Topic: Portsmouth FC out of Administration

[INABITSKI]

At the end of the day, I am more worried about the non football staff at the club, those whose monthly wage is far more important to them than the players.

Yes the players should be paid, as they are entitled to it (despite the fact I think they are overpaid). However the fact that a lot of the other staff where only paid their December wage the other day is terrible and I really feel for them, especially as neither the clubs on or off field problems are their fault.

Great point you make there.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

At the end of the day, I am more worried about the non football staff at the club, those whose monthly wage is far more important to them than the players.

Yes the players should be paid, as they are entitled to it (despite the fact I think they are overpaid). However the fact that a lot of the other staff where only paid their December wage the other day is terrible and I really feel for them, especially as neither the clubs on or off field problems are their fault.

aye its hard to feel bad for john utaka when his £80k a week salary hasnt come through is it, esp when you consider most other staff at the club make less in a year what he makes in 2 days

[OLDIE]

aye its hard to feel bad for john utaka when his £80k a week salary hasnt come through is it, esp when you consider most other staff at the club make less in a year what he makes in 2 days

It is difficult as you say to feel sorry for multi millionaires when they dont receive their wages on time, especially when you consider that they have the financial clout to sue the arse out of Portsmouth for breach of contract. The office staff and other "normal" staff employed by the club are the people who ought to receive any money that is in the pot.

Could you imagine if the players agreed to forgo their wages to ensure that the staff are paid first, the PR for those players would be imense, alas its not going to happen as really why should they forgo what is rightfully theirs.

The Portsmouth issue is to me the most worrying of all the issues in our game today, have we got enough money to spend on x y or z player doesn't really come into things when a Premiership club is about to go tits up. We all call G+H for being prudent just now in the transfer market but do we want to get deeper in the shit and become tomorrows Portsmouth or next weeks Leeds United ?

The Premier League, The FA and the Football League need to get their fucking heads together and STOP this trend for overseas investors coming in and fucking up the finances in our game and ultimately our game. The fit and proper persons rule obviously is a load of bollocks, just look at Notts County the oldest club in the world could also go tits. WTF are the authorities doing about it.  FUCK ALL because they can still draw their massive salaries and drive around in their Bentley's whilst the game can go whistle.

Nero's Rome perhaps before our very eyes ?

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Could you imagine if the players agreed to forgo their wages to ensure that the staff are paid first, the PR for those players would be imense, alas its not going to happen as really why should they forgo what is rightfully theirs.

the problem is that a fair few of their players went there because they were getting much more than what others offered (e.g. utaka) so they hardly seem the type who'd give up a few quid for the greater good

The Premier League, The FA and the Football League need to get their fucking heads together and STOP this trend for overseas investors coming in and fucking up the finances in our game and ultimately our game. The fit and proper persons rule obviously is a load of bollocks, just look at Notts County the oldest club in the world could also go tits. WTF are the authorities doing about it.  FUCK ALL because they can still draw their massive salaries and drive around in their Bentley's whilst the game can go whistle.

i dont think its so much to do with foreign owners - randy lerner's an excellent owner and i dont think it matters one iota that he is foreign and mike ashley's a british owner who's fucked up (and he's someone who you wouldnt have said prior to buying newcastle is someone who doesnt pass 'fit and proper' tests) but what does need to be done across european football (esp with the way madrid, man city and chelsea have gone about things) is limit transfer and wage spending to a percentage (e.g. 70%) of their income over the previous 3 years (weighted 25:35:40) - i mean city's wage bill last season was about the same level as their income (and thats excluding the players who've come in this summer) and chelsea's wages are something like 80% of their income - i believe germany make teams take solvency tests every 2 years to basically ensure that they could remain solvent, something which would mean the likes of city and chelsea cant fuck up the market for other teams

[OLDIE]

the problem is that a fair few of their players went there because they were getting much more than what others offered (e.g. utaka) so they hardly seem the type who'd give up a few quid for the greater good

i dont think its so much to do with foreign owners - randy lerner's an excellent owner and i dont think it matters one iota that he is foreign and mike ashley's a british owner who's fucked up (and he's someone who you wouldnt have said prior to buying newcastle is someone who doesnt pass 'fit and proper' tests) but what does need to be done across european football (esp with the way madrid, man city and chelsea have gone about things) is limit transfer and wage spending to a percentage (e.g. 70%) of their income over the previous 3 years (weighted 25:35:40) - i mean city's wage bill last season was about the same level as their income (and thats excluding the players who've come in this summer) and chelsea's wages are something like 80% of their income - i believe germany make teams take solvency tests every 2 years to basically ensure that they could remain solvent, something which would mean the likes of city and chelsea cant fuck up the market for other teams

Fair points.

I like the German way of making clubs take a solvency test every 2 years. However, most of our clubs are Limited Companies and therefore it is unlawful for them to continue to trade whilst insolvent, the balance sheet is one common method of testing solvency but the ability to discharge their liabilities as and when they fall due is the biggest test of solvency. Therefore how on earth are Portsmouth and other clubs including Liverpool allowed to continue to trade if they cant discharge their liabilities as and when they fall due. ?

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Therefore how on earth are Portsmouth and other clubs including Liverpool allowed to continue to trade if they cant discharge their liabilities as and when they fall due. ?

i honestly have no idea - someone like ttndb could explain this? pretty sure the auditors declared liverpool as technically insolvent or something like that

[BazC]

Thanks for the massive answer BazC.
Did the sums EVER stack up. Hindsight of the credit crunch is a wonderful thing  , but even so, did it ever look like they could buy the club, build the stadium, repay existing debts, have a 'reasonable' transfer kitty , make interest payments and take a profit ? I'm guessing there must have been some sort of business plan that stacked up?

Sorry Paul- only just seen this.

I think the whole business plan rests on debt sustainability. And that's going to depend (crudely) on the growth in revenues and the growth in the debt burden. The Mancs don't look like they can sustain it as it is now, though I have no in depth knowledge of their situation...

In terms of our club- I don't know what the ins and outs are (though ttnbd might) but I think it seems as though it's just about sustainable now (but of course, that means no money left over for transfers). The thing that makes me angry is that it's the purchase debt that the club's paying for and not anything directly for the good of the club- like a new stadium for example. And when the new stadium is started, the debt burden will increase. In that case a couple of years before the stadium's built will be of a massive debt burden on revenues we're getting now. After the stadium's built and assuming it's packed out week in week out, there're naming rights and other revenue streams, then we might be in the same position as we are now ('just about' sustaining the debt with revenues... and leaving little by way of actually building the team) or we might go the way the Mancs are seemingly going; which doesn't look good.

Of course I'm not certain if I'm right with all that (if I'm drastically wrong, I think ttnbd will put it right- I think I've seen him post on this thread!)

[GBF]

they should be penalised like leeds were.

[Something Else]

they should be penalised like leeds were.

By doing so the premier league will admit they were wrong, which they can not do.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

By doing so the premier league will admit they were wrong, which they can not do.

and they are hoping they see out the season and get relegated so its the football league's fault, as were all the other football clubs who went into administration

[rafathegaffa83]

Given that he writes a column for the Observer that is published on the Guardian's website, I wouldn't be surprised if David James is the anonymous senior player in question.

Portsmouth player blasts 'complete mismanagement' under Ali al-Faraj

• Anonymous player says situation is 'a farce'
• Wages paid late for third time this season

    * Jamie Jackson
    * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 January 2010 18.37 GMT

A senior Portsmouth player has blasted the regime of the club's owner, Ali al-Faraj, accusing it of "complete mismanagement across the board" and demanding that the squad be told the "truth" regarding the direction of the club. Portsmouth paid the players their delayed December wages today.

The player, speaking on condition of anonymity, said continuing uncertainty over salaries was affecting the morale of the players, particularly those who were desperate to pay their rent or mortgages.

Speaking before the wages arrived in players' accounts late this afternoon, on what was the club's third, self-imposed deadline for such a payment, the player said: "It's complete mismanagement across the board and whoever's guilty is going to get away with it. We were told yesterday that all wages would be in our accounts today – except for those with international bank accounts. But we still haven't been paid. It's a farce. The players just want to be told the truth.

"The perception is that every footballer earns millions of pounds but they're not all making that kind of money. You've also got the reserve-team players and the youth team who haven't been paid, so it crosses the whole spectrum. If a player is earning a few hundred pounds a week and he's old enough to have moved out so he's paying rent or a mortgage, then he's going to encounter the usual problems that normal people have. And this has all happened over the Christmas period."

Avram Grant's team are bottom of the Premier League, four points from the last survival spot. The player said that morale had been seriously affected by the missing salaries, which have gone unpaid on the due date in three months. He said: "The lads do mention it. In our players' meeting the other day one player voiced his unhappiness about losing games and then even when you go home you're not getting paid so what is there to be positive about? That's how he felt. It's not easy."

Portsmouth have debts of at least £60m and are subject to a player registration embargo, due to their inability to pay transfer instalments to other English clubs.

Sources connected to Fratton Park have told the Guardian that a major source of finance that had been promised to the club was withdrawn in November. One claimed that this was a bank facility of £35m. The source said: "The problem is they were supposed to get £35m from the bank – [but it] refused to give it to them. They promised in November the money." Asked if the facility was still potentially available the source said: "If they will show stability – and I believe they will."

On Tuesday Daniel Azougy, the Israeli lawyer who has been employed by the club to restructure the debt and raise finance, confirmed that Portsmouth currently have no bank facility. The club cleared their previous facility, of £35m with South Africa's Standard Bank, by selling players in the summer.

The club's executive director, Mark Jacob, said: "When you take out a huge amount of money from the club in the summer, which is long-term debt, and you have a situation where you need to deal with refinancing and you can't get that refinancing automatically – it's like if someone asks you to repay your mortgage overnight. What are you going to do? You're going to struggle, aren't you?"

Jacob defended the appointment of Azougy, after Portsmouth supporters raised concerns over his convictions on several counts of fraud and his having been disbarred in 2002 from practising law for 14 years in Israel.

"He reports to the owner and he reports to me," Jacob said.

Asked if he could reassure supporters that, with regard to Azougy, the club were in safe hands, Jacob said: "Anything that I'm involved in I can assure the fans that the club is in safe hands and we want what's best for Portsmouth Football Club."

Jacob said the players would not miss being paid again. He said: "I don't think so, there's a lot of goodwill going on, it's been a short-term problem. We've been dealing with so many side issues and we've inherited a lot of issues."

It is also understood that once Portsmouth have stabilised, Jacob will consider meeting supporters to explain the difficulties since Faraj took over the club in mid-October.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/07/portsmouth-ali-al-faraj-players-wages

[The Manhattan Project]

http://www.pfcfinancialservices.co.uk/home/

 

[OLDIE]

http://www.pfcfinancialservices.co.uk/home/

 

Sorry mate, I just dont see that this subject can be laughed at. Our game is getting fucked over big style

[Uhoh AureliOs]

Portsmouth given £7m TV cash deadline by Premier League


Portsmouth have been given a Tuesday deadline by the Premier League to repay football creditors or have their latest slice of television money withheld.

The club have until 1700 GMT to resolve the situation or face losing out.

If they fail to meet the deadline, the TV money - thought to be about £7m - will be used to help pay off other British and European sides.

Chelsea and Tottenham, as well as French clubs Lens and Rennes, are understood to be owed money by Pompey.

"The parlous financial situation at Fratton Park that has led them to paying their players late three times this season has prompted the Premier League's intervention," said BBC sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar.

"They have already placed the club under a transfer embargo and are now preparing to withhold the £7m and then hand it out in due course to help settle debts.

"That £7m is not enough to pay the football creditors. The club has several other substantial debts and is facing a winding up order next month. Club officials are confident they can sort this out but fans are deeply concerned."

Redirecting TV money is allowed within league rules to protect clubs that are owed money from transfers.

Portsmouth have estimated debts of £60m and face the winding up petition from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Dubai businessman Sulaiman al-Fahim bought the club in August before selling a 90% stake to Saudi businessman Ali Al Faraj in October.

A club statement at the time read: "The takeover will ensure Portsmouth's future is safe and will bring financial stability."

But the promised significant investment has not materialised and fans are planning to continue protests about the club's problems.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek programme on Sunday, Portsmouth executive director Mark Jacob conceded he had never met the club's owner.

"I report to Mr Al Faraj, his brother and several of his other representatives and they are quite happy with the way things are going so far, although they have been disappointed by the negative publicity over the last couple of months," he stated.

"Quite clearly the problems at Portsmouth have not been since October 2009, they have been caused prior to that date."

The club have asked for HMRC'S winding up petition to be withdrawn and Jacob has said he is confident the transfer embargo will be lifted.

Last week, he insisted there would be no fire sale of players by the cash-strapped club in the January transfer window.

"I can assure fans that won't happen," he told BBC Radio Solent.



"But, quite clearly every player has their price and if manager Avram Grant feels there are players surplus to requirements then we will support him."

A week after they should have been paid, the Pompey players finally received their December wages.

Portsmouth are bottom of the Premier League, with 14 points from 20 games leaving them four points adrift of 19th-placed Hull City.

[rafathegaffa83]

I could see this situation coming from a mile away. Doubt very few teams will now want to sell players to Portsmouth over fear of non-payment.

Pompey set to lose Aruna Dindane as Lens fear non-payment

• Portsmouth unlikely to be able to afford definitive deal
• Lens will recall forward and sell him to another club

    * David Hytner
    * guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 January 2010 23.00 GMT
   

Aruna Dindane may have played his last game for Portsmouth after Lens, who loaned him to Fratton Park last August, began instigating moves to recall him. The French club fear the Premier League strugglers are unable to pay the prearranged price to make the transfer definitive and have begun sounding out other clubs about a move.

Lens say Portsmouth promised to pay them £4m and take Dindane on a full contract after the striker's 11th appearance for them. The terms of the agreement were renegotiated to give Portsmouth some breathing space on the eve of Dindane's 11th match – the 2-0 Premier League win over Burnley – but, with the south coast club seemingly no closer to finding the fee, Lens have explored a contingency plan. They could demand Dindane's return this month so that they might sell him to a club with the funds to pay them.

Dindane, who has now played 14 times for Portsmouth, scoring five goals, is surplus to requirement at Lens. He is currently on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast and Fifa rules would permit him to join another club during this transfer window. Players can be registered at three clubs during the course of a season but they can play official games for only two of them. Dindane did not appear for Lens at the start of the season.

The Lens president, Gervais Martel, is frustrated at Portsmouth who, he says, still owe his club the final instalments on Nadir Belhadj's transfer. The Algeria defender, who is also away at the Africa Cup of Nations, completed a £4.4m move from Lens to Fratton Park last January, after an initial loan spell.

The Premier League, however, is poised to divert £7m, which is Portsmouth's next tranche of television money, directly to the club's creditors, who are awaiting instalments on transfer fees. Portsmouth owe a total of £10m and their creditors include Chelsea over Glen Johnson; Tottenham (Younes Kaboul); Udinese (Sulley Muntari) and Rennes (John Utaka) not to mention Lens (Belhadj and Dindane).

The league must decide how best to divide the £7m, with Lens fearing that it will prioritise the English creditors. The deadline for Portsmouth to make sizeable inroads into these debts and to persuade the league not to keep hold of the £7m is tomorrow.

Portsmouth also face losing the midfielder Jamie O'Hara back to Tottenham Hotspur on Friday when his loan spell expires. The transfer embargo that has been placed on Portsmouth by the Premier League for their non-payment of fees to other clubs precludes them from reregistering O'Hara and there appears to be little prospect of the embargo being lifted.

The situation is unfortunate for O'Hara who, having appeared for Tottenham at the beginning of the season, would, unless an extraordinary exception is made, be prevented from moving from White Hart Lane this month to play for another club. He wants to stay at Portsmouth and they want to keep him while Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, is happy, too, for him to remain at Fratton Park. Back at Tottenham, O'Hara's opportunities would be restricted.

The Portsmouth manager, Avram Grant, is also considering whether to recall the striker David Nugent from Burnley when his loan spells ends on Friday week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/11/aruna-dindane-portsmouth-lens

[Dr Cornwallis]

Harsh on the club, but Pompey should be demoted to Conference football for this circus.  The Pompey lot can sort out suing whoever they want to sue but do so in their own time.  They're a laughing stock and their inclusion in the Premiership is currently nothing short of a joke.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

david sullivan said that he reckons one prem club will go out of business at the end of the season, guess who!

[INABITSKI]

Makes me wonder if the whole game collapsed and had to start over from scratch if it would be such a bad thing. Could take a few clubs going under to see anything proper being done to help the game for the future.

[OLDIE]

david sullivan said that he reckons one prem club will go out of business at the end of the season, guess who!

It was also said that the club would be a top club, hardly Portsmouth then ?

The panic is on for some of the bigger boys us included.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

It was also said that the club would be a top club, hardly Portsmouth then ?

didnt hear that bit, heard him saying its odds on a prem club would go but if he said 'top club' then its probably mancs or us then (although cant see that happening for a while as the ronaldo sale should cover most of next years losses and we still have enough saleable assets to cover a big loss) - having said that pompey did win the fa cup a few years ago so they could in a way be classed as a 'top club' as they've won a major trophy in the last few years

[OLDIE]

didnt hear that bit, heard him saying its odds on a prem club would go but if he said 'top club' then its probably mancs or us then (although cant see that happening for a while as the ronaldo sale should cover most of next years losses and we still have enough saleable assets to cover a big loss) - having said that pompey did win the fa cup a few years ago so they could in a way be classed as a 'top club' as they've won a major trophy in the last few years

You could be right and Portsmouth are now considered a top club after they won the FA Cup, time will tell

[MrGrumpy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/8453406.stm

If you can't be arsed to read that article, Portsmouths latest tranche of TV money will be distributed between their football creditors.

Truly they are in the s***

[rafathegaffa83]

Looks like they could be heading to administration in a month's time.

Portsmouth fail to get winding-up order struck off as judge backs taxman

• Application to throw out HMRC's petition dismissed
• Hearing in February could spell administration

    * Press Association
    * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 13.23 GMT

Portsmouth have been dealt another severe financial blow after their application to have a winding-up petition from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs struck out was dismissed by a High Court judge today.

The club has argued that the VAT portion of its massive tax bill is too high by £7.5m, but its representatives failed to convince Mr Justice Newey of this today.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Communications Office said: "At the High Court today Mr Justice Newey dismissed an application from Portsmouth City (sic) Football Club Limited for a winding up petition to be struck out. A further hearing to consider HMRC's winding up petition will take place in due course."

That hearing is now expected on 10 February and the outcome could send Portsmouth a step closer to being the first Premier League club to be forced into administration.

Today's decision is the latest blow for the club's owner Ali al-Faraj, who has been battling huge debts since he bought the club.

But an argument with the tax authorities is by far the most serious, particularly given HRMC's increased willingness to serve football clubs with winding-up orders since losing their status as a preferred creditor of those in administration.

Portsmouth have been fighting financial fires on several fronts this season. They have failed three times to pay their players on time, and only last week saw the Premier League divert £7m in television revenue payments to other clubs who were still owed transfer fees.

The Premier League made that move after meeting with club officials but coming away unconvinced that they were in any position to pay their debts on a series of deals, many involving players such as Glen Johnson and Lassana Diarra who have since been sold on.

That has prompted the club to threaten arbitration proceedings against the Premier League, who have imposed a transfer embargo on the club.

The club's executive director, Mark Jacob, said yesterday: "The Premier League are withholding the balance of monies they owe us because they believe that we still owe other football clubs money.

"We have now paid off the three UK clubs. We have agreed with Rennes and Lens to accept certain payments now and then defer a schedule of payments going forward. We are finalising the agreement with Udinese.

"The total amount that we directed the Premier League to discharge and pay these clubs is approximately £5m. So there is a net balance due to the club approaching £2m. We cannot see how they can keep the money and also continue with the embargo. We believe the embargo should be lifted immediately and that we should be receiving money from the Premier League.

"Today we have delivered a letter to the Premier League asking to pay back the money. We have called for a meeting tomorrow and if this fails or we don't get our money back then we shall exercise the powers of arbitration.

"Once again we are being treated as the poor relations and the black sheep of the family.

"We would like them to use their discretionary powers in a positive fashion rather than negative fashion against the club."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/19/portsmouth-winding-up-order

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Looks like they could be heading to administration in a month's time.

think this is the team sullivan was referring to as the one that would collapse

[OLDIE]

There fucked if the petition is granted, I dont know why they dont go for an Admin order and save the costs of the petition ?

[SMD]

Where the fuck did all the money from the Diarra transfer go? I think there's been some creative accounting going on and the current administration isn't solely to blame - though they are blatantly out of their depth and stupid.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Where the fuck did all the money from the Diarra transfer go?

players wages? pretty sure arsenal would have gotten a small chunk of that fee too

[SMD]

But that's the thing, where does the rest of the money go? The Prem money, gate receipts, telly money, it's ridiculous.

[SP]

But that's the thing, where does the rest of the money go? The Prem money, gate receipts, telly money, it's ridiculous.

They offered more in wages that they received in income and their owners don't have the cash to cover it. The business has been run atrociously.

[OLDIE]

But that's the thing, where does the rest of the money go? The Prem money, gate receipts, telly money, it's ridiculous.

Harry's facelift ?

[Terry de Niro]

Harry's facelift ?

I'd want a refund, if I was him.

[OLDIE]

I'd want a refund, if I was him.

He still needs to find another few million, ah well the revenue may give him some time to have a closer look

[Uhoh AureliOs]

And it gets worse for Pompey.


Portsmouth face Sol Campbell lawsuit


Former Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell is suing the Premier League club for unpaid fees and bonuses.

The 35-year-old, now at Arsenal, claims he is owed £1.7m in image rights and bonus payments following three seasons as a player at Fratton Park.

[Ron]

And it gets worse for Pompey.


Portsmouth face Sol Campbell lawsuit


Former Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell is suing the Premier League club for unpaid fees and bonuses.

The 35-year-old, now at Arsenal, claims he is owed £1.7m in image rights and bonus payments following three seasons as a player at Fratton Park.

What a sad fuck of a man that Campbell is. Guilty himself of breach of contract at Notts County and now the overpayed piece of shit starts tearing into a club who are already deep in the shit.

I know everybody should get there money, but for him to start bitching, jesus, what an asshole.
And he can't play fucking football neither.

[Joe Rogans Chin]

And it gets worse for Pompey.


Portsmouth face Sol Campbell lawsuit


Former Portsmouth defender Sol Campbell is suing the Premier League club for unpaid fees and bonuses.

The 35-year-old, now at Arsenal, claims he is owed £1.7m in image rights and bonus payments following three seasons as a player at Fratton Park.

What a twat, he must be a millioniare twenty times over, the club is on its arse. This could push the it over the edge.
Think of the fans you greedty c*nt.

[Uhoh AureliOs]

He's well within his rights to request it but it seems like a real kick in the teeth to Pompey at the moment - like he's more worried about not getting his monies than their club ceasing to exist. If I were a Portsmouth fan I'd be fuming at Redknapp, Storrie and Gaydamak for sanctioning massive wage demands in the first place and their total incompetence on the financial side.

[Lent§]

SMD - all the cash from player sales went to gaydamak, almost 100million pounds infact. He still owns the land around FP so has Pompey by the bollocks. He's demanding 9m more by January 31st aswell.

I've always said Campbell is a money grabbing mercenary c*nt, proof? Let's get it right, he's had 8 months to do this but does it 3 weeks before the court hearing to decide if the club ceases to exist or not, c*nt.

[Lent§]

They offered more in wages that they received in income and their owners don't have the cash to cover it. The business has been run atrociously.

that's Peter Storrie's business acumen, just ask Notts County fans about that. He makes Peter Risdale look like Richard Branson

[Gromit]

that's Peter Storrie's business acumen, just ask Notts County fans about that. He makes Peter Risdale look like Richard Branson

About a year ago one of the West Ham lads on here said Redknapp had a history of wrecking the pay structure at his clubs, leaving the Hammers in debt and predicted the same would happen to Pompy and eventually Spurs.  I don't feel too sorry for Portsmouth and their supporters, they wanted some big names and the only way they could achieve that was too pay more than other clubs were offering and it's that sort of short-term thinking that's left them in the shit.

And as for those who criticise Cambell, I agree the man has the morals of a bastard but I dont blame him for wanting his cash and I dont believe anyone on here would really turn down 1.7M that's owed to them.  He's a multimillionaire, but I don't think he's worth 100s of millions and that money is his if his claim is valid. If Pompy owed you money now's the time to claim it cos the taxman looks like taking the club to the cleaners fairly soon.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

About a year ago one of the West Ham lads on here said Redknapp had a history of wrecking the pay structure at his clubs, leaving the Hammers in debt and predicted the same would happen to Pompy and eventually Spurs. 

same happened to bournemouth - cant see it happening to spurs as they seem to have some tight bastards on their board