Harry Redknapp could celebrate his new Portsmouth contract by signing out-of-favour striker Eidur Gudjohnsen from Barcelona.
Portsmouth are on Monday expected to announce that Redknapp has agreed a new £7million, three-and-a-half-year contract at Fratton Park - and one of his first moves will be to instruct club officials to beat Manchester City in the race for Gudjohnsen.
Barca director of football Txiki Beguiristain admitted only last week that he had made a mistake signing the Iceland international because of the emergence of some of his club's youngsters.
He said: "Eidur still believes he has a chance here but at the moment the coaches are giving more time to Giovani and Bojan Krkic."
Redknapp was touted as a potential successor to Martin Jol at Tottenham but Pompey have moved to ward off any potential future interest by offering him a bumper pay packet.
25 10 2007
Martin Jol will not be distracted by rumours suggesting he is set for the axe and is focused on turning Tottenham's season round.
The Dutchman is again under severe pressure at White Hart Lane following the 3-1 defeat against Newcastle on Monday night and the media are already starting to speculate over who could replace him.
Blackburn boss Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp of Portsmouth have been mentioned as replacements, but Jol says he cannot listen to all the rumours and must focus on Spurs.
Jol can do nothing about Tottenham's league position for now but he can make sure they get their Uefa Cup group campaign off to a winning start against Getafe this evening.
"If I have to look at that sort of manoeuvres then I would be crazy," Jol said of all the speculation. "There have been five or six names and I'm still here."
25 10 2007
Under-fire Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Jol would be "better off without" Dimitar Berbatov, according to Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp.
The Bulgarian striker made a big impact in his debut season at White Hart Lane last season, scoring 23 goals.
But Spurs' poor start to the new campaign has left Jol on the brink of unemployment and, Redknapp says, brought out the worst in Berbatov.
The former Bayer Leverkusen striker appeared reluctant to come on as a substitute in the Londoners' 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Monday, and Redknapp is clear on what he would do.
"The very last thing Martin Jol needs right now is Dimitar Berbatov spitting his dummy out because he's not in Tottenham's starting team every week," Redknapp said in his column in a newspaper.
"You only find out the true character of your players when the chips are down and the pressure is on. And we all saw what Berbatov is made of when he was sat sulking on the bench at Newcastle the other night with a face like a big baby. Everyone knows what a terrific player the Bulgarian can be. But he's not the striker he was a year ago and, from what I've seen, he looks to be disinterested and playing for himself rather than his team. His attitude is terrible and his behaviour at St James' Park sent out all the wrong signals."
The 26-year-old front man had been linked with a move to Old Trafford over the summer, but Redknapp believes Berbatov has blown any chance of that now.
"Maybe he's sulking because he didn't get a move to Manchester United in the summer," Redknapp added.
"But he's done himself absolutely no favours on that account because I know for a fact Alex Ferguson would never stand for any player who behaves the way Berbatov has done this week. When your team is in trouble you need the big characters to stand up. That's just what Robbie Keane has done for Spurs and Berbatov should show the same attitude. I have always believed that when you lose a player's support you get him out as quickly as possible."
Spurs play Getafe in the Uefa Cup on Thursday evening and it will be interesting to see if Jol heeds Redknapp's words.
"No matter how good, you're better off without him."
19 10 2007
Portsmouth are preparing to make an offer of €10m for Real Mallorca's Jonas Gutierrez, but the Spanish outfit are hoping he will extend his contract with them.
According to AS, Harry Redknapp has asked the Pompey board to do all they can to acquire the services of the Argentinian winger and the club are now weighing up making a bid in January.
The Premiership side even sent a delegation to Son Moix to meet with Mallorca president Vicenc Grande on the opening day of the season, but the Balearic outfit's president refused to see them.
An offer of €6m has already been turned down earlier this season as Velez Sarsfield still own 50 per cent of the player's rights and would receive €3m.
Mallorca paid €2.5m for the 24-year-old in 2005 and would only consider doing business if they were to make a healthy profit from the deal.
On the flip side, the Spanish club are hoping to persuade Jonas to put pen-to-paper on an extension to his current contract and pledge himself to the club until 2013.
Since arriving two seasons ago he has become a firm favourite with the fans and one of the team's most consistent performers under Gregorio Manzano.
12 10 2007
Assistant coach Tony Adams has reaveled Portsmouth are interested in Southampton teenager Nathan Dyer.
Pompey boss Harry Redknapp has targeted the winger, who he championed when in charge of the Saints.
Redknapp awarded the youngster his debut two years ago and the winger is out of contract at the end of the season.
Adams admitted Pompey have been closely monitoring him, saying: "I was at their game against West Brom but I wasn't watching Andrew Surman - he got dropped as well. I quite like the look of Nathan Dyer and he's one we've been looking at for a while. When Harry says 'We need somebody on the right, do you know anyone?' I have to come up with options. I watched Dyer against West Brom on Saturday and he's a good, young player. But yes, we've been watching Dyer."
Dyer was a member of the Southampton youth team who reached the FA Youth Cup final in 2005 and he has since gone on to make 52 first-team appearances, scoring three times.
08 10 2007
Harry Redknapp has moved quickly to quash rumours that his assistant at Portsmouth, Tony Adams, could be in line to take over the vacant managerial role at Queen's Park Rangers.
Adams' is the latest in a list of names to be associated with the job at Loftus Road following John Gregory's departure last week.
Gianluca Vialli and Setanta's own Les Ferdinand are just two of the names to have been linked with The R's since Gregory's dismissal.
Redknapp did admit that he was likely to lose Adams to a full-time post at another club at some point in the future, but he was steadfast in his rebuttal of the speculation linking the former Arsenal defender with the West London side.
'I don't see Tony Adams going at the moment,' Redknapp told The News.
'He will want to be his own man at some point and I can't blame him for that. But I don't think he will be going to QPR as manager. The QPR chairman rang me and asked me for some advice on who to name as manager.I said about Mick Harford [the current caretaker manager] who is there at the moment. I like him. He asked me about three or four people – but Tony was not one of them.'
04 10 2007
Portsmouth's new midfield powerhouse Papa Bouba Diop is relishing a quick return to former club Fulham on Sunday and insists he has no fear of the hostile reception which players traditionally receive from fans of their old clubs.
There may be no place quite like home for Portsmouth, who have again turned Fratton Park into a fortress this season with three wins in five games and draws against Manchester United and Liverpool, but Craven Cottage has become a home from home for their fans who will pack the Putney End in familiar style this weekend.
They have already snapped up nearly 3,000 tickets - with Fulham responding by releasing an extra 1,000 to them and reminding visitors they can also pay on the day.
And Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who will have Diop and Sean Davis, another former Fulham star in his midfield, declared: "Fulham is always a great place to go for us. That away end will be filled up with our supporters and, with the noise they make, it will be almost like a home game for us. We had a terrific 3-1 win there the year we made our big escape from relegation and it was only a last-minute equaliser which stopped us winning again there last season."
Senegal giant Diop, who joined Pompey in a £3million move from Fulham on the last day of the August transfer window, told the club's official website www.portsmouthfc.co.uk: "We go to Fulham confident after the win against against Reading last week. And I'm happy to go back to Fulham because I made a lot of friends while I was there. Changing your club is just a part of football and today I'm very much a Portsmouth player."
The 6ft 5in ball-winner whom Fulham fans nicknamed 'The Wardrobe' during his three seasons at the Cottage, said: "I came here for a new challenge and I'm very pleased with the start I've made. I'm enjoying myself doing the job I'm paid to do - with a lot of very good players around me."
Diop, who made his Pompey debut in a goalless draw with Liverpool, has had a four-match unbeaten run with Pompey - three of them wins, including his appearance as a substitute in the 1-0 Carling Cup success at Burnley and a dynamic performance in the 7-4 romp against Reading.
But he warned: "It will be a very different game at Fulham than the one against Reading. I don't think we will go forward as much and it will be a big test for us because Fulham had a hard game at Chelsea last week and took a good point. Maybe a draw would be a good result for us but I think it will be a good game."
Boss Redknapp, whose team could face former Pompey players Diomansy Kamara, Alexei Smertin and Dejan Stefanovic, has just one major selection dilemma.
His main striker Kanu missed the Reading goal-feast with a knee injury but the Nigerian's replacement Benjani Mwaruwari hit a hat-trick.
Redknapp said: "Kanu's knee is still a bit sore. He has been having treatment and we'll see how he is on the day. Benjani's hamstring is a bit tight and causing him discomfort but if they are both fit it is a nice problem to have."
25 09 2007
Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp paid tribute to striker David Nugent whose 69th-minute winner swept his side into the Carling Cup fourth round with a 1-0 win against Burnley at Turf Moor.
Nugent lashed the ball home to make amends for his 18th-minute howler when he burst clear only to make a complete hash of an attempt to nutmeg Burnley keeper Gabor Kiraly.
Redknapp - who made Nugent available for transfer a matter of weeks after his £6million arrival from Preston this summer - said: "He needed a goal really and it was nice to see him notch. Hopefully David will come on from this. He needs to work hard and take his chances when they come. We've got a bit of competition up there because Kanu has been fantastic and I have got four up front."
Nugent's goal was greeted with strong Clarets protests as the home side protested he had handled the original pass from Pedro Mendes before firing the ball home.
And Burnley boss Steve Cotterill claimed Nugent had admitted the handball. Cotterill said: "Apparently he said to Steve Jordan it was handball. He said it but he could have been saying that to wind Steve Jordan up so we take it with a pinch of salt. It's certainly nothing we're going to be bleating about."
Redknapp shrugged off the incident, insisting he did not have a clear view, and instead paid tribute to his side which featured 10 changes with only Sylvain Distin keeping his place.
Redknapp added: "We were okay in the first half and in the second half we kept the ball quite comfortably. It's always difficult when you make 10 changes and put another team out. We've had a good week. We came up here for two tough games and we won them both. If we get a good result on Saturday it will have been a fantastic start to the season for us."
