rallyboy

had an interesting chat with a Celtic fan the other day. When I mentioned Rangers he said 'they don't exist anymore!' His attitude is that there is some new club calling itself Rangers, but they have been going one year, and had never won a trophy before last season. Some people might say that is harsh but I think there's a few people on here who would agree. Any business that wants to drop historical debt does exactly that - drops the debt and the history. I look forward to a fundraising friendly between Rangers 2013 and pompey 2013 - a chance for the little Glasgow minnow to find out why fortress fatpipes is the envy of world football with real vocal support and an atmosphere the Scots can only dream of. And pompey can dream of perhaps one day matching Rangers by putting a 4th tier championship trophy in their empty cabinet.

if anything I'd say Aldershot are trailblazing rather than following - and at least one season ahead of pompey's business plan.

you won't see the new kit in the shops as they will have already sold out due to them having the biggest fanbase in world football - as well as the biggest fan-owned team in the history of sport, much to the envy of all other fans that have ever lived, and those who are yet to be born.

Ertl promises to sign and explains how he and Guy have in fact already achieved their goal - It was easy for me. I want to be part of a successful Pompey team and bring stability to the club. Hopefully we can put the club back where it belongs together. Job done Jonny boy, you did that through your perfomances last season! Well done.

And in cultural news, the one billion pound Harbourdome project finally has a rival in the Fantasy Island Planning Awards. Some visionary businessman has come up with a plan for the crumbling South Parade Pier - and I think he has The Lampitt Storrie Consultancy working on the figures! It seems that the plan is to push the crumbling wreck over before it falls into the sea, ignore any listed buildings status, and replace it with an international arts and culture centre to rival Tate Modern and MOMA. Simple as that. Project costs have been done using portsmaths and pinned down to a worryingly unrealistic and vague £20M-£30M. But it's okay, it will be funded by private investors while the Guggenheim Foundation will be invited to chuck a few million in, AND to fill the new landmark with their art collection. So much easier than the museum doing their own thing, just give their money and art to someone else... Presumably there will be provision for a casino in the basement, then they just need the council, Maradona, and Tesco involved, and it's a goer! And if it doesn't work, the taxpayer can always pick up the tab. What's more likely to happen in portsmouth - Guggenheim Southsea opening, or the CVA creditors getting paid? My money is on 0 out of 2.

He's a really good signing at that level.....but he's always one tackle away from six months out. So with a small squad he's a risk, but I'm sure they know what they are doing. Connolly does stand out from most of their players - I have yet to hear him announce that the few are the bestest fans ever. Maybe he's too sharp to be dropped into the lazy media interview template - Only one club I wanted to come to, best fans, massive club, sleeping giant, offered more money but turned it down to come here, great history, ground is s fortress, other club's cup finals, envy of all others, ripping up the division, etc. And however much they love him when he scores goals, more than other players he will always be balancing on that thin fence between hero...and villain. Cos he's a fecking scummah!

I'm sure Garcia didn't deliberately make a slave trade reference just to try and annoy an opponent. It's not like he comes from a country with a horrific recent history of racism where fans shout monkey chants at England players, or motorsport fans black-up at F1. I expect the chicken stuff was merely banter - the same as when fans hiss at Spurs games, it's only a funny little noise. People need to be less sensitive.

I'm sure the FL didn't advance them anything, and they won't know what the Prem did, but everyone agreed at the time, including the likes of AA and storrie, that they had been advanced money to get them to that summer. So I think that was just the FL being 'clever' with words. Meanwhile the financial gap between the divisions is ridiculous, if you are on the wrong side of it. If we can stay up again, we will be looking at something like £75M in tv revenue. What is it in League Two, about £1M? Common sense would suggest that it will be impossible for a club to climb right through the divisions again without MAJOR external funding. Never mind.

well I 4-1 applaud that! It has taken effing years and we've had numerous managers lying about the costs, local sponsors shafted, fans misled, BUT it seems that the penny has finally dropped. This could be the new austerity era, the one that should have started years ago. Funny how expenditure is reduced when it's your own money. Well done pompey, this looks like the first attempt at solvent trading in a decade. Another step towards distancing themselves from the crimes of the past. but not the cup

It all kicked off at Portsmouth mayormaking... Trust-supporting councillors decided that in the new era of community and 'all moving forward together' they would hold an impromptu public inquest and hanging on the vote on council funding going into the black hole that is fortress fatpipes. In front of foreign visitors and assembled guests, the council chief named those that opposed the rushing through of cash and demanded apologies, but this rather vulgar action resulted in most councillors walking out of the ceremony. The main target, whose crimes were wanting to know why the funding was rushed through and demanding assurances on the original loan terms, seems to have been on the wrong end of vilification for being a dirty scummah who wanted them liquidated. All part of the new era where everyone stands together and those that opposed the Trust are welcomed aboard as part of the bestest community club the world will ever see.

and fatty broadband.

No big transfers pending but with decent crowds for League Two and the opportunity to borrow the PP money they can push the boat out a bit on wages. Not that they would, with creditors still waiting. After all they are sticklers for clearing debt before going on mad spending sprees. I'm still not convinced that the eagle eye of the Football League overseeing their every move will be any more effective than it was last time, so I fully expect to see a promotion push fuelled by the odd unusual signing. But I'm more interested in our game today that is worth a few quid and a lot of pride - but compared with the last two years, it has absolutely zero riding on it, which suits me fine. But it must be a bitter blow for all those fans of Redknapp, and the many people to the east who assured us we would be finishing with the lowest points total ever, and even this week informed everyone that we were a club in crisis and massive debt, with no one at the helm, and no future. Mind the gap.

just when you start to feel sorry for them they start churning out myths again. Yes we are in it up to our eyeballs, the Nazi gold is nearly all gone - spent on shady loans and dodgy heroin that we use to turn kittens into addicts - we are doomed, it's over, we are very jealous indeed. Come on Lord T, as the keeper of the PTS thread flame it's your role to chuck on another jerry can of 4 star, not some dentally-challenged, sister-bothering, bouncy castle executive with a shoe size higher than his IQ. All that and Wickham Fair around the corner, it's a busy time for myth-spreaders. Silly season here we come.

As Lord T says, it is so predictable. True-blue England keeper in waiting becomes greedy useless journeyman at the drop of a fatty tap. The bloke has presumably been offered way more money, two divisions higher, doesn't have to train out of his car boot, and the funniest bit of all is that he regards Blackburn's chicken-bothering owners as businessmen with more realistic plans for the future! But plucky pompey shedding that bit of deadwood leaves the way open for David James to return and show them what a formerly dodgy keeper looks like when he is approaching fifty. Bring back the heroes! Kanu, Campbell, Ben Haim, Rocha - they all earned a fortune*, now they can give something back! Those guys will revel in the silky-skilled, one-touch-world of League Two on a freezing December evening when the pitch is modelled on a cow field - it must be the way forward for the biggest club outside of London. *might earn a fraction of their fortune, should the PFA ever manage to drag it away from the Trust.

spin alert... Tom’s contract was up and with him being 26, he felt it was time to move on. Well Guy me old matey, he probably 'chose to move on' because his contract wasn't renewed. It would have been undignified to stay on until the police were called.

pompey will sell a few season tickets as many people now believe that they own a share of this company - a club that has no debt, has shrugged off Portpin, and is the biggest outside of the Prem. That's the version that is being sold to them by the media partners to boost interest, and it's worked. As in previous summers, once the season ticket money is banked, the truth can slowly emerge - as long as they can keep a lid on the little clues, like being less attractive to players than Fleetwood. The few also claim that pompey will be ripping up League Two. Perhaps we'll just wait and see how excited they are come October.

when I saw the thread title I expected some unsavoury tabloid story.

don't worry about Mack, he's normally off his face on Nesquik and floor polish by the time Deal or No Deal finishes. Yes their new man is making all the correct noises about budgets, it's just that we've heard similar pledges in the past from the likes of Lampitt who preached about watching the pennies and paying down debt, while running around a Ferrari dealership shouting 'I want, I want' and throwing rolls of cash into the air that were so thick they could choke a Horton Heath personal fitness trainer. If there's a way to creep around the new restrictions, they'll find it. So I'll wait to see how their transfer policy actually develops before buying into the new lean mean business hype.

yep, I 4-1 am. I'm especially jealous of the gobby ones who tried to distract from their own club's appalling season and assured me that Redknapp would turn QPR around and relegate us. Wonder how that little plan worked out. At least the great pompey hero learned from his previous mistakes, bought sensibly, and didn't do special deals with agent friends that would saddle his club with overpaid deadwood and lead directly to Insolvency Central. Summary of the season - pompey sink into the bottom tier, we stay up, Redknapp relegated, and when you analyse the reality of it, between the minor peaks his managerial CV looks like a car crash... I also enjoyed Ben Haim failing miserably, and Jamie O'Hara leading Wolves out of the championship. Nice little touch to see Nugent do so well today as well. We just need to see the great hero Rocha price himself out of bargain basement football and that will tick another box. You have to make the most of it when football's great.

indeed, old pikey boy will move directly from the defensive rock that next year's team should be built around to greedy moneygrabbing hedgehog-eater who had no pace. Tis the pompey way.

pompey player offers realistic view of future shock!... One thing I do know is it’s not going to be easy in League Two next season. Anyone who thinks it will be straight-forward to bounce back is going to be in for a surprise. Shaun Cooper must be a scummah for offering such nonesense. Or is he worried that the games will be too big for the refs and that every side will regard a trip to the packed fortress as their cup final? Yes that must be it, pompey are too big for the league and as a result have generated the best expectation in world football. I recall reminding myself when we were playing the likes of Dagenham that we were in that league on merit and should be wary of looking down on anyone who has earned the right to play at the same level. Rochdale gave us a lesson in humility, perhaps Newport and friends will offer a few similar lessons down the road, but I doubt that they'll be taken on board by a club that ignores reality and claims to have the best atmosphere in THE WORLD.

The battling PR machine is up and running again, peddling simple messages to the deluded and hard of thought. Guy Whittingham says Pompey can fight fire with fire as Premier League big guns move in on their territory. The Blues boss reckons his club can more than match the likes of Chelsea who are aiming to poach their young talent. I suspect they will in reality be fighting fire with a petrol-soaked newspaper. But it's always nice to hear a shrill rallying cry that suggests a League Two club has more to offer than the Champions of Europe when it comes to signing a young player deemed good enough to one day play in the top flight. When the first team stops training out of their car boots and they can afford some cones, perhaps they can convince the next youngster's parents that they still have that youth set up that they formerly boasted was 'the envy of the rest of the country'. Methinks an extinct football dinosaur is still trying to bark like a big animal. Squeak, squeak.

the fit and proper person test was a last resort check for clubs who were incapable of making sensible decisions on who they get into bed with. The few bang on about that aspect as if the football authorities imposed loan sharks, organised crime, people who didn't exist and fantasists upon them. The league didn't pick these owners, they were all chosen as partners by the club. But no - it has to be someone else's fault. As for Guy's little outburst - the idea was you play the kids and stop spending money, not fill your squad with £5K a week journeymen and leave the kids out in the cold. And this from a club who bent those rules by loaning out players to bring in new ones... I'm sure the league will welcome advice from people like that. The PFA will just demand security for whatever is owed as they can see it never happening, and previously I think they only had the football creditor rule to help them (?) - would this be a more aggressive stance?.

Please please please tell me that Portpin are one of the new charges securing future payments!! And Tweeting Lord Palmerston scrapes another barrel until the bottom is more transparent than his own club's shaky business plans. Yes of course Mythmaster General, all Saints fans leave their council-owned flatpack at halftime, boo their own team, are made up mainly of asylum seekers and the jobless with free tickets, worship an SS tank commander, and are bitterly jealous of their mighty neighbours. And all of that is key when the rugby authorities choose their venues - they care not a jot about transport links, hotels, proximity to international airports, capacities or costs, they just want to know if the usual occupants of a venue are plucky and bestest, or not.

Had you asked me a couple of years ago I would have said that he was a broadcasting legend, now he's just a sad old sex offender. Betrayed his public. Disgusted. And I hope we don't hear the old, 'I didn't do anything wrong, but it's easier to plead guilty to avoid a trial' nonesense. NO ONE would confess to fiddling with a nine-year-old just to avoid a trial, if innocent you'd fight that charge to your dying day. As for his family, is it possible to drag them any deeper through a sewer of shame?