rallyboy

the Prem won't have forwarded money without strings attached, and surely at a reduced rate. Some dim few seem to think that the change of company leaves all the debt behind - the cva remains attached to pfc, and the old company is worryingly open to investigation. As far as paying advanced cash back, they could be facing a return to the Prem with their first seasons money already spent - and the knock-on of increased amounts due to creditors. It will take several years to stabilise the finances even with Prem income, they could become the mother of all yo-yo clubs, it will then depend on whether the owner wants to reinvest in infrastructure....or trouser the cash. Out of all the madness it's amazing that so many 'top' businessmen have failed to do correct due diligence on their accounts - they are now looking for a new owner who doesn't notice that the main future revenue is trickling away and that the overheads are way over the top of sustainable. I think they're in for quite a ride this season, come May it could boil down to a play off against very tough opponents to decide whether the club continues to exist. I wouldn't fancy that, then again I wouldn't gamble the lot like they keep doing. It isn't a matter of them stabilising and surviving this season, with the wages they have taken on they have no choice - they must go up.

hopefully the taxpayer sponsorship deal has now finished and this promotion push is being sponsored by the Prem league - when do they get their name on the shirts? Wasn't the original deal muted as an advance and reduction in overall parachute payments? - instead of £16M next year, maybe £12M now, type of arrangement? If that is the case they are in massive trouble, why else would the league give up cash before they need to? Sounds like the bloke who drove the Hull City bus over the cliff is now chasing off any other buyers by releasing these details, or justifying why the club is worth nowhere near what Chanrai will ask. Everytime you think Chanrai is set to get some profit the money seems to be needed elsewhere - he was promised January money, had to hijack some transfer cash instead, must have fancied the next parachute, that's promised to football creditors and the future revenues are being eaten up just to pay the HUGE wagebill. How long before Chanrai jacks it all in as a bad idea? A year ago the only thing they had to attract a buyer was the ability to generate Prem money Six months ago the only asset in the business was future parachute money. Every time they take an advance they are reducing the value of the business and the realistic chance of future investment. I hope Lawrence and Kitson are good because the simple choice is invest in big wages, or vital ground redevelopment. Instead of a 30,000 seater stadium they are buying a ginger bloke a new Ferrari - and the worst thing is as he drives off up the M275 taking more cash out of the city, the car's going to clash horribly with his hair.

Avram Grant's settled in nicely, then again he should be comfortable as he's just coming up to the milestone of a whole year in the relegation zone. They might sack him or he'll get them relegated, but they won't be able to take his spirit. It still makes me chuckle that while the taxman was at the door they still paid for a car and driver to carry him between industrial estates where his club tracksuit would end up around his ankles while little Avram went to work. Odd but hilarious events from the last year, no.294.

Middlesbrough Freefall. Portsmouth Insolvencia. I struggled to find Garforth Town on that list, I recall that they were going to be supplying half the Brazilian international team and knocking on the door of the championship by now under the mad primary school teacher - I guess that's been put aside to get Scotland into the top six in Fifa rankings.

even though Wigan's Premiership support is quite feeble I think that table may be a bit harsh by placing them behind Yeovil. Flawed data. And a debate with no answer, which it only takes place because of the media cartoon image of poor plucky pompey with fans who never abandoned them in their darkest hours - even though they clearly did - and that's why it amuses us, at the club that's so well-known that the tabloids just referred to us as The South Coast Club - like there's only one. Big crowd yesterday, and some of them paid.

I think we have a very good chance but there is much work to do. Bournemouth have blown up, not sure that Brighton can carry on the way they have been going, and with the league one quality we have in the squad we've not hit 4th gear let alone top - so tis possible - but we need to find more consistency and start better, maybe we'll see you soon. Though presumably the few now feel that all is now rosy and the Prem beckons, so you might have to wait another season....

they have to sort out the extradition treaty with Hayling first - though he'll go even more bonkers if he never leaves there.

Ho me old mucker, we all went from quietly saying to ourselves 'how did they win that cup?' to 'ah, now I see how they did it!.....' The finances were heading off the rails for several years before the final crash - if we have got to that point yet.... The clumsy attempt to win it again this year at all costs didn't reflect well on the 2008 effort either. If you still maintain that the victory over Cardiff was fair, surely you must accept that the last cup run was blatantly illegal?

is that the ground that fits far less people in it than it should, and it's like travelling back in time?

so the guy whose club stole money from kid's cancer charities and used it to pay wages is preaching to us about how the two clubs are the same???? They even collected it, did a nice press photo BUT trousered the cash. Unbelievable. It's been explained a million times already - Pompey made no effort to address debt, they kept on flicking the V's and spending. They are uniquely the only club that has ever been in administration that has continued to trade insolvently and continued to bring in new players. Our owners were stupid, yours were criminals, and that cost the local community greatly. Yes the owner of Portsmouth did promise to pay those small debts and the charities. I wonder if he ever will, he hasn't so far and he was the owner months ago when he gave his word. pfc123 - are you not just a little ashamed of the things your club has done? Your squad should have G5 on their shirts, that's where that funding went. Disgraceful, don't bother to try and defend their actions again. The club is forever tainted, form a new one or accept what everyone knows.

someone needs to get hold of pfc123 and let him know that Ho's mad uncle in the attic has hijacked his account, he needs to get that sorted in case someone thinks it's been him posting this stuff today. That aside, don't like to be repetitive but...the figures don't stack up, they need cash! An average gate of 17K paying customers??!! Hilarious. The first thing you have to accept is that your wagebill is HUGE. When in the Prem you were paying Champions Lge wages, in the Championship you are paying Prem wages. You have some fairly hefty transfer fees due shortly, plus the CVA payments, secured and unsecured, so I would estimate the losses running consistently near to £1M a month - while the redirected football creditor payments quietly eat away at the only significant future revenues. And of course you have AA's ongoing fees to cover. If we look at those wages you could say that for the money being paid you could run two mid-table championship teams, or even Wigan or Blackpool - it is astronomical and unsustainable for the quality involved - and that's without including the image rights deals that half of those players have and that AA openly admits to, and defended against the HMRC, that's how the likes of Utaka's costs bump out. How can they raise funds? Any player sale will only be to create cashback for Chanrai, so they are still a long way off solvent. While they were previously conning the competition by paying too much for players, their new owner is now on the wrong end of this bizarre strategy. I honestly think that Chanrai was conned into lending in the first place and it looks now like he hasn't even done due diligence and seen the wagebill - that would be your first cut as a new owner. For instance he has just been saddled with honouring a brand new contract to a 36 year old injury prone player who is one tackle away from the glue factory - plus the 45 year old Nigerian, Chanrai has dimly inherited a poor value for money squad. For the one thousandth time - big cash is the only answer!* *not another effing loan, that creates more overheads and debt.

so Red Willie, did some bloke keep shouting 'Red Army!' at you? I like to do it every year at the Great South for anyone in a Saints shirt reclaiming the streets of Portsmouth. Rallygirl runs, Rallyboy supports. I even had a chat with Storrie last year as he bumbled along at Eastney, even though he had only just steered them into insolvency I wanted to hug him, but it seemed undignified.

I guess new ownership and the lifting of restrictions now opens the door to bring in new players on high wages. I do hope they've learned their lessons and don't now go assembling a squad that they can't afford, just to try and gain an advantage on the pitch - that would be the road to ruin III. Luckily for them they have all the parachute money to come which will give them stability for four years, and an owner who only wants the best for the club and is looking to invest heavily to give the fans what they deserve. There certainly is a bright future ahead for the Stoke City reserves and Spurs feeder club, with a London postal address.

Hurrah for plucky little Pompey, a glorious future awaits! - The reality is no new money, no longer protected by the safe harbour of administration and dangerously exposed to a variety of legal actions. The repayments start soon and the clock is ticking to the full investigation of the accounts, and we don't want any 'new' owner moaning about 'due diligence didn't show it was this bad' or 'why do we get a points penalty now, that was when I previously owned the club'. The admission that they need to borrow is a little bit of a bombshell - and as others have said, against what? This looks like the start of the whole debt-gathering process again - the only people who will loan will be loan sharks/money launderers who will do it at huge interest rates and with no security as Chanrai always has that tied up - he would have to surrender some assets, and there is little of value. He must be looking for £10M-£20M of loans to get them through the season? - that would need the squad AND the ground together as security, borrowing against future revenue is the recipe for disaster, especially when the parachute payments are mostly spoken for. Why take ownership of the club if you have no intention of investing? Why buy a car you can't afford to insure or run? It's still nuts. At first it sounded like they were trying to become a proper business for the first time in years - then the borrowing claim knocked that one out. I'm sure they'll manage without any problem, such as creditor unrest......I note that the FL has reserved the right to keep an eye on CVA payments, so sanctions could still apply....beware the Ides of March. I guess if they can pay the wages until Christmas and turn the sorry ship around this thread can then be renamed, but the ship is still submerged and they are swimming with sharks. And congrats to AA - he managed in his own mind to have them on the brink of liquidation, saved, closer to liquidation and sold in eight days - he truly is the hero they deserve. 695 pages in, several owners and an administration later - the figures still don't stack up. All the gossip, analysis, banter and guesswork has changed nothing - cash is the only answer, and they still don't have it.

just seen the photos - clearly a pen for Gully, the guy has got hold of his arm and pulled him back. More worryingly it looks like Saint Lindford just had a seizure mid-rant! Unless of course that mystery sentence was about to start - The official photos.....

it always feels more valid when the winning team complain about the ref and he was very poor, so fill your boots! When he let the Oldham player off early on for angrily throwing the ball at an opponent right in front of him he issued a licence for any dissent. The fouls on Barnard were ridiculous, I couldn't see the Gully one but did wonder why he didn't seem to muster a shot, the ref also missed at least one handball when they were on the attack and one of the linesman looked like he missed the ball out of play - twice. Why did he let them contest that drop ball??? That created ill-feeling which was great for us (cos we were winning and we hate dirty northerners) but not so good for anyone who cares about player behaviour. A very odd performance from the ref which thankfully didn't cost us points, but when I next hear of a manager going ape and getting a ban following a D'Urso performance I will assume he has had another mare. Full marks to Adkins for keeping the players' disciplined and finishing with eleven players and three points.

it's clear that they folded as a valid football club somewhere around 2006-7, since then they have been competing illegally and results on the pitch are irrelevant to the sport if you have a squad run by an insolvently trading business - the important thing is whether they can pay off the charities and their own wages now - and if they could manage either of those it would be a real result and worth celebrating. It's nice that one small club can unite the rest of football.

after they survived the last two court dates that were nailed-on-defeats I'm thinking they have 'special' friends in influential places and can avoid any charges sticking, including the tax evasion ones, so I'm not cracking open a can of Tizer and salt/n/vinegar Pringles just yet. On the up side - AA went toe-to-toe with the Prem and made them look stupid, he did the same with the taxman, so you have to admire his cheek BUT if ever Chanrai's little slap-headed slippery puppet was going to come unstuck it was the day he decided to play big stakes poker with an arms dealer. Any man who earns a living by crippling children and funding civil war isn't going to be intimidated by a jumped-up beancounter waving bits of paper in his blood-splattered face. Rather than the child-maimer backing down to protect his public image (!!) I see this latest development as the very predictable start of the blame game (see 300 pages back) to cover the worst scenario. If it comes to a post-apocalypse inquest, uninformed pundits will ask, who pushed poor little plucky Pompey over the edge? Was it the men at the helm who santioned theft from charities and took on a ridiculous wagebill in a bizarre attempt at gambling EVERYTHING only to whine like girls when it failed? - or was it one of the creditors they owed money to? The PR battle to distance AA's appalling business skills from the debacle he continues to oversee has started tonight, and the fact that he's even making press statements hint that things are pretty dismal and he is no longer confident of turning the stricken tanker around. That said, I think we are playing Call My Bluff and Frank Muir thinks that AA is still spouting sh/te and looking for sympathy so I don't see them going pop, however I do hope it has highlighted what an appallingly-run London-based club they have become. Any stupid creditors want to stand up and explain why they voted for them to continue trading insolvently? Anyone from the FL want to explain how they are NOT bringing the game into disrepute? No, thought not.

after they survived the last two court dates that were nailed-on-defeats I'm thinking they have 'special' friends in influential places and can avoid any charges sticking, including the tax evasion ones, so I'm not cracking open a can of Tizer and salt/n/vinegar Pringles just yet. On the up side - AA went toe-to-toe with the Prem and made them look stupid, he did the same with the taxman, so you have to admire his cheek BUT if ever Chanrai's little slap-headed slippery puppet was going to come unstuck it was the day he decided to play big stakes poker with an arms dealer. Any man who earns a living by crippling children and funding civil war isn't going to be intimidated by a jumped-up beancounter waving bits of paper in his blood-splattered face. Rather than the child-maimer backing down to protect his public image (!!) I see this latest development as the very predictable start of the blame game (see 300 pages back) to cover the worst scenario. If it comes to a post-apocalypse inquest, uninformed pundits will ask, who pushed poor little plucky Pompey over the edge? Was it the men at the helm who santioned theft from charities and took on a ridiculous wagebill in a bizarre attempt at gambling EVERYTHING only to whine like girls when it failed? - or was it one of the creditors they owed money to? The PR battle to distance AA's appalling business skills from the debacle he continues to oversee has started tonight, and the fact that he's even making press statements hint that things are pretty dismal and he is no longer confident of turning the stricken tanker around. That said, I think we are playing Call My Bluff and Frank Muir thinks that AA is still spouting sh/te and looking for sympathy so I don't see them going pop, however I do hope it has highlighted what an appallingly-run London-based club they have become. Any stupid creditors want to stand up and explain why they voted for them to continue trading insolvently? Anyone from the FL want to explain how they are NOT bringing the game into disrepute? No, thought not.

I think I'd like to see the debate between just our Few visitors on here - Ho putting the case that the club didn't overspend on players and wages and that it was just an unfortunate knock on effect of the world banking crisis that made the club steal from charities etc...with no explanation offered as to why they continue to do so. So is that a commonly-supported theory down east? Is Ho on a wind-up? Or is he noisily typing away in Broadmoor just to blot out the noise of god whispering in his ear telling him to burn things? He can't be that thick surely, my money's on a poorly-presented wind-up. And why can't they pay off the promised small amounts before taking on more wages? Crooks.

I think you're being harsh to Ho, he genuinely didn't understand the figures. To repeat again in simple terms - No money in + big money out = Bad* * Bad = deliberate extended stay in administration to A. Delay repayments that are beyond them. B. Give protection from immediate liquidation as a result of creditor winding-up orders.

U could be right. On this occasion....

we suspected that AA was protecting the business from winding-up by staying in admin, but why keep pretending to exit? It's fooling no one, his great dramatic announcements last week that one day they were facing liquidation and within 24 hours the future was secure was aimed at who exactly? Annoyed creditors? Easily-led fans? The not so easily-fooled FL? Pretty pointless - it would be better if he did less media and autographs and more administrating. This is an acid test now, if he's serious about new ownership and solvent trading they will be out of admin and into the cva very soon BUT if the business is in as much trouble as many on here suspect, they'll carry on talking about it....but not quite get round to doing it. Keep bringing in the Prem rejects, their wages are crippling the business, ripping up the cva and destroying any hope of a stable future. I don't especially want them out of business but their continued financial suicide mission to gather points at any cost is bizarre and doesn't create friends.

sssshhhhhhhhh! I'm trying to hear the new owner announcing his post-admin plans. That's odd, AA said it would all be sorted by now, perhaps as with the front end of many homes in Portsea - there's a hitch.

the club should just pay the charities and small businesses that they robbed before taking on more players - a simple and decent request that even the most blinkered and abusive few can't argue with surely. They made a big media thing of promising to clear these small amounts - nothing happened, yet the wagebill still climbs. A tainted club, it's over, form a new one and be a decent rival competing on an even playing field.