Pompey are once more a laughing stock and Mandaric has found few allies in his personal quest for justice. A players meeting with Hiley, Derry and Harper is ongoing and it is not the ideal preperation for Saturday's crunch game vs Walsall. With Harry Redknapp the only person picking up his wage this month, it will be interesting to see how the management team react and whether the LMA get involved.
Gordon Taylor told SKY Sports: "This is a serious issue. These people have mortgages, full-time commitments and families and they wante the money they are contracted to have. If not, there will be problems. It's quite naive really, it's going back to the Dark Ages. If they lose then they're not working hard enough and they don't get any money but if the win then that's fine3. If football was as easy as that it would be a simple game. I have never known a player yet who wanted to play badly and lose."
Taylor then went further in his outburst, criticising Milan Mandaric's personal state, a tact that Fratton Faithful has found out to be very dangerous ground:
"For every winner there's a loser and it's just the frustration of the chairman who's paid out money and hasn't seen the success he wanted but he's got to go into it in a much more different way if he wants to get the best out of his players."
With Fratton Park remaining quiet, stick with us for news as it breaks throughout the day.