Rational Rich

I've just downloaded the MG01 (charge registration) form from Companies House. A few things to note: 1) the charge includes an assignment of rights to all income from the Premier League (either parachute payments or usual TV etc payments) for the 2013/2014 season only 2) as well as this assignment, it also creates fixed and floating charges over ALL assets - meaning that if we don't pay they can appoint an administrator. 3) the debt it secures ranks ahead of debt advanced to the club by the holding company. As has been said above, kind of goes against the whole "no debt" thing and, whilst debt itself, or even secured debt, isn't unusual or inherently bad (it can be positive depending on the terms), it would be interesting to know how much the debt is (as is usual, the form doesn't specify an exact amount, just cross references to amounts due under the relevant finance documents). Assume the debt would be for significantly less than the parachute payments. Only the likes of Chanrai lend cash secured on assets worth less than their loan.

Seriously though, and this is something which I have discussed with fans of many other clubs, why are you bothering to put all your cash and effort into saving the current entity, with all the compromise agreements to be paid, potential for points deductions once proper investigations are held into financial irregularities (remember Luton post admin getting stung for 30 points) etc, instead of setting up a fresh, new, well funded and untainted club where the money pays for the future and not the past? In those circumstances I'm sure you'd get genuine respect and affection from fans of other clubs generally (as with AFC Wimbledon) and even some of us might grudgingly give you an element of credit. The current plan seems to be loads of effort and fighting Chinny just to further line the ex-players pockets. Let him have his rotten club, and you start yours, leaving him with a stadium even more empty than it was on Tuesday.

Finishing 13th would suit me

According to Tony Husband on Twitter, Chanrai has made an offer including a CVA......

Ok. Spared one. I'm glad. Now back to celebrating!

Champions League. Definitely.

I hate to tell you, but we are on the BBC....

Very funny, I thought. Good work.

He probably decided to spend his tenner on lottery tickets instead - better investment.

Best way to get around that is, to do what I did and move out of the Meridian region altogether. North West Tonight don't even mention the Skates on their bulletins. To be fair, they don't mention Saints either, and you have a 450 mile round trip to home games, but at least the irritation of the Meridian bias is dealt with.

Now the criminal trials are over, surely the FA are now free to investigate the financial irregularities at Pompey and apply suitable points deductions?

Wasn't there a tweet from an insolvency lawyer (quoted a few pages back on this thread) who said he'd rung the high court and they had no record of an application for a validation order having been made? As Sussexsaint says, no point in unfreezing an empty account - much easier to blame a "slow" court process (even though, I am told, validation orders can be obtained same day if necessary) than admit you have no cash.

Hate to be a boring fart but under English law there are two tests of insolvency, the "balance sheet" test (liabilities exceed assets) and the "cash-flow" test (inability to pay debts as they fall due). So cash-flow does count. Either way I think they're screwed.

Not quite true (there's an important "or" in the last sentence), they could be insolvent but could argue that by getting the cash out of the frozen account, they can pay staff, play matches, get cash through the gates, keep trading (preserving value in the club's assets as it is a going concern) so that a sale can be achieved and HMRC more likely to be paid off. Think that raises a fair few questions itself, but think the main problem is no cash in the accounts (Lampitt said they needed shareholder funds to cover cash flow for this period).

A friendly insolvency lawyer I know tells me that a validation order can be obtained from court same day if there are valid reasons for it and, more importantly, if someone wants it. Think the freezing of the accounts is a convenient shield to hide the fact the frozen accounts don't have any money in them.

Didn't the league tighten up the rules after we went into administration so the points deduction expressly applied if any holdco went into administration, or am I imagining things? May need to try to get hold of a copy of the rules.

According to to the editor of the Portsmouth News on Twitter, they will be breaking what they describe as a "big" story about Harry Redknapp at 2.30pm today. I wonder if that's when the reporting restrictions on the court case expire?

Download the tune in radio app. You can get virtually any radio station on the Internet on it.

Let's get Dennis Rofe back!

Maybe I was being harsh on Forte, or maybe I just expect too much (having been spoilt by top flight football for most of my life), I think he can make an impact, as he did v MK Dons, and he is quick and powerful, but I felt his awareness of the game was miles off, even compared to, say, Dickson on the same side. Players kept looking left or looking for a run from him and there wasn't one.

Can't disagree with any of the above, whilst it's not the reason we lost, realised tonight how poor Forte is. He is powerful and pacy but he lacks footballing intelligence. He made one good run but only after Hammond pointed where he should go. Waste of space. Thought Stephens had a distinctly average game, Hammond's passing was off today too. Lambert and Barnard worked hard and, no surprise, Lallana was different class when he came on, but by that stage the game was gone. Both their goals were soft, Kelvin should've saved the second, but he made a great one on one save in the first half too. Can't afford to play as poorly as we did in the first half again this season. They weren't a bad side at all but there's no way we should've let ourselves get beaten tonight and with their record against us, wouldn't like to have to meet them in the play offs.

Took my daughter to Oldham away when she was 2 and a half. She enjoyed it (once she had got used to the noise), but that was with chocolate buttons, haribo and toys to keep her entertained. She still talks about Chaddy The Owl to this day.

To be fair I think United fans have been singing that about Giggs for at least 10 years. Also painful memories of being at OT 6-1 down and them singing it about Phil Neville of all people. Salt in the wounds doesn't come close.

I was meant to be there (live and work in Manchester) but got stuck in work so couldn't make it. So whilst I'm delighted with a tremendous win, just gutted I wasn't there. Apparently it was 1955 we last had 6 scorers in a match.

Huddersfield did it the season before last - their season tickets were £100 for their centenary and it resulted on increased sales the next year too, as people got back in the habit of going to the match every other week. So it's not as far fetched an idea as it might first seem.