Portsmouth deny player fire sale
PORTSMOUTH chief executive Peter Storrie insists there will be no mass exodus of players in the January transfer window despite the club’s financial problems.
The troubled Fratton Park outfit face a winding-up order from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and are also subject to a transfer embargo for unpaid player fees.
The club paid its players late yesterday for the third time this season, fuelling speculation that a host of Avram Grant’s stars are desperate to leave the Premier League’s bottom team. England goalkeeper David James, Younes Kaboul and Kevin-Prince Boateng are all tipped to leave but Storrie insists only “one or two” players could exit – and only at the discretion of club owner Ali Al-Faraj.
“That’s something the owner of the club will decide, whether financing will come into the banks or through his own funds or if we have to sell one or two players then he will make that decision,” Storrie said. “One or two people think because of the press coverage that there’s some kind of fire sale on – that’s not the case.”