Portsmouth, the troubled South Coast club, have resembled a soap opera all summer and, as the transfer window closed yesterday, again they did not disappoint. Three players arrived at Fratton Park, two left and there were also several near-misses.
It may have been shopping in the bargain basement as Paul Hart, the Portsmouth manager, continued his almost manic rebuilding programme, in which 13 new players have arrived, eight of them in the past week, but it did at least demonstrate that there is still life at Fratton Park.
Niko Kranjcar, the Croatia midfield player, was the biggest name involved in Hart’s frantic negotiations yesterday. He left for Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of about £2.5 million.
David Nugent, the striker, departed for Burnley on a six-month loan. Nugent is the fifteenth player to have been sold, released or loaned out by Portsmouth during a close season in which the takeover of Sulaiman alFahim had stalled and the club were reported to be on the verge of going into administration.
Yesterday Tal Ben-Haim, the centre half, joined from Manchester City for £1 million. He has agreed a four-year deal. Hassan Yebda, a midfield player, arrived on a season-long loan from Benfica and Mike Williamson, another defender, joined from Watford for a fee of about £3 million.
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With four defeats in as many league matches this season, Hart will need his new arrivals to gel swiftly. Question marks also remain as to how the club, despite al-Fahim’s belated arrival and the fire sale of players, will service a debt of about £34 million.
Peter Storrie, the Portsmouth chief executive officer, put a brave face on the situation. “We agreed to sell Niko because he’s got one year left on his contract and he wanted to go,” Storrie said. “We didn’t have to sell him for financial reasons. We want players who are 100 per cent committed to Pompey.”
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, successfully tempted Kranjcar from his former club, but he could not do the same with the unsettled David James, the England goalkeeper. “David is a fantastic goalkeeper but there was nothing there,” Redknapp said. Storrie added: “There was a lot of talk about David, but we had no direct offers.”
Hart had hoped to add Amr Zaki, the former Wigan Athletic striker, and Nicky Shorey, the Aston Villa left back, to his collection. However, Zamalek, the Egyptian club, would not release Zaki and the deal for Shorey fell through.
Tottenham had wanted to unload David Bentley, the midfield player, but a possible move to Manchester City failed to materialise, as did the prospective switch of David Villa, the widely admired Valencia striker, from Spain to England.
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With the “big four” clubs shutting up shop yesterday, Portsmouth took centre stage. Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea did not appear open for business and even Manchester City, having spent about £120 million this summer, seemed to be satisfied with their lot.
Twelve months ago, the wheeling and dealing continued until the last minute when Dimitar Berbatov joined United from Tottenham for a fee of £30.75 million and Robinho went to City from Real Madrid for £34.2 million.
This time around, most of the Barclays Premier League clubs pulled up well short of the finishing line. Everton did invest £6 million in Johnny Heitinga, the Atl?tico Madrid and Holland defender, but that was about it from the supposed big spenders. Overall, the net summer outlay from the 20 Premier League clubs was £64.35 million, less than half the comparable figure from last summer.