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Town Confirm Webster-Clarke Switch Monday, 6th Jun 2016 15:10
Town have confirmed the signing of Portsmouth central defender Adam Webster on a three-year deal with an option for a further season from July 1st with fellow centre-half Matt Clarke moving in the opposite direction. TWTD first reported the move three weeks ago.
The fee paid to Pompey in addition to Clarke is officially undisclosed but is understood to be approaching the £750,000 mark and is the largest since Mick McCarthy took over as manager in November 2012, eclipsing the £350,000 paid to Danish side Esbjerg fB for left-back Jonas Knudsen last summer.
Webster, a 21-year-old right-sided centre-half or full-back who McCarthy initially tried to sign in January, joined Portsmouth aged 12 and came through the ranks at Fratton Park, making his senior debut as a 17-year-old in January 2012 during their time in the Championship in a 1-0 home defeat to West Ham.
The 6ft 3in tall ball-playing defender spent 2013/14 on loan at Aldershot, making 24 starts for the Vanarama National League side.
Webster, from West Wittering near Chichester, made 60 starts and 21 sub appearances for Portsmouth, scoring five goals, and has been capped by England at U18 and U19 levels.
Barham-born Clarke spent the whole of 2015/16 on loan at Pompey, making 30 starts and three sub appearances, scoring once. He has signed a three-year deal at Fratton Park.
“I’m over the moon,” the 19-year-old told the Portsmouth official site. “It was a good season for me on a personal level, although we didn’t quite hit the heights we were aiming for.
“I’ve come on leaps and bounds — playing U21 football just isn’t the same as turning out in front of massive crowds at Fratton Park.
“It was devastating for me to miss the play-off games with a niggly injury after working so hard throughout the campaign.
Webster is Town's first signing of the summer with former loanee Liam Feeney all but certain to join him at Portman Road when his Bolton contract is up at the end of the month.
Another former loanee, Paul Digby, is expected to sign on a free transfer from Barnsley.
Photo: Action Images
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Welcome Adam, good luck at our great club. His signing is exciting but I do wonder what people would be saying if he was freebie? Some posters do seem to purely focus on fee rather than ability. It's important that new players improve the team/squad irrespective of the fee. That said I hope we get another couple of good signings pre August not just squad fillers
Elto - Digby a couple of times hence my comment about limited games. Coke thankfully hasn't played many times, but after seeing him in the home matches he has appeared it's pretty obvious to all that he is not very good. Terrible actually.
I keep saying this, but this board and forum is about opinion. Mine, based on what I have seen is that cheap freebies like Coke are not good enough. My opinion. You disagree, just like I disagree with your opinions, but you like I are entitled to it.
Most of us have seen Coke in only the handful of sub appearances he made and he wasn't great. Running round slowly chasing shadows. That's enough for me.
He did OK at QPR, I think he started that match, got injured, season over for him. He was brought in as back up, never going to set the world on fire. Pointless to keep running him down as some do in virtually every post. If you can judge some one after a few Sub. appearances then fair enough, I can't.
Welcome Adam and best wishes for a great career with us. I am excited to see you play. This is exactly the type of signing I've been crying out for. Young talented English players from the lower leagues who should b playing championship football. More of this please, Bradley dack, romaine sawyers are exactly where we should be going next. Brad Inman at Crewe and the left winger at Walsall are also quality can't spell his name. Bradshaw at Walsall is another high quality striker who would be a great addition. This is what we used to do, scout and get young players. You can keep the big time Charlies, target young lads who are on the way up. Just hope MM has finally woke up
I am with Elto on Coke. He's played 14 times (mostly sub appearances) and I must admit hasn't been good. But there is zero point on bashing a player who is going to be with us all next season and (likely) the next. We need to help him through this spell so that he can gain back his confidence. He had a bad enough time at Wednesday so constantly going on about how poor he is doesn't help him and doesn't help us.
If I was in Sales and had a barren three or four years; would I want to hear words of encouragement or be constantly told how bad I am?
If he is allowed by fans to gain back his confidence, we could end up with a reasonable squad player. We need players like Giles Coke to perform well when we need them. He isn't going anywhere and has a long contract at the club.
And why so much Coke talk when we have just signed Webster? My guess is if PR got a new pet cat or something we would all end up talking about Coke in the post. To be honest, kind of tired of "coke is awful/poor" talk. We need to give the guy another chance.
MM won't have paid £750K for someone to warm the bench, so in all likelihood one of Smith, Berra or Chambers will be moving on. My money's on Berra moving back to Scotland, with a deal possibly already having been agreed. Expect news of a departure sometime soon.
Played really well against us and went passed Coke a number of times like he wasn't even there. It was great to see a defender take on midfielders with the ball and produce surging runs. It will be great to see him play that way for us.
Glad Ipswich have landed him at last,as players with past Managers have slipped through clubs fingers more than once(Charlie Adams).
I was impressed with Pompey when they played us in the cup,although cant remember Webster especially, am impressed with the little clip of him above.
Like some think this may herald the departure of one of our centre backs,as it looks and sounds from Micks remarks that he has Digby lined up as well.
Personally think Chambers is marginally the worst of the three,but don't expect it will be him,as Captain and Micks favourite.Most likely Tommy as only regular who hasn't got an extended contract;although have heard rumour that that Berra could be going back up north to Rangers,and he is the only one of the three into his 30's I believe.
Anyway excited by the signing and the fact that we may not have to endure quite so much hoof,especially if David and Teddy remain fit,and another midfielder/winger is signed.
Elto, you say that Coke was signed as "back up". Why not use our youngsters as back up? Signing the likes of Coke wastes money and hinders the development of our own. That said, if we sign both Webster and Digby then we seem to have rather a lot of young centre-backs and rather too few right-backs.
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