Torrent Of Abuse

Perhaps we need to establish a proper rating system. MLG, as you did some stats for Football Manager 2010, perhaps you could be in charge of doing the same for the WAGs? We'd need some proper categories, of course. Marks out of 20... I can see a whole new thread here...

Interesting to see that Plymouth Argyle have had their transfer embargo (also for unpaid debts) lifted now the debts ar paid. I wonder if the Premier League will be as forgiving as the Football League? No idea how great Argyle's debts were. If Pompey's embargo is lifted it becomes even more of a face doesn't it? If you have a £60m debt and can't pay the bills because your income isn't high enough, that's bad. If you borrow another £10 to cover the other debts (thereby getting into even deeper s**t, that's ok...

Seconded. I would also like the full details of their finances to become available, with all those other little associated penalties that the league like to apply for financial jiggery pokery (a la Luton). Question is: if Pompey were (just for instance) revealled to be part of a money laundering enterprise, would the story still be "Poor ol' Pompey" or would all that sympathy evaporate? I know it wouldn't be the fans' fault but... Mud sticks...

It does read to me that they have managed to get a loan to pay the wages (perhaps they are very very very very confident because it can cover next month's too?) and there are active discussions afoot about more money. History would suggest any new money will also be a loan though - and I doubt anyone would seriously put money in as an investment - so aren't we just talking about piling debt on top of debt? how many decades worth of non-existent TV money do you think they are going to put on the roulette wheel this time?

And, having returned from the castle of the sleeping giant, Young Jack bravely carried the sack of invisible gold which Peter the Story Teller had given him to hand out to his friends. Everyone was very happy, particularly the family cow - which didn't have to be taken to market but which could stay playing as centre-back. And they all lived happily ever after...

The half time entertainment at Fratton Park went horribly wrong as Brown deviated from the internationally recognised moves for "The Birdie Song", introducing his own moves: "The Stuffed Turkey", "The Headless Chicken" and the "My Club's Dead As A Dodo"

I think we all know he's joking :wink: Still fun giving him abuse though...

You should be on the banned list, the ignore list and he'll why not the terrorist watch list as well. Replace two proud (and in one case also deluded) clubs with over 200 years history between them with a plastic MK Dons facsimile. What an abhorrent idea. If you suggested it when both clubs were up to their necks in the brown stuff you'd still have an uphill task. To do it now when we are on the up again is madness. I can only guess you're actually lying in a room somewhere whacked out on mushrooms, channelling the disbodied voice of Nineteen Canteen who has temporarily passed into the spirit world after discussing Lawrie McMenemy with his counsellor and accidentally choking on his own bile.

I'm disappointed. I thought this would be the perfect thread for a picture of a Liebherr crane with a wrecking ball attached. Someone could photoshop Fratton Park in the background. Instead you give me this nonsense.

- It's ok. Peter said the ball would be here in time for kick off... Or by 4pm... Or tomorrow... - We can make this work. Two up front, me in midfield, a defender and a rush goalie. Just like 5 a side. - And the wrecking ball they'll use on Fratton Park will be THIS BIG!!!! - What do you mean you gave Peter Storrie our wallets and car keys for safe keeping???

How about: "Peter Storrie was in one queue at the bank getting the wages out but the others seemed to be going quicker so he joined one of those queues. Then, would you believe it, the queue he joined slowed down and the one he left got quicker. This has happened a large number of times now, so it seems that (through some rather bad luck) he is now 125th in the queue when he was originally only 4th in line. At this rate, he will get the money sometime in June. Please don't blame us - blame the bank. Thank you, Portsmouth Football and Comedy Club"

I hardly think the British Empire was expecting Hitler to go on a rampage or that they could gain from such a thing. The inter-war years were in fact aimed at German containment. It would certainly be unfathomable to consider the sort of treaty we had with Poland that took is into the war if we expected this to be someone else's struggle. You would do well to consider these words from Stanley Baldwin, who served as PM three times in the inter-war years. They show the anti-war sentiment far better: "Our policy is not one of seeking security through rearmament but through disarmament. Our aim is the reduction of armaments and then the complete abolition of all national armaments and the creation of an International Police Force under the League...". You might also consider the Peace Ballot of 1935 discussing disarmament issues whilst in the face of German rearmament. The inter-war years were years where hope of an unending peace overrode our common sense. They were not years of realpolitik. They were years where leaders of countries assumed everyone feared war like they did. Sadly, as with this talk of Freedom of Speech, not everyone felt the same way. If you offer your soft underbelly, not everyone is going to give it a tickle. Some will just thank you for the opportunity to stick the knife in.

No. I think you're wrong here. There were indeed cases of realpolitik (notably in the attitude of countries like the USSR, Romania, even Poland and France to be fair) but the most telling contribution was that of the British Empire which refused to rearm, failed to enforce conscription (even when faced with an army many times it's size) and which could have hedged in Hitler or pared Mussolini off from him (through a proper show of strength in the Mediterranean) but which failed to act because of a view that war must be prevented at any cost, whereas the only way to prevent that war seems to have been through fighting a war (albeit a smaller, more restricted one). As the saying goes: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions"...

It was also those same 'softies' who handed Europe over to the axis powers throughout the 1930's by refusing to take action against the militaristic regimes taking root in their midst. I would hold the Labour party as culpable for its populist, pacifist stance during Hitler's rearmament as I would Chamberlain for the infamous "peace in our time" appeasement. Fascism could have been nipped in the bud early by strong leaders but those of the early 30's were haunted by a belief that war should and could not happen again, and driven by an urge to appeal that same pacifist tendency that would keep them in parliament. Sadly the axis powers did not have the same belief that WWI was "the war to end all wars". I admire high principles but the 70 million dead are a testament to the dangers of only one side following those high principles. I see no advantage in allowing a protest which has the intent to incite rather than express an opinion. To me the difference is like that between those who choose to propagandise over those who choose to inform.

Freedom Of Speech is a terrific concept, like World Peace. Sadly it doesn't fit too well with a species as flawed as ours. How can you allow complete freedom of speech when one side uses it to sow the seeds of hatred either by eliciting an angry response or by simply promoting intolerance? It's like urging peace at any cost in principle when you suspect you are dealing with someone who will take this as a weakness and use it to their advantage. Sadly the only answer in my book is a compromise: allow a lmited protest in a less sensitive area. That way the protesters cannot claim to have been gagged but have failed to gain sufficient oxygen of (negative) publicity. The families of servicemen know a protest took place but also know it was not in an emotionally charged location. Everyone goes home mildly unsatisfied but not distraught.

I want them to pay a price for taking that short-cut and effectively 'cheating' their way to the Premier League. We overstretched ourselves building SMS and here we are two leagues down, rebuilt, hopeful, wiser, humbled by 4-5 years of unrelenting blood-letting. It wasn't a quick thing. We bled players, points, fans, money, belief... Until there was almost nothing left. I want at least the same for Pompey, possibly more considering the scale of their excess. They should be left two leagues down from where this roller coaster began, in League Two. They can rebuild from there and meet us back in the promised land when they have paid their debt (so to speak). There are some who will say that Pompey have already paid their dues in the lean years before Mandaric bought them out but those years were the punishment for the mismanagement of previous regimes. Their new stint in football's cellar starts here and now.

In a tragic mixup, Death mistakenly arrived at Fratton Park to claim John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood who, the great Book Of Life said, was to be crushed by £60m of debt.

- Oblivious to the power of metaphor, Grant actually pops the Pompey bubble. - Finally Avram realised why he felt half-dressed: He'd left his Thai in Locks Heath.

If they go into administration in the close season, what is the cut off point for the punishment to apply to the Premier League season or the Championship season? I may be a greedy bugger but I'd like to see them relegated and then start next season -10 with young players, a losing habit and perhaps a couple of hapless Dutch coaches. That would be comedy you just couldn't buy

The annual Pompey panto reaches a climax as The hapless Baron Coffers points out Ali Baba escaping with his forty thieves on a giant flying skate.

I appreciate the Premier League's willingness to sweep things under the carpet but consider this: Consider the (admittedly unlikely) scenario where Pompey escape relegation and hold off on administration, reaching the end of the season - BUT they fail to make the payments for the players who they bought meaning, amongst other things, that the Lens players need to be sent back. In that scenario, what would there be to stop the relegated clubs appealing that the players who effectively sent them down were illegally signed? Would it be another West Ham v Sheffield Utd scenario? The Premier League got burnt once before. Wouldn't they be jumpy this time around?

I can see P*mpey imploding big time. They are surviving now but you can imagine the debts just mounting and mounting. By the time they finally collapse it will be in a giant cloud of debt and debtors. I don't want them to disappear completely but I can't help laugh at how they were crowing about middle eastern billionaires when they've really been bought by an Arabian photocopier salesman. Funny... As... F@ck...

Well he does have a sack, and it's full of something (but it's not presents)

I do not wish P@mpey to go out of business but I do want their debt-fuelled party to be over and the hangover to begin. The timing of the threat from the tax man is probably intended to focus P@mpey's minds on the transfer window. It's not for strengthening the side. Not this time. It's for selling players to pay the bills. It looks like it's going to be a slow collapse into administration for the Blue Few. We know what it's like - but i think their fall will be much slower and more painful.

I think a stadium at Stoneham would probably have generated more income (via other revenue streams) than SMS which might have helped us deal with relegation. That relegation would probably have cone sooner though, given the lower income from marches. With Stoneham, maybe we would be a middle-ranking, mostly unambitious Championship side with RL still in charge. So... SMS is the better option in my book. It's certainly the better option for an ambitious club with financial backing.