Joensuu

(Sort of off topic, but...) Speaking to a friend who works for the RMT and is coordinating this ballot: http://www.thelondondailynews.com/london-underground-disruptions-worsen-with-strike-ballots-p-3964.html I was teasing him, saying he was personally responsible for commuter misery, and that keeping unrequired staff was causing fares to rise. He said that the real reason for this tube stike is that Transport for London want to slash staff numbers by a huge amount, to the extent that (excluding cleaners and people selling tickets) the whole of Victoria tube station would only only be manned by two staff. To me the minimum required would be 7-10 staff (with at least 2-3 manning the ticket gates (& who can shut down exits in emergencies), and at least 1 per platform (of which Victoria has 4)). If that's true, and TFL are intending to reduce staff manning Victoria underground to just 2 I can't see how the station can run safely. I suggested that to get the public onside, the RMT should offer small staff pay cuts in return for keeping the numbers required to operate the system safely. He could see what I mean't but I don't think he liked that idea too much...

Agree that their first team have silly price tags, but their youth team could be raided. I'd like to see cheeky low bids offered for Pompey players such as: Gaël N'lundulu Liam O'Brien Lenny Sowah James Hurst Nadir Ciftci Nadir Ciftci

Surely they'd just need to pay for loan fee, wages & premium insurance cover (so that Rovers get c. £4m in the event of perminant injury).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/29/football-league-premier-league-portsmouth-dossier Love it

First time I've seen a stadium without huge queues for beer and food. Shame the provision of toilets was an afterthought

An article in the Times doesn't usually make it to TMS... but I hope you'll make an exception. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065824.ece[url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7065824.ece][/url] Pay attention to the title, and author...

Completely off topic, and stolen from a Pompey board, but it still made me laugh: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pompey-FC-Pimped-A-Team-Three-Wheel-Robin-Reliant_W0QQitemZ220572952394QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_SportsMemorabilia_Football_Memorabilia_ET?hash=item335b2c274a

Think the second comment beneath the article sums it up well:

Very strange considering the quotes Owusu-Abeyie gave once his loan begin. He obviously doensn't want to be sent back to Moscow... http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2557/news/2010/02/15/1791827/portsmouths-ghana-international-quincy-owusu-abeyie-i-regret ""My agent at the time advised me to go to Moscow and now I regret it."

Off topic, but make me smile: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/football-banter/The-Top-10-David-James-howlers-from-gifting-Didier-Drogba-s-opener-against-Chelsea-last-night-to-derailing-England-s-Euro-2004-campaign-we-salute-the-man-they-call-Calamity-James-greatest-misses-article367231.html

Wonder what would happen were he to not be able to service the debt, declare himself bankrupt, flee the country, and receive 10-30 years worth of wages (1-2m) as a tidy thank you? Wonder if that would be of benefit to all parties? Hypothetically of course

As I understand it debts are frozen in admin. As such HMRC cant' be paid off before then. They only get paid when the company emerges from admin, and only as a lump sum (of x pence in the pound)

Some of the skates seem certain that Chainrai isn't secured, and that he could therefore vote in the CVA. I pointed out that the court was satisfied that the admin was genuine, and therefore that Chainrai was secured and got this response:

Lampard has just made your wish come true...

That's the fourth

Was that Rocha stretchered off? (One less for AA to market)

And there goes the first goal - lovely mistiming by Calamity (several of the steams on here work http://www.clbuzz.com/portsmouth-vs-chelsea-live-stream-highlights-live-score-epl-march-24-2010/ )

Portsmouth to replace squad with free transfers: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=760789&sec=england&cc=5739&campaign=rss&source=soccernet

So if they could have sold players already, what 'window' has the Premier League actually opened?

I don't really understand it either. I mean can't any team sell players outside of the window anyhow? (I thought the restriction was that the player couldn't join their new clubs until the opening of the next window) So what exactly has changed? Is this actually just the Premiership reopening the loan window? Or removing restrictions around multiple clubs, or loan-backs?

Another 'Window open' article built around Andy Awford asking for Grant to be involved with player sales. Again interesting comments (looks like reality is dawning for the Few) http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/frattonlatest/Blues-stars-up-for-grabs.6175493.jp Edit: And another one: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Administrator-gains-vital-advantage-in.6176563.jp

Goodness, is this board dividing into pro and anti Cortese camps already? Whatever happened to the middle ground? Samuel's silly article seems to be quite an irrational attack on Cortese. Pardew has done okay so far (he has at least put to bed the stupidity of people thinking we were in danger of relegation). The target Cortese set was 6th, and in a normal season we'd be well on target for accumulating enough points to get there. Pardew certainly hasn't over-achieved as the jist of Samuel's article implies, but neither has he underachieved as some on here suggest. IMO he is doing okay, nothing more or less.

In his late thirties and retired. Think some Scottish club (Hamilton?) got fined a few years back for signing him outside of the window (or similar).

Possibly one less wage to pay? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/d/derby_county/8580612.stm

Nice try Corpy, but there's a small bit missing from your playground logic: we'd only be cheating if we stopped repaying our debts. Taking on additional staff in the knowledge that your business can't afford them can only be considered cheating. HTH