rallyboy

so it wasn't the wages or the ridiculous transfer fees, it wasn't even the massive agent fees that pushed them to the brink - it was the fact that one of their toilets flushes too much. Note to board, make fans wait until they can't get the lid down before flushing in future, the water bill savings will keep the CVA on track and allow the new arena development to get going.

it sounds like the MOD accountant was perfectly correct. But incredibly insensitive and stupidly unaware of the PR damage caused by the clumsy handling of it. What gets me about these types of decision is that it wasn't 'the MOD' who handled this poorly, it was a human being - someone actually sat there one day and thought to themselves, 'shall I tell the family we have deducted money because their kid was killed?'...and they decided it was quite clear, he was dead, he didn't work the hours he was supposed to - rules are rules, must let them know. Perhaps the individual concerned may consider the enormous PR damage next time for the sake of £400 - the tabloids must think it's Christmas, they didn't even have to make this one up. So yes, technically correct decision but appallingly dealt with - shot themselves in the foot then reloaded and did the other one. There is an old adage that rally drivers have one accident a year to remind them where the limit is - in that tradition I try to agree with Dune once a year if I can. Think that might be twice now, but it is October.

its okay, we'll have the world cup soon as the rest of the world loves us so much, and then the FA will pay for the new harbourdome. No doubt we'll win it as well with our next 'golden generation'. If that's too long to wait pompey just need to ask for investment - and the next collection of loan sharks and property developers will see an injured animal in desperate need of short term cash and move in for the kill. Though Redkeith makes a valid point about fitting the home crowd into two stands.... They could turn the pitch now and only have three stands. That would screw the child-maimer, he wouldn't have any options for selling the bit where the goal has a pavement behind it.....then again he could build his own stand and undercut them...maybe not, that's as mad as the harbourdome idea.... And I'm not sure if they have the money for repainting the white lines let alone some turf.... Or perhaps Storrie and Lampitt have driven them up a business cul-de-sac and they are fecked!

wasn't breakeven approx 14,000? - and that was before they fell about £10M short on transfer fees. With the current wagebill running too high as well the russians will have to chuck money in to stand still. So how long before we're treated to confirmation of a further delay of the CVA payments? That should come in January I reckon - a letter to creditors saying there isn't funding to pay the CVA yet, at the same time as they will outbid bigger clubs and sign two or three players on silly wages. Same sh=t, different transfer window.

Ruined is a bit harsh - all they did was stole money intended to improve the short lives of terminally-ill children, you're making out it was something really bad... Everyone makes mistakes, easy to do, you collect money for a charity, pretend to hand it over to get your photo in the paper, put it in your own pocket. Go home that night and think, mmmm, the cancer charity probably needs it more than we do.....feck em, let's spend it on loanees instead, they can stick their little wheelchairs where the sun don't shine.* And I'm sure all of those local businesses raped by the club will have got over it by now - forgive and forget as they say in Mossad. Disappointed they haven't been talking to Avram, nothing quite as funny as an old man shuffling around a dirty industrial estate with his club tracksuit trousers around his ankles and his little chap sticking out like a wrinkly hitchhiker's thumb. *I think Ho is also appalled but will tell us they have paid it all off, though despite Lampitt's claims, the jury is still very much out on that one. The crime is so bad that I don't care if it is all cleared, it should NEVER have happened. Presumably Ho has been banged up as a result of his blatant disregard for a court injunction.

the lesson I took from it was if you are going to be 1-0 and down to ten men, do it against Reading and not Man City.

quite a difficult time to be negotiating I would suggest - then again if they think you are the best one for it they will pay more than for a lesser candidate, so if you get the job offer you will have some leverage - but use it carefully. I've seen people try to haggle and look very greedy, an ugly trait to display before you even start, and enough to lose you the opportunity. If you really feel you are worth more you can always go for a review after three months, then six...or if you really want the job just take the £18K or whatever when it is offered. Either way I'm sure you will be on more than my initial £25 a week! In the current climate I reckon haggling over salary will be the least of your concerns, good luck with it. Cue older people with lower starting wages.....

I was with Jonny on that one - thought I might be safe on a Saints forum! Never mind, looks worth watching - and saves Mrs RB spending the whole evening desperate to tell me the score.

it may be no bad thing to have a humbling moment after the West Ham game, we didn't look like champions tonight and that should motivate players. And I would rather have that wake up call in the style of a tough away point than a battering from Millwall on our own patch having spent a fortune. Good point, great goal, Saints march on.

if you have dominated a game, produced the best performance of the season and still failed to register a goal let alone a point - isn't it time to be a little bit worried? Surely playing poorly and getting turned over is one thing, but finding that your best isn't good enough indicates a real problem. That said, I expect a win over mighty Donny in front of what must be a slightly improved crowd now that they realise they need to attend to get tickets for their cup final - 13K?

where is the bit in the report blaming human activity? It says climate change is occuring, as it has done with fluctuation for however many million years - a bit like telling us that summer follows spring. Not quite a scoop, I think Gaddafi is more of a story.

it's disgraceful, he was on the legal bit of Dale Farm when they tasered him - and other than financing world terrorism and murdering his own people while personally pocketing millions of dollars of oil revenue, what did he ever do wrong? Dune me old mucker, I think your over-trolling is getting you politically confused - you will struggle to support Mrs Thatch and the main financial backer of the IRA at the same time. Try a more subtle one and see who bites.

the ref showed he wasn't up for dishing out too many cards when he let go the first half deliberate handball blocking an attacking pass, also the West Ham player who was pulled up for a foul and responded by running at the ref and screaming in his face was let off - so Chaplow even getting booked was a bit much by those standards. As for Baldock's plan to put Lambert off a free kick, I would have thought teaching your keeper to call for crosses might be time better spent - their defence was chaotic at times so whose idea was it to concentrate on a bizarre decoy run-up impression? - a ploy that has prevented exactly zero free kicks being scored in the history of football. Oh well, their problem not ours.

11,000 v 32,000 That is the final word on who has the bigger fanbase, even Ho wouldn't be daft enough to argue that point again. While some Saints fans are now starting to believe that we may be able to achieve something this season, I still haven't met a pompey fan who will honestly accept that we are doing well, and it is on merit. The delusion continues. Apparently we are still 'lucky as teams don't know us', we will 'fizzle out', 'it's a marathon not a sprint'. Every time we beat someone they are dismissed as not that good. Nige is sounding grounded, as are most fans, I have raised my expectation from top ten to perhaps top six, but no one sensible is vocalising the thought that we will comfortably win this league on the strength of a couple of months. So yes it is a marathon, but it looks like pompey pulled a hamstring in the warm up area. Anyone had a member of the very few congratulate us on a good start and our decent squad?

West Ham looked clueless at times, did we make them look that way or did Sam get it so wrong? Had that been a boxing match the ref would have stopped it before halftime. Well done Chappers. I was right in line with the backheader and for me it was heading for the inside of our post all the way until the last metre - I guess you make your own luck. Had they equalised there would have been a steward's enquiry. What a night. The days of shaky late capitulations are long gone - we now have steel, several leaders - and we scrap when we need to. On course for that top ten finish And as for that record attendance, you can take one off because that bloke from the Telegraph was obviously somewhere else.

it won't be easy but my tip would be try and agree as much as possible between the two of you - any amicable agreement will save thousands of pounds, and months of hassle - however annoying it might seem to have to negotiate on something that is clearly yours. Don't get into a £5K legal fight over a £1K stumbling block. It was a while back but mine was okay, though I did come across a solicitor who offered to represent me. He asked if I was paying for the kids, I said I was. Whe he found out it wasn't under a court order and I was doing it out of my responsibility as their father he was very confused. It was beyond him why anyone would pay for their children's clothes and food unless legally forced to, he was baffled, he thought I was an idiot for doing that. So he represented an aspect of possibly the most offensive professional industry I've ever come across. Don't get on the wrong side of someone like that, agree stuff between the two of you wherever possible. Though if you've been sh2gging her mum/sister/brother/daughter - you may have drifted beyond the negotiating stage, if little Baj has been out on manouevres you might have to hand all your keys in and look for a nice bench!

get an oyster card, stick a tenner on it, top it up and use it every time you are in London - cheaper fares and saves a lot of messing about deciding what zones you have to cross. Just spent a couple of days in Camden/Hackney area - it was nice to come home!

so they lose 25% of their attendance for being on Sky? Do they get that many people in one pub watching it in Greek? That means Man Utd should budget for 18,000 empty seats at every televised game....better let them know. And Sid, it's beyond comedic - surely it's cruel to call them bestest now! When there was a group it was banter but now there are so few it seems insulting.

See how many we get on Tuesday night but I think the attendance debate is over - a towel came over the ropes halfway through round one. Seems to have got to the point where we could fill their whole 'stadium'. It might be polite to let their season ticket holders have their seats and we'll settle for the other 12,000 - though even then it would still have to go to a ballot. Difficult to believe how quickly their fortunes have changed, and they haven't even been caught by the taxman yet. Is it time to retire 'the bestest' tag?....Or shall we keep it alive for comedic effect?

you have to take your hat off to the russians. They offloaded a truly awful manager, demanded money for him - and they kept a straight face until they got back in the car. I guess the real test is yet to come - let's hope they have an equally awful replacement lined up, which is quite likely.

Ho me old mucker just putting aside the amusing image of the CIA waterboarding Phil in his orange boiler suit, just to gain access to his busy mind - I'm not sure I follow the idea that the Liebherr family will want £50M just to break even.... Can you just run those figures past me again, perhaps with a little more detail....

well that's cleared all that up then. While Ho tries to bore the thread to death, Phil encourages Ho to suffer a mental breakdown by attempting to make sense of all the clues.

would you buy the top of the range, low mileage, one owner Audi that could really do with a new parcel shelf, OR the rusting 1975 insurance write-off cut-and-shut Trabant that has a terminal engine problem, four wheel clamps attached, has already been involved in two fatals, has outstanding parking tickets and comes with a list of dodgy former keepers that looks like a court listing? Whatever the Liebherr family decide to do in the future they currently have a really attractive asset - a progressive business with good facilities, great footballing potential, and in footballing terms it is debt-free - a rare and sought after beast. It ticks every box and would generate a very good price on the open market. And before Ho starts on debt, I'm not saying we shouldn't keep an eye on outgoings, but money lent by the owner to a valuable business is not debt. However, lending money into a business with no structure or chance of repaying just so you can take control of it and usher it through insolvency using your pet administrator as a paid puppet is called loan sharking. So no, I'm not worried about the 'debt' created by the sensibly-planned and successful rebuild required during our exit from administration.

knocking out away shirts half price is standard business practice. In May! With that and the ticket deals, a cynical man might suggest it could indicate a cashflow problem. But I'm sure it's just a reward for the hardcore support from the cash rich owners.

It must be difficult not to have your head turned by the money involved. Agent. My client wants to buy player X. Seller. He's not for sale. Agent. They'll pay £10M. Seller. No thanks. Agent. He's already been tapped up with a massive pay increase. Seller. He's not going anywhere. Agent. How about £6M...and there's £1M each for you and I to make it happen.................... Seller. See you at the services in 10mins. And completely unrelated - I'm not convinced about the huge profits claimed on transfer deals like the Johnson one. A player rockets in value....that means he has either developed amazingly - or he was deliberately undervalued in the books for the initial deal. Perhaps agent fees were quite large, or perhaps his signing on fee was massive, he may have had a few million for image rights, or perhaps there were other monies moved to other parties who smoothed the deal through.... I'm sure some agents can make any deal happen, but they will want a huge slice of big profits, and that cannot appear in the books. Then you add in his wages on and the huge profit looks a bit paltry. So I'm sure there was a profit, but we all saw the agent fees in the accounts and we all know that there seems to be a lot of money unaccounted for. Perhaps the forensic investigation will explain a few of the odd deals.