Linvoy's New Contract
I'm just as happy as everyone else that Linvoy is primed to sign a new deal that would take him to ten years at the club, therefore earning him a testimonial.
On the surface it would seem that this is simply a sentimental gesture by the club by rewarding a player who hasn't played a competitive match for almost two years a new contract. However, this could turn out to be a shrewd move should the worst happen and Pompey get relegated.
Think about it, if Pompey dropped then we would certainly say goodbye to Campbell, Distin and Kaboul which would leave us extremely short in the centre back area. So with Linvoy at the club it would ease that problem slightly if his 35-year-old legs can cope at Championship level.
If not, then I'm sure he'd be a very popular ticket office clerk!
Davis' New Contract?
It seems that Sean Davis is now going to wait until the end of the season to decide whether to sign a new contract or not. If we survive, I'd expect him to pen a new deal as long as the club offer him a reasonable deal and I'd be very disappointed if he didn't considering how he has stated his loyalty in the past.
If we don't survive then I think he'll be leaving us for nothing, especially if Everton's interest is more than just a rumour. I hope he stays either way because he brings a bite to our midfield that would seem pretty soft without him.
Storrietelling
All week I've read Peter Storrie's sob stories about how difficult his job has become since Sacha pulled the plug on funding. His tone didn't exactly inspire confidence for next season's prospects (assuming we stay up this season, of course.)
He revealed that Ramon Vega was "laughed out of Portsmouth" because his offer was to buy the club for a £1 without repaying the club's loans, meaning players would have to be sold to cover those repayments. He also revealed that talks were ongoing to resolve the alleged debts of £40 million, but denied that Sacha had halved the asking price for the club.
But if that doesn't get sorted, then we'll probably need to sell more players before the start of next season and won't be able to bring in anyone. So we could be waving goodbye to Kranjcar, Johnson and Crouch in the summer without replacing them and that will only lead to relegation.
I think we're all agreed that it's imperative we find a buyer before June arrives otherwise the vultures will circle Fratton Park for some easy pickings.
This Time Last Year
After 29 games last season Pompey were sitting pretty in 7th place in the table with 47 points and an FA Cup Semi-Final to look forward to.
At the same stage this season we're 15 points down on that total but interestingly if we only had 32 points at this stage last season we would have sat 12th, 7 points clear of the drop rather than the 3 points that seperate Pompey from the relegation zone this season.
So I think it's safe to say that this season has definitely been tougher than last year and although we're never going to realise the expectations we had pre-season I'd still say that survival would be an achievement given that we've had three managers, lost many good players and had no money to strengthen in January.
That's a wrap for tonight. Now the flu is almost vanquished I should be able to celebrate a return to normality now!