rallyboy

The dreaded booking fee beast has arrived at Fratton and the peasants are revolting - I see some rumblings about a 12.5% increase on season tickets and you only have a fortnight to get an early bird deal - and you can't use a credit card because they aren't a proper company. That's the way to tackle a recession and falling gates, hammer the customers who have stuck by you and chase the rest away forever. Once again it's an interesting business plan. Their finances look so fragile that they desperately need us to go up with Brighton to make their season interesting enough for people to attend and to up the ticket income. Championship TV money and ticket sales will cover the wages, parachute clears football debt - that just leaves new player purchases and the ever-delayed cva to plan for. I can't see any money to replace the squad unless they spend future revenues again, and we all know where that leads. They need an exciting season just to cover overheads - Scummers, can't live with them, can't survive without them. Is it July for the tax evasion cases? A points penalty would throw a spanner in the works.

re the pace issue, difficult to be nippy when Fonte has just cut you in half because you aren't physical enough!.... felt really confident after Bmouth, then I couldn't believe that Huddersfield and PBoro both won the other night. They cannot carry on the way they are going....it isn't possible, or if they do we can't complain about losing out as they would both deserve it. I thought Peterborough's run in was tough but the way they are demolishing sides they look unstoppable, but that can change... Really don't want to be having three games in hand to make up 7-8 points. I'm not sure we are going to get that stress-free, promotion sorted before the last day, playoff-dodging finale we hoped for. That aside, no one would want us in a playoff, we have big occasion players and steamrolling Sheff Wed counts for nothing if you have to come to a packed St Marys....or face us at Old Trafford. Quietly confident, but a few butterflies are circling.

‘I don’t think people will be scared off by what’s happened at Portsmouth. The worst has passed now. For sure, the future will be brilliant for the club and for us. In England and not only in England, everybody knows about Portsmouth and what a fantastic club this is.’ ....shouted a deluded, heavily-medicated and self-harming Ricardo Rocha through the barred windows of the ambulance as he was driven away from training in a strait jacket. Thick or in denial?

yep that pretty much looks like the takeover is complete and the thread is over. It's been fun, I've enjoyed the banter, we've made some friends and had some laughs, but all good things come to an end. All the best everyone. unless of course this is just the monthly spin that accompanies the build-up to the wages being due?.............will they get paid, won't they, what potential owner will be asked to pay them etc. They are worth £600M? - taking that as a bloated figure, that will be half of their entire wealth that's needed to turn the club round then - so they intend to sell some of their houses and booming businesses to do this? What an interesting and unique way of operating.

if we really want to get ahead of ourselves the masterplan behind the project must be to build a Prem team this summer... But before we start making offers for the likes of Heskey, Phillips and Bramble, shall we gather a few more points and book the automatic place out of the third tier?

went off Coventry when they signed a fully paid up member of the sex offender's register - was it 13 previous offences? Everyone deserves a 14th chance. Didn't like them much before to be honest, but if clubs stood together and said they wouldn't sign some of the convicts currently in the game it would be a positive move.

no wonder no one goes to watch them anymore, sounds like Boro was the worst game for ages. Cotterill always keep you entertained though...... When we have a poor game I come out and say “yes, we were poor”, I don’t try to spin anything. He then goes on to spin - ‘We could have been three up at half-time with the chances we had and there were a couple of calls for a penalty – you might not get one but might get another. So it sounds like plucky little pompey were unlucky not to win 5-0. He forgot to mention that Boro wasted a one-on-one late on. I wonder if he realises that after five criminal years at number 1 they are heading for 3rd or 4th on the south coast. Where's the Russian cavalry, or have they been shot again?

are we competing to be the harshest critics in the football league? Butterfield 7 - Did nothing wrong. Maybe a 9 might have been nice then? Grinding out a 3-0 win against Yeovil wasn't good enough for many, and just when I thought we had comfortably beaten one of our main competitors for automatic promotion at their own ground it seems from some of the marks that most players were off the pace and we are no better than average, which amounts to midtable form. Lambert sets up one and scores another brilliantly - this qualifies him for a 6? I understand keeping our feet on the ground as we don't look like Brazil in their prime, but the table suggests we are better than these marks. Anyone want to offer some generous marking that reflects the result? Or does this leave Bournemouth players getting all 3's, 4's and 5's?

I don't think Peterborough are as good as the table suggests, they have some tough games to come and yesterday they played against a very different Carlisle to the one that we saw, they looked drunk - and with a soft ref - again. Do some of these smaller teams not bother at grounds like Peterborough and then get all committed when they come to a big ground? We need to keep on pocketing the points and the others will fall away - we have depth in the squad, they don't. Yesterday was pivotal to the season.

sounds like we were really lucky as they should have had a penalty and they were the better side for most of the match. Then again that was from Bradbury's Solent interview. Perhaps he could have said we deserved it. If you've been gobbing off all week and you then get a good spanking on your own patch perhaps a little humility might be in order. And in contrast there's Nige on the radio now accepting that the first goal was correct, it's called honesty. Oh well, onwards and upwards. Well done all, great day.

Cortese will take that attack by the newspaper group as a fresh declaration of war, imo the Bournemouth Echo has damaged the Southampton one and set media relations back, it's more insulting than what the Sun did! I thought the intitial ban was a mistake - this makes it look justified. I wouldn't have that reporter in my ground - he insults the club, the manager, the chairman, the history, even Le Tissier - and it is clearly angled to create trouble between two sets of fans who historically have been far enough apart to have a healthy relationship. Was it the final fling in the transparent PR campaign to try and sell out their fine stadium? If so it was ill-judged and poorly delivered. That aside, 5pm Saturday....as Mick McCarthy would say.

before we define whether a takeover has in reality taken place thus rendering this thread redundant, I think we need to accept that the 755 page juggernaut has evolved into a vehicle for all Skate issues. I see no end, we've created a monster. The only way this thread can close is if pompey do nothing illegal for a bit, and are punished for all past crimes, both of which could occur anytime.* The job to edit 'the best of' into a written form should only take the thread instigator about two years. *not really!

Mack, as we like you we've had a whipround and gathered you some punctuation to use, it will help all of us. Here's some to start you off, let us know if you need more. ,,,,,,.......?!''' And do bear in mind that Grammar isn't the tattooed bird 28 years your senior who touched you up at Hilsea Lido. Re my previous mention of a rumour about ground safety at Fratton, like the ground it's nothing concrete, just a skate rumour that there had been a problem with the safety certificate for some sections of the crumbling ruins. No doubt they can shut a stand or two without having to move more than a handful of fans so it won't be too much of an issue if true.

they could dock QPR 10pts and they could still win the league, but if they don't go up it will cost pompey £400k from the Smith transfer. Looking at their fixtures I reckon it will be Leicester who beat them next - the club that Mandaric saved will finish their season, goal by Yakubu. The planets are nearly in place....tis in the scriptures.... How are those Russians getting on with due diligence on the deal that would be completed by last week, or has their backing from Tripoli hit a snag? AA may be a master at fooling courts but he isn't too hot at converting sales leads.

Chanrai can't afford to write off his losses yet, not with whiffs of parachute money still about. IMO one more defeat will end their season. But I'm wondering if many of the few realise that the massive gamble they took was to go up, not just stay up. Midtable for that squad will be a very poor return on the big wages they have paid. Cotterill has proved himself to be an average manager, I do hope he stays to rebuild, he has been close to mental breakdown for much of the season, I can't see that rebuilding again with even less money will be easy. They should beat Boro, no doubt they will win other games but when the next defeat comes, and it will, the great gamble will have failed and damaged the future of the business. It will be a repeat of their previous insanity, spending future revenue to step up a level. Lampitt and Cotterill will then have to justify their decisions, or perhaps they will just both leave and let someone else sort out the new mess. Or have we got it all wrong and as many of their fans believe, they will clear out the deadwood and bring in fresh new better players on shirt buttons, the foundations are now in place, all is rosy in the garden, a mass clearout is less of a crisis and more of an opportunity?.....yeah, right. And that's ignoring the rumour about some sections of their ground failing safety checks. And tax evasion charges. And the liquidator's investigation. While ploughing through parachute payments like Elton John at a florist convention. They are not toast, the fat lady isn't singing, I can't hear the clippety clop of the four horsemen riding up the Eastern Rd, but they are slipping gently towards lower league mediocrity with no sign of what would change that, which is funnily the same thing they needed on day one of this thread. Without investment and a new ground they will always be in decline - the playoffs are their last chance saloon, and they aren't even on the guest list yet.

is it the one with the tags still attached to his coat and hat, the one that actually looks the most like Cortese? I'm only guessing that might be him, difficult to tell as he is the one fairly central in the photo and focussed. Could be wrong... Fair play to him, best way to find out how all areas of the business are actually working, and classier than standing about in a XXXXXL Newcastle shirt having drinking competitions.

awful first half - but had you offered me in advance a 3-0 win, a 5 goal improvement on Bournemouth who lose, and the wheels coming off the pompey caravan all on the same night, I might just have taken that. These games against poor teams have to be won, no prizes for being pretty, just pocket the points and move on.

I think some people are on a wind-up, very funny. The fans drove him away? Any player whose that bothered by a minority who get on his back when he fails maybe doesn't have the mental strength for the rigours of a pressure-laden run-in. Ditto Fuller - he was terrible on occasions for us and also missed a shedload of chances when he first went to Stoke, and they were costly misses in his first season there. If he takes the cash and the adulation he has to accept the stick when he performs poorly. It's called life and if he isn't tough enough to be a footballer he should do something less stressful - if I was him I would score goals and run to the fans and tell them to shut the feck up, I wouldn't sulk and slip away. Puncheon was always giving everything and didn't hide? Yeah right - great touch, awful attitude, last bloke you want alongside you in a trench - and we are in a trench right now. He's worth more to us than Chambo? Mmm, I see what you are trying to say but would politely disagree - Chambo's not been great but has delivered more imo. If you occupy the most vocal part of our ground you aren't intelligent enough to see what is happening in the game? That's right, if you think a player is poor you obviously don't understand the sport, but only in this one section...there may be twenty vocal idiots in the Northam, don't pretend it's otherwise to make excuses for poor players. Personally I think he's a good technical player whose finishing for us was woeful, he did hide on occasions, and when given an opportunity to return and let's not forget he was welcomed back by the fans and given support when he did, he turned round afterwards and said he didn't want to play for Saints. I would humbly bury this myth about Puncheon being a great asset to the team alongside the one that Hoddle would have saved us. He failed everywhere as a manager after leaving us. Blackpool have turned a corner since Puncheon started playing, not all his fault obviously but unfortunately it's the corner that leads towards the championship. One win in nine with him onboard? I could do without that sort of lucky mascot in our dressing room right now. Hopefully they agree terms and we get some cash before he repeats the behaviour he has shown at his last three clubs.

chased by sharks? They are owned by sharks! Who'd have thought getting into bed with organised crime and people who make their living selling landmines or loaning cash could get you into trouble... Their run is very impressive, that has to be said - but how long can the threadbare, down to the bones, plucky little squad stay lucky? Maybe the wheels will come off the highest paid XI's charge just when they get within touching distance - that's the risk you take when you deliberately choose quality over quantity. But on current form Lampitt and Cotterill's decision may yet prove to be inspired, or commercially suicidal.

Matheo Tiscott - the best player ever to pull on two Saints shirts? With silky-skilled hardman Davedick Strongchap alongside him we could take on the world!

for the 96, justice.

Leon Best - unlucky! twice.

On paper, they have a lot of winnable games to come and they are on an amazing run so the payoffs are possible. On grass, they have a significant gap to close and the games are running out. I still see them falling short and finishing maybe two or three points adrift of salvation. 7th or 8th would be a good season for a club desperately facing up to life post-admin, but an appalling effort for the most expensive XI in the division. Funnily enough both of us are facing up to a crunch of a season where we have paid more than most people in the division so we have to go up - Adkins is closer to delivering than Cotterill, but both divisions could go either way. Tis a funny old game, I do hope we are laughing in May.....

I'm gearing up for a horrific play off experience - horrific with regard to pressure on fans rather than results. Automatic promotion is slipping away but let's cheer ourselves up. Playoff semi, beat Huddersfield 4-1 at home, 1-1 up there, thank you very much. Then we'll see how much pressure the likes of Bournemouth fancy, easy to play in front of a few thousand, let's see how they fancy 40,000 Saints fans at Old Trafford - remember how we swept Carlisle away at Wembley, big day, huge pressure, our players delivered. The big stage is made for Lambert, Chambo, Lallana, Fonte etc - difficult to get excited in front of 4,000 at some freezing hellhole but cometh the hour, cometh the men. Hopefully. No doubt Ferguson junior is hoping for a big day at Old Trafford, that might pile pressure on him and then we'll see how he likes it. Tell his missus to keep out of the way that week. That aside I'll take automatic promotion if it becomes more likely - it would be my plan A! Sorry to sound a bit positive.

well that's always interesting reading, there's few places to hide on a balance sheet. Experts in this field will be able to give more insight but my understanding is that the club is still a cash cow for the arms dealer - £8K a month (?) in rent for offices and car park plus a ransom fee of £250K to smooth the way with the bank, but that pales into insignificance - is that an estimated potential £40M in transfer fees from the 2010 financial statement that fooled the Prem and will drive the cva, BUT it has thus far generated just £7.4M? If that is the case it could equate to a £30M shortfall by the summer. AA is suggesting that the club employs 510 people, he still implies that these are full time. At all levels, Hacker staff average hourly rate for admin work? - £222, nice. pompey have ploughed money into the future and invested in an academy - total amount invested thus far - £10K - a figure which has already gone on rent. The club took nearly a 50% cut of the Primus charity match income for expenses..... Charities now paid but the small businesses that were promised their debts under £2,500 in May last year still wait - this was a personal pledge by the owner. In the sale of the club to Chanrai there is a freehold property figure - is that Fratton Park coming in at £7M? Wages seem to be about £700K a month, a significant drop, though I couldn't see the fee costs of loan players - to put into context, Haim's cost would add approx £170K to the total monthly wagebill of the 510. My two favourites - the overpaid players who wanted legal advice during admin - the club paid £37K for this, just consider that for a mo, players on £40K a week wanted help, the club paid for it......and a little gem - they were late with the VAT payment in the last quarter - an odd oversight if all is rosy in the garden. That missed £150K payment was a massive drop from previous periods, indicating a massive drop in income. I also note that the US tour that was fully paid for by sponsors and didn't cost the club a penny, as suspected did in reality cost the club a few pennies. Got bored after this - someone else can study it and tell us where the business is actually heading, feel free to correct anything but be aware of NI etc before you get too clever.