What are we here for?

[bigmike]

LMAO Poor Old Pompey.....

[wolsey]

Portsmouth FC and their supporters = Football's equivalent to Raoul Moat and his "fans".

"Nobody cared, nobody understood. I may have oxf*rd up, but it was everyone else's fault."

I'm glad I support a little, "unambitious" Club.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

All is fine at Pompey.

I think it's more of a will Reading or southampton go out of business first?

Right, looks like this'll be as good a time as any for last words, a cig and and a blindfold

[ankeny]

History!They are History!I hope.

[Millsy]

Much as I think they're idiots for gazumping us to get Tommy Smith especially when they couldn't bloody afford it, it's never nice to see a club go under.

What of all their fans who've supported them for generations?

Very sad for them and I for one will not be celebrating.

[Percy's Rocket]

I fully agree about the pain for their fans but what an object lesson in not living beyond your means..they got similar crowds to us in the prem I think but tried to employ at salaries which were totally unrealistic and so owe the inland revenue.. (ie us the taxpayer) a vast amount. Madman winds us all up but the conclusions are obvious.

[RoyalBlue]

I fully agree about the pain for their fans but what an object lesson in not living beyond your means..they got similar crowds to us in the prem I think but tried to employ at salaries which were totally unrealistic and so owe the inland revenue.. (ie us the taxpayer) a vast amount. Madman winds us all up but the conclusions are obvious.

No they're sodding not. There is an absolutely massive gulf between the approach that Porstmouth adopted and that being followed by the bullsh*tting (genuine PL ambition, my *rse) Madejski.

All many supporters want is an approach somewhere in the middle of that gulf. If Madejski isn't prepared to walk his big mouthed talk and move to that midpoint, he should accept what the market feels that the club is worth, rather than what he in his dreams/arrogance thinks it's worth, and walk away.

[southstand67]

do they have to give the FA Cup back seeing as how they were living beyond their means when they bought it, I mean won it?

[roadrunner]

Much as I think they're idiots for gazumping us to get Tommy Smith especially when they couldn't bloody afford it, it's never nice to see a club go under.

But this is Portsmouth, so it's OK.

[Millsy]

I fully agree about the pain for their fans but what an object lesson in not living beyond your means..they got similar crowds to us in the prem I think but tried to employ at salaries which were totally unrealistic and so owe the inland revenue.. (ie us the taxpayer) a vast amount. Madman winds us all up but the conclusions are obvious.

No they're sodding not. There is an absolutely massive gulf between the approach that Porstmouth adopted and that being followed by the bullsh*tting (genuine PL ambition, my *rse) Madejski.

All many supporters want is an approach somewhere in the middle of that gulf. If Madejski isn't prepared to walk his big mouthed talk and move to that midpoint, he should accept what the market feels that the club is worth, rather than what he in his dreams/arrogance thinks it's worth, and walk away.

I agree, it's daft looking at the extreme opposite cases and concludingng Madejski is some sort of hero!

There is obviously a massiv gulf between Pompey and what we did. Couldn't put it better myself and it's getting a bit boring when people point to the failures and automatically deduce that either it's Madejski's way, or it's ending up like the failures with no middle ground!

Perhaps we should point to the likes of Arsenal, Man U , Chelsea and say "see... if only we'd got that right winger in the second season of the Prem... if only we'd got a striker now... if only we'd spent a bit more... we would be top of the Premiership!"

[Arch]

What "we" do is adopt a very conservative strategy that you may or may not agree with. But let's not represent it as some kind of opposite extreme of insanity from Portsmouth. Our strategy makes us less competitive in the Championship than you might reasonably think we could or even should be. How competitive has their strategy made them if they don't exist this time next week?

To continue the incontinent spewing about Madejski as though he's comparable in some inverted way to Gaydamak, Storrie, Chanrai, Andronikou, etc is really utterly daft. Can't you criticize the club's policy without splattering us all with your diarrhoea?

[Wimb]

What "we" do is adopt a very conservative strategy that you may or may not agree with. But let's not represent it as some kind of opposite extreme of insanity from Portsmouth. Our strategy makes us less competitive in the Championship than you might reasonably think we could or even should be. How competitive has their strategy made them if they don't exist this time next week?

To continue the incontinent spewing about Madejski as though he's comparable in some inverted way to Gaydamak, Storrie, Chanrai, Andronikou, etc is really utterly daft. Can't you criticize the club's policy without splattering us all with your diarrhoea?

This ^^^^

[Millsy]

What "we" do is adopt a very conservative strategy that you may or may not agree with. But let's not represent it as some kind of opposite extreme of insanity from Portsmouth. Our strategy makes us less competitive in the Championship than you might reasonably think we could or even should be. How competitive has their strategy made them if they don't exist this time next week?

To continue the incontinent spewing about Madejski as though he's comparable in some inverted way to Gaydamak, Storrie, Chanrai, Andronikou, etc is really utterly daft. Can't you criticize the club's policy without splattering us all with your diarrhoea?

Can't you take reasonable arguments/criticisms that you happen not to like without becoming offensive?

Read my post again and please tell me where I say our situation is an opposite extreme from Portsmouth. The whole point of my post is that pointing to any extreme (be it Pompey or Chelsea) is daft. Therefore I fully agree with your post.

[RoyalBlue]

Guess what?!

Just like the Watford situation last season, it's now starting to look like the Pompey folding story was brinkmanship, undertaken to force the feuding parties into some form of agreement.

So, despite severe financial mismanagement, there still isn't going to be a club going under. Once again the doomsday scenario predicted by 'The Madejski way is the only way' disciples has been busted.

[Elmer Park]

I think a successful and well run Football Club has some members of the Management who are primarily concerned with the financial situation of the Club as a Business and they are there to temper the urge of those concerned purely with the football side of things who will always be looking to buy more and more players. The situation at Portsmouth is that it appears all the Management wanted to live the dream beyond their means as Clubs like Leeds have done before them and no one tempered this. 'Arry is not the sort of Manager to ask if his Club can really afford it if they keep giving him more and more cash to spend.

To me a Football Club is well run if the team achieves success on the field and ends each financial year in a reasonable and manageable business position.

I am concerned that we have reached the stage where the situation at our Club seems to have gone a little to the other extreme in that a successful season is one where we get as near to a break even financial situation as possible and end the season in a reasonable position in the league table.

Once the priority is no longer on field results the danger is that this can lead to a Club stagnating and after that it often follows that the team start to go backwards and relegation eventually follows.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

^ That right there, ladies and gentlemen

[Arch]

What "we" do is adopt a very conservative strategy that you may or may not agree with. But let's not represent it as some kind of opposite extreme of insanity from Portsmouth. Our strategy makes us less competitive in the Championship than you might reasonably think we could or even should be. How competitive has their strategy made them if they don't exist this time next week?

To continue the incontinent spewing about Madejski as though he's comparable in some inverted way to Gaydamak, Storrie, Chanrai, Andronikou, etc is really utterly daft. Can't you criticize the club's policy without splattering us all with your diarrhoea?

Can't you take reasonable arguments/criticisms that you happen not to like without becoming offensive?

Read my post again and please tell me where I say our situation is an opposite extreme from Portsmouth. The whole point of my post is that pointing to any extreme (be it Pompey or Chelsea) is daft. Therefore I fully agree with your post.

Apologies, 2ww. My post was directed at Royal Blue, who has contributed yet another piece of idiocy to this thread since with the following argument:

According to Andronikou, Portsmouth may not be going out of business; therefore, the Madejski approach to running a club is not so great after all.

[Svlad Cjelli]

But surely the harder the commercial environment and the overall economic situation the more attention has to be paid to the financial side?

John Beech, a guru in understanding football finance, did a presentation recently that says the worst thing a club can for financial stability is to be promoted or relegated, and the higher in the pyramid that they do this the worse the effect is.

We've done both in quick succession, and at the highest level it's possible to do that - just at exactly the same time that there's a global recession and a slump in the property and publishing markets meaning JM's other businesses are under massive pressure and so he has precisely zero liquidity. and this whole situation was made much worse when SC was allowed to spend most of the 2 years' parachute payments in the first year in an all-or-nothing try to get back up (most un- "The Reading Way" there!)

Under those circumstances and such a "perfect storm" of bad timing, no wonder we've had an emphasis on the financial side. The fact that we're still in business, and in a shape where we're potential play-off contenders, is an absolute oxf*rd miracle!