Ever since Premier League sides stopped rolling over for Jose Mourinho's Chelsea team, parking the bus had been considered to be disappointing tactics for a team to employ but it doesn't usually invoke a financial penalty. That's all changed now after Portsmouth charged opponents Carlisle £20 to park their coach during Saturday's 1-1 draw [.
The year of our Lord 2013 may be but ten days old but still Portsmouth's official 2013 calendar is now 75% out of date, with nine of the 12 players featured no longer playing for the penniless League One club...
Since being relegated from the Championship last season, Pompey's threadbare squad has been pebble-dashed with loans, short-termers, trialists and youth players;33 new faces arriving and 32 players leaving or reaching the end of their deals in the space of six months.
We recently brought you news that Newcastle's 2013 calendar featuring the now departed Demba Ba as Mr January. Well, Toon Army, there's always someone worse off than yourself... and they're usually a Portsmouth supporter. One disgruntled Pompey fan has tweeted a photo of his modified 2013 club calendar.
[G]allows humour was in plentiful supply at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday, in a rubber that would have rivalled the dodo itself in its deadness. But, amid the good natured acceptance of a fate well deserved, the unfurling of one banner in particular indicated where Queen's Park Rangers fans feel the blame lies.
[S]itting in the East Stand at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, it was impossible not to ponder how much the paths of Southampton and Reading Football Clubs have diverged over the intervening twelve months. For even by the standards of a horrible recent run, the Royals were completely bereft of confidence after a mildly promising first half hour, resorting to scooping the ball forward in panic stricken mode and resembling statues in their static response to the fast flowing movement of Mauricio Pochettino's Saints.
[O]n the qualified basis of the League One table alone, Portsmouth Football Club are upwardly mobile enough to consider survival a possibility as the season enters its final months. On Good Friday, I had the pleasure of witnessing the new Pompey in the flesh on a skin-chafing afternoon at Deepdale.
[T]onight, Watford travel to Leicester City at the onset of a nail biting weekend of Football League fixtures. With a great many issues still hanging in the balance, our two founding bloggers, Lloyd and Lanterne Rouge convened to discuss the prospects: ... Lanterne Rouge: As a Plymouth fan, you've mentioned to me that you are still worried about the drop - it's quite possible mathematically but will take a chain reaction of perhaps sub-nuclear proportions for Argyle to go down to the Football League.
A list of footballers who have played in the Premier League, Championship, League One or League Two this season with their first name beginning with the same letter as their surname. Please let me know if you are aware of any others.
Adebayo Akinfenwa (Northampton Town)
Adebayo Azeez (Wycombe Wanderers & Leyton Orient)
Ahmed Abdulla (Barnet)
Akwasi Asante (Shrewsbury Town)
Ali Al Habsi (Wigan Athletic)
Almen Abdi (Watford)
Andreas Arestidou (Morecambe)
Andrey Arshavin (Arsenal)
AntolÃn Alcáraz (Wigan Athletic)
Barry Bannan (Aston Villa)
Bartosz Bialkowski (Notts County)
Billy Bodin (Torquay United)
Brian Barry-Murphy (Rochdale)
Chris Cohen (Nottingham Forest)
Christopher Chantler (Carlisle United)
Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa)
Clarke Carlisle (York City & Northampton Town)
Conor Clifford (Portsmouth & Crawley Town)
Courtney Cameron (Rotherham United)
Craig Cathcart (Blackpool)
Craig Clay (Chesterfield)
Craig Conway (Cardiff Dragons)
Craig Curran (Rochdale)
Cyrus Christie (Coventry Dragons)
Damien Delaney (Crystal Palace & Ipswich Town)
Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City)
Darryl Duffy (Cheltenham Town)
David Davis (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
David De Gea (Manchester United)
David Dunn (Blackburn Rovers)
Diego De Girolamo (Sheffield United)
Donervon Daniels (Tranmere Rovers)
Dorian Dervite (Charlton Athletic)
Ethan Ebanks-Landell (Bury)
Frank Fielding (Derby County)
Gábor Gyepes (Portsmouth)
Gaël Givet (Blackburn Rovers)
Gary Gardner (Aston Villa)
Gianluca Gracco (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Gordon Greer (Brighton & Hove Albion)
Harry Hooman (Cheltenham Town)
Heidar Helguson (Cardiff Dragons)
Jake Jervis (Portsmouth, Tranmere Rovers, Carlisle United & Birmingham City)
Which player has the best win percentage at every Premier League club that has played in the top flight of England from 1992-2013?
Some of the findings may surprise you. Out of the 45 teams who have played in the Premier League since it was founded, there are memorable names from the history of British football with greats such as Alan Shearer.
With the transfer window coming up, we can all count on one thing for certain. There will be non-stop chatter about what teams must do if they are going to "push for the top" or "avoid regulation". Rumors and arguments will be rampant. The blogosphere will be on full hype 24/7. There will be no peace until the window finally, blessedly closes with people blathering up to the last minute about possible deals.
With the transfer window coming up, we can all count on one thing for certain. There will be non-stop chatter about what teams must do if they are going to "push for the top" or "avoid regulation". Rumors and arguments ... Continue reading...
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Tykes Go Loan Crazy - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Champions side Barnsley have today completed the double signing of JonathanGreeningand Akos Buzsaky from Nottingham Forest and Portsmouth respectively.
Greening, who's last of only three appearances for Forest this seasonwas back inAugust, will arrive at Oakwell until January 2 with the aim of receiving first team football and provide some valuable experience for the struggling Tykes.
I am the Secret Footballer Published by Guardian Books July 2012, £7.99 ISBN: 9780852653081 The Guardian's decision to gather together their Secret Footballer columns into this new book appears to have been handsomely vindicated on first glance; sitting as thevolume does atop their online bookshop chart as well as prominently on the shelves of Britain's retailers.
Which Premier League is the biggest spender in the last decade? You may be surprised by the
results. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, Premier League clubs have spent more than
£4.4bn on players since the transfer window was introduced...
A new report from Deloitte puts the figure for total spending in the Premier League since the
introduction of the transfer window (10 years ago) at a whopping £4.4 billion.
It'll come as little surprise that Chelsea come out on top as the top division's biggest
spenders, with the Blues spunking £673 million (of mainly Roman Abramovich's money) over the last
decade.
They left it, as we might have expected, until the very last minute, but yesterday afternoon at the High Court in London agreement was finally reached which sold Fratton Park, the home of Portsmouth Football Club, to the club's supporters trust and with that comes something even more important. This means that the Trust can now complete its purchase of the club, meaning that Portsmouth will be fifty-one per cent owned by the Trust, the biggest club in English football to be owned under such a structure.
The Football Men. Those 'fixers' concerned with the buying and selling of football clubs. People who carry the sobriquet with some chutzpah and have a covert influence on the financial health of the game and in some cases the very existence of individual clubs. Are they really fit and proper people to be entrusted with the task they take upon themselves?
It all starts, as the best laid plans of mice and men so often do, on a whim. The original choice was to head for the coast of West Sussex for a match in the Ryman League Premier Division between Bognor Regis Town and Hastings United, but as the train headed out through the West Sussex countryside an idea struck us that resulted in a sudden and unexpected change of plan.
Those amongst us that occasionally doubt the power the most vocal of football bloggers seldom pause to consider the lengths that some people go to in order to prevent them having their say. This is a story that will ring bells in a number of clubs around the country. Fans of Leeds United, Birmingham City, Liverpool and Doncaster Rovers have all experienced some or all of the pressures we have felt at Pompey.
Seems that, with his new side bottom of the table and slowly but surely going under in the League One relegation quagmire, Sam Sodje took his manager's instructions to fight for every single point between now and the end of the season a little too literally against Oldham on Saturday afternoon, with the 33-year-old defender sent-off for jabbing Latics' Lee Barnard in the general penis region not once but twice in the space of 20 seconds.
Having traipsed 350 miles across the country for their League One match against Portsmouth on Saturday, Carlisle were shocked to find that it was going to cost them a further £20 for the privilege of parking their team bus outside Fratton Park.
Football has a cruel way of heaping cruel irony upon cruel irony. Just two days ago, Supporters Direct hosted an event at the Houses of Parliament to lobby for the recommendations of the Select Committee for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) into football governance to be fully realised.
Portsmouth Football Club has had a pretty rough time of things over the last three or four years or so, but today we continue our series of archive videos of the clubs of Football League One with the Fratton Park club, and six videos from the history of a club which has won both the FA Cup and the English championship on two occasions.
Below is full text of Pompey blogger Portus-eg's findings regarding events at Pompey at the time of the sale of the club by Portpin to CSI in June 2011. It makes interesting reading.
The blog was first published here:http://portus-eg.blogspot.co.uk/ under the title: Takeover Toils as Pompey Fans' Blood Boils.
Today, Pompey fans' research reveals that Ali Al Faraj, Pompey's well-known invisible owner, does exist. However, the same research also suggests that Ali Al Faraj played no part in the running of Portsmouth Football Club despite being the designated 'Fit and Proper' owner between October 2009 and February 2010.
The Football League's Owners' and Directors' Test Rule Book must be looking a bit battered by now, what with the role of those called Chairman and those not called Directors being called into question. Yesterday Peter Ridsdale, despite being chairman in name, is claimed not to be one with any influence.
FA Cup winners in 2008 and finalists in 2010, Portsmouth FC had their seven season run in the English Premier League end with relegation to the Football League Championship at...
Considering so many of the events of the last three or four years or so, yesterday was an
altogether satisfactory day for Portsmouth Football Club. A win by three goals to nil at Crawley
Town lifted the team out of the relegation places at the foot of League One, whilst supporters were
able to keep themselves entertained with rumours of another bidder to rescue the club from
administration.
It is often the last resort of the villain in a pantomime to curse his conquerors with his dying
breath. Which thought leads me directly to  the vainglorious attacks of  Pompey's chief creditor,
Balram Chainrai, on the Pompey Supporters' Trust. Indeed, not only the Pompey Trust but the entire
Trust movement.
Portsmouth fans scarcely needed a reminder of their fall from grace this week, what with their club hitting the headlines for charging their opponents to park the team bus. But just to really rub it in, two of their former players were on the scoresheet at AC Milan defeated Barcelona 2-0 at the San Siro [.
AC Milan's friendly against lower league side Pro Patria was abandoned yesterday after Kevin Prince Boateng was racially abused. The former Spurs and Portsmouth man belted the ball in the general direction of the monkey chants before stripping out of his AC Milan kit and leading his team-mates off the pitch.
In the two decades of the Premier League, there have been some cracking attempts at football kit designs. And also some shocking attempts. It's all a matter of opinion as to what kits you prefer and what kits you despise. ... Continue...
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"To me I'm just one of the crowd, one of the fans, who just loves his club."
John Westwood supports Portsmouth Football Club and follows them home and away. On a typical match day his persona transforms from a quiet bookseller into loud, confident super fan.
Both Londoners, media darlings and wrapped in St George patriotism, Harry Redknapp and David Beckham are a super-bromance just waiting to happen.Despiteperceivedwisdom that the former England skipper would be out of his depth in the top tier of football, he has always been backed by a splurge of superlatives from good ol' Harry.
After a somewhat disappointing 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road on Saturday, Stoke City's slightly listless start to 2012-13 has continued with many neutral observers wondering whether the zenith of what the club can achieve - symbolised by last year's creditable foray into European competition - is now behind them.
West Brom midfielder Scott Allan, who is on loan at Portsmouth from the Premier League club, has been questioned by police after a man was reversed over in Southsea. Allan was at the wheel of a £50,000 Audi Q7 when a man was reversed over, leaving him with critical head injuries. The Police announced that [.
