rallyboy

can't be bothered with the main board, all the nutjobs are out, makes this thread look normal. What an odd day, like 29,000 others I felt robbed at the final whistle, but on reflection, if you get done by two wonder strikes it seems less painful. Ashdown made two great saves and the ref was truly shocking. He missed so many things and got other stuff wrong, not that it cost us the game, but I've never seen an entire stand leap up as one when he got yet another decision wrong in front of the dug-out near the end. Woeful. Putting our issues aside, and we had a few, I thought they were in the main clueless. They have red card potential all over the pitch, Rocha can trap the ball further than many players can kick it, Maguire's miss was comedic, and their support was quite ordinary. I guess if you pay over the odds you get players who can produce a bit of quality when needed, so if one point at St Marys justifies two seasons of quality over quantity and looming liquidation, then it was a great policy! Not sure why they are celebrating so much - they started the day 5pts from safety and after more points dropped to us they are now 6pts adrift. That doesn't bode well with Coventry v Bristol City up next. Tis a funny old game.

Rickie, Adam - remember when the dirty people came to our ground, beat us, took the p1ss out of you and celebrated in your face? It's personal - go seek vengeance.

It's quiet because we're all saving up our vitriol for tomorrow, there's only so much hatred you can generate in one 24 hour period, don't want to waste any! It would be like invading France but running out of ammo before you left Dover. If I'd been too busy on here today I might have discovered that I'd got nothing offensive left to shout when I really needed it. Not sure what Phil's excuse is, unless he intends to be really shouty with a chicken, stir fry veg and some exotic cider between his meetings tomorrow.

if Avram Grant was as good at managing football clubs as he is at ****ing whores he'd have a few Champion's League titles to his dirty name. As for the sad old spin - The ex-Blues boss refused to walk away from the club as it went through administration and relegation from the Premier League, while taking them to the FA Cup final that term against the odds. Or to put it another way, the seedy old pervert continued to selfishly rip his wages out of the bankrupt club while overseeing a record-breaking failure for the Premier League which culminated in him dragging the club out of the bigtime and away from the only lifeline they had, while also cobbling together a criminally-funded cup run that ended in hilarious failure. His coaching record makes Tony Adams look like Shankly, his personal life tells you so much about his lovely 'spirit'. And as for not walking away?? He was out of there quicker than Antonov would be if a moped backfired in a dark alley. We saw him....gripping a microphone in the style of a Latvian prossie, out on the pitch spouting sh1t to deluded simpletons, and they lapped it up! They can never break our spirit!!.. Does that mean we're staying up? They will never break us!!... Are we staying up... We will stay strong!!... Are we safe?... Er no, I've just got us relegated and we are so insolvent the club is ****ed for a generation, I'm off to West Ham now to announce that they have the best fans in the world...bye! Yeah, they didn't have an academy but every transfer window you'd catch gobby Avram splashing out on youth, and as for the cup, he liked nothing better than watching a tense semi on a big TV... He was as loyal as the heroic boys of January 2012 - bless em, those battling troops who stood by UnAppy in his hour of need. If you boys don't leave the club will go under....**** that, I want my wages. Mmmm, real loyalty that, well done to those guys who pushed the club to todays shameful begging from the government. Why don't they just go the whole hog and steal some more from the local charities. The fans have been shafted and are now being invited to borrow money to pay Ben Haim, the taxman has been penetrated and is now being asked to cough up some compensation, why not get down to the cancer charities and take their furniture? There must be some kids in wheelchairs who don't need their shoes, take them, sell them, and Kitson can buy himself some more shiny comfort-tat through the summer. They are beyond a fricking joke, even the politicians are counting down the days to the elections so they can drop them like a stone. I want to see them destroyed at St Marys - for so many reasons. not long now, Judgement Day is nearly here......

from all the guesswork and disinformation dressed up as facts by the pompey Trust I wouldn't have much confidence in their ability to operate an exclusive lucky heather franchise at Wickham fair. I'm sure they do all have high powered dayjobs - but from their business plan I suspect for some it involves the comedic delivery of a cumbersome piano up a spiral staircase, with regular breaks for cups of PG Tips. Buyout for a quid? Play hardball with arms dealers and loan sharks and shoo them away with a sh1tty stick? I think you're getting into the realms of fantasy there Jones. The dreamers and tyre-kickers are now IN the building, they might have good intentions, but the Trust is raising hopes and misleading the fanbase just as much as previous regimes. It may just be desperation, or it may be the lack of a proper business plan or a blend of the two, but either way it makes little sense and many of the few have noticed.

Funny webchat - some subtle posts! Despite it looking blatantly unfair, I can understand if the failed CVA1 is no longer classed as a CVA, but is now just classed as a new creditor. That means that punishment hasn't been avoided, it's just been suspended pending further enquiries. Should creditors of CVA1 approve of being included in CVA2 under new terms, then there is perhaps no punishment to dish out, after all the creditors will have agreed to it, so pompey will be down the seafront celebrating with jellied eels and lucky heather. But if CVA2 fails to get off the ground then a points penalty for CVA1 comes in like a tsunami and Birch will be picking up bits of fratton park in Paulsgrove. Is that how we think it might work now?..... And I ignore all claims by Birch or the Trust re points or debts being wiped off, nothing has been decided yet, they are just trying to plead for mercy - the old keep saying it, it might come true policy. Now that we have this £8M target, let's play guess the figures again.... What do you reckon for a hardcore number of fans prepared to put up £1000 - up to 3,000? Add on a handful of rich individuals and I reckon they're still approx £5M short of the target. Which would suggest that the current business is beyond salvation - what a bombshell! On a brighter note, let's imagine that a consortium might be able to find £1.5M - that leaves them needing maybe 3,000 hardcore support plus another 15,000 clubbing together to buy shares - then they hit the target and the champagne flows! That buys the club with all of it's ongoing problems, but it leaves a consortium wanting major control, and 18,000 fans feeling they have put their cash in but they don't have a say. Cue internal disputes over business direction, I would give it a month before it starts to fall apart, then again I am cynical about these things so it might be six weeks. It's over, it really is - even when I take my little bitter blinkers off, I still can't see a way forward that works for them.

yeah I just heard the £8M quote - presumably ignores issues like CVA1, the unlikelihood of CVA2, HMRC, football creditors, and the fact that the parachute payments are being gobbled up with every passing day. If true it sounds slightly more realistic than the idea that they can outbid Chanrai etc and buy the ground for £2M. Also sounds way beyond an amount that a fan trust can raise in a few weeks, unless they can find a loan shark to assist them. Still not sure why the administrator has encouraged fans to borrow from a credit union to sort out the debt that was run up by their club borrowing from an international 'credit union' - looks like a repetition of past mistakes to me, but hey ho.

many people cherish memories of games attended with departed relatives or friends, it's a healthy link with the past. My dad died more than ten years ago but I still think of him sometimes during games and wonder what he'd make of our recent seasons - he's still in the West Stand Archers moaning at refs and Benali. Saints games are now a happy association that will always be there for you - and especially this saturday - you have an emotional future ahead of you, but in a good way - everytime we achieve something you'll think of him and how pleased he would be. Great idea for a final visit, may he rest in peace knowing that Saints are in good hands. And he can thank Markus from all of us. RIP

I've seen two skates today - first one said he's missing his first local derby since the mid-80s as he doesn't want to see pompey 'destroyed'. Knowing I was seeing the second one I prepared... He was grateful when I presented him with a small piece of paper with a postcode on it - to help him get to Crawley Town next season for their new local derby, I even included the club telephone number in case he gets lost. I say 'grateful', I think perhaps 'worried' is more accurate, because it was less of a joke and more of a prediction.

so the Trust is a last resort should no buyer come forward? He's talking to three parties, none of whom are near making a bid. As they must be new to the table I'd be surprised if any of them will like what they see during due diligence. The eight weeks deadline he refers to is the Football League meeting at the beginning of June. If he can't go to that meeting and assure them everything is fine and the new season can be financed then I guess the golden share gets withdrawn. I keep reading this claim that the club is only worth what someone will pay. If it were a car, perhaps...but even then, if you offered the owner £100 and he could get £150 by scrapping it then that's what he'll do. So whatever someone offers has to be more than Chanrai etc can get from liquidation - and let's not forget there is value in the two former owners putting their land together, so any consortium that thinks it will play hardball with the creditors is kidding themselves. Moving forward the wagebill is still crippling, and Birch said that Henderson is the only one he doesn't expect to see back, so Lawrence and HuskyBloke will be back soon - at £150K a month. Interesting to see how well the two of them have done - they both gave it large about how they were going to derail our season and help Cardiff and Birmingham to the top of the table. How's that plan working out. And Birch has made passing reference to a question mark over Chanrai's status, but at no point has he been brave enough to officially challenge it, and he can't afford to, so I think Birch is bluffing, especially as he admitted himself the other day that Chanrai has been the only one to put serious money in to the club. It's shown in the accounts, the money went in, the assets are his. And where is AA? He's quiet, that could be dangerous.... Once they've established the full debt and the rapidly disappearing parachute payments, I can't see that any new consortium will match the scrappage deal. I think they'll have to weigh the club in as an Mot-failing non-runner. Looking forward to the big farewell party!

just checked out the fixtures and pompey are right in the sh!t. They need to overhaul both Coventry and Bristol City, which is unfortunate because they still have each other to play, so someone's getting points!... Coventry have a nice home game against Peterboro next week which if they win would take them onto 41 pts with five to play. pompey are on 33pts - defeat at St Marys would all but relegate them. Which is nice.

even when you have a bad day it's always possible to find something to chuckle about. I 5-1 think we should look for the positives. The plucky battling troops got clumsily raped by Burnley today at fortress fratton, everyone else made progress in the relegation battle, and tomorrow the CVA officially fails - but on the cheery side, UnAppy can play pranks on people until lunchtime tomorrow, so it isn't all bad! Pranks like, tell Ben Haim he's due a payrise, or tell Varney it's okay to tell your own supporters to feck off, that sort of thing. Or perhaps realise that you've been the butt of jokes for several months and it's time to go and work for a proper club.

the recent activity down the road has made Rupert look like some sort of financial genius but he clearly wasn't, let's not forget how his claim to fame was giving Nick Leeson his first job. His policy of building the academy and securing a new ground was excellent. Negotiating the most expensive funding package and mortgage deal in history was not. The lack of transparency with the accounts over director's 'fees and expenses' didn't fill me with confidence either, and as time went on it became apparent that Rupert didn't understand the connection between the business, and what happens on the pitch. The drop in revenue post-relegation was easily predictable yet no action was taken. His return to look after his own interests was damaging. He made some very poor decisions and he lost his 'customers' in great numbers - that final chaotic and misguided stumble into a points penalty summed up his tenure. Let's not pretend he was all bad, some of his plan was sensible and he had integrity of some sort, he was just poor at his job. The one that always makes me laugh is when people say none of this would've happened had we re-appointed Glenn Hoddle, the man who not only walked out on us, but a man who has failed at EVERY job since. But thankfully, Rupert and anyone else who failed to turn the ship around are all ancient history, just little toilet breaks on the crazy route map that has brought us to sanity. Re the present, IF we manage to go up, I would be happy to see us battling around 13th/15th, consolidating, but a relegation battle is likely. We've had a fantastic couple of years, I would be saddened if April's hero manager turned into November's sacking amid unreasonable fan expectation. So there will need to be a fan reality check on our status, both on and off the pitch. Those impatient people who demand we hoof the ball up the pitch everyone time we get it, or who think we can sign Tevez, they need to wise up. Nicola and Nige know what they're doing, so stop shouting sh)t from the sidelines. They'll spend what we can, but we won't storm another division. Yet.

I wouldn’t recommend these people unless they have the funds to take the club forward.... Says Peter Storyteller, rewriting both history, and the definition of irony! And as he's lining up another consortium and confirming what a great club pompey is - could he be the only man who still insists that the maiden voyage of the Titanic was an unrivalled success? And when he says 'lines up' - they haven't even spoken to Birch. Tyre-kickers. He seems to have glossed over his part in bringing numerous lunatics and criminals to the table, and giving his full backing to people who didn't even exist. Cheers for the suggestion Pete but it might be fair to suggest that you are in fact aving a larf mush. Interesting comment from Birch re history. It might be my special Rallyboy ears that only hear the worst BUT the way I heard it, he said that a new owner would in theory inherit the history of the current business, as they would be buying the same company. He then added that the current company was entirely different to the previous one, suggesting that they have already dumped their history? They want to hang onto the wins but deny any connection to everything else?...love the child-maimer's success but dismiss him as a criminal? Chant for Sol, but don't pay him? Celebrate Kanu's goals, but offload him like the aged donkey that he is? - it's a bit mixed up down east... Surely the fanbase has had enough. Keep on ploughing money into the shameful black hole of ridiculous wages, creditors, and criminals, or apologise and walk away from the train wreck? A new club, fresh start, honest management, core support seeing old school football at small grounds? Or more frustration as the long dead beast desperately awaits a lightning strike over the crumbling castle? It must be sad to say goodbye to 24 months of history, but it's time to call it a day.

while any effort by genuine supporters to save their club should be praised - if this was a racehorse they'd shoot it in the parade ring. There's no way that £5M will secure longterm control of the club. And there's no way they will raise £5M in a month from individual supporters. This is no more than a fundraiser for millionaire footballers. The supporters are being asked to cough up for Kitson and Ben Haim. So while something needs to be done, and genuine supporters should be praised - this is a non-starter and smacks of desperation. With any dodgy business the seller just awaits the greater fool and from the photo it looks like MoneyPenny is The Mayor of IdiotTown. The ground is cheap if in liquidation? You'll have to outbid a consortium that consists of a very interested multi-millionaire loan shark and a multi-millionaire arms dealer. And if we are talking post-liquidation then the protection of fratton park as a sporting venue is gone. The only way this little band of plucky heroes can buy into the club is with about £15M and the ability to generate more, and even then Chanrai will be in control until his charge is cleared - until they have that sort of money no one will take them seriously. The time has come for the council to buy the land, give it to the plucky bestest, and let Tesco cough up the mythical £20M. Possible scenarios? A. Trust raises funds to convince Birch they can make a go of it, Chinny has them by the gonads, the debts are worse than they realised - savage cuts alienate the fanbase, lack of quality leadership and internal squabbles about direction see Trust implode and pompey plummet. B. Trust doesn't raise funds. For me B looks easier and quicker, though with less comedy potential... Just heard Birch on Solent enocuraging people to borrow from a credit union to give to the club. Sounds like a gig for Chanrai....

is their poker masterplan really to sit there holding Mrs Bun the Baker's wife and a library token, and negotiate really hard with a loan shark who has a handful of aces? Mr Chinny's not going to take a knockdown price, he'll just take the ground - or make Birch sell it. Perhaps he'll let a consortium buy in and repeat his trick with the Russians? - retain full control behind the scenes until the debt is cleared - which he knows will never happen. All sounds a bit desperate - we established 1194 pages back that a new owner has to put real cash on the table, no leverage, no loans, no notes from a made-up bank - hard cash. Tis still the only answer, and this lot obviously haven't got any. I'm surprised the Ho hasn't popped up to give his personal version of our own financial results - glossing over the season they cover, ignoring the payoff to Pardew etc - I guess the fresh myths are still being prepared in some Portsea boozer. The scummers had to give away free shares, the bailiffs knocked down their training ground.... Any sign that pompey will file some genuine accounts at any point this millennium?

yep, looks like pompey are in the clear, they just need to appeal to the caring side of HMRC, appease the shafted creditors, and the child-maimer, and address the small matter of Chanrai and his secured claims on EVERYTHING. Yep, it's fair sailing from here. HMRC have a good record of agreeing to be shafted, I recall them once declining an offer of 99p in the £ and pushing for liquidation, but I'm sure they were just having a bad day. And it's not like the taxman wants to make an example of a football club, so yes, pompey are going to be fine. Loan sharks are renowned for letting debtors off too, they just get bad press. I'm sure that if I was a creditor owed a few thousand and had been misled into signing for CVA1 and hadn't seen a penny, I would rather give them a 2nd chance to rip me off even more. actually, I might just write off the pittance and dance on their graves....

The G Man is right - just because an administrator says there will be no points deduction means diddly squat - it's called the AA Way. Let's remember - despite all the dodgy delays and confusion, at the moment the CVA is fully on track so there has been no need for the FL to even discuss it. That changes on Sunday when Baker Tilly ask where the first payment is. Monday morning the FL will be informed that the agreed CVA has failed. If they choose to do nothing it will be ridiculous, and any credibility they had will be gone. Will pompey have got away with it at that point? Yes. Then the four horsemen of CVA2 come clippety-clopping into town. The chance of that being agreed by creditors must be pretty close to zero. The child-maimer might even take action himself and withdraw access to his land making home games a little more complicated. Even the FL can't pretend that exiting administration without an agreed CVA isn't an offence that attracts a hefty penalty. Birch is just desperately buying time by deferring wages and CVA, but he's stacking up more debt. And he's obviously worried about trying to sail a sinking ship through the choppy waters of a long penniless summer - a points penalty must be the last thing he's concerned about. Meanwhile the search for an elusive lunatic with money to burn goes on.

maybe they're awaiting the official collapse of CVA1 at the weekend before dishing out more penalties, but we all know the FL will somehow ignore that too. I see they nearly packed the park, just the 25% shortfall again - cashflow forecasts must be as scary as an Avram Grant bloodtest. But on a positive note, they haven't invited murderers in to launder money through the club for a few months now, so that's progress. Only half of their points this season were gained using money stolen from Eastern European pensioners - the FL seems to be pretending that hasn't happened and hoping it all goes away. Dirty club. They need to build a new clean one if they want any respect.

but Adrian, that makes the league unfair. If they were forced to work to a budget and had to play the kids they would go to places like Coventry for a massive game and offer an inept feeble performance that....oh, hang on.... Perhaps their definitions of quality and quantity hasn't helped either....after all they were UnAppy's quality battling troops that surrendered like a blubbing toddler when faced with the wall of hate in the Coventry cauldron of noise. I think in this Olympic year we need to introduce the non-competitive spirit that some people seem to want. The one where kids all run around together as it isn't really 'a race', the fast ones who have trained hard have to wait for the lazy b-stards, and everyone gets a prize just for fricking showing up. It's clubs like us and Reading that have messed up the league, working hard, creating a team spirit and coaching players to improve. The table was perfectly good before we came along with our fancy ideas, we need to get back to basics and let everyone have a go, otherwise it isn't fair on those who haven't bothered to budget or those who are just plain sh)t.

we've also established that there's a significant percentage who don't understand, nor care. Most pompey fans I see have no concept of the debt, they don't even realise that it hasn't been paid off. But they aren't worried, because the only thing that counts is what happens on the pitch. They won the cup - the fact that it terminally crippled the business for a generation is irrelevant - a win's a win! Even now there are very few who make the connection between massive overspending and long term problems. Rather than fearing for the whole club's future, most seem more worried about who will play in the next game, or demand to know why they haven't brought in a Premier League striker. I know this seems unlikely, but I know perfectly intelligent skates, who will not accept that the figures don't stack up. The toyman's myth of 'ringfenced parachute payments' and the denial about wages just add to the comforting notion that everything will be fine. They believe what they want to believe, and as with many clubs, some supporters are so casual they just wandered off when it got complex. Many people down east just don't care nor understand what happens off the pitch. You could liquidate and bulldoze the arena and dim people would still turn up next saturday asking why there's no game. There's no point in trying to explain it anymore. spot the difference for simpletons - Man Utd has big debt - Man Utd pays off big debt. pompey has big debt - pompey pays nothing....

recalling our own dismal seasons, the table can often look better than it really is. People were telling us we only needed to win 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 4 to avoid the drop - but having seen the games we all knew that winning 1 in 10 was a more likely outcome. So even though mathematically pompey are not far off saving themselves, the thought of them winning 3 on the trot is fantasy. Their current away form is being described as woeful - which is unfortunate timing prior to a date with destiny. That was a big blow today, well done to the Coventry reserves and academy XI.

that'll be fine in the loosest sense then. Not sure that the current situation on or off the pitch qualifies as my understanding of the word fine. Brighton are fine, ditto Ipswich - or even Derby and Barnsley. pompey are so far from fine they don't even know the state exists. What word best describes the pompey situation? I'm not sure one word could actually cover all the problems so I'll just go for desperate. While I too think they may survive, this idea is purely based on an annoying doubt linked to the ongoing lack of punishment for past crimes. There are no facts to support this survival theory at all...

The FL placated HMRC a while ago by introducing that transfer embargo for missed tax payments. These had to be notified within about three weeks, didn't pompey have ONE day to spare when they signed the pub thug released by Man City? Putting administration aside, they've missed tax payments so an embargo should be in place. And they've shipped out young players to reduce their playing staff so that they can plead 'bare bones' and strengthen their sporting position. Sorry Appy, you got unlucky there with their managerial appointment - I'll go with UnAppy!

Appy doesn't want to use youngsters - but he's willing to make an exception if they're from the Man City academy! Whatever their age, these signings must be an improvement to the squad - a squad with enough experience to get them out of trouble. We might learn a bit of their actual state when they play the Coventry academy and reserves tomorrow, (still under transfer embargo for the horrendous offence of missing accounts deadline?) but I expect them to get something there, and have enough to stay up. The points defecit isn't that bad, and with that passionate fanbase that packs out fratton park they should be okay. I'm surprised they've been allowed to exploit the squad rules. Again. They are still the only team in the history of football administration that has twice been allowed to strengthen. But Rallyboy you blinkered simpleton, they had to get rid of Lawrence and their keeper... Yeah, Lawrence was awful, as Cardiff have discovered - and the reserve keeper is on Premier League money so he should be okay. But vitally they held onto the outfield players they wanted to keep, and have added to the squad, spending money on looking after new players while ignoring tax obligations and ripping up a CVA. The administrator has chosen to spend money on the team rather than debts, presumably because the debts are so huge he can't even scratch the surface, and his only hope is a new owner. It's not been as blatant as the last administration when they traded insolvently and clearly misled a high court and the PL with fantasy accounts to allow bringing in players for the cup game, but it has been a bit naughty. And while they claw their way back from the brink with plucky battling troops at a packed fortress fratton, the debts and deferred wages will be steadily climbing and gobbling up the last few crumbs from the parachute fund. June looks a long way off - Ben Haim's wages and image rights payments alone could sink the ship - yet they still chant his name.