Our Claus, In the Middle of the Pub

Claus - Five Minutes into his interview

But first...

There have been a couple of major stories in the transfer market since the last blog entry with the Alexander Buttner deal hitting the buffers for now as a mysterious ‘third party’ came into play.  Vitesse Arnhem exonerated themselves and Saints against any wrongdoing and we all jumped to conclusions like it was some mysterious agent and like the Tevez saga and all that.  Turns out that it’s his Dad wanting a cut if the media is to believed (which of course it usually isn’t).  “Mr Cortese, please can you pay an extra.....drrrrr (phone goes dead)”

Steven Davis has signed from the Pompey of the North as he exercised his right to quit rather than be transferred to the new version of Rangers, the Derangers.  He’s a central midfield player with 50 odd caps for Northern Ireland and Premier League experience so it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.  The Derangers new Chairman however is not happy and is kicking up stink about Davis and a number of other Rangers players refusal to become Derangers and instead, taking up the opportunity which is open to them, by law, to sort themselves out.  It seems however that he’s arguing against this basic employment law and is doomed to failure so all things being equal, we’ve got a decent new player on our hands after his appeal is heard and he’s told to piss off.

Steve - in Liverpool shirt.

We’ve been recently linked with Wilfried Zaha (he of the toys out of the pram) and Nathaniel Clyne from Palace which seems a fair swap for letting them have Aaron Martin on loan for a season.  If that cames off then that would be right wing and right back sorted.  We also know that we need a goalkeeper and at least one centre back for the squad and talking of Saints centre backs…

The only Saints centre back in the news has been Claus Lundekvam who really needed to engage brain before opening mouth.  The genie is out of that particular bottle now though as he’s accused everyone of spot fixing, betting on the first throw and the like during his time at SFC.   Everyone was apparently at it, both teams etc.  Having I assume, noticed that cricketers have gone to jail over similar accusations, I would expect that he thought long and hard before opening his mouth... or maybe not as this is Claus after all who may have been sat under a bridge drinking out of a bottle wrapped in a paper bag with nothing but a dog on a string and Paul Merson for company.  I’m sure many of us Saints fans remember seeing him in Jumping Jaks totally pissed out of his head either after a Saturday game or on occasions on a Friday before a game.  I’m sure everyone remembers his confessions of a post-retirement drug issue, of financial problems and of his arrest for assault of a business partner.  Francis Benali, a truly respected and trustworthy SFC legend of that period of time, alluded to Claus’ personal problems when questioned about the allegations and said he knew nothing of it which is the same story as Matt le Tissier, David Hirst and Paul Williams have repeated. 

It’s notable that Claus has mentioned no names specifically which makes me think, when considered along with his more wayward tendencies, that this is either a complete load of bollocks or that he’s exaggerated the extent and breadth of it to muddy the waters of his own involvement.  Either way he should have shut the fuck up and I really hope he’s making no money out of these allegations.  It affects the way he’s thought of by fans as well and as a player with over 400 appearances- that’s a real shame.  I’m sure no one at SFC 2012 gives a shit about the allegation except maybe Jason Dodd who of course, was a player at that time.  Pompey fans taking the moral high ground is hilarious though – paid back those charities, schools and local businesses yet have you boys?

So, we’ve got a pissed ex-player making things difficult but down the road they have 8 players (Blue Few) who they have to sell (Blue Fewer) before a takeover by a bloke who has owned it twice can take over again (Blue Murder).  As he only wants it for asset stripping, the fact that they’ve been deducted 10 points for the forthcoming League 1 season won’t bother him in the slightest but the fact that 5 years of restrictions have been put in place regarding how much of the debt he can wipe off and how soon he actually has to pay some money to creditors may well see him run for the hills and leave the club right in the shite as it could be time for the fans who have pledged a grand to the Pompey Supporters Trust to actually cough up.  We await with bated breath.  Basically, they have no choice as the League have grown a pair and pulled out the “play by our rules or fuck off” card.  My criticism of the League is that they should have done this two years ago after the 2010 administration which would have saved creditors, charities and schools etc a lot of money.

Cue “its not fair” and “not our fault” and “a big boy did it and ran away” and a big “WHO THE FUCK IS LAUGHING NOW ?”…

Anyhow, as far as this blog goes it’s kind of cool that I started it three years ago when we were bottom of League 1 with -10 points and Pompey were in the Premier League and now it’s the complete opposite – so it’s all down to me and I take all the credit. 

I thank you.