Wes Tender

Useless comparing percentage success rates between Pearson and Adkins unless the comparison is made on a level playing field, i.e. Adkins' figures are for the division below. What are Adkins' figures for the Championship? I really can't be arsed to check. But for all those bandying around Pearson's figures for us, those figures are meaningless unless they are considered in the context that existed at the time. Factors that ought to be considered amongst others are that Kelvin was injured 4 games into his tenure and Poke had to play some matches. Then we got in Richard Wright and that helped. But the main problem was the defence, where we relied on Thomas and Powell, Davies, Pearce, Vignal, Ostlund, J.Wright amongst others, until 9 games in when we introduced Perry and then the game after, Lucketti. They only had three games before the end of the season, but Lucketti wouldn't play against Sheffield United in the last match. Casting an eye over the attacking players isn't much better. Variously, we had Euell, John, Saganowski, B-WP, McGoldrick, Pericard to choose from. Midfield, again, no really settled choice between Viafara, Licka, Hamill, Surman, Idiakez, Safri, Gillett, occasionally J. Wright. You only have to look down that list to realise that it contained a number of players prone to injuries or past their best and that it was only late in the day that Pearson was able to make an assessment of the capabilites of his squad and then bring in experienced players like Perry and Lucketti to tighten up a poor defence and a good Goalkeeper in Wright to replace the injured Kelvin. So apart from Kelvin, how many of those players would posters want to have in our current team in preference to what we have just finished the season with in the division below? Personally, I think we have the better squad now and IMO this team would hammer that team.

Well, you're not a decent club and you're not going to be getting decent owners. You'll get the owners you deserve, more crooks, just like the past few. No, stay away from us. We are a decent club with decent owners already and we don't want dodgy Russians anywhere near us.

I can understand Cardiff, Reading and Brum being difficult matches, because they are teams that were in the play-offs, or just relegated from the Premiership. But why are Brighton or the Skates "nightmare" matches for us? Brighton were on a level with us this season, we having taken 4 points playing against them and you might as well have included the Posh as a blue team, who are also promoted with us and Brighton. But Brum are a blue nightmare, having been in the Premiership, but West Ham and Blackpool don't register because they don't wear blue. But the Skates? Why would we fear them? I suspect that many of them will fear playing us far more than the other way about. I'm looking forward to 6 points off them.

I was amazed that they chose him to accompany that other non-entity with previous Skate credentials. Who gets to select these people and what has Clotterill done in his career to make him a viable pundit? I can't think of anything and even if I were a neutral with no particular animosity towards the Skates, I would still be wondering why him?

A great summary and one that I agree with totally. And whereas you believe that Lowe attempted the Dutch experiment because his ego drove him to attempt an experiment that he had possibly been aching to try for some time, I believe that there was also the factor that Pearson was a Crouch appointment and that Lowe was petty-minded enough not to want him, out of spite.

I suppose by closing them down and not letting them have the space and time to pass the ball around. ManUre started the match doing that and dominated the first 10 minutes. Then, for some inexplicable reason, they stopped doing it and Barcelona then took over domination.

Well, I was cheering for Barcelona and delighted that they gave ManUre an absolute spanking. It was probably the most one-sided match at the top level that I have ever seen. The match statistics showed that Barcelona had twice the possession for most of the match and many more times the shots on goal. They were majestic. Why was I so happy with Barcelona humbling the England Champions? Well, half of the ManUre team aren't English anyway. But the main reason is that I love to see them beaten because of all their plastic glory hunter supporters in this country and around the World. I'd love nothing more than ManUre being beaten more regularly by other Premiership teams and more European teams, because I know that their plastic fans will desert them and either support the more successful teams like Barcelona, or heaven forbid, perhaps even their local team. Ever since I saw the coaches outside St Mary's or before that The Dell, arriving from suburbs of Manchester like Margate, Truro, Milton Keynes and Birmingham, I began to loathe and detest their fans. I'll certainly have a lovely time during the next few days seeing some of them around town and saying "Barcelona" in a loud voice as they pass by.

The Neapolitan Riviera probably has more tourist sights than anywhere else on Earth. Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Capri, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Vesuvious, Ischia, etc. Positano is my favourite. Also Italian places like Venice, Rome, Sienna, Florence, Taormina, the Lakes, all great. Vancouver. Hong Kong. North Thailand. New England, especially Maine.

I do believe it is possible and in fact we have done it over the years, often because we had to do it because of our financial contraints. Look at a few of the historical and current examples, some of which I have already mentioned. How much did Pahars cost in a buying fee and wages compared to the Premiership average? Kachloul? Claus and the Svennsons? Also, we have had a fair few youngsters coming through over the years who were Premiership quality but on much lower wages. Granted that in order to keep them we will have to pay them what they might earn at least in the lower reaches of the Premiership. But options remain to continue pursuing strategies as above to obtain players of Premiership quality at Championship wage levels, until we are actually in the Premiership. To summarise the possibilities, they are to bring on players through our youth ranks, import players from around the World where wage levels are much lower and bring in some older players from the highest levels in the UK and Europe who are near the end of their careers, but still have something to offer at Championship level. Between those three options, it ought to be possible to bring in 5/6 players to enhance our chances of promotion. I accept that having wealthy ownership and the possibility of £10 million from the sale of Chamberlain will encourage other clubs to expect higher fees for their players, but Cortese has shown himself to be quite an astute negotiator so far. The more other clubs believe that they ought to inflate their price demands, the more that Cortese will consider the other methods of obtaining players at more reasonable price and wage levels.

That rather depends on what you are basing the costs on. In terms of wages to the players and the manager, that might well be the case. But had Pearson and the much more intelligent strategy of playing a team balanced between youth and experience, produced a situation where we avoided relegation, would you then argue that it had cost more overall? We might well have avoided administration, but I'm happy that we were relegated in hindsight, as that is what it took to rid us of Lowe and the charlatans of the old board and the other egos who held shares in us and we probably would not have Markus Liebherr take us over had Lowe been here with his cronies. So all's well that ends well. As we begin the new season in a few weeks time, we will effectively be at the same stage as we were at the time that Lowe took over for the second time with the Quisling. I think that it's fair to say that we are now in a considerably more optimistic situation, on the way up under Cortese fulfilling Liebherr's legacy, rather than entering a season full of dark forebodings under the kids and the Dutch non-entities. At the start of this coming season, we are also level par with the Skates too, but I very much doubt that they will be finishing the season ahead of us.

Well, it would have amazed me, simply because Lowe did his best to give the impression that he was the major shareholder and that he would have been prepared to move aside if somebody put £25 million on the table. In reality, his shareholding was only about 6% and somebody could have bought a controlling interest for about 11 million. Undoubtedly when it became clear that the club were about to hit the buffers and his shareholding and those of his mates Askham, Richards, etc would become worthless in administration, naturally he became desperate to get a buyer. But anybody with any business sense knew that it was a far better proposition to wait until we went under and get the club at a bargain basement price, rather than trying to buy a controlling interest and still have a troublesome shareholding faction in place. Believing that an egotist like Lowe would have moved aside for the good of the club because he realised his own shortcomings is not something I find very credible. Lowe had shortcomings? Surely not?

But SNSUN didn't say that. He said Premiership quality players. Arguably, we have had some in our team this past season, playing in the third division. There are plenty of options to gain Premiership quality players this coming season without paying Premiership wages.

You are making a lot of assumptions here. For a start, it's thinking a long way ahead to the Premiership before we have even kicked a ball in the second division this coming season. If your point holds any water at all that our players in the Premiership might just be badge-kissing mercenaries, surely the chance is that we might need one or two Premiership quality players to join us now to assist us to get up there. Also, whereas we had some of these mercenaries when we were in the Premiership, we also had some foreign players who were good servants for the club, players like Claus Lundekvan, Parhars and Killer for example. What is to say that we might not succeed with a hardcore of able players that we have now who could do a job in the top flight, together with some rising stars like Chamberlain and Lallana (and by then perhaps one or two other youngsters of that ilk), together with some astute buys in the mould of those former good servants? So excuse me for wishing for a third scenario, one where we develop a team based on what I have cited above, a team that has grown and developed together, a team that has been honed and fine tuned to play for each other and for us and the club. There is no reason that a team like that should not succeed in avoiding relegation in the first season, allowing it to build and develop further in the ensuing season. Initially we should seek to emulate teams like Stoke and Bolton and then push on by feeding in promising youngsters and by unearthing some gems. We managed to stay in the Premiership for 27 years as paupers, but we always had to sell any player with real talent, apart from Le Tiss. Now we might actually not only be able to keep those players that show real quality, but actually be able to afford to bring in the sort of players that could make a real difference. I don't accept that it is impossible to be able to compete with the top four clubs. Massive expenditure on a team doesn't necessarily mean that they play well together as a team. Chelsea and Man City spent way more than ManUre, but didn't win the league. A year ago you wouldn't have forecast that Liverpool would not qualify for Europe, surely? With new regulations brought in to level the playing field, our chances will improve on getting up there, maybe in 5 years time.

Agreed. Taylors of Harrogate, Yorkshire Tea, a lovely cuppa

I don't think that we are very far adrift from where Norwich were a season ago and in three matches we played against them that season, we got 4 points from 6 against them and knocked them out of the JPT Cup. They kept most of their squad and fine-tuned it to gain promotion this season and there is nothing to suggest that we cannot do the same thing. The success of a team has much to do with the mind-set of the players and the team spirit is good at the moment. We should have some sort of impetus, with luck, carrying over from this season and plenty of time to bed in any new signings before we start the new season. NA appears to be good from the point of view of player motivation and just as he was prepared to stick his neck out and state that we aimed to go up as champions earlier in this season, it wouldn't surprise me if he were to say that our aim was at least to reach the play-offs. I honestly believe that we are as good as any other team in this division at the moment and provided that we can keep players like Chamberlain and Lallana and add some additional quality, we could have a very good season. I think that if we get off to our usual slow start, people should not make the mistake that many did this season, thinking that we had blown our chances. Experience also tells us that if we raced away with a series of good early wins, we should not expect that there will be no hiccups further into the season. I'm confident that Adkins will keep his and the players' feet on the ground, rationalising every twist and turn and making the appropriate adjustments along the way. So I am optimistic, but hopefully also realistic. We could do it, but if we don't, but come close, I'll be very happy that we will be well placed for the season after.

Oh, I forgot. So the forensic examination of the running of oldco PFC is a waste of time really, because the club was managed in a scrupulously correct manner and there ought instead to be an examination regarding how the PL runs their affairs instead. I've got it now.

Surely the book is on financial mismanagement?

A pity that we couldn't keep him one more season, but although improbable, not beyond the bounds of possibility that we can loan him this coming season as part of the agreement. However, he is only one player and for the fee we are likely to get for him (and the millions to come from selling Puncheon ) we can get in several higher standard players to help take us to the next level in the second division.

I don't know about these things, but have an inkling that HMRC could object to Injustice Mann handling another case involving the football creditors' rule, or Portsmouth Football Club, even though this is Newco rather than the entity in the first case.

I think probably the latter, Ginge. Most of the ones I come across during the course of my business, consider the price that they have paid, the administration, the fall from grace, the club nearly faling into oblivion, were all worthwhile for the FA Cup, the trips to Wembley and the stint in the Premiership.

Unless I'm mistaken, trading whilst insolvent is breaking the law. The judgement on that is coming your way sometime soon, along with the prospect of certain people being judged on tax evasion and using unlicensed agents, amongst other things.

Big Brother is truly here.

Are you seriously telling me that the entire 27000 Saints fans were singing "pay up Pompey"? No, of course they weren't. Most of the Saints fans singing it were on either side of the Skate fans in part of the Northam and the adjacent Kingsland and Itchen corners. The players on the pitch are concentrating on their game and just hear it as background noise and I bet that they couldn't distinguish whether it was "pay" or "play" that was being sung, any more than it would have been distinguishable in the commentary box. Additionally, whenever we chanted it, the Skates also chanted it too, to make it sound as if it is all them.

Unbelievable! Apart from other clubs, generally in minor leagues, or in Rugby, who also have the Saints nickname, the song is probably more associated in British sport with us. How can some of our fanbase possibly associate it more with Spurs than with us? Cretins!

But analysing it by looking at how the Skate fans saw it in terms of a wind-up is only seeing one side of it. The Skate players are used to hearing it as encouragement to them at Krap Nottarf to lift their game, so they might well not have been able to distinguish the difference between pay and play and assumed that their fans were in fine voice geeing them on. Also, as has been pointed out, the Skate fans will probably have been mistakenly credited with superb support on the telly, because their chant was heard loud and clear, when it was us making that noise. Much more effective for that reason IMO was the "Pompey's going down with no money in the bank" chant. And when we next get to play Spurs, I'll be happy with them singing OWTS, because it is our chant and all we have to do is have them sing it and shout Saints instead of Spurs at the appropriate juncture, to have our players and those watching on the box to think that it is we Saints fans in good voice.