FANS United for Pompey

[Gritt23]

The real villains here are the various dodgy owners the club has had, and even more so, the FA with their laughable "fit and proper person" test which clearly doesn't work. It's easy to say "the fans went along with it", but they're not the crooks here, and it would have seemed a bit weird if they were coming out to protest while they were playing in the Prem and winning the FA Cup.

I really, really dislike Portsmouth as a club, but even I wouldn't wish them out of existence.

Would it, really? Didn't the Man Utd fans make a bit of a fuss when the Glazers came along and plunged them massively into debt, even though they were still having tremendous success on the pitch?

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I don't want to get into a row with you DFP, but have you ever met John? I have, and I have had a long conversation with him about football and found him knowledgeable and friendly. He was impressed with how we saved Albion and that Pompey's only rivals were Saints.

Now I am not saying we should go all out to help Portsmouth, in fact I couldn't care less about them. Just pointing out that picking out one individual, that does nothing more than support his club, to me isn't right.

I haven't met him, therefore I bow to your better judgement.

 

[edna krabappel]

United fans are almost as bad: stage huge anti-Glazer protests every week, and then go mysteriously quiet once MUFC look like winning the league again. Though no doubt they'll remember how bad the Glazers are just as soon as City win the Premier League....

And as for Pompey whining that the FA's fit & proper person test let them down: FFS You don't HAVE to sell your club to every dodgy Eastern European chancer that comes along just because the FA tell you he's ok Presumably Pompey's administrators have a CHOICE who they flog their festering carcass of a football club to, so why should anybody else be to blame because they decided to accept the money of another Mr Takethecashandfuckov Just another example of PFC trying to avoid responsibility for their actions. If you sell a car to some shifty individual without checking him out first, and he skips off with the motor without paying for it, is it then Auto Trader's fault?

 

[Questions]

Firstly in reply to some of you, we are a different breed. Why ? Because of what we have been through we have a more suspicious nature about us and we might, and I re-iterate, MIGHT, have something to say about whoever took over if Bloom decided he had had enough, was teetering on the edge and wanted out. What actual clout we would have though is another thing all together. As I see it once the new man has been cleared by that oh so thorough check they do at the FA then there is not a lot a supporters group even if united in their voice could do about it.
Now trust me I am no fan of Pompey and agree the way the club has conducted itself has been a disgrace but I cannot in my heart of hearts really lay all that blame at the feet of their fans.
Tony Bloom is an unbelievable man for Brighton and Hove Albion but it could, without stretching the imagination that far have been different for us if a bid from an unknown overseas investor or the like had come along a few years back.

 

[Gritt23]

Now trust me I am no fan of Pompey and agree the way the club has conducted itself has been a disgrace but I cannot in my heart of hearts really lay all that blame at the feet of their fans.

Don't get me wrong, I don't BLAME the fans of Pompey, I just have them a long way down the list when it comes to sympathy.

They've enjoyed the highs that their club couldn't afford, so now they must endure the lows. And let's get real here, what EXACTLY is the low? They are faced with watching a lower quality of football than they have grown used to. When compared to what the creditors have lost as a result of all this, then that would seem like the fans have paid a very small price in all of this.

Put yourself in the shoes of the local businessman who has lost everything. That great big bill owed to him, has become a few pence in the pound, while he watches players still drive in and out of the club in fantastically expensive cars, hears the astronomical wages that those players are still being paid ... and then hears the fans bleet on about losing points and getting relegated.

It's not about blaming the fans for me, it's about having absolutely minimal sympathy for them. Is it their fault? No. But what's that got to do with anything, it's never really the fans fault what division football they are watching, whether they have suffered due to on-field or off-field failings.

 

[catfish]

My heart, I'm afraid, is not bleeding for them.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

No-one at Pompey questioned how their success was being paid for back then. Perhaps they should have done.

Bunch of crooks. f*** em.

Did we question where the money was coming from when bamber was bankrolling the club in the first division....or indeed tony bloom financing the stadium?

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Why has Peter Ridsdale gone to Preston ? He and Pompey are made for each other.

 

[Brovion]

Firstly in reply to some of you, we are a different breed. Why ? Because of what we have been through we have a more suspicious nature about us and we might, and I re-iterate, MIGHT, have something to say about whoever took over if Bloom decided he had had enough, was teetering on the edge and wanted out. What actual clout we would have though is another thing all together. As I see it once the new man has been cleared by that oh so thorough check they do at the FA then there is not a lot a supporters group even if united in their voice could do about it.
Now trust me I am no fan of Pompey and agree the way the club has conducted itself has been a disgrace but I cannot in my heart of hearts really lay all that blame at the feet of their fans.
Tony Bloom is an unbelievable man for Brighton and Hove Albion but it could, without stretching the imagination that far have been different for us if a bid from an unknown overseas investor or the like had come along a few years back.

No one, not even me, is 'laying all the blame at the feet of the fans' - my point is they're not totally innocent, passive bystanders. And this doesn't just apply to Portsmouth fans BTW, as I said earlier I'm sure that fans of all clubs have the same myopic nature, yes, even Brighton fans.

By any criteria short of bribing refs Portsmouth cheated their way to the FA Cup. Because they did not suffer the consequences of their actions (by going bust and reforming when the shit first hit the fan) the boil was never truly lanced and that's why the whole sorry saga has flared up again. Currently they have 'got away with it' as all that's happened is they got relegated - which would have happened anyway. I'm not really vindictive but for the good of football Portsmouth have to go bust or be kicked out of the league. The current situation only encourages some other chancer to try it again with some other club.

 

[severnside gull]

Initially I had some empathy with their fans - after all it wasn't them mismanaging the club.

However as time passed and it became clear that the fans were prepared to say nothing and to effectively be complicit in the ongoing mismanagement (or "cheating" as it could be alternatively put) I'm afraid my sympathy turned to antipathy.

I am now firmly in the "f*** 'em let them sink without trace" club

 

[severnside gull]

Why has Peter Ridsdale gone to Preston ? He and Pompey are made for each other.

I suspect that not even that chancer could see anything salvageable at Portsmouth..............

 

[edna krabappel]

You know your football club's truly in the shit when even Peter Ridsdale doesn't try and take over

How many times do we have to say this: it's not the FAULT of the Pompey fans, however they have spent several years pissing about in the PL, getting into Europe, and reaching FA Cup finals twice. Why the hell should we feel sorry for them? I feel more sorry for the fans of all the clubs that DIDN'T get to Wembley because of PFC's cheating, the clubs they beat en route, the clubs who were left behind while Pompey screwed their way to the Premier League. For Cardiff, who they beat in the final. Why on earth do Pompey fans warrant sympathy? The worst that could happen to them hasn't even happened. They weren't relegated to the arse end of the Football League. They didn't suffer greatly from points deductions. They haven't gone bust or had to sell all their players.

Frankly, considering they managed to rack up some of the most laughable debts in history, they have suffered considerably less than almost every other club that's gone into admin. Plymouth. Swindon. Stockport. Luton, for example. Even Saints were relegated because of a points penalty. Pompey? Absolutely bugger all. In fact they just went out and spent more on players.

Please don't waste your sympathy on that club or their support.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Where did all the PL money go?

 

[Gritt23]

Where did all the PL money go?

To the players. Too many of them, on FAR too much money.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Where did all the PL money go?

Where Did the cup final money go in 1983' or how did so many Manu fans get tickets for the cup final.

Why did we have to sell Dean Saunders?
Why did we have to sell mark beeney?

The problem is we can all be holier than thou about this...even the rediculous " why did Pompey fans not question the club when they were in the premiership?" so why didn't we question where bamber got his money to buy lawrenson and Williams and Robinson?

All football fans accept the good days when they come....as of now we get people on here expecting us to buy all and sundry and saying we have no ambition......trouble with Pompey is they had happy Harry who with mandrics money bought useless African players with very dubious deals.

I do feel for pompey fans...yes they may be Neanderthal knuckledusters but they have turned up week after week when it's all gone tits and they have had these unscrupulous owners shafting them sideways since mandric.

 

[severnside gull]

................they have had these unscrupulous owners shafting them sideways since mandric.

......................the Mandric who is in court on tax evasion charges alongside his then manager?

 

[Easy 10]

I do feel for pompey fans...yes they may be Neanderthal knuckledusters but they have turned up week after week when it's all gone tits [up]

Indeed. Must have been particularly difficult for them turning up when Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal and AC MILAN were rocking up at Fratton these last few years. Now they're "slumming it" in the Championship, those poor bastards.


Come on Dave, Pompey fans haven't really had it TOO bad lately, compared to some have they ? They even got some silverware out of it recently. Regardless of any slightly parochial rivalry, Pompey fans are probably bottom of the list of fans I feel sorry for.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Indeed. Must have been particularly difficult for them turning up when Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal and AC MILAN were rocking up at Fratton these last few years. Now they're "slumming it" in the Championship, those poor bastards.


Come on Dave, Pompey fans haven't really had it TOO bad lately, compared to some have they ? They even got some silverware out of it recently. Regardless of any slightly parochial rivalry, Pompey fans are probably bottom of the list of fans I feel sorry for.

Yeah you are right....f*** em

 

[Barrel of Fun]

It is a difficult one, but if a club must suffer, then the fans will suffer.

I don't think it is morally right for the club to still operate in the sixth most valuable/most watched league in the world or is it the second most valuable league?

I think comparing us and the Bamber era to the present situation at Portsmouth is not entirely sensible. Did we ever end up shifting our debts and making the general public pay for crass expenditure? I am more concerned by a football club shying away from debts owed to the public purse, when there are people being made jobless all over the shop. We paid a price, almost an ultimate price, but we have since recovered.

The Portsmouth fans have been pretty ambivalent through out the whole charade. Whilst they have been handed around like a box of After Eight mints, the vast majority of fans have been apathetic to the whole thing.

Would we have been so active if we hadn't been tumbling down towards non-league? Who knows?