Do you think that if BC takes over the club again, he will just continue to trouser the parachute cash and let the club languish in League 1 or will he try to spend some cash to recoup his losses and try to get the club promoted back to the Championship? My heart is undecided but my head says he wont throw good money after bad. Maybe our only real salvation and chance of bouncing back up to the Championship, will be to attract a new owner with real money, although this looks increasingly unlikely given BC's reported stance against the latest prospective purchaser. What are your views fellow blues?. No wumming please Scummers
Up until last week I was preparing myself for 1977 and 1978 revisited. I think it's in BC's interest to invest (speculate to accumulate) to get us back into the Championship. He doesn't want to be a long term owner and it's common sense that he will be able to sell the club for a higher price as a solvent Championship club than as a rudderless ship heading for the rocks of League Two.
BC won't invest in the club. If he was even contemplating it he wouldn't call himself the "reluctant, last resort" owner. Add to that the more than likely lower gates if he does take over, he stands to lose money before he gains any. And to get us out of league won't be as cheap as he wants to be. He doesn't wanna be here for any length of time and has constantly stated he is only here for the moeny he lost which IMO was his fault anyway. (When have you ever 17mil to someone without even meeting with them with said person saying moeny will go to a clearly insolvant business). Anyway I digress. The way I see it is we the fans have 2 options; a) Support the trust and if they do get the club, it will be rebuilt slowely from the ground up. It may be a while before we get to the so called "promised land" but that is better than... ...b) Don't support the trus and watch BC drag along the dying corspe of our club until him, SG and everyone else have picked the flesh off the bones of the club before leaving it to die in either league 2 of the conferance. You don't have to pledge to support the PST, but as it stands, you have to pick one of our only 2 choices. And I know which one I have chosen.
I think the situation is very clear actually. BC has no intention of losing £18.6m and has come up with another CVA plan which will reduce the debt even further - apparently the offer going to the creditors is 2p in the £ - so some of the parachute payments will be available to him because at that rate the original CVA of £16.5m will be reduced to £330,000. He also will have no intention of "investing" in the club, although he will have no choice but to loan funds to cover running costs at certain times. Pompey will be run on a shoestring until he has recouped as much as he can from the normal income streams and then he will sell it on to recoup the balance of his loans. This time he may hang around for 2-3 years (possibly) to get his money back and not rely on recouping said "loans" from a future purchaser as he did with CSI. So with Chanrai we are looking at 1-3 years in League 1 - if we do get back up to the championship it will all be down to the manager and players alone, in spite of BC not because of him. The PST are trying to raise £8m. They have released no other information so everyone is in the dark about their plans, which to my mind is hindering their fundraising effort. However £8m is reliant on either a) Trevor Birch deciding to sell to PST and forcing Chanrai to forgo a large proportion of his debt, just doesn't seem likely, or; b) Trevor Birch & CSI agreeing a staged payment for his secured debt. The PST will also have to make an offer to creditors of xp in the £ for a CVA and they will need to have an amount of funding available for running costs. It is possible that their plan is to use the £8m for running costs and a proposed staged plan for the secured debt. But without any information this is all guesswork. It is also feasible that PCC will purchase Fratton Park to rent to the supporters trust if they are successful with their bid, but that could come to nothing if BC insists on £17m for his debenture. So far my dealings with the trust have not left me with a feeling of confidence although that may be as a result of their poor communications. I really wish it could work with them but my gut feeling is a rapid descent to League 2, languishing for a while before a real leader (and that won't be a money man because of the way they will structure the business) comes in and takes it on. However, there is a third way which no-one has been talking about yet. BC comes in and buys back the club to recoup his damned money - and during this time the trust embark on a strategic and workable plan to raise the funds to purchase the club from BC. As I see it they have up to 2 years to get the supporters on-side, get the population of Portsmouth on-side (income raising opportunity) and raise the funds for the infrastructure. BC coming back in could just be the breathing space that the trust needs. They will need to do something about their PR & Communications though.
All the time that PFC is trading, the parachute payments will continue. If it folds, then they stop. I think it's that simple. If I remember correctly last seasons parachute money went to Gaydamak, but don't they continue for 5 years now? I can't see him putting money in other than that required to keep the club running. Even if Pompey are relegated, that wouldn't stop the parachute payments. Unless I am incorrect about the above, in which case someone will quite rightly rub my nose it it.
The problem is Devo that BC isn't going to be able to get his money back in the short term because of all the debts that the son of a gun (runner) left us with, including his own profligate spending which he wants back. Even as a championship club we wouldn't be worth £18.6m + debts because the infrastructure needs so much spent on it. The ground itself is only worth around £3-£5m and the *$*$*$* Russian owns the surrounding land and access to the ground so if somebody wanted to upgrade the stadium they would also have to purchase that from him. We really are between the devil and the deep blue sea.
BC will suck the club dry and get as much back as possible. When the time comes, he will pull the plug an once again PFC will be in the shop window...
I would suggest that you pompey fans look at the teams currently in league One and assess which of these teams are currently superior in any respect to PFC and how many of them have resources so sufficient that they won't need to bring in youngsters in on loan from the Premier League. Unlike the two seasons when Saints were in this league, there are no "big" clubs or teams with sufficiently in depth squads to warrant portsmouth contemplating a long stay in this division. I genuinely think that Appleton will get you out at the first attempt and a return to the Championship will make you a more atractive proposition. I don't see PFC's situation regarding playing staff to be any inferior than any other team's in this league and it is worthwhile remembering that the poorer teams are generally pretty woeful.
Ian's assessment seems a tad optimistic whilst the status of the club is so uncertain. Hang on, this isn't the the same Ian who was absolutely certain that Pompey were going to stay up and that Saints would not be promoted? Leaving that aside, presently it's impossible to guess how you will do bearing in mind that you could start on 0 points or in -30 points depending on how it pans out.
My glass has been 'half empty' for so long now that I took the news that BC was to become 'reluctant owner' again as a positive and my glass was 'half full' until I read the comments on this thread and my own 'Feeling Positive' thread. My glass is now well ant truly half empty again and I'll see you all 'at the river'
The best trick in these positions, is to be very nice to the barmaid, drink a little more so the pint is only 40% full and then ask her to "top this up with another half, please." If you have been nice and the Landlords not looking, you might find you become a "glass-full" person. I think that Pompey has been far more brazen than this and got away with it for years. Give it a go!
Look at the current League One table and I would suggest that the only teams likely to Pompey a run for thier money will be the losers of this afternoon's match, MK Dons and perhaps Notts County. Other than that, Coventry might be a threat is they manage to acquire the Chinese investment and I think that Swindon will continue the good form that took them out of the bottom flight. Everyone in that league will be supplementing their squad with Premiership reserve players and with "big" clubs like Southampton, Leeds, Norwich and Charlton all now absent, Iw ould suggest that this league will be more open than it has been for a number of years. Not a matter of being optimistic but a simple exercise of comparing the likely opposition team by team.
Ok, but are you assuming no points deduction? Which players do you assume will be playing for Pompey bearing in mind that Apples said that he doubted any of last years first-team would be still with the club next season? I am all for an optimistic outlook, but surely there are too many unknowns to be blasé?
