rallyboy

how could Azougy be responsible for anything? He was never a shadow director, he was purely there in an advisory capacity, he wasn't required to pass any fapp test as he had no power in his part-time, voluntary, consultant role. Unless that version of events is now doing a u-turn along with so many of the others?.... If they are going to tell fibs they really need to try and get some continuity and remember what they said last time they were asked. It's not been a criminal masterclass thus far. Reminds me of that Keystone Cops silent movie when they did arms-dealing, charity-theft, money-laundering, relegation and fraud in quick succession - with hilarious consequences. And it's nice to see the original inspiration for Brokeback Mountain, walk in any saloon looking like that and you'd be in trouble.

If Bill's Bathrooms refused to pay plumbing suppliers and was chucked out of the Toilet Federation the taxman wouldn't care less, they just want their money in line with other creditors, anything else is an irrelevant internal dispute. So could the taxman individually challenge each football club who choses to pay creditors at a different rate to protect their league status, instead of challenging the original Prem 'guideline'? What the league imposes on it's members has no bearing on UK law and if a club leaves itself outside the league structure that's between them and the league, not the taxman's problem! Football seems to be elevating itself to an unacceptable status and things have changed since their first defeat, and that's why the taxman will be all over this again very soon.

Add the vast agent fees and the odd payment to those involved in loan deals, stick the inflated wages and image rights fees on top and we are talking maybe £10M spent on that handful of 'cheap' loanees for six months.

perhaps you were right Nick, I may have been a tad premature in my earlier judgement! I recall when we were on the rocks I did a casual analysis of what I was actually supporting, I attended the last games just to put cash in with no expectation of entertainment nor success - and those games didn't disappoint! I certainly wasn't supporting the board, the players didn't deserve it, even the ground had changed in recent times so the only continuity I was left with was the badge on the shirt. That's where the likes of PIR must be getting to. He also needs to accept that even if people like O'Hara themselves haven't cheated, their presence is clear evidence that the club has cheated, and the illegal cup run can't be blamed on past owners. When I see O'Hara in that shirt I just see the money that should have been paid to charities and local businesses. They could have paid off debts, but no, they chose to bring in overpriced loanees. And the worst thing with the charity theft is that the money wasn't owed to them as a commercial debt, it was raised and then stolen to finance Grant's glorious fairytale - possibly the most disgusting case of bringing the game and a city into disrepute in football history? Very guilty of cheating, no defence at all - next case.

if parachute payments are forwarded to clear football debts and the season ticket money 'disappeared' before August - there would remain a business with restructured debts to pay off, and with an income of exactly zero. However you look at the figures they just don't add up as a going concern. Slashing the season ticket prices to get the punters to cough up now looks to me more like a speedy cash generator than a big favour to the few - the asset-stripping continues. And before anyone says you can't build flats on Fratton, it's designated for 'open air leisure', and if there's no football club it's quite simple, if there is still a club then it would require some legal work, but not much.

spot on Wes, that was the point I was making about the likes of PIR being sensible but there are many out there still spouting rubbish about it being unfair, the debts of Livepool and Man utd being worse than theirs etc. And everytime pervy Grant opens his mouth something ridiculous spills out. Many of the few are just happy to be at Wembley and ignore where the money came from. But since the creditor list went public the rest of football knows how they got there.

it's odd - yes we may have been a bit smug and annoying guessing what's going to happen next (!) but let's be honest here, it hasn't been rocket science - HUGE expenditure + tiny income, what was likely to happen?... So tell me, how can a large section of their fanbase still not grasp - 1.The historical irregularities. 2.The current sham of a semi-administration. 3.What the gloomy future might hold..... Pompey stole from charities to pay the likes of O'Hara and that's sunk in to some and there's shame and a dignified silence, but many still don't get it - what will it take to get through to the majority of the few?

There's definitely been a shift in public opinion, many papers carried scathing Portsmouth stories over the weekend, the 'plucky Pompey battling against the odds fairytale' has unravelled bigtime. The cup win's been exposed and is forever tainted, this year's cup run is just plain illegal, and if the quoted points penalties for next season appear I would start to feel that justice has been served. And the majority of their fans will need to take that on the chin without continuing to defend those that have robbed charities.

Pompey's now a tarnished brand and most sensible fans must be ashamed of what's been done in their club's name. The problem is, can their fans distance themselves from the management that stole from charities yet support the management that brought in O'Hara etc via illegal paperwork? The cast that has guided the club back to wembley are the same ones that stole from charities so it's going to be difficult to be selective when taking a moral stand. It might be nice if the overpaid players cleared the charity debts immediately, I have no doubt that if this had happened at St Marys a year ago someone like Leon Crouch would have stepped in before it even hit the press. Then again even in financial meltdown we showed a bit of class - Rupert was an idiot but he was a gentleman. Sort of. We might have crashed but it wasn't ugly.

I think they might be chuckling to cover their obvious relief - having started the season aiming for a top ten finish two divisions above, along with us tipped for relegation because of the penalty, they suddenly found themselves staring down the barrel of a possible league fixture against us as soon as this August... We knew it was a long shot, but they pooped their little pants at the prospect so tonight they will party like it's 1999 - which is funny because they were in administration then as well - it's like Spurs with the cup years, if the year starts with a 19 or 20, Pompey are likely to be in a financial crisis. Sadly I fear we will replace them a year from now without the chance of a derby, unless the authorities have a good look at the books in the next few weeks and we might see them next season after all. Or Salisbury might.

I just read through the entire list of creditors, it's ridiculous (if vaguely accurate). I see £500K owed to Spurs for O'Hara - will that be the fee from January when he was brought back in illegally? 'No transfers, just loanees, oh your accounts look healthy, help yourself, see you at Wembley.' Cheats. But what about the schools, colleges and charities, the small companies that suffer with cashflow problems, how could they do that to these people? It must be time to pull the plug, the farce has gone on long enough. Let them have their farewell party, a final outing for the Storrie banners, finish the league programme and pull the shutters down. Grant can continue to spout rubbish, his reputation is shot to bits - perving around industrial estates, an appalling league record, and when in front of a microphone he displays the judgement of a deluded clown. AA can treat everyone like idiots and spin more lies, and the big two pulling the strings can waltz off with the property deal that they have always wanted - like none of us know what's been going on for nine months! Let's face it, there isn't anything left to launder so they might as well call it a day, the corpse is drained - some of the stars of this little soap will be beyond the law, others will get away with it, and hopefully several will do time. Time to call it a day.

trouble is you won't have just one, there will be a family. It's you or them, reclaim your house by executing every last one! Several traps, keep them primed after you have any success, after a week you might find that the body count slows down. Every few years we get them here, it normally takes five or six kills before you can enjoy sleep without hearing little paws creeping around the loft, it's not for the faint-hearted, go do it to them before they do it to your stereo. You may want to wear body armour and smear mud on your face to get into that Rambo role as well, I wear a tea towel tied around my head and hold the bodies aloft to warn off the others. or you might have the only loner mouse in the area and he will skuttle away of his own accord....

my goodness, 490 pages in and they've managed to hit a new low. We knew the club had raped local businesses and now we find out that they steal from terminally-ill children. Surely this must be rock bottom? Plucky old Pompey, the fairytale club with the greatest supporters in thw world. Suddenly some of the few look classy compared with their club.

The only asset in the business is an ability to generate TV money, that looks like it's about to leave the building. This development would make it more likely that they could start next season without penalties BUT as they have already waved goodbye to incoming transfer money it would leave the business with no income of any significance. Matchday revenue would cover debt repayments and half a small wagebill - and that's it. That sort of thing doesn't bother fans because they can't see it, until they find themselves in another relegation battle, but they wouldn't be able to compete with the likes of Bournemouth and Rochdale on wages and transfer fees. Presumably AA could now be looking for an owner to pay £10-20M for a club with football debt accounted for, but creditor debt restructured, court cases pending, and no revenue for two years. Those initially cheaper deals start to attract the chancer consortium element and you end up with more nutters trying to make a quick buck or local businessen trying to save the name. They desperately need structure, facilities, academy etc, and that costs - I see them limping along for several seasons. And if you then think 'they will get lucky with some players and a good manager and bounce back' - ask yourself, who would go there, and also agree to be paid less than they could get everywhere else? And we all know they deserve more points penalties but if the authorities let them start on 0 and asset-strip the business instead, it could be more damaging.

AA is now defiantly telling the few that he will fight the European ban! It's him and the prossie-botherer on the battlements of Fortress Fratton, valiantly fighting for justice for plucky Pompey.....mmmmm. The authorities have said quite specifically that they 'won't consider an application'. AA says they have not been banned because they haven't even asked - he says they are still putting an application together - the type of application they have told him they won't even look at. He must be a bit simple. Or paid by the hour, filling his days with pointless tasks as the meter ticks along at an astonishing rate.

I believe that if they don't pay the football debt they don't start next season....? And AA commented under his breath yesterday that he doesn't recognise the football creditor ruling, if he sticks to that then they will be looking for a new type of business to be involved in come August. He has got himself into a bit of a pickle!

you have to give it to GM on that one, nicely done. At last the rest of football has caught up with us, yesterday was a breathrough in outing the criminality and cheating down the road. Did anyone hear the Danny Kelly comment about 36-37,000 Pompey fans trying to get into Fratton every game? Some education still needed there. As for Hearn, Collymore and Talksport - normally we wouldn't give any of you the time of day but this morning I salute you, along with SSN who accused AA of irregularities in his documents - welcome to our world. And if as AA says he hasn't needed to borrow from Chanrai, what is he using to run the club? Shirt buttons or advanced parachute payments?

SSN reported that the creditor list published by AA is inaccurate and that there are people on that list who have already been paid. Also Terry the builder says he's had no contact at all even though he should have had legally, and he's owed £54K. Azougy reckons the debt has leapt £40M in a few months. Is AA making it up as he goes along?

interesting figures, this is the first time I've seen all the dirty detail laid this bare and I reckon most Pompey fans will be horrified if they look at it... So in January 2011 they are due to pay about £2.4M in historic transfer fees, that'll be easy for a championship club to find! Future transfer income has all gone to keep the debt to £105M, so if AA is now using parachute payments to meet running costs there will be no future income of any significance at all for at least two years. And in the current period they were due to pay clubs over £10M between Jan and May - that in addition to the general running costs. I also note that the delayed payments to clubs are costing a fortune in interest. I don't see Campbell's debt on there? Though they still owe Crouch and Johnson! If AA has managed the figures to squeeze the taxman below 25% the taxman only needs to lean on one or two creditors or seek their 'support' - he could make them an offer they can't refuse, they are a powerful agency and as a business you want to keep on the right side of them. Presumably the increasing monthly tax debt and some dodgy loan deals are to be added to that document as time goes on. And if I was a small business owed £2K by anyone and was offered 20p in the £, I would rather see them liquidated that get back £10 a month for the next few years - no question, If I could damage any company that had cheated me I would. So whatever AA thinks, that CVA isn't going to sign itself.

for anyone who wasn't there it was no surprise to me when Lloyd returned to the dugout, he was clearly out of form and out of touch, something a manager wouldn't say in a radio interview, either James underperformed or our bench misjudged his fitness. Pardew has to control the passion but there was a long queue of people who wanted to run on at the end and ask the ref why he was so incredibly poor. He gave us two ridiculous free kicks in the second half when players fell over yet he gave us nothing in the first half and his use of cards was all over the place. The defender who charged straight into the back of Barnard leading with his arm didn't warrant a chat but his mate who was walking slowly off to be subbed was booked. And he obviously hadn't read the memo that the tackle from behind was outlawed a while back, he let several go without even giving a foul. We didn't win because we didn't score, our players and the ref are two factors that led to that and making reference to the official was valid on this occasion, imo. Moaning about officials every week is as pointless as a Pompey home game but this guy was awful and we suffered more than they did from his inability to referee.

how high does the debt have to be before EVERYONE accepts that they are trading insolvently and in clear and serious breach of company law and football authority regulations? How high is AA's final bill going to be at this slow and expensive pace he's going? And how different are these legally-binding figures being officially confirmed now from the Vantis report ones, the figures officially confirmed to the Prem as an appeal, or the ones officially presented to the court? Storrie stated that in admin the club owed £25M plus the two big loans. Unless he was lying and misleading the court and the authorities for the club's gain, AA has allowed the debt to increase by £44M at the rate of nearly £3M a week. If he's trying to cook up a trick for the CVA I think he may have gone too far because with this latest figure the business is dead in the water. Put the cat out, lock the gate and hand the keys to the nearest creditor.

HMRC hasn't given it up yet, they're playing a waiting game and at the last court appearance didn't they reserve the right to re-challenge aspects of the administration? Beware of a taxman who is worryingly silent, he may well have a plan - and let's remember he's turned down an offer of 99p in the pound before. Either way a new owner will still have to fund the football debts, a significant proportion of the tax, and a restructure of the big two debts will create massive overheads for a Championship club. Despite no sign of a forensic look at the accounts or any explanation for several missing millions, AA has managed to get all of the new investors and consortiums into an orderly queue so he can satisfy the creditors without delay, he's close to securing an unblemished CVA and confirming European football for next season. He must be very good to have managed all this. I am starting to wonder if every time he and Grant open their mouths it isn't just spin and rubbish coming out to placate dim people.

yes I'm sure all the businesses owed money will be quite happy to surrender huge chunks of their own cash whilst watching the club bank cup money and parachute payments. AA doesn't even know who is offering what or what is actually owed to whom without the forensic work so he's plucking ideas and fantasy figures out of the air. He's going into a game of poker with a hand of shlte and desperately talking up his chances. Me not fooled - much hassle ahead.

I don't see this as a news story, with his previous activity and the current financial statements we all knew that AA was happy to sign anything. Anyway, the people who are now criticising were queuing up with me to have their photos taken with Mark Fry when we were on the verge of oblivion, I still have his signed tie framed in my office. Gathering autographs and memorabilia of insolvency practioners doesn't make you a looney.

a beating at home today and a tug at work tomorrow - just how Avram likes it.