rallyboy

things have changed since Theo - 1. we are now in a much stronger position to offer these players competitive football, 2. we can afford to negotiate hard and Nicola doesn't take prisoners, 3. Arsenal are becoming a less attractive move with every passing week. Do come talk to us Arsene (if you think you still have the backing of the board), but there are no more cut price deals for cash. We intend to be playing against Arsenal in the next two/three years and when that day comes we would prefer the youngsters to be playing for us rather than sitting on your bench.

He's vowed to clear the debt by ignoring it, so just a continuation of all previous owner's business plans! I'm not sure we've had official notice that this guy has passed a FaPPT other than from him, but if he does despite failing miserably to satisfy the financial world, it will be ridiculous. Though when the football authorities can allow QPR to drive a bus through their regulations, nothing surprises me. On the back of that I see little hope of justice being properly served for the financial shenanigans down the road but what I would say is the fans need to be vocal NOW on the prospect of a potential takeover by a man who was too dodgy for Bournemouth, couldn't provide funds for Rangers, and is considered by the UK financial system to be connected to organised crime and money laundering. If a fanbase cares about the state of their club, now is the time for the few to make a noise. But if a dodgy Russian takeover is welcomed we will see once again that the whole club is morally bankupt. As well as being properly bankrupt. Do the fans want to save their club, or do they still just want results at any cost? Sorry, stupid question. Meanwhile the local businesses that were given personal guarantees by the club owner last year over £2,500 debts still wait by the letterbox. How much longer can this criminal farce go on? In the close season can we help them with a simple hearing to see why things haven't improved? Chanrai - why make hollow promises to pay? Lampitt - how can you allow this to continue? And how do you intend to negotiate new sensible contracts after offering huge ones this season? Cotterill - no questions, cleared of all charges - please stay, we think you're doing a great job - get rid of more youngsters, pay more for loanees, and try that quality over quantity again, it just needs fine tuning! Storrie - no questions, please come back to get the finances 'sorted'.

Hi Daren, I hope the pix I took for you on your phones are alright. And thank the guys for firing elastic bands at me in the second half!

I think we just gave Brighton a lesson in how to finish a season - they're lucky they won the title in the first seven games as they haven't matched ourselves and huddersfield since January, despite both of us losing key players, and when it came to the crunch games they couldn't give an honest account of themselves for teams at either end of the table. Their massive domination actually turned into us coming up one game short, and I bet that annoys Nige - no doubt he'll put that right next season. Great day, and as Giger points out, the celebratory moments are often a time when you remember relatives/friends who are no longer with us, but they would certainly have enjoyed yesterday! - must have been a tough but proud day for Nicola. I have never seen so many people on a pitch, and I have never seen so many proper football shirts in Fareham, are pompey still trading? They seem to have disappeared.

most concerning aspect of this is that he came out to punch something and missed it. Bad decision making or just technically inept?

they would be buying a club without any debt??.... So Chanrai is taking responsibility for the cva, arms dealer etc? - that'll be an asking price of approx £60M then - or the price of two Prem clubs. Nearly as funny as 8,000 season tickets already sold - yeah right, and new pompey player manager Ricky Lambert will be leading the team out at the Maradona Harbourdome in August. Storrie must be back in charge of the figures.

Presumably Cotterill has no power to do anything regarding new players as - a.the business is for sale and it's reckless to take on new contracts. b.the current owner doesn't want to spend anything. So why is he even pretending? Oh yes, the old season ticket sales scam! Look at us, everything is great, no really, no problems at all, new squad, promotion push, please for god's sake can someone pay next month's wages??!!... Unless they complete a deal a bit sharpish they are will be in a worse state than they were last summer - at least he has his US holiday once again at the taxpayer's expense.

excellent and well deserved. And let's just bury this myth that Saints always falter. We have been under massive pressure for three months - have we been shipping last minute goals, wobbling as soon as the oppostion get at us? No way. MK Dons threw everything at us but we didn't crack - we battled, players out on their feet fought for the points and an exhausted Barnard ran to Woolston with the ball. We are no longer that weak team, our award-winning manager has created a winning mentality.

Must be the same architect as Chanrai's, it looks like the initial design for the fence around Fratton Heights - The forthcoming development of 230 luxury apartments and 30 retail units - with of course a small bit of land put aside for 'leisure use'. But to satisfy the disgruntled few they'll paint the railings blue, so that's nice. Or should that be Fratton Depths.....either way, weather permitting, it's opening summer 2012!

surely Ladysaint takes the prize only missing the one - a 6-0 away win - plastic! That's better than doing the lot, it shows that you can still have one regret in a fantastic season.

and the funniest rumour ever made up on The News site? Is it the Saints are in massive debt and Cortese is trying to offload them because they don't even own the ground - always a funny one if you believe everything you hear from a wino on a park bench. No, it's todays breaking news that the mate of a bloke down pompey works at St Marys and has confirmed that pompey are currently tabling a bid for Lambert. What with - fricking shirt buttons?? The deluded few are so dim.

funniest bit is how after our poor start they took offence at Nige's throwaway remark about them keeping up with us - and they couldn't! We have taken more points than them since that game, the sort of thing you'd keep under wraps if you were champions. But no, they printed that fact on their own programme, and made a banner to remind Nige that his managerial record has been better than Poyet's - for some bizarre non-motivational reason? even Huddersfield have matched them point for point since game 14 - the title was won in August. So, Saints and Huddersfield - the two best footballing sides in the division - and with proper managers. Hopefully Poyet doesn't get sacked before they come to St Marys, I look forward to more of his great motivational work!

Clearly the next season will be the interesting one, let's assume they stumble through the next few wagebills and make it to August. Assuming there is no significant new investment - The squad clearout is desperately needed though there will still be a few players making a joke of the salary cap, from the business side they will get the wages down to a sustainable level as long as they don't continue the quality over quantity madness. Income - season ticket money will be down again and I can't see an increase in sponsorship or commercial activity. Normally this business might just be able to break even..... Sadly there's a cva on the horizon and if a squad was gathered on the above terms they would be in the relegation battle they delayed from this season. If the court cases go against them as well they could be starting the season with a really weak squad and a penalty. A year ago I would have said they are banged to rights on the tax evasion but with the legal escapes they have already managed I can't see a points penalty being imposed - unless QPR get hit hard and the few's case pops up on the FA radar at an unfortunate moment. As the season progresses we're likely to see another attempt at delaying the cva, though I think it has to be paid in the time limit so they would leave themselves with an almighty lump sum to find in year five - maybe the current owner doesn't regard that as his problem. A business you used to own has been hit with a massive sporting penalty? Who cares! The big flaw with the Russian plan? - sounds like they are asking the loan shark to go back to where he was before, owed money but with no control of the business. Currently he has rights over the ground and transfer income, he's not going to release that without some cash in hand. As they say in Russia, there's nowt worse than tyre-kicking money launderers. If they do agree a deal I can just see more debt being added to the black hole, they aren't going to put their own money in, if the were they would buy with a lump sum - Saab is seeking lending as well so these guys seem reluctant to part with any cash. I cannot see a situation where they can compete in the transfer market to get Prem quality players the masterplan requires. The dream scenario to potential buyers seems to be a Prem return and the riches that accompany that. On paper they are one promotion away - in reality they are £10-20M from that, and no one wants to put a quid in. And if they did get back up the feeding frenzy from interested parties looking for their money back would look like a bloodbath. Best case? What I would call the justice scenario - Minus 25pts, weak squad, 6K gates. Worse case? - they get dumped down a division and we don't get to hammer them at Fratton. Most likely - no irregularities found, no tax evasion proved, new owners with little cash, bumbling along in midtable mediocrity, 3rd/4th on the south coast.

Arguably, pound for pound, we have the best support in the Championship and, do you know what, with a little bit of help and a few players that might have been us this year. Yes Steve, let's ignore the facts shall we - 13th in the average attendance league and 30 points adrift despite choosing to outbid teams at the top of the table with your cunningly suicidal recruitment policy. Yet another new version of history for the deluded few to suffer. Is it wrong to feel sorry for some of them having to put up with this while we celebrate our own season? Or shall I just remind myself of the arrogant rubbish we have had to put up with from a criminally-run, insolvently-trading, money-laundering operation, supported by a handful of caravan-tugging, sister-bothering, lucky heather sellers? If QPR get hit hard pompey could be in a bit of trouble - it's really not a good time to be in court. Cue bleats about it's not us, it was other owners, we didn't mean to cheat etc. I believe we will resume our place above them in four months time.

I can't recall our club being in such good condition - big plans, great squad, delivering on the pitch, investment likely to be available, and of course well managed at all levels. If there was a league of the 92 clubs grading fans' satisfaction with their lot, I reckon we have gone in two years from about 90th right up into the top four. Who is having more fun at the moment? Norwich perhaps, but even Brighton can't be as confident about the future - I reckon Cortese has created one of the happiest bunch of fans in the UK. Even the miserable ones who managed to move swiftly from promotion celebrations to fearing a potential increase in ticket prices - that window of positivity lasted 25mins yesterday. We are living a fantastic era for the club - soak it up!

Markus and Nicola have given us a fantastic two years, it might get tougher next season but in Nige, Nicola unearthed a gem of a manager, an amazing appointment that had me underwhelmed at the time. Whatever the reasons, his decision on Pardew has been fully vindicated, but let's not forget the quality of some of Pardew's signings as well. In Nicola we trust. Tonight is for celebrating so I won't launch a bitter attack on the likes of Ferguson junior and Poyet whose behaviour has been disgraceful, they could learn a lot about the game from Huddersfield who behind us have been the best football team since January - they should be okay through the playoffs. In fact I would love to see Ferguson's little face when they get turned over at Old Trafford - his missus will be in trouble that night. And what of Puncheon, he got on the wrong bus bigtime. Bournemouth? Pay your bar bills, stop making up stories about your manager and learn some respect for your betters - then we might all get on again. And finally the pompey fans who tried to tell me we were in big trouble, up to our ears in debt and up for sale last January - hope the Norwich fans don't ruin your pitch, if you still own it. It is a fantastic time to be a Saint. The future is so very red and white. Join me for my birthday party at St Marys on saturday - all welcome.

he's a coaching legend but he still hasn't matched the equally talented Avram Grant's record of 73 weeks in the relegation zone out of 74 - makes you wonder what he was doing in the other week. Just stumbled across a Chelsea/Bournemouth supporter who was talking absolute crap and reminded me of the most deluded of the few in their prime. It seems that Cotterill has done a fantastic job, he only has the highest paid team because of players he inherited!pompey are a much bigger club than us because of their league position and their support, he's sure they'll finish above us next year if we go up, and Bournemouth didn't really mean it when they were gobbing off in the build up to our game. I was gobsmacked when he started going on about pompey and the great hero Cotterill, you come to realise that some people are so ignorant on footballing matters that they don't deserve your attention, let alone a conversation about it. So today is meant to be the great unveil and introduction of the new money launderers..... Or has their main investor been killed in Pakistan?

Boro's equaliser, Villa's 3rd, Bent's last minute winner - today Mr Adkins can bury all of those moments. He has quietly kept the lid on the expectation but has been 100% confident from day one that promotion is our destiny. He has the bus motoring now, we are all rowing in the same direction, he is chipping away, chipping away. I'm looking forward to the moment when Nige goes crazy and runs all over the pitch, or at least steams his glasses up. I would love us to win promotion at home but I would love it even more if we didn't need a thing from the Walsall game. So sort it today Nige. I hope we will be unstoppable - the bus is going too quick for Plymouth.

Saints shirts spotted in Petersfield and Oakhanger today - there's only one club in Hampshire and the county is being reclaimed mile by mile. With Brighton squeezing pompey from the east as well it's all looking as bit like the opening credits of Dad's Army. It's turning into the blue very few.

I don't call Poyet's tactics football, and in the end he proved he couldn't hack it against the passing teams. They are champions because they did a more professional job on the likes of Rochdale, fair play to them for that, but the comfortable distance looks very slim now. Must have been a right damp squib of a farewell party.

after earlier disagreements they really cared about the results against us and Huddersfield - but they just weren't good enough. Poyet's team doesn't seem to like pressure, or maybe his ballboys were off form? He's happy grounding out results against a few lesser clubs but when it came to the crunch his team bottled it. Twice. So we have now established that the two best football teams in the division sit in 2nd and 3rd - or does he think Huddersfield play like Dagenham too? If Poyet isn't careful he'll find that he has failed to keep up with us since that original throwaway comment was made. A month ago I thought they were worthy champions but it appears that they have limped over the line and would now not fare well if thrown into playoffs against the likes of Bmouth.

there's a bloke in the Northam who slags off Davies every game, claims he's the worst keeper in the division and was slating Nige and Cortese only two games ago. He's obviously a better judge of players than the professionals that voted for Davies, his comments about the other two look pretty stupid as well. Sadly there isn't a compulsory IQ test at the ticket office.

they have their biggest fixtures to come - tax evasion, and the liquidation report. Surely no one can cover up the blatant financial irregularities or insolvent trading that they have tried to leave behind? If nothing comes of those two enquiries then we can congratulate Nick as he called it correct all along and football will have been made to look ridiculous. And if the taxman isn't capable of getting his money back either, Cameron can stick his cuts where the sun don't shine as he obviously doesn't need the revenue that badly. When much richer clubs are still complaining about being outbid by mid-table, post-admin businesses a division lower then it's all gone bonkers if no action is taken. At least the few have abandoned them so the claim to be the bestest is as funny as a bitter uruguayan with a trembling lip refusing to shake hands after his side has been mugged next to their little long jump pit. There is only one club down here - and that's why they just refer to us as the south coast club.

pressure is properly cranked up on Huddersfield now. Their biggest problem is that we have all just been educated by that coaching genius down the coast and we now realise that Dagenham are as good as us. That could be good enough for a draw up there - if we see a Saints win and Udders draw - it's over bar the shouting.

when we beat Spurs in the cup a few years back I could only get a ticket in their section. One spurs fan went mental and I recall him frothing at the mouth and screaming 'Poyet you useless effing C*nt!!!' At the time I thought it was well out of order, but on reflection it was, and still is, fair comment. He really is cheap and nasty. Loser