pongo88

This is more appropriate

Love the responses to this, e g: "******* hell geoff you'll bring um to there (sic) knees" "time to liquidise my assets and Sainsburys issue a profit warning then"

Why not go the whole hog and appeal to the European Court of Human Rights? If that fails, they could try the European Court of Justice.

Nick Higgs has taken a lot of flack from the forum over the years, but I think we should all apologise. He's obviously an astute businessman as he's manage to offload all his debts to a squillionsaire from Jordan on the promise of a £30m windfall from Sainsbury. He's laughing all the way to the bank

Court verdict on Thursday morning! It will be interesting reading on the forum, whichever way the verdict goes.

Try smoking for the whole match. City do better without you!

Any chance you can stay in bed till the end of the season?

You had me worried when I read this. It reminded me of the times when Gary Johnson used to pick a team with 4 central midfield players. At least, in those days, we had a squad with 4 central midfielders.

I prefer reading the "go off at a tangent" option. Quite often a load of rubbish, but interesting rubbish. When a thread gets a bit stale just throw in a bit about Radio Bristol / Geoff Twentyman etc and it will be revived for another 10 pages.

Why? Do you want to kick the radio?

This game told us nothing new. The effort was there, but there was a lack of class in attacking areas. Freeman did his usual impression of the Oozlum bird, and Reid looked like a young boy playing against men. The basis of a good team is there, but players who are good at running around, but not delivering an end product, have got to go.

The thread title has changed from "Basement Rovers" to "Bristol Rovers". Is someone anticipating a rapid rise up the leagues based on their new billionaire status?

Ping Pong, cribbage and darts perhaps?

The Chairman's report is worth reading: "Finally, I would like to put on record our thanks to past Chairman Nick Higgs and the former Board members for all their efforts in keeping this great Club financially solvent and sticking with it whilst it made it’s brief appearance in the National League." Financially solvent! Have I missed something?

As well as the "like" option, I wish there was a Dick Emery option I could tick - i e You are awful, but I like you.

I wish people would stop knocking the gas. I like the gas. Without it I wouldn't have any central heating.

"Quantum mechanics is the science of the very small". Very applicable when discussing Rovers

The Post has stated that Al Qadi is seeking advice on a PR strategy from Stuart Higgins, ex editor of the Sun newspaper! I can imagine what sort of headlines we're going to see.

I'm interested to know why a "billionaire" who could have used his loose change to buy clubs with potential such as Aston Villa, Wolves and numerous other Premiership and Championship clubs wanted to buy Rovers. Does anyone really know how much money was paid, up front, for the club? Whatever it was, it was certainly less than the value of the land, as the directors were desperate to sell.

Very good as ever Hava, old bean. Interesting seagull facts, though you did miss one. A Flock of Seagulls was a 1980s new wave synthesiser band, famous as much for ridiculous hair styles as their music.

This is a very interesting point. The new owners might have taken over by buying out the previous directors - i e paying them the money they had lent the club. On the other hand, Nick Higgs and Co. may have realised that they had no way to pay the Wonga loan in the summer and, the longer they stayed with the club, the worse their personal financial position would become. In this case, they may have been prepared to right off some of their personal loans, meaning the new owners are only responsible for non-directors debts. This would be a relatively cheap way to buy the club, based on the value of the land.

Maybe a bit like Notts County. Bring in Sven as manager, sign a few players, plan for the Premiership, goes pear shaped.

The ground is worth more than the debts, with or without Sainsbury. Any future spending can be done via loans, which isn't a problem if they are arranged via a company, rather than personally. If it all goes wrong and administration follows, then the owners survive, still with a profit. There are various clubs that have lost their grounds - e g Hereford, Brighton etc. Listen to the Pongo

Why do people keep saying they are impressed by the new owner's interview? What did they expect him to say - "I'm an asset striper"? Remember, the Devil is always persuasive - e g Elizabeth Hurley or Peter Cook as the devil in the film Bedazzled.