Torrent Of Abuse

19C I do worry about you sometimes... Even those like me who admire MLT for what he did for the club would say that his strengths were skewed on the side of TECHNIQUE over perhaps WORK RATE or even maybe ATTITUDE. Surely this would make him a perfect candidate for a technical coach? Surely you would have MLT's abilities at hand without the complexities associated with MLT the player. Certainly it is a bit mendacious to question his international pedigree when his international career suffered most from the problem of fitting this maverick, individualistic player into a more homogenous team. If football was played like it's US equivalent (with specialized kickers able to come on at vital times) then his undoubted talents would of course have been used more. Who wouldn't put him on the field to take a penalty or free kick for England in his heyday? You can't judge his aptitude for taking penalties based on whether he could be accomodated in a team to play 90 minutes for England. These are very different disciplines. Why would he need to be the sort of person who can run for 90 minutes? How would that help (unless he was offering to run and get the balls back after every effort blasted over the bar)? Why should his temperament have any say in how his training would work out, when surely the onus would be more on those receiving the training? How could match fixing have anything to do with this? He is, after all, not actually taking part in the game itself. You claim that other footballers' crimes and misdemeanours are irrelevant because they did not impact on the game itself. Surely then, as MLT has retired from playing and so is not directly involved in the playing of the game, you would have to regard his misdemeanours as irrelevant to the task at hand too? I think your anti-MLT feelings are clouding your judgement somewhat. You should perhaps take a long look at yourself as your obsessions with certain figures from our past are unwarranted and they aren't doing you any favours.

GlasgowSaint. Thanks for the advice but my legal advisors inform me that such comments cannot be regarded as "abuse" as (if you take into account the personality of the person or persons being referred to) it actually works out as a compliment. Nevertheless, I'll be sure to pass your comments on to the head of the Department of Mild Slights and Injured Feelings so they can be aware of these very important concerns. Good day to you.

No it isn't. "Legend" suggests the here and now. No-one is saying he is a Legend based on half a season. "Legend in the making" suggests the future. It talks of a belief that AP has what it takes to become an important figure in the club's history, which based on the current, long run of good form seems fairly well-justified. The poster was just saying what they believe will happen, probably so they get the chance to say "I told you so" later on. It's like those boring, self-righteous *****s who bang on about how they alone saw us as a play-off team as opposed to a team aiming to avoid relegation and who see our current form as vindication of their beliefs. You probably know those guys. We weren't a play-off team at the time (nor are we now, technically speaking) but more a play-off team "in the making". Hope that helps.

I think the term WindmillArm2 used was actually "Legend In the making" the last part of which you've chosen to omit (not for the first time on this thread) to exaggerate your point. The importance of those two missing words is to suggest a belief that AP is capable of great things - not that he his even close to being there yet. God knows where you got the messiah bit from. Felt like stoking up the debate with a little more exaggeration did you? I'd say the present run of form is good enough to justify belief in the manager long term wouldn't you? Or is his form only good enough in your opinion to attract the attention of a club like West Ham?

You're missing the point somewhat... He didn't mention Christmas. Poor form IM(NS)HO. Can a heathen such as this ever be considered a legend? Surely the main discussion point for today.

Amen!* * = No blasphemy intended :wink:

What a club we have here! Happy days! To Nicola, Markus and the fans: Happy Christmas 2009 and here's to a fantastic 2010. To SOG and Alpine: Happy Christmas 2008. Here's hoping 2009 is better...

Someone should tell Pardew. It might make him raise his game.

By the way. Thanks for these threads, NickG. Perhaps the next thread should be a league-only form record? Then we can avoid discussions about the cup wins/draws and instead focus on our terrible lack of clean sheets

I think he's referring to the fact that this thread shows some people are not even happy with a run of 11 wins, 4 draws (2 of which count as wins by virtue of them being settled by penalty shoot outs) and 2 defeats. At least it would appear so from the fact that some here are arguing about pointless things like whether we count the cup draws as wins or not instead of simply celebrating the best run of form in recent history. Perhaps, if someone invents a time machine, some of us can travel back a year to find something to really complain about? This run of form is rare and precious and few clubs get to enjoy it - especially us. It would be a shame to let it pass us by while we're caught up arguing stuff which is absolutely f**king pointless in comparison. Enjoy it.

No need to be mean.

I would have guessed Saints for the ladder too. We slid down a few snakes but we are back on the rise I would have guessed Pompey for the purse. After all they are the ones who need the money most and they'd probably appreciate any amount of change no matter how small. Perhaps they could have given him the purse and then taken it back saying "actually we need to give this to Watford, Chelsea,...."

Personally I think he's saying just the right thing. He points out that Leeds have been here a while whereas we are just beginning our recovery. He says we lost some of our BETTER players, not our BEST - players like Surman and Dyer and MacGoldrick would have been very useful I think, especially under a more talented manager and alongside more skilled teammates. He rightly says that the current team had to be built afresh but is exceeding his expectations. He is painting us as plucky (and talented) underdogs. Leeds by contrast are expected to win and anything less would be a failure. Good article IMHO.

They also like turning up to see their side play against big name players. I guess there'll be even fewer away fans at Fratton Park after the January transfer window then...

He'll just claim attendances are down 7% because the opposition teams are bringing fewer people down with them...

Poor old Bishop's Cleeve: just 52 fans anyone out there got enough time to compare those rankings against actual league position to see who's punching above their weight? No? Ok, well it didn't hurt to ask. You just enjoy your evening.

The Christmas party was worse than Wayne and Neil had feared. It was bad enough that the Norwich players were line-dancing but then Neil spotted Wally Downes break dancing in the centre circle.

Anyone who thinks we didn't win should follow through on that belief and forfeit the right to buy tickets for the next round. After all, no win no next round. That should give you a different answer.

Especially if we are playing Norwich again.

Can we lose to Norwich and get to Wembley?: NO Can we lose to Leeds and get to the playoffs?: YES I don't believe in resting players as we don't have the depth of squad to rest players and still make a fist of things. If you're this close to Wembley and you're resting people then you're as good as waving a white flag. That's not what our clubs attitude is all about. ALL matches count. ALL matches will be contested home or away. The effort and belief and will to win is what we're about now. If we're worried about the league, then our January purchases should be geared towards that last push to the end of the season.

I half expected one of those "it's not a matter of if but when" threads...

For all the talk of "we're not a big club anymore" it's imporant to remember that at the start of the season we had a Premier League ground, Premier League trainng ground, L1/2 players and pretty much no staff. The players and staff have now been brought up to the same sort of standard as the facilities. Pompey did the opposite. They had a lower Championship ground and no training facilities They spent it all on players but (as with us) these could all disappear tomorrow - and in their case it's looking ever more likely that they will. In their case, these were also paid for with borrowed money so when they leave, they leave debt behind. It's worth noting too that our absence from the Premier League has nor been long enough to seriously damage our core support. Our attendances this year show that. Pompey's stay in the top flight has similarly not been long enough to cement a bigger core of long term support. If their gamble hadn't been called in now and if we had kept our hapless former board for much longer, the story might have been different - but crucially it's not. Pompey will sink into decline while we rise - and the hangover of debt mixed with poor facilities will mean their decline will be as long an hard as the one they suffered before Milan came around...

One difference between Liebherr and the other high spender is that he seems to be funding the infrastructure too. It's one thing to pay 40k for a DOF or fund wages fir ex-Premier League players to come down to League 2. It's one thing to just buy a squad of high profile players to buy a Cup win. It's quite another to revamp the training facilities. Pompey bought nothing of real substance. They have no new ground, no training ground -just the silverware and a large wage bill. The players will go, the staff will go, the wage bill will only go after it has succeeded in crippling them for years to come. The silverware will give them good memories but they will be little comfort. It's like winning a million and deciding whether to buy a house or have ****-up. If you choose the former, you're made for life. If you choose the latter, you end up with bill, memories and a massive hangover. The skates have earned themselves that hangover.

One question for those saying that the Premier League would bail them out to prevent them going into admin: If that did happen and therefore Pompey avoided a 9 pt penalty, what would happen if they then managed to escape relegation? Wouldn't the team who DID get relegated feel obliged to sue the Premier League for taking actions which led directly to them being relegated? Would the Premier League really risk another trip to the law courts after the whole Sheffield Utd vs West Ham nonsense?

Jason "let's see what you could have won" Bowen?