Wes Tender

Obviously if one was just asked the question would you prefer to be in the Premiership or the third division on -10 points, then the answer is going to be the first option every time, unless by some really quirky reasoning somebody actually prefers the lower cost, but genuine football in the third division. If somebody asks would you prefer to support Saints or the Skates, then again everybody on here will naturally say Saints, apart from the blue few who prefer our forum to theirs. Otherwise, if the intention of the thread was to use an element of crystal ball gazing, most sensible people would be predicting that the circumstances surrounding both clubs now, will probably favour us one or two seasons along the road.

I would prefer to be in our shoes rather than theirs. For me, one of the major factors is that from what I have seen and heard of him so far, Markus Liebherr is a man of integrity. Fahim does not give me that impression at all. ML keeps in the background and with quiet efficiency and absolute professionalism, gets the job done. Contrast that with the fake sheik, who is all mouth and little delivery. One gets the impression that if he shook your hand, you'd have to count your fingers. Either next season or almost certainly the one after, we will both be in the Fizzy Pop league, us on the way up, them on the way down. I cannot envy seeing them in the Premiership this season attempting to beat Derby's record for lowest points haul in a season, because that is the direction they are heading at the moment.

Yes x 2. Bought match tickets for every home game but four last season and therefore missed the three in a row winning streak. Boycotted the STs the year we went down and the year Lowe returned, but renewed when Lowe went first time and again now that he's gone again. Had he remained this season, I would have boycotted every match until he went, but returning with STs proves that it isn't about the division we're in.

The question mark as well. But the plural of moron is not moron's. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054453/KEITH-WATERHOUSE-Apostrophes--AAAA-fights-back.html

No, the shortfall is all the pro-Lowe faction boycotting the new people who ousted their lord and master. The Lowe boycotters have now all renewed their STs, hence the Northam is full, whereas there will be spaces in the other parts of the ground where the freeloaders used to sit.

I agree that it was crass playing the kids last season when they patently weren't ready. I only mentioned Doble in the same breath as ribbo mentioned McLaggon, Thomson, White, Paterson, Gobern as good prospects, as he doesn't seem to be far adrift of them. Definitely one for the future as far as I can see and I'm sure that we will polish him up gradually and build his confidence and ability at the right pace.

I got the impression that Ryan Doble put in several impressive performances in the pre-season games. Isn't he one to watch too?

Why would having an Indefinite Leave to Remain Visa make him feel unpatriotic? It isn't as if he would have to give up his Tunisian Passport. Even if he applied for British Citizenship, people are surely capable of having dual nationality without feeling a sense of betrayal towards their mother country.

+1. I am slightly incredulous as to there being problems with a WP. If this was a player applying to come here to play football here for the first time, fair enough. But having been here for 5 years, I don't see this as an issue provided that he has been offered continuing employment in the same type of work. Besides, there might well even be substantial time remaining on his current visa to stay here, as well as the possibility of him applying for an Indefinite Leave to Remain Visa if he wished to remain here. I have suspicions that there is more than meets the eye here. If Jaidi ends up signing for another higher division club, then it will be clear that the WP issue was a total red herring. If it doesn't come to pass that he signs for us, then I'll shrug my shoulders and have faith in Pardew's ability to sign somebody else just as good.

Let's put this all behind us, be thankful that the incompetent tosser and all his stooges are gone for ever and be grateful that we have somebody in charge of the club who is not only an astute businessman, but also wealthy enough and principled enough to put his own money into the club.

Going to be consistent and put this in the Lounge, Ponty? Misguided cant tolerate anybody being critical of his threads and surely he ought not to be able to say that anybody who disagrees with him "dribbles on their keyboard"

Ah! I'm still off your ignore list. How can I ever thank you enough? Which of the Laurel & Hardy films did you consider to be the poorest, Misguided? You know how much us acolytes hang on your every opinion as being gospel on all worldly matters.

It's as different as those other little snippets of film of Hitler where you added subtitles to them, eh, Misguided? Your subtitles were different to the others, so it was nothing like the original idea, except that it was plagiarised.

What can the FA do about the Skates situation to prevent them going into administration? They've already cooked their own goose with their open declaration that the owners of football clubs in the top flight should not be used to launder money through football. And they do not have the power to pursuade a bank not to call in a large debt which the club might not be able to pay. Even if they back-tracked on who they let buy the Skates, there would be a swarm of journalists digging into the background of any major investor hoping for an exclusive scoop. As to comments in another post you made about the audience out in the Far East only being interested in the big four clubs, I beg to disagree. Granted that as over here, people like to watch them play on TV and buy the merchandise of those clubs because there are plastics the World over, but those other lesser clubs get their exposure when they play the big four clubs and even the plastics would be bored out of their skulls if the big four only played themselves every week. The entertainment value grows when a minnow beats the big four club, that is the excitement.

Agree. What is Ponty afraid of? That we might get some extra enjoyment out of the forum. He's obviously a right jobsworth.

You're such a juvenile. Appropriate, your avator...

Why don't you prove that you listen to your customers, the subscribers to this site and move this thread back to the main board? Or are you afraid that you might lose face by doing so? You argue that it doesn't make any difference whether it is here or there, but you are wrong. If most are like me, they will only post or read the main board. Having this thread here, it will just disappear off the radar as soon as it gets to the end of the page. Why can't you put it back until the new season starts on Saturday and then move it? As others have pointed out, threads like this are popular and attract people into the habit of reading the main site. It ought to be obvious to a person of your intellect that burying a decent thread in an obscure room is detrimental to the success of the forum. Perhaps you have suffered Lowe too long and are beginning to think like him. A successful business gives its customers what they want.

I'm with Pardew on this one. John knows that financial restraints prevented us playing him last year when Lowe was in charge. He also knows damned well that Pardew wanted to keep him when our new owner had taken over. He shouldn't have strung us along thinking that it was a realistic proposition signing him whilst he availed himself of our training facilities in the meantime So as far as I'm concerned, you can sod off, John. We will replace you with somebody better, somebody who wants to be here with us and who will help us overtake Palarse.

Mods Why has this been moved to the lounge. You are a lot of killjoys, aren't you? This has been one of the most subscribed to threads for some time, proving its popularity. It has provided immense entertainment and lightened the mood while we await the new season. Can't we put it back on the main board until the new season begins? Go on, be a sport.

The Skates really do need to be in the division below us for me. When we are above them again in our rightful place, nothing would give me greater satisfaction than to see all the Skate shirts disappear from my local Sainsburys at Hedge End. If they are locals, then hopefully they will be too ashamed to wear the Skate colours and then the only way that I will know whether they are are from Pompey or not will be if their fat slag wives are covered in tattoos.

I was rather hoping to hear that it was Murty and Jaidi signing together. Oh well, perhaps Jaidi later, to make it a good day.

Don't write to Nineteen Canteen about it. We don't want to give him any ammunition to knock the successors of his beloved former master. By the way, where is he? Has he been banned again, or is he on holiday?

Phil, Thanks for giving us that detailed perspective from the viewpoint of somebody who knows the region, the cultural background, the way that they do business, etc. It seems quite at odds with the confidence shown by the Skate who professes to have spent most of his life in the Middle East, but of the two perspectives, yours seemed to ring truer, especially in consideration of how things have progressed (or not) so far.

I never said that we have a better team than them, merely that we have probably bottomed out in the third division and will steadily progress upwards, whereas it is almost certainly the case that they are nowhere near the team that finished last season and will therefore begin their downward spiral this season. As you say, it would be interesting to get them in a cup match to make comparisons, hopefully quite a bit later on, when we have bought well and stabilised and they have sold even more of their quality players and are demoralised. But what satisfies me is the prospect of both teams being in the Fizzy Pop, for one year, us finishing on promotion and them being relegated. That would be sweet, especially if we took 6 points off them in the process.

Phil, Was interested to read the comment from this Skate who says he has lived most of his life in the Middle East and therefore thinks that Fahim will yet produce the goods because being an Arab businessman, he must be astute and a man on his word. http://www.portsmouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=164265 I suspect that you would call him deluded, but it is fascinating to see how many of the other Skates on there cling to his every word, rather like a drowning man clutching at straws.