The Alternative Transfer Update: The Lost Souls

a target for manchester city and lyon?

I’ll try and avoid writing up speculation pieces on players for the time being, as the maelstrom that is the January transfer window starts to shift into gear. Naturally we’re being linked with a new player every day so it’s hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff for the most part. Believe me though; as soon as I know something you’ll know it too, and I tend to cast an eye over every source I can get my hands at least twice a day. Enough of that anyway.

Younes Kaboul, in the wake of Portsmouth’s frankly disturbing financial situation is one of the players being linked to move away from the club to pay some of the bills. Interestingly enough though, despite Pompy being bottom of the league and unable to win matches for love nor money the 23 year-old french CB who is somewhat of an all rounder has been linked with moves to Manchester City and Lyon respectively. Whilst he’ll probably leave for a cut price, these teams aren’t exactly clubs who are renowned for their opportunist buys in the transfer market. It’s more than certain that Kaboul will be going somewhere this window, but surely we haven’t missed out that much of a trick with Kaboul that selling him would possibly have a sting in the tail. For the most part, this could be another of Comolli’s buys come good under the right circumstances, and that’s the last thing that we need to see, as most fans argue that he singlehandedly buried the club through most of the last decade with his inconsistent and sloppy transfer strategy.

Kevin Prince-Boateng is another player who finds himself at Pompy during the current crisis, he’s also notably the fulcrum of their attacking moves more often than not these days. Whilst arguably our upward mobility is at a faster rate of acceleration that Kevin’s development these days, a little faith in him could have yielded results from a player who could have learnt a lot from deputizing to our Croatian attacking midfielders. He won’t be leaving Portsmouth this month however, as the notorious stipulation in the FA rules dictates that you’re unable to be registered for more than two clubs in a season, (a rule that we managed to wangle with the repurchase of Keano and Defoe notably!) All that Kevin will be able to do realistically, (apart from pleading for a move back to us), is remain a consistent performer for the beleaguered club, and hopefully aim for a move either to Borussia Dortmund, who had loaned him previously, or a promotion candidate in the summer.

Finally; Jamie O’Hara, (whilst only really on loan to Portsmouth for the time being), is a player that rather unfortunately you can see the club outgrowing at this stage. A good squad player with the right attitude, Jamie’s insistence that he is happy to prove himself at Portsmouth at this stage is arguably an indictment to his position in the midfield of our club. With Kranjcar now gracing our midfield too, you have to feel that Jamie has a lot to prove to get the amount of games he needs with us to develop. Out of the three Jamie I feel is probably the one who will come back to haunt us most; in a similar capacity to Shawcross at Stoke leaving Manchester United for £1million only to have twenty times that his price today. Whilst Jamie is by no means a complete player; he has the drive it would seem that will underline his development into a strong midfielder, and whether he manages to find the right coach to get the best out of him is the gamble that we take. News just in is that he will be returning to the club should Pompy’s transfer embargo not be lifted by the 15th of January. At which point O’Hara is thought to be most likely shipped out to another lower premier league club.

Let’s just hope that the upward mobility of our club without the aforementioned is greater than theirs, or we might just find ourselves in one of those awkward ex-girlfriend-esque situations. Most fans would agree that losing these three wouldn’t give them any sleepless nights of course. On that note; PLEASE STAY TAARABT!!

bigmartin