Albion Favourites To Beat Pompey!

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

bet365.com have the odds as...

Brighton 6/4
Portsmouth 7/4
Draw 23/10

betfair have us as favourites also.

Bugger! Does this mean we're not the plucky underdogs anymore? Nobody tell the players!

 

[Silent Bob]

Think Portsmouth's demise has been greatly exaggerated myself (by Portsmouth). Look at their starting eleven and there's plenty of Championship quality in it, ok so they've got a couple of kids on the bench or whatever.

That ginger wanker Kitson will surely score against us.

 

[chez]

Think Portsmouth's demise has been greatly exaggerated myself (by Portsmouth). Look at their starting eleven and there's plenty of Championship quality in it, ok so they've got a couple of kids on the bench or whatever.

That ginger wanker Kitson will surely score against us.

I think he is injured, well pompey are reporting that anyway. They do only have 15 players but a lot of the first 11 are class championship players if not premiership.

 

[Monsieur Leclerc]

Granted, wages does not necessarily equal a decent return, but they are rumoured to have the fourth highest wage bill in the Championship, but the smallest squad.

 

[the right footed denilson]

If we play our best team we can beat them. Yes they have Nugent, possibly Kitson and Lawrence but they're in a bit of a mess, and if we push them hard they have no chance to change things because they have no players. Halford has gone back, so they need to find a right back too.
I hope we take this seriously- we have a squad good enough to continue in the cup without it derailing our promotion push, i'm sure of it.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if we beat them. We have a good footballing team. If Gus plays them, we'll win and it could be by a few.

 

[El Turi]

According to the BBC, one of the linesman tomorrow is the guy who made that shocking decision to give Bournemouth a penalty, so he owes us a decision.

 

[severnside gull]

Think Portsmouth's demise has been greatly exaggerated myself (by Portsmouth). Look at their starting eleven and there's plenty of Championship quality in it, ok so they've got a couple of kids on the bench or whatever.

That ginger wanker Kitson will surely score against us.

No kids on the bench

They do have a youth squad and it even contains 4 over-age players who would (in normal circumstances) be in the first team squad as they don't operate a reserve team. Because they are only allowed to pay an average first team squad wage of £10K per week (monitored by the FL) but are reportedly paying Lawrence and Kitson £20K, Nugent £35K and Utaka £70K per week (even Kanu who must be approaching pensionable age is rumoured to be on over £20K per week) the remainder of the squad have to be paid very little and the squad has to be limited in size.

(This of course doesn't include the 2 players unable to play because it would trigger pay rises - another lengthy discussion entirely)

Cotterill could of course pick his youth players (even the ones who are really youth players rather than the "hidden" senior players) but this would add to their first team average salary so they go through a charade of pretending that they only have 15 players available wen it is palpably untrue.

They will try to offload their two "renegades" this month so they can bring in more (one suspects very highly paid) players while leaving their own playing staff hidden in the youth team.

They could easily sell Utaka but decline to do so. Similarly Kitson and Nugent are highly marketable commodities. Lawrence in theory can't be sold in this window having just signed but in the financial circumstances a dispensation from the FL would almost certainly be available.

All of this would of course depend on and imply an intention to trade honestly.

In persisting with the myth that they have only a miniscule squad and are therefore harshly done by, I am saddened at Cotterill's duplicity. He at least is (or was before taking on the Portsmouth job) better than that

 

[Skaville]

Stan James first goalscorer odds as follows:

Barnes, Ashley 6/1
Murray, Glenn 6/1
Holroyd, Gavin 13/2
Sandanza, Francesco 15/2
Hart, Gary 9/1
Sparrow, Matthew 10/1
Noone, Craig 11/1
Bennett, Elliott 11/1
Baz, Christian 14/1
Battipiedi, Agustin 16/1
Smith, Jamie 16/1
Dicker, Gary 20/1
Kasim, Yaser 20/1
Bridcutt, Liam 25/1

Surely Murray and Barnes at 6-1 are good value, but will they pay out on Gavin (sic) Holroyd if Chris scores? Is Craig Noone as likely to score as Elliott Bennett, given that he is cup tied? Yaser Kasim? Gary Hart 9-1 etc etc

 

[BensGrandad]

Isnt Kitson on loan from Stoke or have they bought him also there is talk of them not playing Nugent as they want to sell him and having him cup tied will reduce his value and any subsequent transfer fee.

 

[Foolg]

Stan James first goalscorer odds as follows:
Holroyd, Gavin 13/2

Genuinely made me LOL.

Incredible how little many of these bookies know about lower leagues, given Noone's cup tied, and that Sparrow is at longer odds than no goals in 3 years Gary Hart.

 

[chez]

Genuinely made me LOL.

Incredible how little many of these bookies know about lower leagues, given Noone's cup tied, and that Sparrow is at longer odds than no goals in 3 years Gary Hart.

Some of them have no idea. Quite often this season I've seen odds on Alan Navarro to score. I liked it when Mark McGhee put Virgs up front, the bookies took a fair few weeks to stop giving him defender odds!!