Ever get the feeling you may have made a ****ing great mistake? We have doubled you this season, are above you in the league and would have paid you every week!! No worries, you carry on backing the loser, we don't want you now anyway. There is better out there and we want people who want to play for ITFC, not people who settle for second best!!
Still wouldn't be surprised if we ended up signing/trying to sign any one of these, mainly due to our extensive scouting network.......
The mother/father/sister/brother/uncle/aunty/grandad/grandma ****ing budgies make me laugh but i don't feel the need to go on about it!!
Old Treacle,I've always had a cyber image of you lying in a maple flavoured bath with a goat. Am I odd or is this reality.
said no one touched it but looked like it came off of one of yours, some very strange decisions out there tonight as always when deadman is involved. as for our lads I'm sure they are quite happy with their decisions other wise they wouldn't have made them. also congrats on being higher in the table then the smallest squad in the division. europe here you come..................
Looks like you have a new boyfriend Spanish. I am sure dirty old drunken vagrants like ciderquire are very much your type. I am sure you will make a lovely couple. I hope you are not too angry now about your little secret coming out.
Tweacle As long as they are not family then anything will do!! I know you probably can't understand that but........
The portsmouth fans were brilliant last night as always and I have no major issues with them but there has to be major questions asked of the club. We are well known for being one of the most cash backed clubs in the league yet Norris was offered better money by a club that cant even last 1 season under the same ownership. BBC Radio Suffolk said bids for only 2 of the players were accepted and both players turned us down. It could be argued that the players do have a love of the club which if fair enough but I would imagine that these days especially regular wages are in most peoples minds, especially given that football can be a very hit and miss affair when it comes to long term careers. I can only assume that they have a very pretty deal already.
When Norris signed for Portsmouth his wages were being paid by CSI and CSI did have considerable financial backing. There is nothing unusual about owners paying the wages of players whom otherwise the club could not afford - see Man City and Chelsea for two examples - but when CSI folded after the poblems with Antonov and his bank that financial backing dissapeared. The collapse of CSI had nothing to do with the management of the sports businesses they owned nor did Portsmouth's situation this time come from anywhere near the level of bad management the club suffered in the past but because of Antonov's bank being closed, his assets being frozen and an arrest warrent being issued for him. Had this occured after a couple of season Portsmouth would not be in the situation we are now, it is because it occured so quickly after we last went into administration that has caused the trouble. We had not yet recovered from out last financial problems so this just added more on top of what we already had.
If CSI had considerable financial backing then why did they fold within 6 - 9 months? I also thought part of the takeover process meant you had to have proof that you could pay all bills for at least one season. I do honestly feel sorry for the fans and everyone outside the top ownership who have been involved. I also cant say I fully understand all of what happened but from the outside if seems (to me at least) that rather than go for a long term sustainable option, the decision makers went for another 'promise' of splashing the cash which has failed again. I realise that you have a small squad but the 'names' included in that squad would suggest a high wagebill. We have mentioned Norris already, but combined with lawrence and Kitson who came from premier league clubs (I know you didnt pay transfer fees but most players dont move for less wages out of choice) Hussklepp, Rocha, Mokwena (sp?) are all fairly large named players who dont play for peanuts. Most clubs who go into admin has to rebuild with freebies, youth and the unwanted and it just doesnt seem to be the case at Portsmouth.
CSI's main financier was Antonov who had a personal fortune of about £300million which is more than enough to sustain a club through a few seasons provided that's spent well. Under CSI about £10million was spent on transfers, about £5million on stadium improvements and an unknown amount on wages. But with the Lithuanian government taking over Bankas Snoras and closing it, then issuing a Europe wide arrest warrent all of Antonov's assests were frozen meaning that the £300million of his personal fortune was unavailable thus bringing us to the situation we now have. And with those high profile names, they were being paid by the owners. Kitson and Lawrence were signed with the support of Chanrai in an attempt to keep Portsmouth high in the championship and attract a buyer. They were paid by a loaned amount from him until CSI took over, at which time they were paid by CSI. Kanu, Rocha, Mullins and Mokoena fall into this category. Husklepp and Norris were signed with the support of CSI in an attempt to rebuild the squad and their wages were paid by them, so too Benjani, Henderson and Varney. All this pretty much means that Portsmouth were relying on the owners for financial support. It was a silly thing to do given recent history but at the time it was thought reasonable given Antonov's finances. Tal Ben Haim, on the other hand, we tried to get rid of last season but nobody wanted him so we were kind of stuck with him. Nobody foresaw Antonov's downfall because we hoped for the best and thought that since the Football League had OKed his takeover then the rumours on the web about his financial misdeeds were untrue yet it has since emerged that the Football League did not do any real investigating into Antonov and pretty much just looked into how much money he had. We Pompey fans, as whole, are rather annoyed at the Football League for this reason. Personally, I have been deeply upset by Portsmouth's youth policy since 2002 and would have welcomed the club relying on youth instead of buying playes. Since Harry Redknapp took over for the first time as manager I can count the amount of young players brought into the main team on one hand - Wilson, Ward, Sowah, Begovic - and while I did not oppose the signing of those higher profile names at the time - as few fans would - I said that my aim last season and this was survival/safe mid-table finish and more youth players being brought through. I think every fan wants to see home grown talent make it in the first team and its just soul destroying to see so many young players come though the club that are quite highly rated never get the chance.
Taken from the BBC 'Their main financial backer was Russian Vladimir Antonov. He passed the Football League's owners and directors test, formerly known as the 'fit and proper person's test'. But Antonov's banking business had been the subject of scrutiny by the Financial Services Authority - who had refused to grant Snoras Bank a licence to operate in the UK. He had also been accused of money laundering but has always denied the allegations' They should never have been allowed to take your club over.The FA are so up their own arses its a joke. How can anyone pass a fit owner test having been accused of money laundering and operating a bank that cant get an operating licence (and we all know how dodgy bankers are) It just beggars belief how incompetant the ruling bodies really are. For me both the administrator and the FA screwed you again. Taking away the passions of us football fans, its totally unjust that these tax bills can just be wiped out by administration on such a regular basis. We all moan when hospitals cut wards, libraries are threatened with closure, help for the elderly is cut but if owners are allowed to continually get away with not paying taxes and therefore forcing more cuts due to lost government revenue. Somebody high up really does need to face charges for the blaise way in which these situations are handled.
We have benefited hugely in the past from Portsmouth's lack of having any youth policy. The legendary Ray Crawford was forced to leave Portsmouth much to our gain and Micky Mills also was on the books at Portsmouth before we snapped him up. All in all I am quite happy that they 'stole' Norris from us as I know who got the better deal!
JWM, Dont get me wrong. I hated Norris and thought he was terrible for us. I have no issues with him leaving us and no problems with someone offering more wages than we could. Its the fact that they offered him wages that they couldnt sustain and are not paying taxes on thats where the problem lies
Well I think they are about to meet their comeupance! Its always the fans that suffer and never the owners that is the travesty.
