Wes Tender

I understand that they are having to surgically remove his wallet...

Whilst there, they can have a look at the Mary Rose too, to reassure themselves that it is possible to resurrect something from the wreckage.

Perhaps he has decided that his heart isn't in it any more.

Would that be Perry, simultaneously complaining about the cost of a pint of Guiness? I wonder whether Washsaint considers the Radio Solent fans' forum to be representative? If not, then another complete waste of time. And yet I'll wager that most of those who attended that, either post on here, or comment in the Echo. Why? Because they are the ones who are prepared to take the trouble to express their opinions, whereas some others do not, but vote with their feet.

Don't worry Landford. Results this season have been patchy for various reasons and it is only natural that some have become a little twitchy. But I think that your original post struck a chord with many, reminding us of how much worse our situation could have been by now and a good opportunity (if they get feedback from this forum) to send a message loud and clear to Messrs. Cortese and Liebherr that we are deeply appreciative and thankful that they chose to save our beloved club from possible oblivion.

Why? The forum reflects a number of diverse opinions the same as any subject up for debate. As is to be expected under current circumstances, there are naturally some posters who are impatient and want to see results right away, but they are a minority. Most are looking longer term and have more patience. I don't see many being critical of the 5 year plan, saying that is unrealistic, or that it should be a shorter period.

I won't argue that this is only 10% or so of the fanbase when equated against matchday attendances, but I would be interested to hear why you conclude that the views of this 10% cannot be representative of the whole fan base.

Where does it become an ego trip if nobody of influence gets to hear about it? Apart from as a vehicle to launder his ill-gotten gains from bribery and corruption in Thailand, his main objective in taking over an English football club was to raise his profile with the electorate in Thailand, but if he could not broadcast the fact that he was the de facto owner of a Premiership club, he would see little point in that. I suspect that he was the main source of finance for the fake sheik until the PL found out about it and shut that door. I suspect that although the PL might be lax about checking out the owners of some clubs, they may be giving Pompey special attention in view of the rumours that Thaksin may have been involved. Actions taken by the fake sheik during this protracted farce have hardly served to keep the Skates out of the limelight, the latest incident of the failure to pay the player's wages must surely have raised some eyebrows. If all of a sudden Fahim comes up with £50 million, they will want to know where it came from.

What a cogent argument! Every single opinion poll in existence that doesn't bother asking the entire population its opinion is rendered totally pointless, eh? We get 19,000 crowds, but many can't make it on match days. Therefore their opinions posted on here should be ignored, as you infer that only those who attend matches can really have a valid opinion. It is clearly the case that under your argument, there is no realistic way for the board to gauge the opinion of the fans. The letters and comments written up in the Echo are no more representative of the fans than those posted on here. As the main fans' forum, this is probably largest barometer of opinion, so there is no reason why Cortese or somebody on his staff shouldn't come on here to see which way the wind blows according to the "customers" of the business.

I'd be genuinely interested to hear whether any jobs (backroom staff) were actually lost or any suppliers not paid. As for managers or share investment, that is the risk they take in football.

The Thaksin Shinawatra connection bothers me. What really could be in it for him? If he thought that the Premier League would allow him as an owner, fair enough. I'm sure that when he took over Manchester City, it was as a vehicle both to raise his profile in Football-mad Thailand in order to help facilitate his return to power there and also to launder his ill-gotten gains through corruption there. What is the point for Thaksin in having a toy if he gets nil reflected glory through it, as he could never make it public that he was involved. And usually when money is laundered by criminals, surely they expect some return from it. Thaksin is smart enough to realise that as well as not being a team very visible on the radar of most Thais, investing in them is also tantamount to him pouring his money down the drain

The thread's about Itchen North, not the Northam. Most of the Northam happens to be taken by ST holders apart from a few single seat spaces, but even if one has the occasional different person sat next to you there, it could be that the ST holder couldn't attend and gave the ticket to a friend.

The major shareholders I have little sympathy for. Some like Lowe and Cowan probably took out more in salary than they lost in shares. The directors from the original old board involved in the reverse takeover, I have even less sympathy for and anyway, the value of those shares was minimal at £1 a share originally. For example, that only cost an investment of about £2/3000 for Askham and he was compensated with the best seat in the house for years. It's a shame that he didn't lose much more for bringing about the Lowe regime, but never having to have the likes of him associated with us ever again is reward enough, I suppose. As for the smaller shareholders, many like me and my son only really held a token shareholding and would gladly give that up to have somebody like Liebherr own the club. Who really lost their job that is worthy of concern? Wotte, yes, but so what? Many of the backroom staff gained job security when their futures had seemed to be in doubt and I suspect that staff numbers have actually risen now. As for the suppliers, as I mentioned earlier, unless I'm mistaken, weren't they all paid by Liebherr? I also hope that the services of most will have been retianed provided that their prices are competitive.

Now that the dust has settled over past matters, I'm quite happy to find myself in broad agreement with quite a lot of what you post nowadays, Nineteen. I have little doubt as to whether ML and Cortese realise how grateful we are to them taking us over. I also doubt that they will pay too much attention to some getting a bit nervous about the time taken to get a win or two. I'm sure they'll realise that is the nature of the beast, the type of business this is. To paraphrase another well known saying, you can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time; but you cannot please all of the people all of the time. I don't reckon they would expect to. The situation is still very much optimistic and gratitude very high for what they have done and there is still confidence from most that things will improve. Attendances at home are still excellent, despite some reverses.

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, trousers. Whatever became of Misguided, eh? Presumably nothing untoward to dig up about Liebherr and Cortese. Perhaps Jonah has disappeared for the same reasons, as neither can find anything to be critical of regarding the way that things are being run now. My gut feeling was similar to yours. I hesitated when contemplating the smaller businesses that supply the club who might have lost money through administration, but if I'm correct, Marcus has repaid all those debts and quite possibly continues to deal with those suppliers who can now have absolute faith in the new people. The -10 points deduction and the relegation were a price worth paying to be rid of those charlatans for ever more. I still believe that we could have stayed up and avoided administration had Crouch remained in charge and we had kept Pearson. But the way things have turned out is much better than where we would have been under that scenario, particularly as certain corrosive elements would still have retained their shares. I also believe that the chain of events set in motion by the return of Wilde as Lowe's poodle, the bizarre experiment with JP and Wotte and the youngsters, caused sufficient numbers to stay away and make the whole thing unsustainable financially, thus precipitating the events that led to our current situation. At the time, we were accused of being muppets, ruining the club. It might have gone very badly, but it didn't. In fact, it went better than anybody could possibly have hoped for. I hesitate to recommend it as a way of getting rid of the fake shiek down the road, should they grow to despise their owner, as I don't think that there is a billionaire on the planet who would consider them a good prospect for serious investment.

A great post, Landford. Certainly having Leibherr and Cortese is beyond our wildest dreams and we are spectacularly lucky to have them. As I detested the last regime with a vengeance, I am eternally grateful to them for buying our club and saving our bacon. Although we are off to a slow start, I acknowledge that there are some mitigating factors and I feel confident that we will soon begin to turn things around and claw our way out of this division and back to where we belong, in the top flight. From the short time that Liebherr and Cortese have been here, I have been mightily impressed by their demeanour and their professionalism and would go as far as to say that I really cannot think of any other owner in British football that I would prefer to have in charge of the club and that includes Abramovich and the Arab lot at Man City. In fact, if they still own those clubs in 5/6 years, I will look forward to us beating them and it will be all the sweeter because we had resurrected ourselves from the basement.

Cortese seems to be a decent and approachable guy. When somebody from on here meets him at some stage, why don't they just ask the question of him and then report back to us?

Its really straightforward. All you have to do is highlight what you want bold by clicking over it with the mouse, then click the B at the top of the box. Otherwise, you just type [ B ] before the first word and [/ B ] after the last word and that's it. Just leave out the spaces. If I had not inserted the spaces after inside the brackets, it would have made "before the first word and" bold type. See?

I have some business clients who are Pompey fans and generally they are decent people, if a little misguided, but I respect that. What really annoys me more than anything was seeing the Skate plastics that shot up in numbers corresponding with Pompey's rise into the Premiership and success in the FA Cup. They were welcome to desport themselves in their colours in Skatesville, but I resented seeing them here in the Eastern suburbs of Southampton. Thankfully, their numbers are decreasing and when I encounter any remaining plastics over here, I can point at their shirt and have a damned good sn*gger (bloody filter won't allow sn igger would you believe?!) at them. Also great fun when meeting with the business clients to commiserate with their plight and tell them that I know exaclty how they are feeling as we had been run by clowns too until our Billionaire came along.

Good shout! Presumably the Skates couldn't afford his wages. I reckon he could be just the player for us if he was prepared to drop down the divisions. He might be pursuaded to join his mate Waigo.

Are those the ones that regardless of the subject matter, somehow manage to end up involving McMenemy, MLT or Crouch?

Is your assessment made with certain knowledge that he is really injury prone, or was it prompted by assumptions that he must be because he hardly played at all last season?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1216994/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Dubais-Del-Boy-Sulaiman-Al-Fahim-quick-fix-Portsmouth.html The article in the Daily Mail. Dubai's Delboy!

Exactly what I had proposed on another thread yesterday or Monday. At the time, the debate was about where Lallana could be accommodated. On the evidence of yesterday, I can see that he certainly seems to be forging a useful partnership with Lambert. When I suggested it, Thomas and Murty not being available, I had proposed a back three of Trotman, Jaidi and Harding. The wing backs from those available would have been James and Mills/Holmes. Last night, we did play with some width, as we were often forced into it by Rover's width. One side effect was that at least we did manage more crosses from the byeline than normal.It was a refreshing change when I am used to observing that often these past couple of seasons, the play is concentrated into two thirds of the pitch. Also as a result of the width, there was scope for some decent passing in triangles between the midfielders, defence and attack. The difference between their wide players and ours is exactly as has been described by others; they have pace and attack fast and wide, whereas we take too long to get the ball into danger areas, allowing them to track back and defend in depth.

Well, Sven Goran Eriksson was prepared to manage a team in the division below this one. Is he better than Pardew or not?