Wes Tender

I'd hoped to keep him, but if Reading have extended his contract for another year, then we will perhaps have to look elsewhere to sign a replacement. Or is this just a ploy by Reading to raise his value, playing hardball for more money? If we have to return him, more pressing need to sign Papa, I'd say.

Well, if we're still biting, you must be the worm on the hook.

Look, do we have to go over this all over again, just because you cannot be bothered to read the last few pages of the other thread? There is chapter and verse on there if you cared to look.

I have an even better idea. The FA Cup match was a sell-out and a good money-spinner for us both. Why don't we arrange another match after the season has ended? This time though, they will not be allowed to field those players brought in after they were trading insolvently. I forecast that we would beat them under those circumstances that there was a level playing field (metaphorically, of course) Profits would be split evenly, their receipts to be paid directly to those local charities and traders who they have defrauded.

Touching that you'll be there. It will be a good opportunity also to say goodbye to them all, as they take their mercenary greed to the next club prepared to keep them in clover.

The latest massively deluded Skate to post following an article in The News:- Typically, he also shows a large degree of geographical ignorance, as he doesn't realise that Aldershot is in Hampshire. But he is totally deluding himself if he doesn't think that the power base in football on the South Coast is changing. Brighton might not be an especially rich team, but they are certainly wealthier than the Skates. I suppose that geographically speaking he is right that the Skates are the biggest team South of London. But that is because more correctly we are to the South West of London. Ask anybody in the country who is the biggest load of cheating bastards in the South and they'd say the Skates were. And it is eminently feasible that in a few months time, there will be several football clubs in Hampshire and along the South Coast that will be bigger than them, including Havant & Waterlooville (whose ground they might be sharing) and Eastleigh.

The News has just reported that regardless of whether the Skates win or lose against Chelski in the FA Cup final, they will parade the players on an open top bus on Southsea Common for the win, or arrive in the team bus if they lose, thanking the fans from the same stage that would be used had they won. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/frattonlatest/Win-or-lose-Pompey-to.6258549.jp I can understand the euphoria should the cheating bastards win, but if as I hope, they get slaughtered by Chelski, one would have thought that the more natural reaction would have been to have slunk away quietly with embarassment. But then the people running the club, even through administration, have little idea of what is appropriate. Perhaps they can ring fence the event, charging an admission, funds raised going to pay for all the local business creditors that they have shafted.

Platini accused you of cheating. But then what does he know, eh?

As we have both posted our opinions and we are talking about possible events in the future, then your opinion that I am wrong is not proven, nor can it be for a few more years yet. You have not made any effort to even point out where you think I am wrong, or to justify your position particularly. Who knows how long ML will continue to own us? But we could be back in the Premiership within a couple of years, so that would be the real starting point for our upward climb. Can you predict with any certainty what the position will be of the top eight by then? Given his continued good health, there is no reason why ML shouldn't carry on for some years yet, provided that he still derives pleasure from his hobby. As for him being willing to spend most of his fortune, if he did that, then undoubtedly we would be in the top eight, probably the top four, as he could afford to extend the stadium and buy some top international stars if he so desired. But I am perfectly content that he carries on with his far more sensible and cautious approach, spending what he can afford to justify by the income returned to balance the books. But that doesn't mean that we can't grow steadily and improve our position in the hierarchy at the same time if we do it the right way by astute investment in the right manager and the right players. Other clubs have achieved it over the years without bankrupting themselves. I reiterate, that your position has probably been dulled by years of punching above our weight at this club, followed by dismal failure and our position amongst the poor relations of British football historically, so your pessimistic viewpoint is excusable.

Tottenham were once a top club, but had a spell in the wilderness for several years. Now they are headed back up. The same with Manchester City. OK, they both have wealthy owners and big catchment areas. But Fulham? They are doing quite well in Europe, I understand. The thing is, you cannot really say with absolute certainty that we could not possibly reach the dizzy heights. No doubt you could not have predicted a couple of years ago that Liverpool's star would be waning and that without the Skates not being allowed to play in Europe, Liverpool wouldn't be there next time around. I seem to recall that you were always a bit of a Lowe Luvvie, so your default mindset three years ago would likewise have accused those optimists of looking at life through rose tinted glasses if they predicted that we would rid ourselves of those charlatans of the old board and replace them with a billionaire. I think that perhaps you have suffered too long from the Saints syndrome of living like paupers, never being able to keep the players we developed into stars, never being able to attract the better players if a rival was bidding for them too, never really able to attract the best managers and keep them when other clubs came sniffing around after them. It is early days yet. But already we have been able to keep those bright young players, bring in new ones beating off rivals, attracted a manager arguably better than usual for this level. You're obviously not used to these things, so find it difficult to translate it onwards to the Premiership.

Frank's Cousin: Quote Some here took a principled stand and happily the end justified the means. There doesn't seem to have been any such campaign initiative from the Skates. But although there was always the risk that we might not have come through it as we did, we remained a club with decent infrastructure, good property assets, a fairly new Premiership standard stadium, good training ground and comparitively not that much debt around our necks. We ought to have have retained an attractiveness as an investment opportunity to somebody and thankfully that person was ML. Many of us watched the board like hawks, kept a watchful eye on every penny spent, went to the AGMs and demanded answers when decisions were made that they didn't agree on. When Burley was given money to spend on players towards a campaign for promotion, it was debated minutely on here. As you say, where was the debate on any of the Skate forums when they were spending bucketloads on players and when the wage bill rose to be an unsustainably high percentage of income? Where were the campaigns to boycott their matches, STs or merchandise until their board sat up and took notice? I didn't notice any myself.

It must be said that I would have taken the similar position to you a few months ago and reasoned that one bunch of footy fans was much like another. But we went through much anguish and turmoil at this club not so long ago and look at the contrast; we had lively debates between the various factions, a real cut and thrust, each seldom giving any quarter. It made things interesting. Perhaps as you infer, the difference is that we had two basic factions, the pro and anti Lowes, whereas they seem now to at least acknowledge at Skatesville that their board and owners have all been crooks of one shade or another. All that they cannot seem to agree on, is what their current status is and what hope there is left for them. I suppose that it is not an edifying prospect spouting conjecture as to where they will end up, or whether they will even have a club to support. So the intelligent ones probably realise that there little point in speculating, as they could be proven very wrong, the optimists are starting to lose hope, which only leaves those idiots who either don't understand the situation, or who stubbornly refuse to accept it, bleating at how cruel the World is and that it isn't their fault and why does nobody love them?

This will be the same special account that the charity monies were paid into, no doubt.

What? You mean like Sunderland weren't, before they hardly lost a single match from then onwards and went up as Champions?

Quote John B: Making comparisons between our wealth and that of the top eight clubs in the Premiership is a difficult exercise. In terms of wealth of owner, then we are right up there, with a wealthier owner than several of that top eight. But beyond that, we have no debt, whereas some of that top eight have massive debts of hundreds of millions of pounds. Wouldn't you agree that those debts should appear in the debit column when you consider their nett worth, just like Pompey's? Once we have returned to the Premiership and established ourselves there, I don't agree that it is necessarily the case that we could not gain a top eight place. Sometimes massive amounts of money thrown at a team gains a disjointed collection of individuals and it has always been the case that on occasion the less fancied teams beat the top teams. Why, Burnley beat Man Ure early in the season and the bankrupt and bereft Skates beat Tottenham only recently. By the time we're back up there, it could be that our investment in our academy and hopefully our ability to attract some of the brightest young prospects to it, could be paying dividends. One of Man Ure's best teams, full of their young players developed through their academy, was not an expensive team to build, with few recognised imported stars. And yet that team containing Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Butt and the Neville Brothers, was the equal or better than most others at the time. Had we been able to have kept some of our recent starlets brought up through our own academy, together with some other quality players we had, without the need to sell them to balance the books, we might still have been in the Premiership today. As to becoming a World brand, there are a couple of ways that could be achieved. The well trodden path is via success in the Premiership and Europe. The other is by clever marketing. The global audience required to be a Worldwide brand, currently largely ignores the potential audience in the Far East, avid followers of English Premiership football. One or two imports from those countries playing in the Premiership, must do wonders for their clubs' following abroad. Some clever scouting over there might unearth more nuggets from Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. Undoubtedly our stock rose as a World brand when we went to play Arsenal in the FA Cup, but of course it fell when we disappeared off the TV screens when we were relegated. The Skates will have increased their profile for winning the FA Cup a couple of years ago and being in the final again this year. They also will fall from notice on the World stage once the publicity surrounding their ignominious fall from grace had faded from memory. So although there is much in what you say, there have already been changes to the top hierarchy these past recent few years. Who is to say that further changes might not follow, that favour our rising star in the firmament?

This + 1. Although likewise I would love to read something from him saying how much he has enjoyed the season, the football, the fans, his decision to take us over vindicated as the correct one, etc, I am also happy that he remains in the background and just enjoys himself privately. As it stands, he provides a welcome contrast to our former Chairmen, who were all about their egos.

I respect the stance taken by those such as you who have dug deep into your own pockets to settle these charity debts. Those of you who post on here are generally savvy enough to appreciate the ins and outs of the whole affair and provide decent balanced debate on it. However, I'm sure that you are well aware if you read the Skate forums and the posts to articles in The News, there are a substantial percentage of fans who are total imbeciles, just like that cretinous oaf "sam the sham" whose contribution I posted earlier. If there were a majority of intelligent, well-informed Skate fans on those forums, they would challenge those cretins and educate them to the reality of their situation. But I've heard it said that anybody who goes on those forums and tells it as it is, is automatically labelled a scummer. I can see why you and others from the other end of the M27 come on here. Apart from a bit of banter, at least there is balance and mostly intelligent debate. I've yet to come across any of your forums to match this one in those respects. If most of the Skates took the sensible perspective that you have, it would have been far easier for there to be enough consensus to get serious campaigning action together to take action over this charity fiasco and the prosecution of those responsible for the demise of your club. But regrettably there are too many still in denial about the whole thing, especially your manager who is the main choir-master getting those with limited intelligence to sing from the same hymn sheet.

Quite. Below I quote one of the most deluded posters from their ignorant bunch of so-called supporters:- I was tempted to report it as unsuitable, as it was obviously the opinion of somebody under a Care in the Community order. The team that got to the FA Cup Final is one funded with money they did not have, buying and loaning players they could not afford. This was the money that gave them an advantage over teams such as us or Coventry, who would otherwise have beaten them, had they stayed within a budget that they could have afforded, with the calibre of player to match. And what exactly is less than nothing? Is that the sum of money in the debit column by any chance? The £120 millions of debt? Criticism of Collymore's article is not unexpected on the grounds that his past record is peppered with incidents that hardly cover him in glory as far as his personal life is concerned. But the Skates who excuse themselves by citing that, fail to recognise that regardless of his misdemeanours, there is a lot of truth in what he says. Anyway, I suspect that the behaviour of your average Skate fan in their day to day lives would probably make Collymore look like an angel by comparison. And you have to laugh at the comparisons of themselves with Liverpool and ManUre. Their debt level might be appreciably higher than that of the Skates, but then again their income levels are also substantially higher too, so that the ration of income to debt is sustainable, especially when you add in the value of their brand in the World marketplace, their merchandising, stadia and other assets. Even with their debt levels, they both remain saleable commodities, whereas Pompey is a basket case which only a fool would wish to spend his money on currently and only crooks have been attracted to recently.

St Paul started his journey on the road to Damascus intent on persecuting the Portsmouth fans and their club? And St Paul also realised like you that he was a football fan first and a Saints fan second? My head is spinning at these startling revelations.

I'm surprised you have to even ask. Given the person who has posted it, I thought that it would have been clear.

It will serve as good displacement therapy for you and your fellow Skates, won't it?. There's always somebody else worse off than you, isn't there? Oh. There doesn't seem to be any club in the land that is worse off than you. If Hull do go into administration now, their timing will be similar to ours and we managed to get it all sorted before the start of the next season. At least with Hull, there is a decent chance that they will come through administration. If you're lucky, you'll be starting next season in the fizzy pop on a much larger points deduction than them. If your luck has run out, then your club will cease to exist in its current form and you'll be several divisions below them and us. But still, I'm happy for you lot that you gain some comfort and enjoyment gloating at Hull's misfortune. Mind you, that is nothing compared to the enjoyment that the Pompay train crash is giving us. Well, all except for Guided Missile, that is. I think that he will be sending you an apology soon for his nastiness towards you recently.

What Markus Liebherr did by moving to Switzerland was very similar in many ways to what Michael Wilde did by moving to Jersey. I'm really quite surprised that the even-handed and fair-minded individual that GM is, hasn't commented on that.

The thread is a troll to see who bites, but nobody has. But I say put up or shut up, GM. I eagerly await seeing your imaginative fund-raising initiatives for them, publicised in the Echo under your real name. So come on, John. Prove that it isn't all hot air and do something positive to ease their pain. Personally, I'm in the camp that believes that the best way to ease their pain is to put them out of their misery and terminate them as a club in this current form.

Why was he surprised? Android was probably chosen precisely because he was a lightweight in that industry, somebody who has been proven to have little moral or ethical fibre. That much was clear from his handling of a couple of other administrations, where he was censured because of his unethical handling of them. The people who have run the club over the past few years are hardly model citizens, so if there have been any fraudulent transactions, they are hardly likely to appoint somebody squeaky clean and of high professional integrity to investigate them. As it is, there are already huge question marks over how a respected financial institution like Vantis can do a Statement of Affairs of the financial position of the club to place before the High Court and the Android somehow manages to double the debt total.

I would love to see us keep both Antonio and Papa. They both add something desirable to the team. The majority of the team is in place and it only needs somebody of the quality of Harding to fill the RB slot and the box to box midfield general to complete the team. Increasingly it looks as if we have some good players coming through the youth ranks and they can be blooded gradually as and when they are thought to be ready, so we might be seeing more of them by two thirds of the way through next season, in matches where we have a good lead.