The9

Oh come on, it's not even close. The Ronaldo head at least looks slightly like Ronaldo and with the proportions of an actual human being - you can even find pics of him where his head does look that fat (though the eyes are wrong f'sure and his features are a bit squished into the middle of his face).

The last Fair Play qualification for Europe was in 2015/16 when West Ham got in via that route and lost to Astana in the 3rd Qualifying Round, the round before Saints joined the competition, not to be confused with 2016/17 when West Ham got in via League position in the 4th Qualifying Round and lost to Astana in the Playoff round, the round before Saints joined the competition. But anyway, there aren't any Fair Play positions any more so we will need to come 7th, at worst, to qualify - which we won't. Though to be honest I don't know why European qualification is a selling point for buying Premier League season tickets - has even ONE person bought an ST to get priority for Thursday night matches?

6 weeks for a groin pull without any treatment, so I'm going for a month from when he did it. Back in time for Chelsea away.

Given up on us coming 7th then?

I'm fairly sure I've got a video of Saints fans singing it at one of our European Away games from as little as 4 months ago (or 3 and a half months before Portsmouth invented it, if you like)... Which is not to suggest we invented it either, we definitely nicked it from someone else, and I first heard it in Israel.

Just... why? County probably worth a point yesterday in the end, but didn't get going until the hour. Skates looked anything but assured in the last 20.

Just get my last "3 wins in a row at Fratton" in...

On the train to Fratton... remind me to upload the pic from the train of the bloke in the Skate cap with the mouse ears later.

It had already ended by then - pretty sure the bus tickets as part of the season ticket went away in the summer before admin (2007) which was the season we got relegated to L1 (2007/8 ) - which was the season of all of Lowe's cuts, including closing the corners (which reduced stewarding costs but also served to show the council we couldn't then get big enough crowds to need to abide by the green travel requirements originally imposed).

Long time site contributors might recall my huge rant when the free bus tickets were removed from the paper STs in the last season under Lowe - effectively slapping an increase on ST cost because instead of buying ST and free bus travel, you just got the 23 matches and had to get there yourself so you got less for your money. This was never communicated and everyone buying the ST was duped into thinking they were getting the same product as the previous season at the same price. IIRC, Lowe negotiated a deal with the council circa 2008 where Saints no longer subsidised bus tickets to the match as long as crowds weren't above 25k for more than 10 matches a season, at a time when that wasn't looking likely (Championship strugglers already, about to go into admin and get relegated to L1). The original St Mary's plans required a green solution for both free bus travel (paid for by the club) and the Bursledon park and ride, also no longer operating, and it's clear there's no interest from either club nor council in reinstating this, or it would have happened already. We have had a couple of bluestar deals for discounted tickets (and the free thing for people not at the EFL Cup Final if they wore a Saints shirt on the day of the match) but nothing near the original "ticket anywhere on any bus" situation we had from 2001-2008(ish).

They're such "good value" that despite taking nearly 2 years to get their sh*t together and actually buy the club, the PST were the only people interested in buying Portsmouth FC even when they were a L1 team. Saints were decent value as a L1 club with a nearly-new 32k stadium, additional land, a reputation for developing players (which in itself makes the club a safe bet as a decent going concern) and the Academy buildings, set up and infrastructure. The role of "bestest fans" isn't really a consideration other than for the extent to which they can fill said stadium and plough cash into the club, and whilst we had proven able to get 30k+ attendances regularly in the top flight and 25k+ in the second tier, any punt on Portsmouth's future viability is based on stuff like "250,000 people on Southsea Common", and Skate cup final attendance at Wembley (not forgetting Saints have taken over 40k there whilst in the third tier) whilst capped at a 20k max capacity, and also which doesn't tally too well with the flipside of "I qualified for an FA Cup semi-final ticket by going to one match in 1992" when calculating revenue opportunities. Fundamentally, as they proven when buying it, their club's value is the ground and the number of people they can get into the ground to take money from. Capped at 20k. And the major asset is a crumbling money-sink too. Just for the record, Thierry Henry also sent Newport's manager Mike Flynn a text last week (FAW UEFA badge coaching is cheaper and based in Newport) which has been widely reported as "endorsing Newport's bid to escape relegation", so I shall be expecting Eisner to be touring South East Wales shortly too.

Far too much sense in this post.

Tbh I'd happily take qualifying for Europe every other year if in the alternate seasons we're camped in the top 7. It looks like we're set up to make Europe through league position when we're not in Europe, and to try and get it through the cups when we are. Cup draws can make a big difference to the likelihood of that though.

I just decided to take it at face value, for the lolz and all that.

Groins are a right sod though, really difficult to rest and therefore heal, easy to re-injure and can be really painful too. The one I did left me unable to get in or out of a car, it was bloody agony when it hurt but I couldn't feel anything most of the time.

This is true, Portsmouth literally haven't even qualified for a competition to play us since they dragged themselves to the third round of the FA Cup in January 2016, and before that it was the last time we played in the second round of the League Cup in 2014.

As rumoured, there IS a new name and number font for next season. Tbh it isn't very exciting. https://www.premierleague.com/news/354250 http://www.footyheadlines.com/2017/03/all-new-2017-18-premier-league-kit-font.html "there will be five approved colourways: white with black details and black, navy, red, and yellow; all with white details" Glad they've got rid of those gaudy gold numbers, anyway.

Are people genuinely regarding this as an investment possibility? What's the motivation for an aged (dollar) billionaire with no local interest to buy a lower league club with one asset, a crumbling landlocked football ground, when there's nowhere else they can put a ground even if they wanted to move? They're a bottom half Championship team in attendance terms if they fill their ground, but there's barely any financial gain to be made in buying a "big club for L2" and selling a small club for the Championship? Especially if the "£1000 each" thing is true, which is another dent of £2,300,000 if they've still got 2300 members. But as those shares have nothing to do with the club anyway, seems another element of fanciful storytelling at this point. Basically it doesn't add up.

Beating Newport (who hit the bar in injury time which would have made it 2-2, then scored an open goal at the other end with the keeper still up) doesn't say much for their "march", tbh - can't see them getting near the automatic promotion places. Still, the Skates will have to beat the "not always useless" Newport County side next week... although Newport are home to Luton on Tuesday first. Expect red cards on Tuesday, they didn't get on last time they met and the pitch is not going to be conducive to anything other than a kicking match. County away on grass are a much better side, especially at Fratton, three wins in three years.

I think they should bring Jet back first.

Newport's model (which is the same but without the "complexity" of High Net Worths) has fan elections for the 6 who make up the numbers - but in Newport's case they're actually running the club. Whether that's better or worse is open to debate, but at least there's no pretence.

Would it be a surprise to know that I used to paint Blood Bowl figurines when I was a kid? Nope. Made loads selling them a couple of years ago though.

Newport have the chance to lose at home twice before that game... which is more like the kind of form they usually have before beating Portsmouth. You won't get much of a match report, I'm going to a wedding do in the evening.

Excuse me, but they sang it on that godforsaken train on Saturday as well. However, Saints fans have been singing it all over Europe (and the middle east) since September. We sang it in Israel. It's still a crap song, btw.

Bit of evidence of the new "sleeve sponsor" Premier League rules: http://www.footyheadlines.com/2017/03/manchester-city-becomes-first-premier-league-team-to-sign-sleeve-sponsor.html?utm_source=notification Of course City won't even be wearing that shirt next season, so can't make any assumptions about the location of the sponsor either.