rallyboy

moo!

some of them are stupid enough to lap it up - just had a text from a bloke asking why Bolton should be allowed to continue with their debt when pompey couldn't. Size and ability to service are two different things thicko, try to keep up! Also just seen the QPR highlights - wasn't sure that either of the three penalties were valid - both managers feel robbed, Warnock even produced evidence, swings and roundabouts, and if you lead with your arms in the area don't be surprised if a ball hits them - so stop whinging you Grant impersonator. Poor crowd - a big game between two of the biggest spending clubs in the division and the visitors bring a huge following. Maybe the few have been duped one time too many and are wising up after all.... There are definitely more laughs in this.

so we learned yesterday that 1. They are definitely overpaying to outbid competitors. 2. Chanrai's great master plan is to look for a new owner. Both of which they have been doing for more than a year. The circus is still in town, it's business as usual.

Chanrai on Solent, it was pretty much - 'the passion of the fans, the players, the management, you have to come to a game here to realise how passionate everyone is - we can get back to the Premier League!!'. 'and by the way, I want out asap.' Also funny to hear their commentary team describe the game tonight as 'the haves' v 'the have nots' - yeah, we now know that Pompey outbid the richest team in the division - while in administration!!! QPR must have been gobsmacked when that happened. Pity about having their talisman sent off and the resultant suspension. And the late equaliser that dropped them seven places. Oh well, only a game.

chatted with a pompey fan at lunch who says everything is okay now they are out of admin, he wouldn't accept that they are paying too much in wages, his defence was that we are paying Lambert a championship wage, they are paying about eight players Prem wages, so both clubs are the same...... What can you do?

don't know of the beast link - I hope not, he has a W******d look to him!! I always assume fans generally have stolen the intro from wherever Fruity stole it originally - good spot though, no one else knows what on earth we're on about! Nor cares - but they'll still be sinking a Carter song at the next home game.

they were mates of the wonderful Carter USM I believe - didn't they do a B side for them?....and pop pickers, which Carter intro do you sing/hear sung every saturday?....

Did you say they were flush?? Has another arab sailed in?

that stadium design doesn't get any less mad with time. Apart from the compulsory purchase of £100M of harbour front property and £30M of naval dockyard, the re-siting of HMS Warrior, the Gosport Ferry pontoon, reclaiming a square mile of the sea, and an upgrade to the rail station and the building of an entirely new road system - the idea was great. Approx total cost - £750M? That's what makes it so funny, other clubs have dreams of a promotion or cup run, but not down the road - it's all Maradona, Eto, arabs with billions, the world cup coming to Portsmouth, the harbourfront superdome and the club being solvent and mid-table by Christmas - it's all pure fantasy.

that stadium design doesn't get any less mad with time. Apart from the compulsory purchase of £100M of harbour front property and £30M of naval dockyard, the re-siting of HMS Warrior, the Gosport Ferry pontoon, reclaiming a square mile of the sea, and an upgrade to the rail station and the building of an entirely new road system - the idea was great. Approx total cost - £750M? That's what makes it so funny, other clubs have dreams of a promotion or cup run, but not down the road - it's all Maradona, Eto, arabs with billions, the world cup coming to Portsmouth, the harbourfront superdome and the club being solvent and mid-table by Christmas - it's all pure fantasy.

interesting summary of what has gone on, and particularly interesting to see that they have established the precise transaction that took £34M of arms money and laundered it through the purchase of a business.... Bristol still gets stick for being built on the slave trade - with this transaction being so recent where does that leave the reputation of pfc? And as for the fit and proper persons test, they had all the evidence they needed - the child maimer even listing the club as his £300M asset - did the alarm bells not ring at the Prem and FA? Fair play to the pompey fans who looks beyond the goals of Kitson and Lawrence and see the huge problems ahead, and the dubious business practices that bought them relative success, and still funds them. Any guesses on AA's initial findings - no cases to answer, lost paperwork, not enough evidence? The dancing puppet ain't going to implicate his master so I see either a savage attack on his business rivals or a complete whitewash approaching. If there is no such attack it will confirm that the arms dealer and Chanrai have been wrapped up in this cosy little property deal from day one.

I was surprised to hear Redknapp this morning banging on about Bale - I thought he was outside Sandbanks nick. As they have already avoided two nailed-on court defeats I don't have high hopes for justice from the tax evasion charges, but it's good to have a dream. Better not mention them to any potential buyers, it might affect the price.

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.