The club is dead - long live the club

So then, Pompey are finally on the brink of administration.


I'm neither surprised, nor, strangely, perturbed. If at the end of tedious process we still have a football club to follow then I'll be reasonably happy. I've spent too long worrying about the possibility of folding all-together to lose sleep over a nine-point deduction, relegation and the interminable coming and going of potential new owners.


For some time now this club has been a joke. No, a real joke. Four owners in a season and we still can't play the players? Get outta here! We're a laughing stock - and rightly so.


Hopefully somebody with a bit of financial nous, you know Nick Leeson or somebody, can bring us out of administration, and let us get on with life in the Championship.


And do you know, many of us will enjoy it all the more. The Premiership was supposed to be Nirvana, but too often it ultimately proved to be dull and predictable. And certainly prohibitively expensive.


So we won the FA Cup. I was there. It was my birthday. It was a good day. I never expected us to win the FA Cup in my lifetime. But when I think about it, I enjoyed more the day at Huddersfield's Leeds Rd in the mid-80s when we failed to get promoted on the last day of the season.


I certainly enjoyed it more on January 3, 1988, when we won 2-0 at The Dell against all the odds.


I certainly had more fun at Northampton in May 1980 when we went up from the old fourth division. And the visit to Liverpool in 1980 was better than any subsequent clash against the 'mighty' reds - and, truth be known, that cup final day.


Much of it may be down to the fact that as I have got older my priorities have changed; that my passion isn't quite as intense as it used to be. That's as may be.


But I also can't deny that the sanitised version of football, as corporate entertainment, that is served up these days is just not as enjoyable as it used to be. That's why I so enjoy non-league football currently.


So I'm pragmatic about it. It was fun for a while, but we became the Premier League's Icarus and fell to earth injured. Hopefully we can be patched up again, because I reckon there's more fun to be had back down on earth than flying around the Premier League universe.


Bugger Old Trafford and the Emirates. There are clubs in the league now that we have never even played. Bring 'em on and let's fulfil the new 92 club. And start enjoying our football again.

Now lay off...

Four blogs in a day? Surely that should satisfy those Bunky hungry media whores at Petersfield Newswire...

It just doesn't add up

I Tweeted about this earlier so given my Tiger Woods-style apology (see Newswire takes a pop) below I thought I'd chunter on about it here as well.

I received an email this morning from Pompey (Portsmouth Football Club, for the uninitiated) which may offer a pointer as to why the club has so woefully mismanaged its finances over the past few years.

The subject line of the email boasted: Half-price sale on Hero printing - save up to 60%.

Only at Fratton Park...

Just the ticket

I today bought tickets for my son's school's production of Little Shop of Horrors.

The adult tickets cost £12 apiece, so the show must be bloody good; after all my wife and I watched the excellent Shaun Williamson star in the equally impressive stage production of Porridge last weekend where the tickets cost us a mere £10 each.

The lead in the school production might not be as instantly recognisable as Barry from Eastenders, but he still has his fair share of fans. His name? Sam Bowers.

Newswire takes a pop

I've been exceedingly lax - and I apologise.

I've been Tweeting a lot lately but have neglected my blog. I enjoy blogging but have discovered Tweeting takes less time as one-liners are easier to fire out at will. And Will's getting hacked off about it...

And it would appear he's not the only one. I'm a regular follower of the excellent Petersfield Newswire - well I would be as they are mates of mine - and one of the guys sent me a Newswire-style story about my own site.

I've included it here for your delectation. Don't forget to check out their site for more. It's worth it...

Blog off

Petersfield residents have been mourning the sad demise of popular blog, Spunky’s Musings.

The witty and cutting-edge column written by self-confessed ‘fat herbert’ David Bowie has not been updated for the best part of a month and only spluttered into life on a few occasions this year.

"It’s a sad loss," said Bloggers’ Monthly spokesman Mr I Wright-Rubbish. "It always brightened my day to read some self-deprecating comment about Spunky’s weight loss, his kids ridiculing him, or the latest news on the farce that was once Portsmouth FC.

"My own personal feeling is that he was too upset over the Tiger Woods affair to carry on blogging. Either that, or he just couldn’t be arsed."

A spokesman for Petersfield Town Council, Bobby Bear, added: "At least it lasted longer than his stint with us…"

Couldn't be arsed? How very dare he...

A tale of two captains

So then, now we know.

Missing a drugs test and elbowing an opponent in the face is not as serious as bedding a team-mate’s missus. At least in the view of England boss Fabio Capello.

I have to admit to a little disappointment that Capello opted for Rio Ferdinand after he had – correctly in my view – stripped John Terry of the England captaincy.

Ferdinand also has a chequered past including an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test, a year’s ban from driving after being convicted of drink-driving, and three other driving bans. He is, of course, currently serving a four-match suspension for elbowing an opponent in the face and I would regard him as no more suitable a role model than Terry.

He's also not the brightest, and will probably believe somebody's died when he's passed the armband.

The vice-captain now is Steven Gerrard, and, as we all know, he’s hardly a paragon of virtue.

England’s first-choice back-four makes interesting reading if you subscribe to the theory that international footballers have an obligation to set a decent example for youngsters.

Glen Johnson, convicted of theft; Terry and Ferdinand, see above; and Ashley Cole, a money-grabbing solipsist.

So there you have it. Potentially the top ‘role model’ in our defence is a self-aggrandising whinger who believed an offer of £55,000 per week from Arsenal was “taking the piss”.

A man who was booed and jeered by England fans for his attitude and performance in a home international against Kazakhstan.

It’s a sad state of affairs when an objectionable little Herbert like Cole is held up as some sort of footballing ideal. Bobby Moore and Jimmy Dickinson must be spinning in their graves.

So should we simply disregard the idea that footballers have a moral obligation to set an example to their young fans? I don’t think so.

Anybody in their position, be it in football, tennis, golf (are you listening Tiger?) or pop music has an obligation to behave in a decent manner, the same as the rest of us. Maybe even more so.

But if we don’t ignore their misdemeanours are we in danger of not having anybody left to wear the captain’s armband? What a mess the game is in.

More holiday news

You'll be delighted to hear that we have booked a holiday. Finally.

We're going to Turkey. Neither Jackie nor I have been there before, yet, bizarrely all three boys have gone there with their 'other' parent.

Now that is a sign of the times we live in...