July 2008 - Posts

• Striker set for Pompey deal

  Trialist striker Omar 'OJ' Krumah is set to earn himself a contract after impressing manager Harry Redknapp in Pompey's pre-season campaign.

  The teenager from Gambia arrived on a trial two weeks ago, and impressed on his first appearance against Exeter earning Pompey a penality which Defoe converted to earn a draw.

  Against Swindon he setup 2 goals in his 45 minute spell and also appeared against Dorchester on Monday night.

  While a Premier League start seems distant Harry sees enough in the player to offer a contract, and Championship clubs are already enquiring about his availability for loan.

  Talking to The News Redknapp said: 'OJ has done well, he's only 18 and I think he's a real prospect.
  
  'We're hoping to now get something done and keep him here permanently because I like him.
  
  'He was at Southampton last year, they wanted him but could not get a work permit but he's married now so that's no longer a problem.
  
  'The lad was recommended to me so we had him over for the last couple of weeks and he's been tremendous.
  
  'He's quick and has got a lot of everything.
  
  'The kid wants to do well, he's willing to learn and hopefully he can do well here.
  
  'I have already had half a dozen clubs wanting to play him this season, most of them are from the Championship.
  
  'He's not ready for the Premier League but he's still young so his time can come.'

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  Posted Jul 24 2008, 11:45 AM by JenniP with no comments

• No new signings expected before Africa trip

  Pompey are not expected to announce any new signings before their pre-season trips to Africa.

  With the team flying out to Abuja tomorrow afternoon for 2 games in 2 days before heading to South Africa.

  A spokesman for the club admitted that nothing was imminent and that no new faces would be on the flight.

  This would indicate that any trialists we haven't seen on the pitch yet won't be going to Africa, although I wouldn't put it past Harry to have a few African trialists in at least one of those games.

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  Posted Jul 24 2008, 11:13 AM by JenniP with no comments

• Kaboul decision expected in the next 24 hours

  According to local radio station The Quay out of favour Spurs defender Younes Kaboul is expected to make an announcement about his future within the next 24 hours.

  Recent comments by Harry Redknapp indicate that the player will be joining Aston Villa, although Sunderland and Porstmouth are also interested. Comments from his agent Sunderland was ruled out as a possible destination although since the comments Kaboul has met with Roy Keane and was impressed with him and the facilities in the North East.

  Talking to The News Redknapp said "I would like a centre-half, Younes Kaboul wants to come here, but I heard Kaboul is going to Villa. I don't think there is anything he can do about it.

  "If Villa are in for him he may have to go there. We made an offer with what we thought was a fair valuation."

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  Posted Jul 23 2008, 11:08 AM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Transfer Rumours, Younes Kaboul, Sunderland, Aston Villa

• £18.5 million pounds worth of firepower starting at Bournemouth tonight

  Its what Pompey fans have been waiting for Pompey's dream strike force of Defoe and Crouch will finally start a game together. Portsmouth have two friendly games tonight, the first at League 2 Bournemouth and another at non-league Dorchester, both games will feature a strong side, designed to give maximum playing time to as many players as possible before Pompey fly off to Nigeria for their African tour later this week.

  Talking to The News Redknapp said: 'Crouchie will start up front tonight with Defoe at Bournemouth. They will play together.
  
  'They will play up front and we'll see how we go.
  
  'I'm taking a strong team to Bournemouth. We also have a game at Dorchester the same night and David James will go down to that one.
  
  'I'll send a decent team down to that one, too, and get 90 minutes into them by splitting the teams up.
  
  'I know my best players and I'm looking at these players to see if they are ever going to be good enough to be used.'

  As usual there will be a mix of trialists in both games hoping to get a Pompey contract and with stories about Harry being unhappy with his fringe players some of them may be playing for their Pompey futures or trying to impress other teams in the hope of earning a move away from Fratton Park.

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  Posted Jul 21 2008, 09:40 AM by JenniP with no comments

• Fringe players may go to fund new signings

  Yesterday when talking about rejecting a bid for Kranjcar Harry was saying he didn't have to sell players, however today he is saying that he may have to sell to be able to buy.

  'I wouldn't want to sell my good players and I don't have to. I'm not saying they're all not good players but I wouldn't want to sell my best assets.' Redknapp said yesterday

  However talking to The News today he said: 'We really need to shift one or two if we are going to raise some money to bring anyone else in now.
  
  'Crouchie's in but now we need to find the money if we are going to try to finance another deal. Sacha can't keep putting his hand in his pocket for everything.
  
  'If we sold somebody, a couple of players we can afford to let go, then there's one or two players I would love to bring in. But unless we move one or two out it's not possible.
  
  'When you start talking about the type of players we are trying to bring in, no disrespect to Djimi, but his money doesn't buy you Wright-Phillips.
  
  'You would like to have him for sure, but he's good money and at the moment we haven't got the money.
  
  'It's not easy to shift people out, it's hard. Someone has got to want them and unless you get good offers for people then they stay. We've spent some money already this summer so money's tight now, so it's not easy.'

  So it seems like we will be selling players, but not any of our "good" players, I would imagine this would be the Kranjcar's and Muntari's of the team who Harry has previously said are not going.  However it does look like some of the squad players may leave to improve the squad, but as Harry says squad players transfer fees and wages wont go far in trying to sign players like Kaboul or  Wright Phillips so several may have to leave to fund those kinds of deals.

  Who do you think could be in the firing line? 

   

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  Posted Jul 18 2008, 11:13 AM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Harry Redknapp, Transfer Rumours

• Pompey target Kaboul dismisses Sunderland link

  Out of favour Spurs center back Younes Kaboul's agent has dismissed a link to Premier League side Sunderland saying it would be a backward step and could potentially hurt his international career and that there are other clubs that have made more interesting offers.

  "Younes wouldn't join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake," Raba told setantasports.com.

  "We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don't even think about it.

  "I can tell you for sure that he's going to stay in England next season.

  "At Portsmouth you are more watched and for example you have France international Lassana Diarra playing there.

  "Of course he would prefer to have his chance at Tottenham rather than moving to Sunderland.

  "No disrespect to them, but playing there wouldn't help his international career.

  "[Martin] Jol made him come over but then [Juande] Ramos replaced him and axed Younes. That kind of situation always happens at big clubs."

  Hopefully Portsmouth is one of the clubs who have made the interest offers, and it does seem that Portsmouth isn't the backwater it was for top players now and the player has made clear his desire to join Pompey so lets hope a deal can be done to bring the player here.

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  Posted Jul 18 2008, 11:03 AM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Portsmouth, Younes Kaboul, Sunderland

• Pompey make Kaboul bid

  Local radio station The Quay are reporting that Pompey manager Harry Redknapp has admitted that the Portsmouth have tabled a bid for out of favour Spurs defender Younes Kaboul. Redknapp has been a long time admirer of the former Auxerre player who joined Tottenham last summer for around £8million.

  With rumours of a bid circulating all summer it looks like Portsmouth are finally making their move, although Aston Villa are also interested in the player.

  Recent reports have said that Portsmouth is the defenders preferred destination with a source close to the player quoted as saying 'Younes' priority is to join Portsmouth.
  
  'He is not interested in joining anyone else and has made that clear to Tottenham.
  
  'He wants to play for Harry. He is the one who has made the greatest effort to sign him.
  
  'Something is very, very close to happening. Younes doesn't want Tottenham to be unreasonable now.
  
  'If that happens he will fight because he wants to join only Portsmouth.
  'Younes feels people didn't see the best of him at Tottenham.
  
  'But he was wanted by all the world when he was in France, and you don't become a bad player overnight.
  
  'Harry watched him closely back then and knows what he is capable of.

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  Posted Jul 17 2008, 05:08 PM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Transfer Rumours, Younes Kaboul

• Pompey reject £12million bid for midfielder

  Portsmouth have today rejected a club record bid from French side Monaco for star midfielder Niko Kranjcar. Manager Harry Redknapp has restated that Portsmouth are not a selling club and doesn't want to sell any of his best assets and doesn't have to.

  Talking to The News Harry Redknapp said: 'Monaco have come in for Niko and offered around £12m for him. We wouldn't sell him and he didn't want to go anyway so that was the end of that one.
  
  'No disrespect, but why would he want to go there anyway? They get 6,000 people watching them.
  
  'You go there on a weekend and it's a unique experience, people aren't interested in the football. They all go out on the Saturday night and get dressed up for dinner, not to watch football.
  
  'There's nothing with Sulley either, it's just paper talk about Juventus.
  
  'We haven't spoken to anybody and I don't want to sell Sulley anyway.
  
  'He's a top player – so is Niko.
  
  'They are good young players, we don't have to let anyone leave and we definitely don't want to.
  
  'They're going nowhere, nowhere at all.'

  'I wouldn't want to sell my good players and I don't have to. I'm not saying they're all not good players but I wouldn't want to sell my best assets.
  
  'I am trying to build a team here.
  
  'We've got a good squad.'

  Although the club is rejecting offers at the moment, every player does have their price, and with bidding on Kranjcar started will other interested teams such as Arsenal make an offer? If rumours in the press the last few days and the sale of yet another Arsenal player are anything to go by, we could expect an offer soon.  With Redknapp already having stated that wide left midfield is an area he needs cover for Niko in, its highly unlikely we would let Kranjcar leave unless an unbelivable offer was made.

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  Posted Jul 17 2008, 01:15 PM by JenniP with 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Transfer Rumours, Niko Kranjcar

• Pamarot rejects Hull move, while Traore could still head north

  Local radio station The Quay is reporting today that Pompey defender Noe Pamarot has turned down a move to Premier League newcomers Hull City and has chosen to stay and fight for his place. Pamarot has been a squad player pretty much since joining Portsmouth, being used when others are injured or rested, with this upcoming campaign looking like it will give squad players more time on the pitch this could of helped keep him.

  While the deal for left back Djimi Traore who joined Pompey in January 2007 and has only made thirteen starts may be back on. The original deal seemed abandoned due to Djimi's wish to play football in France with the Premier League being a second option and Hull manager Phil Brown wanting players who were up for a relegation fight.

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  Posted Jul 17 2008, 01:01 PM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Transfer Rumours, Noe Pamarot, Djimi Traore

• Pre-season starts with a draw

  Portsmouth started their pre-season campaign last night with a draw against newly promoted League 2 side Exeter City, with Pompey opening the scoring with a Defoe penality and Exeter drawing level early in the second half.

  This was by no means a full strength Portsmouth side, with several fringe players and trialists involved. Pompey will be happy with the draw although may be looking back on several missed chances that may have gone in with a bit more match sharpness.

  Scorelines in pre-season games especially this early in the campaign aren't as important as time on the pitch, one player who will have to wait a little longer for this is Peter Crouch who was an unused sub last night, as Redknapp wants the former Liverpool striker to get more training under his belt before playing however it does seem likely he will play some part of in the Swindon game tomorrow.

  Teams

  Pompey: James (Trialist 46); Lauren (Duffy 46), Campbell (c) (Primus 46), Pamarot (Distin 46), Cranie (Traore 46); Mvuemba (Subotic 80), Davis (Hughes 46), Mendes (Mendes 46), Little (Nugent 46); Trialist (Christophe 69), Defoe (Sahar 46)

  Goals: Defoe (pen) 9

  Subs not used: Ashdown, Begovic, Crouch

  Exeter: Jones (Marriott 46); Tully (Sercombe 77), Taylor (Bishop 77), Seaborne (c) (Bennett 87), Friend (Martin 87); Basham (Green 87), Harley (Tasker 87), Gill (Panther 66), Edwards (Cozic 66), Logan (Stewart 55); Stansfield (McAllister 77)

  Goals: Edwards 47

  Sub not used: Bassett

  Referee: P Gibbs

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  Posted Jul 17 2008, 11:44 AM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Match Reports, Pre-Season

• Redknapp wasn’t interested in Bridge

  Harry Redknapp today confirmed that he was not interested in signing England and Chelsea left back Wayne Bridge. Rumours had been linking Bridge with a move from Chelsea to Portsmouth however the player signed a new four year deal yesterday.

  Talking to BBC Radio Solent Redknapp said "I never expected to get Wayne Bridge. I think he's a terrific player in all honesty, but that was never a goer.

  "I read the papers but there was nothing in that at all," he added.

  "We never made any contact with Chelsea or Wayne Bridge or anybody else, that was just a name that someone dug up from somewhere."

  Redknapp also hinted that wide left is more than a problem than left back and Portsmouth is more likely to bring in cover at center back "Hermann [Hreidarsson] is fantastic for us, I've got no problems there. It's just that you're looking to strengthen your squad.

  "We are still short on the left-hand side. We've got no-one apart from Nico [Kranjcar] that can play wide left if we get a problem and want to change things around.

  "And centre-half is an area we've looked at in case Sol [Campbell] is not going to play every game. But we've got Noe Pamarot if he stays fit so that was just looking around.

  There's no-one in particular that we are after and we're not close to doing any business with anybody else at the moment.

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  Posted Jul 16 2008, 03:18 PM by JenniP with no comments

  Filed under: Harry Redknapp, Transfer Rumours, Wayne Bridge

• Bridge opts to warm Chelsea bench

  It looks like Harry Redknapp's pursuit of Chelsea and England left back Wayne Bridge is over, with the player signing a 4 year contract extension with the London club and with Ashley Cole almost certainly going to be first choice Bridge will be warming the Chelsea bench.

  While this will mean Harry will have to chase other targets a lot of Pompey fans will be relieved as the players Southampton connections didn't go down too well.

  Personally I think we have missed out on a cracking player, Redknapp will already have other options with Reading's Nicky Shorey rumoured to be high on the list.

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  Posted Jul 15 2008, 09:41 PM by JenniP with no comments

• Pompey training ground gets planning approval

  Portsmouth Football Club took another step closer to having world class facilities with the approval of the planning application for their new training ground next to the Cherque Farm estate in Lee On The Solent. After the original site near Titchfield fell through after the planning application there was rejected.

  Storrie said: "This is a training ground any Premier League club would be proud of.

  "It's the next big step for the club – fantastic facilities in a lovely location.

  "We've been improving the team no end as well as the facilities around the ground, with the new megastore and offices.

  "But this training ground is one of the two final pieces in the jigsaw – the other is the new stadium.

  "After the disappointment of the previous application at Fareham it's been nice to have been involved with such a superb council like Gosport.

  "They wanted us to be involved in their future and have given us nothing but support.

  "It's great that the training ground is in Gosport with a PO postcode – it keeps everything where we want it to be."

  Reading some of the letters of those for and against the project its good to see that the NIMBYs didn't sink this project, while most of them were pretty much along the "I don't want it in my backyard and my house price will drop" lines, some of them did raise some valid points which I hope will be taken into consideration.

  I'm looking forward driving past the new training centre on my way to work every day.

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  Posted Jul 15 2008, 09:24 PM by JenniP with no comments

• Would Bridge be welcomed at Fratton Park?

  Rumours are again circulating that Chelsea left back Wayne Bridge is again a target of Harry. While some players can get tainted with association with Southampton in time it goes away, look at our latest signing I've not seen or heard much mention of Peter Crouch's time at Southampton, most Pompey fans don't even really seem to care much that some of the money we are paying to Liverpool seems set to go to our local rivals.

  However Wayne Bridge is still known to most people I know as Scummer Bridge, not just because he played for Southampton but he is also a Southampton fan.  He of course didn't do himself any favours after moving to Chelsea after going a bit over the top in celebrating scoring against Pompey at Stamford Bridge after getting loads of stick from the Pompey fans.

  Personally I would welcome a player with his quality, while I'm not completely sure he will get ahead of current first choice Hreidarsson he would certainly be a longer term choice than the Icelandic star who turned 34 this year.

  So I would welcome him, but would you?   Leave us a comment below.

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  Posted Jul 15 2008, 11:45 AM by JenniP with 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Transfer Rumours, Wayne Bridge

• Traore talks himself out of Hull move

  Out of favour Pompey left back Djimi Traore has talked himself out of a move to newly promoted Premier League Hull City, however the player talked himself out of the move by stating that he could join Hull if a preferred move to a French club didn't happen. With the relegation predicted for the club manager Phil Brown wants people who are willing to fight and Traore's attitude didn't impress.

  Hull City manager Phil Brown "I spoke to Djimi and I was interested, but Djimi made reference to wanting to stay in France.

  "He would, of course, have come to England if we were available as a second choice, but I don't want that kind of attitude. I want first choice."

  With Traore spending half of last season on loan at Rennes after falling out of Harry Redknapp's plans is expected to leave the club during the summer transfer window, and with Portsmouth expected to sign another left back soon Traore looks to be slipping even further down the pecking order if he were to stay.

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  Posted Jul 15 2008, 06:45 AM by JenniP with 1 comment(s)

  Filed under: Transfer News