Blues boss Paul Jewell says he’s not sure whether he’ll make a renewed move for his three January Portsmouth targets, Jason Pearce, Joel Ward and Stephen Henderson, but seems unlikely to do so in the short-term. Yesterday, Pompey’s financial situation forced them to loan Norwegian international winger Erik Huseklepp to Birmingham.
On deadline day Town agreed fees for midfielder or defender Ward and keeper Henderson, while Portsmouth rebuffed bids for centre-half Pearce, but the moves broke down due to the players' inflated wage demands.
However, with the fees being agreed so late in the day, and with Town facing West Ham that evening, the Blues felt they weren't given time to get the deals done.
Asked whether he might make a renewed move for any of the trio in the wake of Huseklepp's switch to Birmingham, Jewell said: "I don’t know. I didn’t get to speak to any of the players [in January]. It was a bit messy, as I said at the time. It’s a tragedy what’s going on there and I think it’s one we’ll just keep away from.
"That’s not to say that [that might not be the case in the] future. I think they’ve got good players Portsmouth but it’s not something that’s top of my agenda at the moment.”
The Blues boss was loathe to talk in too much detail about how Town found dealing with Pompey — or perhaps their parent company CSI’s administrator — during those negotiations: "I think I got a bit of stick from the Portsmouth fans for saying that [Pompey let the situation drag on until near to the window’s closure], so I don’t really want to upset them more than I already have.
"But I found it very strange and amazing how reticent they were to do deals when now they’re saying they’re absolutely skint.
"I don’t know who was making that decision. I spoke to the manager once and after that it was done at a higher level to me and we were getting mixed messages. We’ll let Portsmouth run themselves, we’ve enough to do at our club.”