Wes Tender

I'll have a stab at it. 500. That's just for the City itself. I suspect that the wider PO postcode would yield higher numbers, especially between here and there. There are any number of reasons why we might harvest fans from Portsmouth itself, although as others have said, it is unlikely that many will come from existing fans of Portsmouth. But naturally it would be as difficult for me to prove my suspected figure as it is for anybody to disprove it.

I don't have too much of a problem with Kraken, as at least he argues the points constructively, generally without the need for personal abuse. As to the other two, one can only speculate on the psychology that causes them to feel the need to feel either superior to everybody else, or to act like the classroom bully. Perhaps they were bullied at school. But it is clear that most on here have sussed them out for what they are, but like Peter and the wolf, nobody knows when to take them seriously. When they actually attempt to make an intelligent and reasonable contribution to the debate, their crebility is questionable, as either nobody knows when they are being serious, or their points are devalued by their snide remarks against whoever they are responding to. But thankfully we are only talking about a handful of individuals who find themselves incapable of reasoned debate, so it is simple to ignore what they say. In any event, they shouldn't be taken seriously; they might be a nuisance, but the problems lie with them.

I also stayed away because of Lowe that last season. But it doesn't matter how much anecdotal evidence one is able to produce to disparage CB Fry's views. I see it like this:- Rule 1:- CB Fry is always right. Rule 2:- If it appears that CB Fry is not right, refer to rule 1.

Well, there you go CB Fry. Thanks to DD quoting him when I have him on ignore, it is now clear there is another poster on here who says that our catchment area is unique; and it's your bosum buddy, your cohort-in-chief, Dorkish. In the absence of you being able to point to any serious poster stating that our catchment area is unique, console yourself that at least your mate thinks it is.

Ah! The great man has pronounced on the matter, so any further debate is futile. CB Fry and his towering intellect is the last word on the matter. See, I warned those other posters not to mention the question of catchment area, as it matters not how many clubs share a city, or how far away from a club other rival cities with clubs are from them. It is also of no importance to the debate how long ago another club had it's glory years, poor old Saints can never brook comparison with them, even if they are in decline and we are on the up. There really is nothing more to discuss here, now we have the definitive response from our very own Brain of Britain. But just one thing; when did I, or anybody else say that we have a "unique" catchment area? I wonder whether you would be kind enough to point to the quote?

It would be no fun if they were to go out of existence and begin again without the baggage in English football's basement. A lot of the enjoyment comes from them stumbling from pillar to post, not knowing whether tomorrow might be their last day existing in their current form. It's the hope that kills them and it's the lack of hope for them that causes us all so much amusement.

I'm with AOL and on their home page today, above a story detailing the FA fine for bad behaviour of our fans, there is a photo of the English fans. So which flag stood out for me? The St George flag with Portsmouth FC and 657 on it. Still, with luck, their club will not exist by the time they return to their sh*thole.

All very sensible, but how very dare you mention the catchment area! You run the risk of the forum fashionistas jumping on this comment and telling you that the catchment area has nothing to do with our potential to fill an enlarged stadium and how clubs like Derby have larger catchment areas, what with all the villages in the Peak District, etc.

Top post of the thread

It's a step up for him; leaving the half-wits to play for the Wits.

Always interesting to watch Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford programmes, as they were mostly set in Romsey for the TV programme.

Why should high integrity be a prerequisite for an applicant when it is not a quality to be found in any of the club's past several owners? Why, it was a quality even lacking in their former chief executive, former Head of Integrity at the FA, Lampitt. Perhaps it was a typo and they were looking for somebody with no integrity, so that they would fit right in to the cess pit.

In town with the family shopping yesterday afternoon, I was amazed to see one of Skatesmouth's finest, together with his wife/sister. He was wearing his OKI skate top, as bold as brass. When I passed him, I told him that I hoped that he would enjoy watching Crawley Town whilst we played Chelski. I suspect that he probably went through the day unscathed, as the population here is mostly more civilised that that of Portsmouth, but I certainly wouldn't dare do the reverse. Presumably he wore the OKI top because that is the last time they had any glory and perhaps the poor sop felt the desperate need to hark back to that era and to walk around a city that breathed the sweet air of Premiership football, but without the fetid smell of corruption that hung over their city when they were there.

And very condescending.

A much longer time since BT were appointed to liquidate Oldco and carry out a forensic examination of their finances. What exactly was the outcome of that; I seem to have missed hearing anything further about it. Were the finances declared to be honest and accurate?

That's an old photo of Uncle Avram's favourite relaxation place. His magnaminity has meant that they can now afford a big bold sign advertising them, "Siam". A quick google of that + Horton Heath will satisfy any curiosity as to the services on offer and who can provide them.

Rather he lost us the original stadium and had his bacon saved by Southampton Council, who gifted him the site for St Mary's. He was honest in most of his dealings and fairly shrewd when it came to players' contracts, but the way that he originally came to the club via the arrangement with Askham and the old board stank like a 2 week old kipper. He had it right to invest in the infrastructure which made us an attractive prospect for a buyer, but he really had no idea about the logistics of what makes a team successful.

I got the identical stock reply myself. The only thing that consoles me, is that the FL will have had quite a considerable amount of correspondence questioning why the Skates' last CVA has not been honoured and yet that is somehow not seen as being the same as exiting administration without a CVA, which is punishable with a points deduction. I accused them of having no balls and said that their inaction was making them a laughing stock within English football. Who knows whether this deluge of correspondence might yet have some influence on their decision to grant them the golden share or not, or at the very least to dock them an additional points penalty.

Why are you so surprised? Firstly you have to accept that the indigenous population of Skatesmouth, and in particular those who follow their local football club, will contain a fairly low percentage who are literate. Then amongst them, there is this even smaller cross section who are capable of rational and intelligent thought, those you label as the odd relatively sane ones. The fact that they try over and over again to explain the rules, speaks volumes as to the mental capacity of the poor saps who are their core fan base.

Well, I agree with Kraken. Perhaps he hasn't quoted any posts because he can't be bothered to trawl back to last Summer to find examples, or else he doesn't wish to make it personal. But my recollection of past closed seasons is that there certainly is an element who get a little excitable if it seems that nothing is happening in the transfer market within a few weeks. So I take issue with your claim that if posts are not quoted, then the situation does not exist. But just to counter your argument, how can anybody be insulted if you claim that the people making these impatient posts don't exist?

Just thought that I'd see whether there were any interest snippets on the Skates from a glance at News Now. I seem to have missed when the transition happened. A couple of days ago when I last looked, we and they were both still featured in the Champioship table, but now we are on the Premiership page and it takes 4 sub-menus to get to the Skates in the third division. It is small things like this that point up the reality of how far the South Coast pendulum has swung in our favour. If they even get to keep their golden share, will they have a team left capable of defeating those giants in the division, Crewe Alexander, Crawley, Stevenage and Shrewsbury? Happy days.

The shirts are a massive mark-up. A decent quality brand name promotional T-Shirt can be bought on quantity for under £1.50 trade price and the screens are £20 per colour typically. But full marks for initiative and if he can achieve that sort profit margin, then good luck to him.

And thanks for your usual condescending, sarcastic and supercilious response. So it wasn't you who stated that paying £7 million for a 30 year old (presumably your inferred example is Lambert) was bad value? So hands off any club thinking that they could buy him from us for under £7 million, CB Fry is here to tell you that the deal would represent bad value. They'd be much better off spending their money on a much younger player with potential. And I see that as usual you do not choose to debate the point I made; that it is only possible to view whether the signing-on fee can be seen as value for money in retrospect, depending on performance after the signing, or a decent profit from selling on in the future. Or is that point (which contradicts what you said), not worthy of a reply because it is the obvious "insight" ?

How can you say that Lambert would be bad value at 30 years old for £7 million? He might well carry on firing in the goals in the Premiership at a better rate than Grant Holt did for the next 5 years. Conversely, J Rod might not realise his potential and become a waste of £7 million. So talk of value is only possible with the benefit of hindsight, weighing up what they achieved against what they cost, or against what their sell-on fee might be.