Pompey in BIG trouble.

Obviously not them all but :

Varney, Norris, Lawrence, the annoying ginger player (cant remember his name)

are all credible options if they were on the cheap

Kitson - big mobile centre forward to replace Howard

Am I the only one who feels very uncomfortable about this thread? How quickly we forget the days that we had no money; the year that Izzet & Adams got us up, then the Rob Kelly years when we had practically no money, the time just before Mandaric came when we couldn't even buy Joey Gudjohnsson back for £150k despite selling two players for a combined £160k in the same month.

Call me a killjoy if you will, but I take absolutely no pleasure from Pompey's situation. I hope they find a backer and don't require a firesale because their fans deserve better.

I do agree with you Dunge and don't like to see football clubs in these situations, however at the same time would they not start hounding poorer clubs for bargains if they had money?

Also another thing which softens the blow for me is that Portsmouth bought players in the summer, knocking out competition from other clubs on personal terms i.e offering higher wages to players when they clearly couldn't afford to. It's not fair on the clubs that lost out on the players involved when they could affordably have had that player.

My point being, the clubs that were managing finances better and doing it by the books, lost the acquisition of players because Portsmouth offered better by not doing it by the book. The good guy loses and the bad guy wins.

Having said that, it isn't fair on the fans. Every club goes through its ups and downs. Hopefully Portsmouth can survive.

Blackpool - That's all very true, I suppose. Perhaps there is something in keeping an eye open for opportunities. But if we do then we should definitely avoid rubbing their noses in it. Their fans will be miserable enough right now.

I posted a few days ago about this and stated that I hate to appear like a vulture.

But equally, Pompey have a number of high-earning (former Premiership) players, some of whom need to be off-loaded to raise capital and reduce the wage-bill.

I'm not wanting to sound at all smug (as if we would be doing them a favour) but two or three players out at say £1.5m and £60k off the wage bill is surely an absolute must. Clubs in this position (and we have been there) must look to their own academy's and the lower Leagues and not to the Benjani's and Kanu's.

I would happily bid for Dave Kitson (Nugent's old strike partner) ,David Norris or Luke Varney - but I am sure that we would be struck off most Pompey fan's Christmas card lists !

Alternatively, I believe Harry Redknapp's dog has a few quid tucked away in a Monaco account. Couldn't he help them out ?!!

Totally right Dunge ... Pompey fans - who are amongst the best in the country... deserve better.
Club just treated like financial toy by a litany of owners with little or no loyalty to the club, city or people. You know my view on this -Deutschland system uber alles!

I don't forget either that it was Manadaric who sold the club at hadsome profit to a new owner Gaydamak- who lavished money on signings and wages until his dream became unfulfilled and the plug was pulled....

Rings a bell somewhere

Any way with the indecent billions of money sloshing around our game -surely there should be a resrve fund established to protect clubs like this who through no fault of the fans -cannot survive

johngee - There's a whole can of worms opening there. You could argue that the FA should be putting a cap on player fees / wages to help the survival and feasability of football clubs. You could also argue that clubs should be made to provide evidence that they can sustain the wages of a player for the length of their contract before they can be signed. The list of suggestions is almost endless.

Personally, I think the money involved does ruin the game and cause clubs to collapse and I hope the FA can do something about it in the future, however I'm sure they dont really care as long as they're in the money.

I'm very firmly with Dunge and johngee on this. Pompey have an incredibly loyal following and they simply don't deserve what they have had to suffer as ownership of their club has changed hands multiple times in recent years. I for one hope that they find a buyer and manage to avoid a points deduction plus a "fire sale" of their players. I prefer that we beat teams fair and square on the pitch, rather than in the Board Room............

Wouldn't really want any pompey players. Although I have a big dislike of the club its always sad if a club goes bust. Won't happen to them though, they will continue to trade. I also don't think their supporters are anymore loyal then any other club. It's not as though they have a sell out every home game. If you start to cap player transfers then you will get what you have in the rugby. All the top players abroad for more money. Certainly the quality of all 4 divisions will drop dramatically. I don't know what the best solution is to prevent this situation but you can't expect clubs to feel happy at having to disclose all their finances to the f.a. for scrutiny. Imagine transfer deadline day where you have to prove you can financially afford every deal. You would only get a few deals completed in time!