March 2009 - myPompey News

Looks like they might be partnering each other on Wednesday.

Here's a reminder of how well they work with each other.

If you can't see the video then go get the latest Flash player.

Good result for Beckham and his fashionista buddies last night even if Slovakia looked like they'd rather be in the terraces than on the pitch.

4 nil was about right, but how much of that was down to the new space age come retro kit the team were wearing? Maybe the new design was a celebration of the planned record appearance of fashion centre Milan, based Beckham, or was it just another piece of the football marketing mega machine?

Probably the latter. Wembley stadium refinanced its construction debt last year and will now pay back its loans in 2023 as opposed to 2018. The cost of this restructuring will reduce annual repayments by £3m but will substantially increase the overall cost of the loan.

The FA contributes £12m a year towards the Stadium which made a £21m loss in 2007, although the ‘money men' are spinning a substantial profit from this year on.

Some good news for Pompey, Crouch looks like he's ok after his brief second half performance was ended following a rare act of passion from a Slovakian player.

John Terry's all white

Football League Chairman Lord Mawhinney believes the full extent of the recession has not yet hit clubs:

"Season tickets, corporate hospitality and commercial sponsorships were all negotiated a year ago.

"They're about to start doing that for next season and there will be a reality check for some clubs.

Earlier in the week Wigan's Chairman Dave Whelan added to the negative outlook when he told BBC Radio 5 Live:

"I have no doubt it will happen in the Premier League that a club will go into receivership.

Football League rules state that clubs in financial trouble that go into administration will be deducted 10 points as happened to League Two Darlington last month.

But clubs who go into administration after the 26 March deadline face having their 10-point deduction suspended.

If the club is relegated the points will be deducted from their tally at the start of next season but if the club stays up the 10 points will be taken off their final total.

The club would then go down if the 10-point deduction subsequently resulted in it slipping into a relegation place.

Wigan chairman Dave Whelan today warned that one of the major clubs is in danger of going into receivership as a result of debt and called for the Government to intervene in the way clubs are run.

He said: "In The Premier League at the moment, there are a lot of foreign people who have put loans into football clubs.

"If you have a loan in a football club and that person decides to leave - he wants his loan back - that makes that club bankrupt.

"It is the same at Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool. There are a lot of clubs with a lot of debt as a loan instead of it being equity and shares in the company.

"[The owners] can walk away but, if they have shares in the company, they have to sell shares and it doesn't affect the club.

"What has happened for the last four or five years, with Manchester City being the latest, is foreign people have come in and poured in money in the form of a loan.

"If they sell that club or get fed up and walk away, how are they going to get their money? They're going to put the club into receivership.

"That is what worries me about The Premier League most of all at the moment. I'm putting my case forward to The Premier League to say, ‘Can we have equity in clubs and not loans?'"

Whelan went on to add that Wigan only have debt of £15m and intend if possible to reduce that to zero over the next 18 months.

Whelan's comments coincide with P.F.C issuing a statement correcting misleading press reports about Sacha Gaydamak's asking price for the Club. This follows earlier reports that a Swiss consortium on trying to buy P.F.C. for £1, suggested Mr Gaydamak sold players to repay his Director's loan.

One of myPompey's members came up with a very good suggestion following the win against Everton.

All donations welcome, please pledge them below. Scouser accents non essential.

We'd all agree yesterday was a very good performance by the boys. Two great goals and work ethic to die for... or perhaps not.

According to resident bad timing expert David James, some of his fellow teammates are not up for a scrap.  Presumably he's referring to those that can't make the starting 11, because there was no sign of it yesterday.

I've been wracking my brains trying to work out who he's referring to and can't really point the finger at anybody, but clearly he reckons not everybody is pulling their weight.

What is evident is that despite all the pre-match team bonding hugs, body language between the players in the heat of the moment is hardly what you'd call sweet and lovely, especially at the back and I wonder if all is well between Campbell, Distin and James.  There doesn't appear to be a great deal of love lost between them and you wonder whether lack of harmony in the most crucial area on the pitch was behind that terrible series of results.

Distin you may recall said that he didn't share the opinion of others that Adams was the root cause of their collective bad form, this coming days after James had launched another anti Adams salvo.

Perhaps this latest James revelation is just another round of in fighting between the senior pros at the back and is even more surprising when morale is meant to be very high with Hart and Storrie both saying how well things are going in training.

Either way it would be most welcome if they all kept their opinions to themselves over the next few weeks and on the back of a good win yesterday, there is no reason to be pointing the finger at anybody.

What with 3 of our next 4 games in our own backyard and the our aging defence looking ever more like something out of the home guard, you could be forgiven for thinking we are relying increasingly on Dad's Army to keep the enemy at bay.

Not as though that's a bad thing. Sol and Distin are getting it together and Jamo is back on top form even if last week his moustache made him look like an extra from Nacho Libre.

Talking of fashion sense. Did you catch the Niko interview? Cute yankee accent and that scarf giving him a dress sense straight out of the new romantics.. or was it a memento from their recent trip to Dubai.

Take a look at the interview and listen out for the Boro crowd comments.

Niko, second from  left in back row.

Hey Guys

We are looking for Everton fans or an Everton fan site to swap match previews with myPompey prior to this weekend's match.

For an idea of how this works, please see:

Competitively Speaking: Newcastle United

It would be great to hear your perspective on the season so far AND how you think the teams might do this weekend - plus we'd love to hear how Jo is doing and come to think of it...  what on Earth drove Sparky let him leave City during the 'window.

Contact admin@myPompey.com for further details.