dubai_phil

1) An ex boss of mone who is Belgian & a football fan is in Paris for work, went down for Breakfat & saw TA & his wife this morning. (Make of that what you will, but he was at the 98 WC final and arranged a sales meeting so we could watch Holland v Russia at the Amsterdam Arena). 2) To cheer you all up - while Spuds have been distracted looks like Chelski have screwed them over so they MAY have to play their home game in MK Dons Stadium. (Maybe why TA has delayed things ) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3151830/Chelsea-offer-11m-year-use-Wembley-three-years-Stamford-Bridge-rebuilt-2017.html

In a move deliberately designed to further inflame Alpine Saints' blood pressure, Gaston was clearly shown in "The March" video. He's clearly back at Staplewood and clearly involved at this point in the season. Not saying he is the answer but at least he is an option up until 1st September. Although not sure why Mane and Tadic aren't considered as AM's when we will be playing 3 out of Juanmi, Pelle, JRod & Long up front

FFS this forum is so totally obsessed with Golf, you're now quoting big golf stories in the middle of the #tobygate thread. Trousers? WTF mate? As for Toby - we are clearly fighting for him and will clearly have plan B ready to go. A sneaky part of me is quietly looking forward to reading all the spurs fans moaning about who the hell is this Gardos bloke? How did we miss out on him? 12mil for a bloke who's only played 12 times this season? Didn't we check if he had dodgy hamstrings? Or of course I'll get his name on the back of my shirt when I next get back after we blitz then and complete the deal....

Yep. We'll give them 5mil cash & throw in Llyod Isgrove or Gazza for free. (Is Gaston still on the books?) I live in a family of lawyers. They do not screw up contracts, arrogant idiots screw them up by making assumptions. If the news is right and AM missed the due date then Saints simply need to send the contracted fee to the details in the contract and that is game over. And as for the bleeding heart wimps saying it's not cricket on this thread the past hours. Wise up you idiots this means we can get Toby and STILL have 6.8mil in the bank to address the other areas of the squad you have all moaned about. AND we get to see the look on Levy's face when he realises he's wasted the past month chasing Toby and has been screwed over because of a stupid clerical error.

I find it a pleasant change over there. Unlike you lot on here they don't keep droning on and on about bloody golf.

Last post today surprised we missed this yesterday, specially as Gay Dad's March was mentioned Seems he is accused of misappropriating almost as much as pcfc from other people The gift that keeps giving, So many opportunities Matt Slater retweeted Jeremy Hodges ‏@jeremylawhodges 15h15 hours ago Ex-Portsmouth FC owner Vladimir Antonov accused of stealing €450m from Bankas Snoras has fled the U.K. fearing for his life pre-extradition 26 retweets6 favoritesReply Retweet26 Favorite6 Follow More

That's all I know as fact. Payments day. Then we all can speculate what happens if they can't pay or if they try the 4p in the pound game. Then we can wonder who is out of work these days with links down that way and we can all realise the dream ticket of Milan & "Arry are out of work and a bit flush having been paid off and bought out. So they have a bill to pay. probably where the Tescos' money will go. Assuming the top table didn't drink all that of course.

2 years ago it was bomb Assad. Three years ago it was shock and outrage at how badly the Muslim Brotherhood was being treated in Egypt. And on and on and on. Almost every decision the West has made about the Middle East has been plain WRONG. In fact they have been so wrong it becomes so easy to believe the "It's an Israeli conspiracy to destroy any Nation they viewed as a threat". Are all the advisors & CIA THAT incompetent? How the hell could the Israelis think that the new order is safer than before? Streams of Nissan 4x4's pouring over every the hill in the country instead of a line of tanks from Damascus. Yes the RAF now have to go and bomb Syria. Actually because the people who HAVE been fighting Da'eesh need their planes back to fight them in other places. The Saudis need theirs back for Yemen, The Egyptians need theirs back to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood who so surprisingly have morphed into Da'eesh in Sinai. The Kuwaitis need the armed forces back to start patrolling their borders as Da'eesh stream out of the internal crackdown in Saudi. Meanwhile Iran waits to become our new best friend. And thousands die. Simply because there is an election in November and Obama wan't going to get drawn in. Civilian Contractors are fleeing State Department jobs in Iraq supporting them faster than you can book an Uber Chopper ride out. The only cure is for the Yanks to sort out the discord in Iraq and the unfair treatment of the Sunni's. Go bomb Syria and then watch the hand wringing on TV as the propaganda experts show how you blew up a children's hospital or a Monastery. Because if they are not blown up NOW, they will spend the next ten years blowing up your shopping malls and sports stadiums.

Good point Sue but unfortunately Marriage has kinda limited my trips in that direction..........

Sorry, it has to be Dry Fit Greg Norman golf shirts all the way.......... (Couldn't resist that sorry! Tickets permitting, we have a decent sized crew who will be coming from this neck of the woods, so we're going for the own badged Polo shirts for the journey. After that it depends. We have an agent who has just returned to the homeland who is tasked with acquiring "Mega Store" gear, training tops or even away shirts. But again the issue is getting them to us. Worst case we will go with last seasons' home shirts)

The 20th July is fast approaching. Stock up on Popcorn gang. Sorry I only have 3 post a day. Enjoy the research & speculation.

Yes but we will play more games with EL

We pulled in 82 million in income last year from TV rights alone. Then add in ticket sales & merchandising http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2015-16/jun/020615-premier-league-payments-to-clubs-in-season-2014-15.html That does not include the nett income from Player Sales Our wage bill in 2014 was 41 mil, again, I don't think anyone has seen any evidence of us doubling our salaries last year So unless KL is taking cash out as debt reduction, 18 million is actually only a lot of money to us in fan land these days. This coming season our TV revenues will increase further. Transfer payments are spread over a period anyway, most usually 3 years. We have the cash available unless someone has a crazy conspiracy theory

We need someone as cover for Mane. Mane moved into a more central role and killed it, but when stuck out wide he was less effective. We have nobody else in our squad who can come in from deep and has pace. Elia has the potential, we have seen snippets of it and IF he was coming in as a low cost cover for Mane to allow us to play the same style when he is out injured/banned etc then for a few million I have faith that is what Koeman sees, and would prefer that to Mayuka and tbh Isgrove this season. We could probably get a few hundred k of the fee back as loan fee for Lloyd to get him fully ready for our bench. I'm pretty sure with JRod/Juanmi/Long/Tadic as 2 wide front runners with Pelle in the central role we have a gap in the squad. Buying him to play wide makes little sense IMHO. I'll only moan IF we bought him and ran out of cash for Toby & the replacement for Morgan

Meh he was stuggling since January. Good price for the length of his contract, same discussion going on in the press re the value of Charlie Austin. Downside is we now need to sign ANOTHER RB. Toby (if only) and Maya really aren't as effective at getting forward in the way we need them to. Don't think McCarthy is quite ready yet considering we will hopefully have to play about 50 matches this coming season

http://sport360.com/article/football/38521/qatar-kafala-reforms-face-fresh-delay That is really BAD news for the workers in Qatar AND FIFA seeing how they all promised to have the kafala system overturned to ease the burden & death toll.

The only thing I remember from that day is Magners. And then only as the lads got a photo of it. I seem to recall my lad having a nervous breakdown because of an insanely dubious penalty decision. Anyway such banter is not appropriate on a proper football forum and when I only have 3 posts a day so see you on the other side

So Newcastle away on a Sunday then? Possibly just after a long trek into Europe depending whether we are home or away first leg.

Dunno what the problem is. Us expats are so far away from any action or tales in the pub that unless we had a mate with a mate at or around the club we never got any snippets or links. In the past year there hasn't been any great actual "discussions" on TSW because the team have been playing so well and we've all been enjoying the ride. The only valid comments we can ever give are in match threads (because we have been able to watch the game on TV) or stating our position on Stadium Expansion, strength of the sides in Cup Competitions etc. That is not going to change, even though it gets really boring when the same people keep shouting down any opinion that isn't theirs. The only time we're going to have any inputs is when we wake up 3 hours ahead of you lot and see a scoop in the press, but then Saint Armstrong has robots or whatever doing that 24x7 anyway. There is actually NOTHING football related to talk about for people who don't need to say the same thing 10 times a day. We need a keeper, right back, Djurkic or a replacement to cover Tadic and probably replacements for Cyne & Morgan. But we don't need to keep saying that PLUS we don't know asmuch as the geniuses on TSW who have THE opinion on every footballer who ever played/plays the game. I trust Les & his team to be doing their research more than a poster on here (where was Juanmi's name on Redslo's list of strikers btw? There is nothing much to talk about until noon today. And you certainly could not make a light hearted comment about Saints on the main forum on here "as it's football innit" The two sites aren't competing, they are complementary. Hopefully both will bring more fans into the realm of forums so we can actually hear some NEW opinions rather than the regular cut & paste BS Ramadan Kareem everyone

I think it is very appropriate. After all, the whole world associates Portsmouth with sliding down.

Stop calling me Shirley. I'm really impressed by Granty, how does he tweet those pictures of cricket and German football grounds if he's stuck down here? Mind you he hasn't aged very well since the TSW forum match, perhaps that is what happens when you eat curry every week. I'm surprised there has been no official interview with Twitchy regarding Spinnakergate, seeing as it is his spiritual home and everything.

Ouch. Well the rape scene caused Politicos to up their arms a few weeks ago. Last weeks battle with the White Walkers was stupendous TV. And then this week. Yes it has obviously been coming for a while but Episode 9 contained possibly THE most heartbreaking/wrong/horrific thing I have ever seen on a TV show. Dear God, that was hands to face time, in fact I'd say it was true horror that no slash flick has ever achieved. And then we had the ending. Wow. Fly. What a final line. And SO much in those last minutes, including a way to go Tyrion. It is going to be a LONG time until next April once we get past the season finale. Who's going to make it through to Episode 6? Will it ever be possible to create a TV series better than GoT? Tell you what, I hope I am around to see it!

Just like to point out that this is not just UK news http://7days.ae/emirates-spinnaker-tower-plan-ruled-out-after-fans-see-red/64152 (Just a historical perspective note, Emirates is the UK's finest airline. It was founded by 3 guys who worked for BA, had an idea, took it to the Board who said don't be stupid, that is a ridiculous idea. They came out here and got The Man's attention. The rest as they say is history. They have been looking for areas to invest sponsorship budget since (wisely) ditching their agreement (something like $280mil I think) with FIFA last November)

Oh thank God. At last someone who understands their value as marquee signings and can take Osvaldo & Ramirez off our hands..........

So based on Southsea Common Maths, that means there are 245,000 who don't give a sh1t. (Just want to take this moment and say congrats to our local airline for this wheeze)