stevegrant

I wonder if Jewell will finally get the stick he deserves for the "job" he did at Derby. He never even made an attempt to keep them up last season and they've paid the price for that lack of effort as it's carried through to this season.

If those players go for those values I will eat the hat I don't own. Unhappy players = devalued players. Defoe still hasn't fully been paid for, which diminishes his value, so he'll go for £8-9m tops. Johnson has the best chance of going for a "decent" fee - but as he's a right-back, he still won't command a massive amount. £4-5m for him. Distin for £6m?! Please tell me you're taking the ****. If he goes, you'll be lucky to get £2-3m for him, he's the wrong side of 30 on massive wages.

Sorry, but that's exactly what you're saying.

The same board that appointed them in the first place despite all roads pointing to disaster. Having witnessed the unmitigating disasters that were Gray and Wigley, and having been very vocal in retrospect when he first came onto the scene about Lowe's poor managerial appointments, you'd have thought Crouch would have realised that he was making exactly the same mistake. Strangely, I don't remember Crouch apologising for that appointment, nor do I remember those who have demanded apologies etc from Lowe demanding the same of Crouch. If a proper manager had been appointed as soon as Burley left (it was obvious he was going - it wasn't as if they didn't have time), we probably wouldn't have begun the freefall in February that saw us come close to going down. We were fairly comfortable at the point of his departure (14th). I wasn't Pearson's biggest fan, but if he'd been appointed a month earlier, I don't think we'd have got into the mess we ended up in. Positive action would have been appointing a permanent successor immediately, and would probably have seen us comfortably finish mid-table.

Adam Leitch was the reporter in question and he was sat a row or two in front of Crouch. Agreed. I was surprised Lowe wasn't a bit cleverer with the photo issue - if he wanted to get rid of the photo of McMenemy (which he clearly did), he could have replaced it with one of the TEAM from 76 with the cup and therefore would have had a ready-made response along the lines of "the TEAM won the cup, Lawrie, not just you". That said, I would have expected pettiness on a similar level from all of the three protagonists. They're all as bad as each other, IMO.

They didn't do that last time, so I see no reason why they'd do so this time either.

True as that may be, their value is diminished by the knowledge that PFC is desperate for the money, and that chances are some of the better players are now desperate to leave. A club would almost always (Spurs being the idiotic exception re Berbatov) choose to sell an unhappy player so he doesn't cause problems in the dressing room. Also, as much as you may bring in by selling players, firstly it won't cover the debt, and secondly the money brought in clearly won't buy replacements who are anywhere near the same quality. I would be very surprised if you go down this season, although with the gap at just three points, it's certainly not out of the question. I'm not entirely sure how a defence that was so good last season has suddenly turned to complete crap.

I thought we actually played some decent stuff yesterday. Stark contrast to the Forest game.

I would say that his position, in opposition to the likes of Crouch, has been strengthened. However, his position in opposition to fans has almost certainly weakened. I guess the overall picture depends on how much power you believe Leon Crouch, Lawrie McMenemy and the Corbetts to hold.

Eventually done... ****ing hell, that took ages, and I've probably still left out some bits I wanted to say! :smt012

Yep. I'm trying to write a report/opinion piece for the main site about it, but keep having to start again because, for once, I'm really struggling to put across how I'm feeling about it all, because it's just all such a complete mess.

I'll take the option of "none of them under any circumstances" after today.

I have a feeling that the Virgin Media one may be UK-only due to the way the rights are distributed.

The last I heard was that he absolutely hated it at Sheffield United, presumably on the basis that he wasn't getting a game. I think up until two or three weeks ago, he'd made 4 or 5 sub appearances which gave him a total of about 20 minutes on the pitch. That said, he scored on Saturday so he's obviously playing more of a part since then. I'd still expect to see him back here in January.

It'll be the last to open if necessary. Itchen South is already open and the Kingsland North will be the next.

It might shut Michel Platini up for a while though...

Juande Ramos is a bit of a cup specialist though, so they might not be quite so useless... Also, I think Real Madrid are the only La Liga team Fernando Torres never scored against when he played for Atletico.

And I'd expect the FA to allow the same special dispensation because the intention was to sign him permanently on 31st January 2008 but because of Man City's dodgy fax machine and Benjani's inability to stay awake at the airport - neither of which were Pompey's fault - it didn't happen at that time. Of course, permanent signings are forbidden outside of the transfer windows, with the exception of signing unattached players, so I imagine his actual registration date is still 31st January/1st February 2008. It doesn't necessarily mean that that money is *actually* his, of course... IMO, Gaydamak's not selling Pompey because he's skint, he's selling Pompey because in its current state and in the current economic climate, there's absolutely no way he'd be able to make any money out of it, so he's cutting his losses now before he gets in deeper than he can afford. I think he envisaged having the stadium building work started by now, probably didn't predict the slump in the housing market, and didn't think he'd be sanctioning the paying of a number of £3m+ annual salaries among the playing squad. The stadium won't happen with the original residential plans because of the collapse of the housing market, and I'm led to believe that Portsmouth city council won't allow an out-of-town stadium to have retail developments surrounding it because it could/would take people out of the city centre and Gunwharf. All of which means the entire stadium development would either have to revert to Mandaric's original plan of rebuilding Fratton Park (still the most realistic idea of the lot, I reckon) or be funded by the football club, an investor or external borrowing. None of the three options for a non-Fratton Park site are viable at the moment as far as I can see.

I think I remember reading somewhere that the window will actually close on Monday 2nd February this season due to the 31st January falling on a Saturday (and therefore no admin staff at the FA available etc), which would mean that they have a 24-hour window in which to seal a deal on that front. Having spoken to various financial types in the last couple of years, the general consensus (back when more people were actually to **** money down the drain into football clubs) was that benefactors would potentially be willing to stake up to 10% of their net worth as a gamble on getting a return in the future. I assume AG has a higher worth than just the £35m he now possesses, but I wouldn't have thought it would be that much more - assuming he is willing to put any more money in, £5m or so is hardly going to make a big difference to you, is it?

The only point, as far as I can see it, is as a PR exercise. It portrays the Football League in a positive light in that it's ramming home the notion that its member clubs are dedicated to bringing through young players from an early age rather than just going for the "cheap" option of importing a ready-made player from abroad. It also allows the likes of Barry Fry to go on Sky Sports News saying "I've always said there are too many foreigners in the game, and this is something to redress the balance" etc, which is clearly complete ********.

It wouldn't affect them either. The likes of Fabregas have been at the club since they were 14/15. It doesn't make a blind bit of difference whether they're English or Iraqi, it's the age that's the key.

We're fully accepting of our position, we know we're up the creek and have to sell players in January and the summer. If anything, I'd say you were the one clutching at straws for failing to realise the financial position PFC finds itself in (hint: a negative net assets figure on the balance sheet is not a good thing - even we don't have that yet!) - Tony Adams can talk about having money to spend and not having to sell players until the cows come home, but anyone with half a brain knows that you will be selling sought-after players both in January and over the summer. The reason Adams, Storrie and anyone else connected is saying they don't have to sell anyone is because if they were to say "yeah, fair do's, we do have to sell players", the asking price for those players would go through the floor so you'd get less money in that way, and also the morale of a lot of the fans would also deteriorate to such an extent where they say "well the club's clearly got no ambition anymore, so I'm not going to bother paying through the nose to watch them anymore". The reason I know this to be the case? Because I've seen it all happen here in the last three years.

To be honest, I see this rule having very little effect on any club. Basically any player who has been in England since they were 18, whether they've come through their current club's youth structure or not and whether they're a UK national or not, counts as one of the four players. I would hazard a guess that that would actually cover the majority of players in the Championship, not the minority.

I feel dirty sticking up for a skate, but never mind. How many Premier League (or other top foreign league) clubs would pay money for Sol Campbell these days, particularly given his likely wage demands? I reckon you'd be able to count them on the fingers of one hand with some fingers left over. You can't make the bet and then turn around and say "we'll wait and see who you sell and then I'll decide which players are your 'top' players"!

The accounts from summer 07 showed debts of about £60-odd million, which along with assets of about £25m, left PFC's worth at an overall -£35m or so.