Barnsley manager sums it all up! Nobody has sympathy for a club who continually cheats, spends beyond their means and doesnty pay honest hardworking people as well as charities. I guess David Cameron does but.... Barnsley manager Keith Hill has 'no sympathy whatsoever' for the financial crisis that is engulfing Portsmouth after they were forced into administration for the second time in as many years. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ll-Ive-got-sympathy-Pompey.html#ixzz1mlv0vwsm http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ve-got-sympathy-Pompey.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Whilst I do naturally have some sympathy for the fans, I find it incredible that Appleton has spent the last 36 hours talking about bringing in reinforcements. Tough luck. They decided to spend something like £1m on one player (ie Huseklepp) back in the summer, when they could have easily spread that across two and three lesser signings. They decided to sign Lawrence and Kitson and Halford etc post-2010 administration, all presumably on decent Championship-level wages (as all came from Premiership clubs), when they could have easily spread those wages across five or six lesser signings. Bournemouth had a transfer embargo put upon them for a while after their points deduction, as I recall, and had to live with it (and what a great job Eddie Howe did in those circumstances by the way). Same should apply to Pompey.
I couldn't believe it when I heard Appleton talking on Solent earlier about bringing in new players. Appleton said in an interview on there: Er, Michael - NO! You and your club need to do the right thing for once and play what you have. If it makes you uncompetitive then tough ****. I don't particularly want Pompey to go out of existence (just below Saints for ever more will do) but what little sympathy I might have had is long gone after hearing some of the **** spouted by them over the past 24 hours. They went for quality over quantity and it has bitten them on the arse. If Pompey's situation means they have 3 subs then play the youth players, don't go getting new players in when you blatently can't afford to. Take it on the chin and if it means relegation then too bad.
Not surprisingly, I agree. What Appleton has been saying in the past 24 - 36 hours has really angered me. That quote in particular.
After we had been relegated, and before ML steadied the ship all I had to comfort me was the thought that Pompey would be joining us in a downward spiral. They had lost their first 10 games straight or something and surely they could not escape the inevertable? That was the year of the great escape where Harry did his Houdini thing and they did indeed escape and went on to have a great cup run, etc. I decided then and there, that I would no longer hope for others misfortune as a way of making me feel better. I can't say I would shed any tears if Pompey went down. In fact, maybe I think they have it coming. It might well do them some good to regroup in League 1. But I take no pleasure from their problems off the pitch. They are the result of some truly stupid/criminal decisions and an inability to accept the reality of the situation for far too long. We have had a while now looking down at the wreckage. Can't we be gracious in victory?
I assume by bringing players in, they mean on loan deals where the parent club pays 100% of the wages? Which is what I assume they have done with Thorne? Doesn't seem right that they are allowed to do that to me. One of their youth players is on trial at Liverpool and yet they have players on 30k p/w still at the club.... Offload those high earners and play your youth like every other team in that position has done in the past, don't complain to the FL about getting a special deal to bring new players in. I completely agree with the words of Keith Hill, and would be more than cheesed off if I were at one of the clubs in and around the relegation zone after what Appleton has said.
I don't know how easy it is to "offload the high earners". The players have contracts paying them totally unsustainable sums every week, so if Pompey wanted to sell them during the window, would said players have been willing to agree personal terms which meant a cut if maybe half in their wages? If not, then they are going nowhere. The only other option is to say "can't pay, wont pay" which would leave Pompey in breach of contract. The player could walk in to another contract on a free, still sue Pompey and the club has now lost the only assets which it has, aside from a precarious Championship status. We have to locate what they can do now' not what they should have done years ago.
It doesn't matter how you defend Pompey in truth......it ain't the fans fault which is true. However there is quite a few that seem to think it is alright to keep going in and out of administration and yet still expect to keep a top class team. Where is the pride gone of achievement without the aid of bank rollers that used to be the theme. The fans seem to me to be excepting the fact that it is the done thing to go along and survive on hand outs. Sad as it may seem I am losing my respect for some fans that seem to be demanding they be given the right to sign anyone just so they can survive in the championship rather than players that can help them survive as a club. It really doesn't matter if they have to go down into the lower leagues to rebuild as long as the club survives and the rebuild is solid.
Saints must be spending more than we're earning at the moment as we are being subsidised by a (probably interest free) loan set up by Markus initially and the sale of Oxo. The big difference is that we are spending wisely on the right players, on sustainable wages (probably with a promise of more in the PL), and on assets such as the training ground. We had considerable value when we went into administration and will be worth even more if we came on the market (heaven forbid!), whereas Pompey's recent owners have spent on froth.
The only problem I have with gloating over Pompey's demise is that, on here, most of the Pompey fans are decent sorts, and it gives me no pleasure to rub it in. Why won't those smug gits from the old 606 come on and take their medicine?
