Guided Missile

The Times this morning. Didn't see it posted elsewhere

Right, I'm switching your webcam on until you apologise.

I have no problem with people expressing their emotions on this site, if it helps them with the pain of losing. Luckily, the opinions of Internet geeks who have never had the football talent, to be worthy of cleaning the boots of one of our academy players, are going to have absolutely no effect on our prospects of promotion. Very few of them are even going to be present, to cheer the team on, when they conclude one of the best seasons I can remember. Not that they'd cheer that much, if they could afford the air fare... I happen to love our club and if not this season, we will reach the promised land soon. It is meant to be...

We're still going up. Then this loss will be forgotten...

and.... I feel a "Reading Takeover Saga" thread coming up.....

I did, actually:

and....

Of course, I did keep the text of the Antonov story before the account was suspended:

I was looking at it Monday, Steve, particularly the Antonov assasination attempt and those allegedly responsible. Today? "This Account Has Been Suspended"

Right, I'm switching your webcam on until you apologise.

Wolves, Wimbledon, Man City and Watford have achieved successive promotions.

I was told that an offer of around £2.5M was going to be made last week by Charles Lissack, the ex-Watford director, who is heading a consortium. As they were introduced to the "investment opportunity" by our old friend Tony Lynam, I don't think Pompey posters should get too excited....

It's fun to watch the vultures feasting on the rotting corpse.

In order to offer shares to the general public, a company must be a public limited company (plc). The key requirements are that the company’s name and memorandum should state that it is a plc, and that it should have an issued share capital of at least £50,000 sterling or its euro equivalent. If a plc wants to offer shares to the public, it must generally issue a prospectus meeting detailed legal requirements, and will also need to comply with the requirements of any exchange on which the shares are to be traded. The company will need to appoint advisers to handle this complex process.

Why, indeed...

It's not Brian Howe...

£2.5M. About £2.5M more than they are worth, in my opinion.

Alright, you got me. This is a minor part of what I heard. The main story is that there will be a bid for Pompey next week and I know exactly who will be making the bid. Not sure how true the rumour is about Saints, but think it is very credible, given the source. The Pompey bid is definite, though...

Just heard that Saints are up for sale for £75M on promotion to the Premier League. Anyone else heard the same rumour?

Cough, cough...

Read all about it here.... A Story About how Russian Railways along with the “Solntsevo” guys have knocked out $1billion As is often the case with spiders, they start eating each other after losing the common goal to get prey. In our story, the choice fell on the “weakest link” in the chain of Russian Railways debtors – banker German Gorbuntsov. Eugene Dvoskin is closely connected with FSB, and it’s dangerous to have a conflict with him. You could not get this amount from Sergei Mendeleev, no matter how hard you try, he doesn’t have it. Peter Chuvilin has somewhat lost his authority lately. Ramzan Kadyrov was reprimanded by the Kremlin following the assassination of the Yamadayev brothers. So he stopped doing any business with Chuvilin and crossed him out from his advisers list. However, it was German Gorbuntsov who was chosen as the victim and who was the easiest prey among Russian Railways debtors. Gorbuntsov and his wife Larisa described the events in their written statement to a law enforcement agency. In order to monitor the situation with the enormous debt repayment, Andrei Krapivin, advisor to the head of Railways, sent his friend Boris Usherovich to STB, where he was appointed as Vice Chairman of the Board. Usherovich repeatedly talked about his criminal friends. He mentioned Maxim Kurochkin (a.k.a. Max the Violent) who was shot by a sniper in 2007 upon leaving the court building in Kiev. He also mentioned Victor Averin, one of the founders of Solntsevo grouping. In 2007 Victor’s borther, Alexander Averin, took part in a brutal beating of FSO officer in one of the suburban restaurants. Everybody thought the brothers’ future looked grim. However, the case was unexpectedly closed after a year – the FSO officer dropped his claims against Alexander Averin. According to Rumafia sources, such a drastic change happened after receiving a $300 thousand bribe by this officer of one of the most secretive Russian law enformcement agencies. Seems like a modest compensation to put such a major problem to bed. In the same statement Gorbuntsov also mentioned Usherovich’s friend Krapivin “who would kick the door open to Nurgaliev and Bortnikov’s offices”. When the Railways finally got tired of waiting for debt repayment, Usherovich invited Larisa Gorbuntsov to his office. German Gorbuntsov preferred to have most of his assets in his wife’s name. The events further unfolded in the best traditions of the 1990’s. In his office, in addition to Usherovich himself, there were four strong guys introduced as “from Solntsevo”. STB Deputy Chairman proceeded to explain that Larisa had to sign the papers on his desk on transferring virtually all Gorbuntsov’s property to others. To sound more convincing, the guys from Solntsevo took out their revolvers. Then Usherovich informed Larisa what would happen to her family in case she refuses to sign. According to Gorbuntsov’s written statement, Usherovich said that Larisa would be kidnapped right from his office, their son would be sent to jail on false charges, their cottage in “Gorki-1” would be burned down the following night. As a result, the woman had signed all the papers. In several days her husband did the same under similar circumstances. As the Gorbuntsovs further say in their statement, they had to give up the “Sports Center in Sokolniki”, Industrial Financial Group “STB”, 2 lots in the Odintsovo district, 100 thousand square meters of commercial real estate, shares in six banks and six plants, etc. The total damage was estimated at $1 billion. The statement was forwarded to Department of Inquiries of Presnya District where they refused to institute proceedings, which is easily understandable. Head of the Department referred to the fact that during the interrogation Usherovich stated that he indeed met with Larisa, but did not threaten her and there was no crime. The Gorbuntsovs left the country after that and they currently live abroad fearing for their future. When collectors get the money from the debtors, creditors don’t get the full amount. Railways calculated that after Usherovich, Krapivin and the Solntsevo guys took their shares from Gorbuntsovs’ assets, they were left with 22 billion rubles (about $680 million). The following scheme was invented in order to write this amount off the debt of $1 billion (30 billion rubles). The Railways sent the order to STB Bank to purchase shares of STB and other obscure companies in the amount of 22 billion rubles. The state monopoly nevertheless declared that STB, Chuvilin, Dvoskin and Mendeleev still owed it 8 billion rubles. At this point father and son Antonovs came to the rescue. They proposed a scheme according to which the debt would not only be repaid, but all participants in the scheme would significantly profit. And this would happen at the expense of Central Bank of Russian Federation funds. This is not the first time father and son have used this scheme.

The victim, who was seriously injured and placed in a medically induced coma by hospital staff, formerly owned banks in Russia and Moldova. It is understood he is under armed guard by Met officers to prevent a further assassination attempt. He is on Moldova's wanted list over allegations of an illegal bank takeover and embezzlement. He has also been named as a witness and a suspect in the shooting of Russian banker Alexander Antonov in Moscow in 2009 by three ethnic Chechens. He reportedly told journalists several times: "If I go back to Russia they will kill me." Antonov's son Vladimir has been linked with buying Portsmouth Football Club. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "The victim was shot a number of times as he entered a block of flats by a suspect who is described as white, 6ft tall and of slim build.

Great to see that Fabrice is showing signs of recovery. Apparently he asked what he had missed since falling into a coma. When he was told that Torres had scored for Chelsea, he said, Christ, how long was I out...?

Pompey didn't pay a penny to football creditors, the Premier League did. Pompey survived in the Premier League to (not)collect their parachute payments, on the back of local businesses, charities and the taxpayer (that's you and me, toyboy) Southampton Football Club paid back every creditor in full. Now get back to your Pot Noodles and look forward to St. Marys on the 7th April. It'll be two hours of ritual humiliation....

You really are a total f* ckwit, Steve. The football creditors were paid by the Premier League directly from your ill gotten parachute payments. If they'd paid the parachute payments to you lot, most of it would have disappeared. Talking about defending the indefensible.