Guided Missile

You are the Chairman of Southampton Football Club. You receive a desperate phone call from your counterpart at Portsmouth City Football Club, who explains that unless they receive the match revenue from the recent FA tie at St. Marys, the famous club, founded over 112 years ago, will be wound up and cease to exist, next Monday, at the High Court, live on Radio 5. You had earmarked the money for new carpets in the board room and the reupholstery of the executive seats. Should you: Take a day off and listen to the winding up of Portsmouth, live on e Radio 5, or... Go to training ground, watch the guys kick a ball around, write up your programme notes after lunch and listen to the programme on iPlayer, over a glass of chilled Chardonney, that evening?

...

...and you can't count the Canadians...

I thought you said that you were offended? Now I'm confused...

I have found my blind prejudices against a number of groups have been reinforced by experience, apart from the odd refreshing exception. As far as you are concerned, I can't say your posts regarding Saints are the most exciting I've read. This could be because you were born in Canada, but then again, it may be because you have worked hard at it... You make the assumption that boring is a bad thing, but I'd beg to differ. It is the national trait that led to the Canadian economy to avoid the worst of the banking meltdown, as this article demonstrated. I like my bank manager, accountant and lawyer to be boring. Conservative and boring. When it comes to literature, or even posting on a website, I prefer interesting. Mind you, most Canadians do have a good sense of humour, as the large number of comedians from that country testify. I notice that not many of the Canadian posters on this thread seem to have one...

I am assuming you think calling an anonymous poster a c u nt and a d !ckhead is adult and non-baiting, then..?

I apologise for the boring and irrelevant comment. On reflection, your last three threads make me look a bit of a chump for ever thinking that. For those that may have missed them, here are last three and I for one, can't wait for the next one. It's a pity your two compatriots have failed to ante up the fiver, to share their gems...

The reason it's strange is that they should have already provided a copy of the loan instrument to Companies House, within 21 days of the charge(s) being registered. If not, the charge(s) is/are invalid. i.e. Marc Jacobs should have deposited the loan instrument at Companies House by the end of January...

They all add to the entertainment that this site brings a large number of people from all over the world. It reminds me of that old Michael Jackson song... We can't go on Pretending day by day That someone, somewhere will soon make a change We are all a part of God's great big family And the truth, you know love is all we need

This just for the record:

Tony Lynam lives in Southampton, so not a hard and fast rule, but in my book, never trust an ex-pat in regards to Saints. If they were true fans, they would live close enough for a season ticket, but they value other things in the life more than Southampton Football Club. Usually it's either the weather or the money...

Wrong Canadian, then, pal...

I now remember why I called you Moose Boy. I called Dan Williams, that ex-pat from New Jersey that was going to buy Blackburn Rovers and then us with someone elses money, a "ginger whinger". Gingeltiss than called me a racist, for calling Dan ginger and you joined in, loudly condemning me for the racist overtone of my insult. There followed a long thread about the colour of Gingletiss's hair, whilst you tutt tutted every few posts. I think it is probably Dan Williams and you that started this aversion I have to reading posts by ex-pats, although I think Dan Williams and his alter ego Help Me Rhonda showed just how important it is to ignore what ex-pats post with regard to Southampton Football Club. Oh.....and don't get me started on Mike Wilde....

I got this far and realised that this statement must mean that English is not your first language. I do look forward to your next post that completely misrepresents what I posted, although I'm still a bit busy trying to find the racist comments in my original post...

I must admit, I always thought that it was an unfortunate quirk of genetics that made Canadians so boring. After reading that post, I now realise that simply living there causes it. I am having the terrible feeling that you actually do think that what a user named Guided Missile posts on an internet site is a personal attack... ...scary...

Where did you learn that "GM had a difficult period when he lived in the USA". I think you and the other ex-pats should re-read the OP and realise it was a pretty mild critique of a number of the posters on this site. The first response to it was to label me a racist. (Thanks Eric and Phil, you guys must be a bundle of fun) I love the US now and when I lived there. I just happened to avoid ex-pats like the plague and mixed with the locals. In my experience, ex-pats in the US were an odd and misplaced bunch... ...and is what they say relevant to the normal fan that goes to St. Marys every other week? Not really. A waste of bandwidth, most of the time...and the Austrian house husband is top of the list...

What happens if the PL forward Pompey enough money to ensure Burnley go down at the expense of West Ham, Liverpool make 4th place at the expense of Man City? Never happen IMO...

Phil, I don't know you, but I think you may have spent a little bit too much time in the sun, or behind a computer screen to think there is a personal element to the posts. I'll give you a hint. These aren't real life relationships. Guided Missile isn't my real name and I type opinions on a public forum, as a minor hobby. That's it really. Feel free to construct some sort of personal element to this, if it helps you get through the day, miles away from home. Even totally overreact and call me a racist (ROFL). If I was you I'd would spend a bit more time building a real social network at home in Dubai, than venting your spleen against a poster named "Guided Missile". As would a few more of the expats on here. (Moose Boy, you know who I'm talking about) It might help their attitude...

I'd hardly thought that a very mild thread about ex-pats would be backed by the target of my thread, nor indeed cared. I am able to recognise them, because they wear their ex-pat status as some badge of honour, in the form of their internet handles. You know, alpine this, tijuana that, canada blah, dubai blah, internet poster of arabia... Listen lads, it's great you post, but you left the city, you left the country and your names signify where you're at, value wise. It just happens to needle me slightly when I read the regular criticisms of our club, city and country from someone tapping a computer many miles away. I just don't feel the need to provide the small feeling of belonging your local sporting institution fails to bring you... ...sorry and all that. I mean, it's not like we have any real form of relationship...

Reading your post just confirms my point. Boring and irrelevant to the fans streaming into St. Marys nowadays. The nostalgia part cemented the impression, in my mind. I lived in the US for 11 years and hated the way most of the ex-pats continually moaned about the UK and yet, given the opportunity, milked any patriotic situation in a frenzy of flag waving nostalgia. Emigrate, integrate and adopt the local customs, because banging on about how cr@ p/great everything is in your adopted country and how cr@ p/great everything was in your mother country just p1sses most people off.

I think it is possible that the Premier League paid the wages from the funds they held back. They paid the January wages, but I guess it's possible they may have paid the February wages as well.... ...although, I assume the £8M the club negotiated for the transfer of Kaboul and Begovic was net of VAT....so, it is possible that the wages were paid from the £1.4M of VAT which would explain why the money owed to HMRC has increased substantially from the original £7.5M amount they were claiming in the winding up order.

Chanrai offered Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs an immediate ­payment £1.8m on an outstanding VAT bill of about £7.5m in the hope of being granted more time to find the remaining money to avoid administration, according to this article dated 9th February. Coincidently this is just a few days after Chanrai/Portpin snagged £4M from PCFC's client account at Fuglers, after the Kaboul/Begovic transfers, so I guess he could afford it. The offer was rejected, presumably because HMRC wanted all of the outstanding bill paid. Sounds so dodgy, as the dates of these transactions are after the winding up petition and no wonder HMRC are p! ssed off.

Readers may recall this wild speculation on my part. It seems that this may have been confirmed by the intrepid administrator. Despite the appalling grammar, this was what Harry Harris quoted Andrew Andronikou saying, as he made his lawyers job a lot harder, in this article. "The administrator is seeking something like £30 million from a new owner to underwrite creditors, and take the club forward. He continued: "We have a secured creditor for £13.5 million, and that is the current shareholder and owner who has fixed and floating debenture, which means Fratton Park, the players and all assets of the club. "There had been loans of £17.5 million but Chainrai has prepaid £4 million of that, and he continues to have a charge over all the assets. The proposed sale and lease back of Fratton Park did not materialise because it had not been completed before I came into the club." So, the latest story is that he has a secured creditor (Chanrai) the current shareholder and owner. His loans were £17.5M, secured by way of a charge on Fratton Park, but are now £13.5M as Chanrai has prepaid (sic) £4M of this. As I say, the grammar is appalling, but I think the moron is trying to convince the reader that Chanrai has a fixed and floating charge. I must admit, it is rare to see a creditor repaid 25% of a loan, but still manage to obtain further security, after a winding up petition. I love the last sentence. This was what was reported on the 20th February, in the Echo: PORTSMOUTH no longer own Fratton Park, it has been reported today. It is claimed that Balram Chainrai has written off £10m of the £17m Pompey owe him. In exchange, he has taken ownership of the ground. Mr Chainrai has leased the venue back to the club over a period of 15 years. The club will have to pay him £1m a year to rent the facility. I'd be interested in how others interpret Andrew Andronikous' gibberish...

Worth a read:

The key to your club will be "What Happens to Fratton Park?", when the assets are sold. I believe this site first pointed out that the reported asset transfer of Fratton from PCFC to Portpin would be invalid, despite all the Pompey sites and newspapers reporting that Chanrai owned Fratton because of the loan default by Falconedrone. So, it will be sold, along with all the other assets, to the highest bidder, by, IMO, a new administrator, appointed by the court. The next question will be "What will be the most profitable use of Fratton Park, when it is sold?" IMHO, its use as a football ground by a club which will continue to lose money, will not form the basis of a long term business plan. I see no sensible alternative to the sale of Fratton Park for redevelopment, maximising the return for the creditors of PCFC (whoever they turn out to be). Groundsharing would make the most sense for the 10-12,000 fans that will watch a Championship club spending a season being relegated to the first division, while funds are raised for the construction of a new stadium, a la Brighton. A 25-30,000 seater is the minimum for an aspiring Championship club that Portsmouth, at best, will be in two seasons. Too many heartless property developers have Fratton Park surrounded. Anyone that profits from the sale of landmines to Angola, are hardly likely to show any affection for the dump that Fratton Park has become, despite the romance of an FA Cup run financed by the taxpayer...