Wes Tender

Quote PFC Button:- Quote Steve Claridge:- I'm really confused. Who should be believed, PFC Button, who frankly I've not heard of, or Steve Claridge, Skate legend and TV football pundit? Should Steve be told that his comments about the affordability of those star players ought to be qualified with the proviso that it was all fine until somebody filched the £300 million that would have paid for them? And PFC Button should conversely be asked whether the winning of the FA Cup was worth his club going to the wall?

Just back from holiday and amazed to find that the DCB's are still just about hanging on to their life-support machine. Ah! The badge that commemorates the match when the third division team dominated the match for 70 minutes against the Premiership star-studded team and would certainly have scored at least twice more, had not the England number one goalkeeper played a blinder. And then two players who arguably shouldn't have been wearing Skate shirts changed the game as we tired and experience and pace showed against our mix of youngsters and older players. What a shame that nobody brought that badge to the attention of the club at the time it was made, as surely there are copyright issues regarding our club crest and the people who published it could have been forced to withdraw it from sale and suffered a loss? But it acts as a timely reminder that it has only been two and a half years since they were in the Premiership and we were in the third division and now we are thriving and in the Premiership and they are either on the verge of extinction or going to suffer a long lingering demise, falling further and further down the divisions. Time for us to draw them in the FA Cup this year methinks, play them at Krap Nottarf and beat their rag-tag collection of kids and journeymen 4-1, just to see whether they would accept that the result ought to be inevitable given the circumstances, or whether they would still insist that beating us was some sort of major achievement.

They're the only scum around that sinks to the bottom rather than rising to the top.

The joke is that you would presumably include yourself and Dorkish among the normal people. It is you few who are increasingly annoying other posters with your inane trolling, you are ruining the forum when others wish to enter into sensible adult debate. And I'm sure that were we to start a new forum, it wouldn't be long before you would come along, or somebody with a similar childish mindset, and ruin that one too, for forums do attract their fair share of weirdos. It is up to the moderators to try and weed out those who debase the forum, if they wish to keep it attractive to the majority. It can't have escaped their notice that there has been an increasing number of posters who have complained of threads being hijacked by the usual suspects.

A good idea. I saw a post from somebody on the Pompey Takeover thread moaning that Dorkish was boring the tits off him, so I thought that I'd see what it was about. Even with him being on my ignore, I can see that he, Fry and TCM have hijacked yet another thread with their puerile playground jibes. Thankfully, I'm off on holiday for two weeks from Thursday and when I get back the season will be due to start. Then perhaps they might post instead about the football, how crap some of the players are, what a waste of money, how long will Adkins have before he is sacked, etc. But better than them having a separate thread for themselves, why not have them leave this forum alone and go and play elsewhere, ideally the UI. I'm sure that the number of posters on here would increase.

That league table on their site still has them in 15th place. Have they not factored in the ten point deduction which would place them bottom, or are they confident of having it rescinded? Or can't they afford the extra fees for their IT guy to amend it?

I four one am happy with that. It has a certain resonance

I've deliberated long and hard about this. The club brings so much enjoyment to many. But then on balance it has brought nothing but misery to many more. Another factor in my deliberations was anticipating the end of so much enjoyment I've had these past few years watching the comical list of recent past owners. I'd miss all that. So with a heavy heart, I voted "no"

Superb. All their troubles are over.

Is this just a bit of a coincidence that this bloke's name bears a remarkably close resemblance to Falcondrone Ltd, the British Virgin Islands based company supposedly owned by the fake Sheik, Al Faraj? I lose track of all the conspiracy theories mooted in this thread. Has anybody done any digging on this one?

But then they might have to mention too that Harry also got us relegated, something that seems to have escaped the media's attention ever since it happened.

According to this, Plymouth Argyle has had T-shirts printed in advance of the Skates match against Plymouth in the Capital One Cup on August 14th. http://www.pafc.co.uk//news/article/argyle-two-a-tee-260559.aspx These might well become collectors items when the match doesn't take place, because the Skates will cease to exist by then. Unfortunately the good ship Pompey is holed below the waterline and sinking fast. The rudder has also been rendered inoperative and she is on a collision course for the rocks. Mayday! Mayday!

We'll just have to wait and see how things turn out, won't we? My opinion is that you won't get back there quickly at all. The worst will come to the worst. If you aren't liquidated, then you will limp on until Chainrai has bled you dry. Liquidation is like a beloved pet (yours, not ours) being put down to avoid further suffering, as I said before. So you'll have to start again at the very bottom, probably too late even to begin this coming season. Your gates will diminish to a small hardcore and it will take years to get back to even the third division. Will you even be playing at FP? Undoubtedly you believe that we will yo-yo between the Premiership and the Championship, but by the time you get back anywhere near us, we will have chalked up many more years of superiority over you, so that historical perspective will show our few years out of the Premiership as a similar blip to your few years in the top flight. And don't you find it ironic in the extreme that you label us as the well behaved fans from a family club, yet your lot get the award for best family club, despite cheating charities and local businesses as well as the Taxman? So to recap; we had a hiccup, went down to the third division, but rose like a phoenix and will probably continue rising to stability and perhaps even glory in the Premiership. Once more we have bragging rights as top club in the South. I think that we can live with the fact that you achieve more column inches in the media because you were the first club to go into administration in the Premiership, were owned by a succession of crooks who bled you dry, and have loud fans typified by TCWTB. Four years from FA Cup glory in the Premiership, to a 4-0 defeat by Gibraltar and a club on the verge of extinction. I can tell you four nothing that all that money spent on your few years in the sun was all four nothing.

Singed? Did he get too close to the white hot revolution that is going on here?

Ricky 90-1 to be top scorer? Where? That's got be worth a punt. I reckon that he is capable of it.

I reckon we're good enough for 10th this season and higher the next.

Very droll. Talking of the Rock, it seems that their trip there might soon turn out to be all four - nothing.

Go on, Dorkish; if you find what I have to say boring drivel, put me on ignore, as I have with you. You know it makes sense. But I realise that as a troll it gives you some twisted jollies attempting to rile others, so I doubt that you will. Thankfully I only have to suffer your inane postings when people quote you. Surely in these days of advanced technology, there ought to be some way that people who are on ignore cannot show up to those who wish to ignore them, even when quoted by others? Mods?

Crabby, frankly they can rant as much as they like about how in their febrile imaginations they are the better fans, the club with the more illustrious history, the club with the lily-white owners of impeccable morality, the club more capable of filling their vastly superior stadium, etc. But the bottom line, the real crux of the matter, is the irrefutable fact that we are soon to re-embark on our Premiership expedition once more, whereas they are staring over the precipice into oblivion. Let them console themselves with any little crumb that will provide them some solace when they go shopping at the new Fratton Tescos and go to watch their new Pompey playing the equivalent of pub league football at Moneyfields. Our history is quite possibly about to enter its most successful era, whereas simultaneously theirs is almost certainly going to come to an abrupt end within days rather than weeks. They're like a seriously sick animal, where it is deemed to be a kindness to put it out of its misery. All of their recent past glory has been four-nothing.

I do wish that people would stop quoting the troll Dorkish, as I have him on ignore. I agree with you, that of the two CBs, Fonte is IMO the weaker. But apparently only the real cognoscenti like Dorkish are allowed to have an opinion and anybody who disagrees with them is labelled a nitpicking bore. I'm surprised to hear him mention Bobby Moore, as Dorkish was probably in nappies when Moore was playing. What seems to have been beyond Dorkish's comprehension is that as I pointed out, the author of the piece contradicted himself more than once, regarding the age of the goalkeepers and the budget we might have. I admit to not knowing what the budget is, but then of course, neither does the author or Dorkish. Also, what was expected to be our expenditure 2 months ago was just speculation on an internet forum by people who did not have any inside knowledge. Nothing has changed; it is still guesswork. But then Dorkish knows that, as he himself said that the price for Lens was a rumour. So when one dares to comment on an article such as this, then the view expressed is disputed on grounds of speculation rather than fact. Regarding your childish remark at the end, Dorkish, it seems that I must remind you that the purpose of this internet forum is the discussion of many topics regarding the club, the players and the people who run it. If you cared to browse the forum rules, I think you will find that there is nothing that dictates that posters are only allowed to say that everything is amazing. Personally, I think that pretty well most things are amazing. Can I assume from your tone that you think they are not? Go ahead, Dorkish, let it all spill out if you're unhappy about the way the club is run. I assure you that there will be no nasty repercussions from the mods, providing that your views do not breach the forum rules. But I would expect that many will just ignore your response as the usual gibberish from one of the forum's premier trolls.

Here is an assessment of our team's current state and conjecture of how we might fare from Goal.com:- Taking issue with some of the rubbish spouted in that article:- We didn't limp across the finishing line to promotion, nor did we throw away the Champions spot. We were never out of the top two all season and finished in the top two. Hooiveld is an accident waiting to happen? If anything, Fonte is the one for that. Yes, we need to sign cover for the CB places. We all know that. Buying Lens might push the budget too far? But then the idiot goes on to suggest that we might buy Butland, who would cost at least as much as Lens. So we have a goalkeeper at the end of his career and the other at the beginning of his. Has the idiot not seen goalkeepers of Davis' age go on for a few more years yet? And where he suggests Butland, he is pretty well the same age as Gazzinga. So a load of contradictions, proving that some of these journos know very little about us. If our opponents were as clueless, then we could surprise them.

Also the Skates team hadn't been used to playing in the sun, having not seen it for months, whereas the Gibraltar team were used to it. The Skates weren't used to playing quite so far South. The food down there is a little greasy with too much garlic and his players weren't used to it. There were only 400 Skate supporters there to cheer them on, whereas they are used to far more. Although there was the quality of support, unfortunately there wasn't the quantity. The Gibraltar crowd were chanting OWTS, which confused them, particularly their star player. Gillett didn't know which goal he should have been aiming for. Have I missed any other reasons (sorry, excuses.) for the Skate's poor performance? If I were a Skate fan (heaven forbid), then I'd be telling Appy "thanks four - nothing".

You seriously think that I will trawl the forum to find posts about whether others expressed views that we can never expect to play in Europe? F uck me, you are odd. And as expected, nothing from you about those posts you said I made about flexible pricing. Because there are none. Just a fiction made up by you to get the rest of the half dozen or so arse-aching trolls on here excited. But when you say that there is nobody who has said that we could never play in Europe, let us please make a clear distinction here. I believe that most accept that it is possible to gain access to European competition via Cup wins. We have achieved qualification for that as recently as 2003, with a squad arguably not as good as this one. But qualification for the Champions League? I seem to recall that some posters stated that was an impossible target, that anybody who thought we could get into the CL was living in a fantasy world. I may have been mistaken on that and perhaps somebody could confirm or deny that to be the case.

You're right, that nobody is expecting us to beat them. But if they get too complacent themselves and think that it is a formality, we might produce a shock result. Many people I've spoken to consider this an ideal time to be playing three of the top teams in the league during that opening month. Maybe some of those players in those teams might not have achieved full match fitness during the Summer break. Some who have played in the European Championships might be carrying knocks, or be more tired after a heavy season. If we were to lose the first few matches, then that would only be deemed to be a return to the usual Saints of old and indeed, there would be no disgrace in losing to the likes of City, United and Arsenal. On the other hand, we are probably still on a high, confidence wise. The players who have been with us for a while, will have some belief in themselves and their colleagues. The new additions are an unknown quantity and have the potential to surprise us, as well as the other teams in the division. I'm quite optimistic that we'll finish the season mid-table and gain some admirers along the way.

I'm quite relaxed. It seems that some posters take themselves too seriously. CB's blood pressure must be going through the roof.