The rumour in my local last night was that......

.. the PST have withdrawn their bid for Pompey.

Has anyone else heard this?

Is it true?

 

Don't know if true, but I have always thought that the PST should keep their powder dry for a completely new team. With a bit of financial support and their fan base they could do well in non;eague and slowly climb the pyramid...and do you know, they would actually start to have fun again.

 

I'd be amazed if so.

 

The way it's currently going, there won't be much of a drop if they did have to start again.

 

I wouldn't be massively surprised, all seems to have gone quiet on the PST front lately.

I just don't understand how liquidation isn't always going to be the end game. They seem to have raised just over a million from converted pledges, which would only keep them going for a few months the way they are leaking money. They are still going to owe huge amounts of money if they come out of admin, and the finances looked tight to fanciful on their share prospectus and seemed to be based on staying in League 1, which now looks a pipedream.

 

However, a million would be a nice sum to fund a nonleague club. It's my drum and I'm going to keep banging it!

 

A quick look on Twitter and the PST are denying withdrawing the bid.

News is reporting that they are being kicked out of their training ground at the end of the month though, and are going to have to train at Fratton Park.

 

I agree with you. However, people have invested (I prefer to call it donated) their £1000 to the PFC life-support machine fund. If they switch it off then they have to give all that cash back, and start fundraising again, not sure they would get so much for a phoenix club.

 

Thank goodness the clean air of Eastleigh will no longer be polluted by those ruffians.

 

It did have some legs then.

 

It's funny how Saints' fans perception of the Portsmouth situation has changed recently. There was a point when they were in the Premiership where there wasn't much sympathy amongst us and a return to the Championship seemed just. I've never been a fan of the system of penalising clubs with points deductions which seems to be counter-productive and hits the fans rather than those directors running the club. Since this season has got under way, I thibk the tide has started to turn and the situation faced by Portsmouth is no longer amusing. As stated above, it seems staggering that they manage to survive week to week and the departure of Appleton has mean't that they are absolutely hopeless on the pitch too. I actually feel really sorry for the Portsmouth fans as nothing actually seems to be going their way to reverse the situation. A scenario is fast approaching that is practically hopeless and which no other former Premier League team has ever found itself. It is almost a replication of the case with Chester City as few seasons back. Portsmouth are an old established team with a fabulous past and they seem too big a club to be facing the prospect of liquidation at worse and League Two football next season at best.

As a Saints fan, I feel that we need a local rival and I would be disappointed in Portsmouth FC actually ceased to exist. The notion that a non-league route will ultimately prove to be some kind of panacea for the club seems to be wholly misplaced in my opinion as there is no guarantee that they would ever return to the top flight. The conference is littered with former league clubs who have failed to make a hasty return and people seem to forget that you can also go down from the leagues as well as get promoted! Stockport County got relegated last season and they are facing a relegation battle at the moment. At this point in time, with a stuttering bid from PST a scenario with Portsmouth playing the likes of Eastleigh or Salisbury doesn't seem quite so impossible. It would be a shame if this would happen.

 

Don't worry PST, the 200,000 "active" Pompey fans (according to their spokesperson) will come to the Trust's rescue. Makes perfect sense to throw money into an organisation where they will get no voting rights, no say in the club and play 2nd fiddle to the property developers who will be really running the club... and who will take the first offer for it when they have a chance of making a profit.

 

Ian, actually I think you've got it round the wrong way. The sense I get from the wider football community is that increasingly, fans are fed up with the "poor old Pompey" bollocks. Nearly every club has their problems and the vast majority of them havn't enjoyed years of success on the pitch either. For many clubs its all been ****, but they just get on with it in a dignified manner and don't DEMAND sympathy in the way that Pompey seem to.

Why is it a "shame" if Pompey slip into non-league? There will still be a club to support. Football isn't about being in the ****ing Premier League or basing the future on what a club did in history 60 years ago. Pompey are in this position because they deserve to be. End of. Actually, they have got off lightly compared to other clubs.

 

The reason for a points deduction is that the team concerned is considered to have gained an advantage by not having to balance their books. For an example, buying players they can't afford who then score goals that may keep them up at the expense of a more sensibly run club. It was painful when it happened to us, but I do understand the idea behind it. Persistent offenders get even more points deductions. A second 10 points deduction in this league when Pompey will probably be relegated anyway is actually quite a light punishment.

 

Do you really think the fans have got off lightly CBK? I don't think so..........It will be a shame if Pompey slip into non league, but rather that than totally out of existance. It really shouldn't matter how we as Saints fans feel about the club. Pompey does have a history of that there is no denial. (Including a history of going broke too may times) I repeat it would be a shame for a club of Pompey's standing to go into non league..............

 

Just on the back of frans comment, isn't there a cut off point where the 10 point deduction then gets added to the following year if the team is relegated anyway? ( having written that I'm sure we copped for that rule)

 

You are correct.....I think it applies as you go into March not sure of the actual dates.......

 

CBK / Fran

I posted a comment on the Pompey board earlier this week in response to a comment I made about Man Utd fans being aware of the situation down in Portsmouth that had been criticised as being pro-Utd. However, my point was that the Portsmouth situation is not a local issue but something that has far wider issues for the game. Here is the link and refer to my post #21.


http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/185906-January-Players-in-and-out/page2

Although Leeds Utd only narrowly avoided the problems that Pompey now face, Portsmouth are the highest profile club to have come this close to liquidation. Beddytare is quite correct about Portsmouth's history of going bust (I think the first time was in 1913) but the current situation is indicative of the malaise throughout the game. I don't doubt that Portsmouth overspent and that it may have given them an advantage (albeit difficult to gauge insofar it may have been a consequence of mediocre players being paid more than their worth as well as employing various hangers-on like Peter Storey's son being employed by the club as a financial adviser to the playing staff) but there should have been mechanisms to ensure that football clubs run within their means. For me, football teams are indicative of regional and civic identity and many clubs have a heritage extending beyond 120 years which places special emphasis on how the club is run. Owners of football clubs are only custodians of the organisation and , in the grand scheme of things, are only temporary in charge - for decreasing periods of time these days.

It is not the supporter's fault that the club is in this state. Granted they would have appreciate the success which would have been felt to have been long overdue but what has effectively happened is the club is barely able to function and seemingly employing any Tom., Dick or Harry to play for them just so that they can get throught the fixture list. Acquiring any points from now on is just a bonus. As I've tried to argue on this board before, we sometimes forget that football is a sport and an essential ingredient of this is that teams are able to compete. Whilst I accept that Portsmouth exploited the situation to build up a squad that included a host of England internationals, the FA and FL need to be more vigilant to ensure that teams no longer build up such debt as to compromise the future of football clubs and that there is far tighter regulation in ensuring that clubs are run within their means. I would suggest that the latter issue may even be something for FIFA.

Anyone who has ever read Niall Fergusson's book "Empire" will appreciate the historian's comment that two of this country's most significant impacts on the world have been the English language and Association Football. I would like to think that the game is run in England , Wales and Scotland to standards that go beyond those employed elsewhere in the world and that every effort is made to ensure that our football clubs (which almost have a heritage status) are protected from mis-management. Whilst I love to see Pompey turned over on the pitch as much as any Saints fan, the current situation they face is indicative of alot that is wrong with the current game and this is why I think their plight is important. I think we sometimes forget how close we came to exteinction ourselves and it is perhaps a shame that we cannot have a bit of sympathy for our fellow fans down the other end of the M27.

 

I think it was just a WUM hoax on the News Walsall game thread.

 

Very lightly. They don't even come close to what the fans of Luton, Wrexham, Chester, Rotherham, Rushden & Diamonds and possibly Bournemouth have experienced. None of those clubs cheated their way to FA Cup finals and top 10 of the Prem.

History is exactly that... the past. Its a reference point and a learning tool. Pompey fans learnt very little by welcoming with open arms a succession of con-men who to anyone with half a brain, were clearly that from the start. They may not have been able to do much about it, but the love-in they had for Mandaric and then Peter Storrie and others does leave me with the feeling that you reap what you sow.