rallyboy

let me just clarify the earlier question - I asked if anyone thinks they haven't been punished 'at all'. Did you think I'd gone as soft as Avram on a Horton Heath all-nighter and decided that they'd suffered enough? It seems clear to me that they are being punished, with every day getting sh!tter than the previous, but I certainly wasn't saying let's be nice to the poor victims of the nasty league, no, no - I ain't ready to hang up my kicking boots just yet! And if I ever do feel sympathy I just remember the slow-thinking, inbred, cross-eyed, toothless pikeys chucking coins out of the south stand last season. If the club goes pop leaving leisure hours to fill, their sisters are going to dread Saturday afternoon 'cuddletime'.

I know that many here want pompey wiped from the landscape completely, but after looking at the table, is there anyone who still thinks that they haven't been punished, and still feels that they have got away with it? Let's not forget that the cheating was uncovered in the Prem, and from where they are now they would need a telescope to see the top of League One. I know they've continued to flick the Vs which annoys all, but I'm pretty close to feeling that a form of justice is being done, not all, but some. To expect them to admit that the cup itself was pinched is a tall order, ditto the win at St Marys. That team they BOUGHT in to win the game was a vital part of the overall financial damage done around that time, so Karma has been doing a pretty good job. And while PES has his sensible head on - was it worth it? I realise of course that there were no financial issues prior to 5pm on that cup final day, but that whole period has directly led the club to the brink. Maybe one day a pompey fan will admit that 'paying' a 45 year old man £50K a week to score the winner against a bankrupt midtable Championship side, was not worth losing the whole club for. And I might think they haven't got away with it, but I'm no nearer giving them back the basic courtesy of a capital letter. As soon as a new clean club starts competing on a level playing field I'll give them some sort of respect. Though I would like an FA Cup draw...that might complete the justice process for me - it's just a pity that they won't make round three. Meanwhile, Birch has pocketed his usual £4,500 this morning.

they must be drifting into the territory of getting relegated on merit and carrying over the minus 10 to start next season. If there is a next season. Must have have been like a cup final for little Notts County, having a massive club come to town. No doubt the intimidating travelling blue army barracked Bart for 90mins and frightened the poor fella into a clean sheet. You'd hope there might be a bit of reality biting down east, that cup final is getting more expensive with every week that goes by - just need some acceptance of the reality and we are halfway towards having some sympathy with the few* At least there was one winner today - Trev trousered another £9K. *not really.

you're lucky there's nothing happening at the moment. Take a fortnight's holiday in a busy time when Ho was spouting and you'd miss two News webchats for simpletons, offers from the Redditch branch of Mr Clive, a couple of court actions and a brothel visit. That's when you lose a week of your life catching up.

Birch runs a really boring administration, he hasn't even signed autographs yet, AA was a laugh a minute compared with this guy. Five bids, yet nothings happening! Thankfully Appy has been on the delusion juice again to keep the comedy going. Appleton saw more than enough to convince him Michalik and Gyepes will be his preferred central-defensive partnership. The pair of them were up against some good, good centre-forwards on Tuesday night, let’s not beat around the bush,’ said Appleton. Swindon’s strikers are up there with anything in the division and I thought they handled them reasonably well. That's odd, because every pompey fan I've spoken to since said they could have been 7-0 down at half time, and the two of them looked like overfilled oil tankers that had run aground.

Conspiracy Theory no.2731. The new bidders look potless, have they just been thrown in by interested parties with crazy offers for the ground to support any potential valuation case? We'll pay £8M for the ground and £1M to football creditors... Bid clearly fails and is way too late, but might be useful in court when the ground is valued at £2.75M by Trev. If Birch does select the Trust, an enraged Chanrai could have a nice plan B up his sleeve. He'll go straight out and buy the ransom strip next door, thus maintaining his control over the club. He might need to outbid the assembled property developers, but it's worth more to him for leverage on the neighbours. It wouldn't surprise me if he's already bought it, or is finalising the deal as we speak. The Trust need to secure everything to be in control of their own future - and they can't afford that. They can buy the steering wheel, but the loan shark could still have the gears, the pedals and the handbrake.

the Ho comments are always a chuckle so well done on that, but the one that made me really laugh out loud was the fan that is worried that Cortese will try to pinch Appy off them! Come on, who was that? Surely no pompey fan is that deluded. And Appy's judgement has to be questioned when he looks around the league and applies for the only job that looks like more hassle than the one he has already. Out of the frying pan into the unserviced toilet pit at Reading festival on the final night.

nice one Phil, well spotted. So over the next couple of years pompey pay Chinny back his meagre £5M of carried forward debt. They use the club overdraft to do this, thus creating a further £5M debt to Chinny. He doubles the FL debt limit, and the interest ticks along at whatever rate he plucks out of the air. If they buy the extra land in the same way and bring it all together in a simple to sell package, Chinny has his £18M - with full approval from the FL. The only thing that can go wrong is the club fails to generate enough income to meet the most modest of payments and he has to cut costs and asset strip to the bone. A further relegation and attendance drop could leave Chinny exposed to more losses. Just like loan sharks everywhere, he loves taking risks, and he's all heart. Though as Nutjobs who look for conspiracy theories at every turn, we could have it all wrong. Maybe this time he really is falling in love with the club.

play the kids!, they screamed from the deserted Fatpipe End And down on the hallowed turf, goalscorer and pompey reject Ritchie could only gasp at the irony of the lockable stable door concept being suggested - long after the horse has not only bolted, but lived a long and happy life, sired grandchildren, retired to the country, passed away peacefully, and been consumed by Harry's thieving dog, with a side order of Winalot. Cotterill was a legend for keeping up the most expensive squad in the division and then launching them to the exit, Avram was even more of a legend for relegating one of the highest paid squads in the division. So I see no reason why Appy can't confirm his own legendary hero status by matching our record of getting out of two divisions in consecutive seasons. Back-to-back Appy! Meanwhile, where are we on these players now? They were heroes for going on a free holiday, and even more heroic for snubbing less money at bigger clubs. But tonight we've established that many were rejected from Fleetwood to Barnet for good reasons, so have one or two of them slipped across the border from HeroTown to VillainVille yet?

after a decade of hunting through war crimes tribunals and court lists have we finally stumbled across the one bloke in the universe who might fail a FaPPT? I can't see his performance at Watford doing him any favours, though people who don't exist have passed, so he might be okay. I guess we need the dream ticket of underfunded charlatan and taxman's favourite Bassini taking the helm, with funding and 'advice' from Al Fahim and his torturing friends. This new consortium could offer the Trust a place on the board, trouser their pledges, and rely on their professional expertise for the big business decisions. Surely this tight-knit, focussed, and united team of directors could only succeed? Obviously they'll still be controlled by Chanrai who would retain his hold over all assets while awaiting the inevitable missed payment. What could go wrong? Their first appointments could be Lampitt to plan budgets and strategy, and Cotterill as a director of football, to help the future England manager Appleton invest his new promotion warchest in a plucky band of battling troops who could be roared to victory by the travelling army that would embrace the new dawn for this massive club. They might want to think about a plumber too. If this comes to pass, that's not alarm bells you'll be hearing, it'll be the sound of screeching tyres from Birch's Bentley as he leaves the scene of his crime.

Have they missed another wagebill?.... As for the new owners elect - enthusiastic, hearts in the right place - but don't tell us they're professional. Unlike PES, peering through his blue-tinted spex that block out anything that looks like an obstacle, I've seen no indication from their efforts so far that the Trust is a slick outfit. I don't see anything more than a few well-intentioned football fans doing their best to save a club - but big business requires way more than that, you only have to look at bigger clubs like Exeter to see how tough a fan-takeover was. The pompey Trust members have regularly demonstrated that their plans don't make sense, that they are desperately short of funding, their grasp of the law has been vague, and their budget to outspend other clubs while ignoring the football debt was plain bonkers and laughed out of FL HQ. They've been forced to review the players' agreements as they didn't seem to realise that they wouldn't get the golden share. The longshot offer for the ground has been ignored for three months, and their entire plan relies on that offer being legally enforced in some fantasy court where legal fees don't apply and time stands still - and when they do get that nod which they obviously will, they need someone else to fund the purchase. And they still don't accept that they can be outbid by £1, everytime they go head-to-head with the loan shark. Birch doesn't take them seriously, and after I attended that meeting and saw their plans, nor do I. The Trust looks like it's on the cusp between desperation and unprofessionalism - a theory supported by their attempt to take on debts, yet refuse to accept responsibility for paying them.

when asked by the FL for an assurance about paying the football club debts... The Trust are arguing the validity of such a requirement when it is not even their debt they are expected to pay. Oh, from that statement the Trust is implying that they don't want to include the debts in their takeover. No wonder the FL want more information. The Trust needs both financial help, and PR advice. I also heard that pompey simpleton on Solent repeating the rubbish about most of their woes being the fault of the Football League. He sounds like he left school when he was six so maybe it isn't his fault, but you'd think someone would try and explain reality to him before switching on his microphone and allowing him to display his ignorance of the facts. And now they want the FL to protect them and keep Chanrai out of their club. But if a new cash-rich, arms-dealing, money-laundering, loan-sharking war criminal ploughed his blood-splattered tank through a puppy sanctuary, an orphan's playgroup, and up the M275 today, they would scream for the league to let him through their rules so they could scrawl his glorious name straight into their little blue book of bestest heroes. Funny how they only want to adhere to the regulations when it suits. That strict FaPPT the few demand could be the death of them - and it'll be the fault of those nasty authorities who still insist on trying to create a level playing field and a league of financial fair play.

had a pompey fan text me about Arsenal earlier. They hand Walsall three points in front of less people than you can get in a lorry trailer on Eurotunnel, and they still want to have a pop. Being abused by a pompey fan these days is like a homeless bloke mocking your conservatory.

one doesn't like to be churlish on a day when we've been 'fiddled with' by bigger boys, but it would be a shame not to have a little pop at the massive club to the east, just to cheer me up. The alarm bells should be ringing - the Fortress Fatpipe attendances are getting dangerously close to the cut off point where there isn't enough money to pay both Birch and the police. The only thing they packed today was three points into a little suitcase for Walsall, and some sandwiches to see them home safely. If they lose another 1,000 fans there will be a problem and Birch will consider he's emptied the gravy train and will probably hand it over to the Trust or the loan shark. His timing is looking spot on, when the attendances hit 10K he's gonna be out of there, because there won't be enough income to pay his fees. And while we are talking about the bestest fans, you could hear the Saints following making plenty of noise at the Emirates despite the score, but still no one claimed to be the best in Europe. There's a lesson there somewhere. We're both struggling. Saints are up sh!t creek with half a paddle, pompey haven't got a creek to sh!t in.

the players' agreements are in reality about £8.5M plus Kanu, so they could be up to £10M. The PPs are only £8M. So they need to save money at the moment to be ready to cover that shortfall. Instead they are spending that future funding to gain a competitive advantage. It's bonkers. Just as it was claimed about Storrie, and then Lampitt - but Birch wouldn't let them spend more than they have... Birch is out of there soon and doesn't care what happens at Christmas, let alone in 2014! I'm surprised the Trust haven't highlighted this as it's their income he's spending, even Chinny has had a moan about it. Perhaps the Trust is too busy celebrating the glorious victory over Crawley to worry about how they pay the bills next year. Despite all the chaos of recent years, nothing has changed in the fans' mindset. They are still stuck in this cycle of poor management that involves spending tomorrow's money on gaining an advantage today. They are determined to self-harm, and no one will stop them.

As a result of these factors, we believe it is in the best interests of creditors to allow the interested parties a further short period of time to conclude a sale.’ said Trev as he kept the handbrake firmly on, calmly pocketing his daily rate of £9,000, money that could actually sort a few of those creditors out, but no. We are assured that it's in their best interests to watch the money being frittered away until they are all fighting over an empty cash bag. No rush. In your own time. Slowly does it now.... That'll be 10,000 of the few paying Trev and the Old Bill*, hope they have some cash left for those poor underpaid players. *the only bill likely to get paid in full.

proper experts will offer a better view of the accounts, though the interesting set will be the next ones if they are ever filed, the ones unclouded by the previous wagebill. I like the way Trev casually sweeps the Kanu cluster bomb under the carpet with a swish of his Hush Puppy. From what I can see they have in six months generated approx £900K from matchdays, with £96K going straight to the police. And the administrator has run up £1.4M plus £250K in legal fees - so Birch's gravy train is running up £9K a day. As we suspected, the first 8,000 through the door every fortnight are needed to cover his fees. The Trust needs to find an additional 270 pledges a month to stand still. Did we know the PP was down to £8M, some were reporting it at £11M? So there isn't enough left to even cover the player agreements. Who is the expensive 'Office holder' - £425K?... Matchdays seem to be organised mainly for the benefit of Birch and the old bill. I don't expect anything to happen today though I'm surprised that the Trust is still working on their bid and talking about possible delivery later this afternoon - that sounds slightly ominous, with a whiff of desperation.

sorry T but I can't match the comedy in that official version of pompey snatching away Celtic's hottest prospect because they're a bigger club and the player's head was turned by the prospect of playing in front of the world's greatest supporters at a packed arena. I suspect in reality it translates as average kid is told he isn't wanted at a proper club and only gets one alternative offer of first team football. Sadly for him it's only at the ar$e end of the third tier, so his hurt pride makes him claim that this significant downward spiral is in fact the best career move he has ever made! This laughable stance fools no one outside of Portsea. But it does fill in the comedy festival interval nicely while we await the next takeover funding debacle!.... So pull up a chair, get your popcorn and your bucket of fizzy tooth-rot at the ready, and tighten up the girdle that keeps your ribs in place. Because Dr Whippy is trying to open a bank account.....armed only with a snug shirt, loose change thrown at him by the few, and a smile that could curdle milk.....

We also thank the Sodje Foundation for organising and facilitating the trip. Arik Air have kindly agreed to provide us with free air travel and we are grateful to them for their help. The all-expenses paid trip will give the players and staff a fantastic opportunity to experience a different culture. They know we are watching! No more free holidays - the Nutjobs will highlight the costs in the accounts, if they ever file any. And I look forward to reading that advertised article about the player who was offered the chance to play for Celtic or pompey and chose to head south because they are a massive club, even though they probably have the lowest wagebill in the universe. My heartstrings await a tug.

Spot the odd one out. Massive clubs - Man Utd, Juventus, Chelsea, Barcelona, portsmouth, Real Madrid..... A neutral might observe that bigging yourself up after whipping 9-man Crawley in front of 5,000 people makes you look a little bit silly - to suggest that this puts the Manchester, London or Merseyside derbies in the shade is just the work of the mentally-ill. We've been invited to believe by Al Fahim that pompey sell out every game in league one, and now random squirrel-eaters are telling us that taking 1,500 to their new local derby at Crawley ranks the club alongside the giants of world football. Is all this delusion genetic, or based on an ignorance of what goes on at a higher level? I'm sure Dagenham get their stadium rocking sometimes, no doubt Barnet fans shout at refs, but these loyal fans know their place in the world order. Other than Avram's favourite Friday night companions, do they not have TVs in Portsea? Look at a packed St James' Park, checkout Anfield on a big European night - to claim you have better support than them will see you laughed out of every football debate. What makes them a local club for local people is that I don't hear fans of ANY other team making these claims. West Ham and Leeds have massive away followings, they don't gob off about being bigger than Boca Juniors or Galatasaray. Let's not forget that the dwindling few continually claim to the bestest supporters in the UK, if not the world. So how come a lesser-supported but similarly bankrupt club in the poorer third tier in Scotland has sold 35,000 season tickets?... But please keep up the plucky battling troops roared on by the travelling army spin, it makes us laugh, and fuels this thread towards another few hundred pages. And remember, most News Webchats are mainly Nutjobs with bread-based names asking awkward questions and demanding new signings or ground developments, so don't argue with yourselves!

Reality has hit home. Ten years ago it had great promise but it went way over budget and became a laughing stock, Avram took it down but couldn't get it back up. It'll never see the top flight again, so today the council announced their intentions - they won't be chucking money in the black hole. Mistakes made over a decade ago have rendered it beyond repair, the experts have given up, and that great view of the Harbourdome is now just a dream. It has brought shame on the city of portsmouth for a decade and is likely to be dismantled by several teams before Christmas. RIP the Spinnaker Tower lift.

concentrate, this is for hardcore nutjobs only! do I perhaps spot Chanrai creeping around the FL rules by agreeing a deal with Al Fahim outside of the main sale agreement?? Birch sells the club to Al Fahim, secured creditor Chinny agrees the main Birch deal because he has done another deal with Al Fahim to account for his own status. That 2nd deal is reliant on Al Fahim coughing up money at regular intervals, if it doesn't happen, could Chinny then retake control and slap his whole debt back into the club? He's going to want something as security from a new consortium and the club would seem the obvious thing to use - could it be CSI revisited, with more tea towels and less gunfights? Al Fahim will be personally carrying forward way more Chinny debt than the amount the FL will approve, the loan shark wants that protected in an agreement outside of the main sale, the FL won't have control over that deal, and Al Fahim might forget to tell them. Plausible, or Nutjobbery?

so is Al Fahim is back in town?...no doubt attracted by the massive potential for property development and his friends who have money to 'move'. Mr Robinson's interest has woken up a few people with retail and affordable housing on their agenda. Let's not forget the history of this great saviour. Clearly a business associate of Chanrai, Al Fahim is the man who claimed to be a doctor but seemed short of the actual qualification, a man who has a chequered history when it comes to being able to deliver promised finance, and the man who blazed a trail for others to follow when it came to pompey missing wage payments. When the effluent hit the fan he was conveniently playing chess, being served a court summons, boasting to Piers Morgan, or having kidney stone operations...that's one slippery ice cream salesman! If he is back, he's either managed to persuade his old torturing mate to cough up some cash and have another crack at dodging the FaPPT, or he's asked CSI to print them off one of their 'special' bank statements. Either way it's a distraction the Trust could do without. Are they being invited to pay a part share with a messy consortium? Odd. If I had twice as much money as Birch requires, everyone else could stick their interest where the sun don't shine - there would be no sharing of power. Perhaps this new 'powerhouse consortium' actually needs a couple of million to help? You can't run a business by committees, Al Fahim says this, torturer says that, Trust says the other - the club needs clear direction at the top, not management by the Dave Clark Five. Anyway, ownership might be too much for Al Fahim, before a man takes on something as complex as a football club he should first conquer lesser tasks - like being able to judge what sized shirt he requires. So I'd like two choc ices and a 99 please....and an explanation about the man who didn't exist that you did BIG business with - you can explain that on your FaPPT form, write on the back if you need more space.

I reckon a few potless loons have been tempted by the low price quoted for the land by the Trust. Let's see how keen they are when the numbers are crunched... There must be fifty better club investments in the FL - unless of course you don't mind losing a bit, as long as the stuff you do get back is clean. Makes no business sense - again! Should be a few laughs this week.

is Ho rewriting history again?....and I thought he was outed as a retaliation for his own action... And PES rewriting history too, bless! - a pattern is emerging. I did chuckle at his claim that pompey fans are trying to pay off the debts. Haven't see that claim anywhere before, I could have sworn that they are trying to write off the majority, pay a pittance and pretend nothing has happened - business as usual in portsmyth - just gloss over the facts. If my team had suffered a downward swing of 70 league places against our bitter rivals in the time it takes Appy to barbecue 12 squirrels, I'd keep a low profile. I certainly wouldn't be giving it large with arguments that a slightly backward six-year-old could dismiss. Why will they not accept reality? It must be that great wartime pompey spirit that saw the Canberra sail past the Round Tower en route to the Falklands. Just admit that it's gone pear-shaped and win back some street cred - that's why Mack gets no respect for his grammar but plenty for his spirit - he can see the big picture, he understands - he just can't express it very well. Bally - great player, unreliable historian.