home soon. Has the nasty league restricted their support squad to 14? That is unfair. With all that's going on today I can see why they think we are all jealous.

we moved pretty quickly from the tubthumping 'Chanrai knows the game is up and has had to settle' to 'PKF have realised that their case is falling apart'. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between, but closer to the latter! The court won't be interested in some random bloke in the public gallery spouting off about what he could do if appointed administrator, surely any Portpin gripe with Birch is irrelevant to the land case? Ditto Birch and the Trust funding. He doesn't care how much they've got, his job is to deliver the ground for £2.75M - it's up to them after that. If he gets his adjournment then I reckon the PDT deadline for being in full control of the club before Christmas might be getting a little bit tight... But on a brighter note, plenty more fees draining out of plucky Guy's promotion warchest. Trev's family will do alright on Christmas day - I bet he kept himself one of those blue Santa suits - yes kids, pompey paid for all of this! Anyone for more swan?

Hurrah! The guns have stopped, the battle has been won! The big knobs have got around the table and yanked the big iron out of the fire.... Or perhaps Team Chinster has just eased the handbrake on and is watching the PDT's legal fees creeping up faster than little Avram at a Baywatch convention. If the Football League firing a warning shot at them the other day could be spun as a vote of confidence, then I'm sure this delay is fantastic news. Unless you had booked a Matiz to carry the blue army up there. Yes that's it, fan power has forced the court to have a rethink, the biggest fan buyout has proved too much for Justice Sales to cope with, we need a more important judge who can cope with the pressure of the best club in the world - the thought of that massive crowd with all of their banners bringing central London to a standstill proved too much. I bet the Met asked for a new date when they heard about the bookshop van full of porn, grass, and a chemical toilet heading their way.... Come on Penny, come on beardie, tell us what you think about this latest success, and how you did your bit to blaze a trail that will lead football into a new age (even those clubs that have done it already).....this rubber-stamping exercise is less hassle than we thought, it'll be a matter of minutes before they get the keys and ride off into the sunset. FANtastic!! yawn. And on a funnier note - anyone else seen the pompey 2012 calendar? - guess who Mr December is?.... Sadly not Ben Haim - but Kanu! He's appeared just before the court case to remind them about his claim.

one of the historic issues is being highlighted again this week by those wishing to dodge the penalty. They want to criminalise former owners and let them take the rap for all wrongdoing, but they'd like to keep the cup. You cannot distance 'the club' from the crimes, nor the fans - unless of course they were a lone voice of protest outside Wembley? I 4-1 would like them to admit that their only honest game in recent years was Plymouth away. They can keep that result.

feet firmly on gas? Or is that head firmly in oven?... any tears shed would form a river of hope - nice one G! Maybe plucky Capt Whittingham and Petty Officer Awford can guide the plucky troopship through the backwaters of despair and eventually a tide of blue emotion and property developers will wash our brave heroes onto a beach of glory... Or they'll rot in the corner of a stinky harbour. Even now I find it staggering that so many people on Portsea do not understand the simple facts. When you have to explain to senior journalists who write on the subject, and to fans who are involved with the rescue packages, that this is not a 2nd penalty for the same crime, you fear for their masterplan for the future. It ain't rocket surgery. We've been joking on here for ages about how it's not fair and that Man Utd have debt, some of the few believe that! And how's the appeal going, the one that in itself is a resignation of the Golden Share? The one that says, we are ignoring your conditions by appealing and no longer wish to partake in league football? The FL listed it as a condition, it didn't need clarifying unless you are VERY dim, so as Al Murray would say, not news! But nice to hear it again. As for the ones chucking toys about and moaning about the authorities ruining their season, nothing has changed since they bought that season ticket for the Hindenburg. It was alight when you got on, what did you think would happen? You did the crime, just do the time - even if it turns into hard labour in the Wessex League.

Shaw is an awesome prospect, how good will he be when he's fully developed? With him and Clyne looking this solid we look like a unit. On the refs, yes we have had some shocking examples but MoTD just demonstrates the appaling quality on show at the moment. Thankfully we haven't been robbed too much yet, but it will happen. Their boss must be hugely embarrassed at the current crop - as a group they are the worst I've seen for a while. Some of the decisions in other games beggar belief - and it looks like a linesman these days is nothing more than a ref who is so bad they won't let him have a whistle. A good team might have equalised from those two ridiculous free-kicks at the death, then again a good ref would've allowed the 'goal' or awarded a penalty for the push by the keeper. But the best thing for me is we look so much better than many of the teams around us. QPR v Wigan was like a Keystone Cops convention, Villa are toothless, Sunderland in freefall. IF this run of form continues and we can get some cosnistency away from home, you have to take your hat off to Nige who was right on the brink a few weeks back - and to Nicola for not jumping the gun, despite the media heaping the pressure on. It's like we had a plan all along...sort of.

they'll have that fricking open topped bus out again tomorrow - the plucky underdogs battling to a draw on Merseyside roared on by the famous blue army...

thankfully judges don't read the Mail so that bit of PR was wasted. Mr Birch, please refrain from babbling on about liquidation, this court is ONLY deciding the potential value of a slab of unoccupied grassy wasteland with four sheds on it - what you do with the court decision is none of our concern. And make sure you take that public gallery circus back to Monkey World or the Romany Museum when we've finished.

I'm confused! Should I boo Ben Haim for being a skate, or applaud him for ripping the ar$e out of their bank account? He's done more damage to them than any other player, so by inviting him round Harry has firmly nailed his flag to the f'ck pompey mast. And Ben Haim is still due a few quid from the heroes of 2011/12 fund, so pretty soon he could be getting paid by Harry and the Trust! The only way that anymore icing could be balanced on this particular cake is if he is really sh!t and leads Harry's plucky boys all the way to the Championship.

I heard quite a chunk of that Solent phone-in - it was no more than a desperate filler for the end of the week when proper ideas have run out. They were proposing that the two clubs merge which would solve pompey's financial issues and we could utilise their best players to help us move up the league... As a concept I think it's still work in progress. Most people I heard told them it was bonkers. TCWTB came across fairly sensibly, as he does when sober, Clive Foley had a gentle jousting match with Farmery but resisted saying that we might consider a merger if they stopped stealing from charities. A couple of randoms dragged the debate off towards hooliganism but the guy who did make me chuckle was 'Kyle'. PresenterBoy accused him of being immature when he said that he would love it if pompey lost more money and ended up playing in the Sunday league, 'because it means I can laugh at them a bit more'. Difficult to argue with.

If Team Chinster cannot guarantee the former player debt then that brings the Trust bid to a halt too. The only budget they have bothered to release had a £6M shortfall, and we still await an explanation for how that, and the ambitious attendance projection shortfall will be bridged. Let's not forget that Birch was reluctant to give a thumbs-up to their fantasy scheme until they gave up on a fan buyout and got into bed with property developers. But surely this case is just about land value, and I can't see Trev getting to drag the judge off into sentimental bestest plucky vital to the community land. Doddery judge doesn't care whether little johnny cuddled his sister for the first time under the south stand in 1934 during half time, or that the club generates £300M a year for local businesses. Tis very simple. Is this a fair price for the land? Yes or no are the options. His job is to cut through the surrounding spin and get to the facts and the law. Let's see if he manages it better than previous judges.

more likely to beTrust and bust.

I think this case is quite different to previous ones. There should be little emotion in this one, there's no pleading for the plucky club's life, this is just about a bit of land. There will be a judge who probably doesn't even know what football is, he or she will be presented with valuations of a bit of land. The result of their decision is of no interest to them, they just need to rule on a value. If the Trust has done all their calculations on the land's value with a football club, then they have dropped a big clanger. All potential uses and values will be considered before a value is set, and if the court wants to lean towards a middle ground figure then they should have offered £300K! And the court doesn't care what their budget or funding is. The only thing that matters is the commercial value of the ground. Cross-eyed mudlarks pleading for yet another 'last chance' will be ignored on this occasion as they are irrelevant.

The PDT can spin this as a rubber-stamping gig all they want, they're trying to convince themselves. In previous court cases where they've been up to their tits in steaming pig's sh!t but come up smelling of roses, pompey have had Chinny on THEIR side.... I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but he's more slippery than a greased-up slippery thing on St Slippy's Day. So I'm sure he and AA have some good stuff up their sleeves - and even if Chinny loses the case, he'll probably just ignore the judgement and hold them to ransom! - either way, he won't be walking. As for the Trust claims about a settlement. Most lawyers always fancy their chances shortly before massive defeats. Lawyers love taking high risks, at other people's expense! It's like Birch, he drives the bus over yet another cliff but walks away and leaves others to sort out the wreckage. So their legal advice is probably very encouraging, in fact, as very encouraging as the other sides'. The nutjob feeling today seems to be towards some sort of additional payout to Chanrai on top of the base price - that could seriously derail the property developers who are blatantly trying to drive into ownership dressed as a fan buyout. If the court decides that a significant future chunk should go to the loan shark it would reduce PDT profits, perhaps make the development unworkable, render the Trust deal even more underfunded, and derail the whole rickety house of cards. And it's pretty rickety already. Despite Farmboy's confidence, I'll be more open-mouthed than a Horton Heath masseur if Chanrai is consigned to pompey history before Christmas.

dear Nicola, my club has a proud history of thieving charity cash, money-laundering, stealing from pensioners and war veterans, spending season ticket money on prostitutes, and using blood money from child-maiming to fund madly unsustainable growth. We are currently trading insolvently while trying to con a court that we're not property developers, and if we succeed we will be shafting taxpayers, local businesses, and former players alike. You may recall that we came round to your club and behaved like animals, don't forget that we also regularly insult the memory of your best friend by accusing him of being a Nazi, and we often spread malicious rumours about yourself, and the business. We know that you have a thriving foundation that is doing great work and that all the clubs' efforts are concentrated on that, but we think you should make an exception for us, especially as we currently have the fewest organised criminals and loan sharks within our boardroom for a decade. So give us money! yours sincerely random pompey fan.

that is one busy fence! First we had the Great Wall of China, then The Maginot Line, now the Fence of Unpledged Cash. It replaces the hanging gardens of Babylon in the all time wonders list, they were relegated after losing a vital playoff in Stonehenge's rather dated and cosy stadium.

Presumably the Trust's dream scenario is that the judge finds in favour of their property developers and it's go, go, go! Birch then asks them to put the cash on the table - and that might be a problem. Their big weekend fundraiser sounded like a bit of a damp squib from the credit union press release published on the News site. I particularly liked the links - Get your loan here! By now they should have their finance in place and be leaning on Birch and the court to let them get on with it. At the moment the only people benefiting are property developers and a loan company. But I guess it's been that way for a decade. If you've taken out a loan and the takeover doesn't happen, can you cancel it?... It is definitely time for a new club. As for the cashflow, a fortnight without a game and Trev's fees keep ticking along... He's gobbling up the Trust's future funding like a rampant pig in a sticky bun shop. Go on Trev, fill yer boots!

if Watford get hit with a points penalty for the financial irregularities from their past and pompey plough on regardless, can we can organise a joint eyebrow-raising and jaw-dropping session for followers of the Football League's decision-making process? Hopefully it won't come to that and Micah Hall's much-heralded editing and adaptation of this thread will give the authorities enough rope to dish out some justice.

if Watford get hit with a points penalty for the financial irregularities from their past and pompey plough on regardless, can we can organise a joint eyebrow-raising and jaw-dropping session for followers of the Football League's decision-making process? Hopefully it won't come to that and Micah Hall's much-heralded editing and adaptation of this thread will give the authorities enough rope to dish out some justice.

I didn't know that Olive from On the Buses had a twin brother. Anyway, calm down my little nutjob friends, I'd be surprised if the take-up is quite that low. But with no figures, no financial plans and no transparency, we can only guess. IF they really are struggling then expect to see a big media campaign next week, 'Trust or bust', 'this really is the end unless you step forward', but of course the real losers will be the property developers. Without someone giving them money and fronting their heart-tugging takeover, their profits will be limited and liquidation could be next. That would mean they'd have to pay a commercial rate for the land like other developers, rather than a 'fan's rates' price as proposed by the PDT. As Birch sets a record for the slowest administration in history and the Trust finalises their bid in the time it took a lame tortoise to join the 92 club, I'd hazard a guess that they are now just waiting on the court case. They are in limbo. Not for any good reason, they just don't seem to know the meaning of the word urgent. I know it's complex but surely by now you either give detail of your finalised bid or you withdraw, they don't seem to be doing either. Meanwhile I hear that Hearts are mounting a fan bid, so they could beat pompey to the title of the bestest ever in the world - if they too ignore Exeter etc.

the old villainherometer has just blown up - things change too fast. Keeper makes debut, gets a ride around the city on an open top bus after their draw, gets on the first train home, and as it trundles away from Fratton Station carrying him to freedom, he shouts out of the window that one day he'd like to be a club great - he just didn't say which club. Spiteful old FL making them adhere to rules again, it's not fair. And they're being punished for the same offence a third time. Though they can easily overturn the points penalty, that belongs to the other club, the old one - or the one before that. Boo, nasty authorities! They must be jealous like the rest of us.