This rival business is significant. For me, there were Pompey fans in the extended family and this meant that wind ups were part of family banter. I've got odd mates (very odd, actually) who support Brighton and Reading, but I will never see these as truly rival clubs. I genuinely hope that they get themselves sorted, but I do feel that there will need to be a great deal of pain before it gets better.
It wouldn't be the same though would it. They would not be able to keep their history although no doubt they would try. Then for the next hundred years or so you would have the Saints and Pompey/Waterlooville fans arguing over that.... Still might be interesting.......you can just see SB3 in his element. Mind you he would probably be around 190 by then
district, unlike celtic fans wishing to see rangers die, and planning parties accordingly, i have no interest in seeing pompey going down the tubes. when im taken with the drink i might get a bit lippy about our blue neighbours but thats as far as it goes. hope they survive.
Couldn't care less if they are liquidated or not. In any other business they would have gone under ages ago. Maybe it needs a fairly big club like Pompey to go under to make everyone else sit up and take notice.
They are different in the main to us , many stated when we were in the ****e about how sorry they were for us and then sniggered and grinned with glee when amongst their own , how do I know this ? I was on the piss in Brum a while back and had the misfortune to be a bar when some of the badly clothed rabble scraped up enough to enter a pub and order a half a mild , it was all jolly good old banter at our demise , but I can say I do not want them out of business merely out of sight , a dream scenario would be a secret millionaire takes over but is a Saints fan simply keeping them going do the rivalry could exist .
We all do it though, don't we? Express sympathy in the presence of a Portsmouth fan, but then crack a few jokes about it. Doesn't make people monsters with no sympathy...just human nature. Cannot see them surviving, but sure there is enough support for a Phoenix club.
Shame we didn't batter them in a football sense, but they have had more than their fair share of crap to deal with, so I won't begrudge them a couple draws as they disappear down the leagues. Check out the 'was it worth it thread.' Apparently it was, because cup success is everything & worth the risk. Me, I'm happy with a bit of success, a well run club & players breaking through from time to time. I wouldn't want to gamble the clubs future for a cup, no way.
I do it to people face as well though , a bit snide to express sympathy and laugh about the demise of your rivals with your fellow supporters but one that is understandable , more of them though have honest about it in the past and shown their true colours . I want them to suffer but not to go out if business like so many of them wanted us to , we are better than that .
Well last time we met it was Easter, and as Christ was a fisherman, I suppose the skates were due a miracle.
Don't want to see them liquidated but do want the rest of football to take note of the mess they were allowed to make. What I do want is for us to get them in the cup so we can repay the premier league vs league one cup defeat we suffered and they harped on about non stop forever after!
Portsmouth is a big enough city with a big enough hunger for football to create a new club that's not much different to the current one. They'd be big enough to get where Wimbledon or Aldershot are under their own steam and then who knows, with a bit of backing we could see derbies again. Fans on both sides would probably consign the whole thing to the history books as soon as Pompey are back competing again. I don't see how anyone else could lay claim to the history.
All clubs, bar the most consistently successful ones seem to have their own particular Achilles heel. Traditionally, Saints have had inconsistency and small club mentality as theirs, although that appears to be fading, at last. Others can sometimes manage to turn their downfalls or tragedies into an advantage. Portsmouth's particular banana skin appears to be financial mismanagement. It seems that they have always been on the edge of insolvency. For example, in the mid-80's they were doing fine for a while, and were able to bring in players, to improve their position without breaking the bank. So what did they do..? They bought a professional basketball team. It made the finances squeak and they nearly went out of business. This is primarily what gets up people's noses. They have been irresponsible with their finances, and they have made quite of few people poorer as a result. Above all, they don't seem to have learned from their mistakes.
I hope they get liquidated. They will come back in a new form and then they will be skates with no history. Same rivalry will re-commence. Won't get all that crap about the only thing we've won is the cup. I see this a perfect scenario.
