Portsmouth have confirmed the signing of Blues target Joe Morrell from Luton Town.

The 24-year-old had been in discussions with Pompey at the end of last week and was close to agreeing the move, but the Blues tried to hijack the deal over the weekend, news which emerged earlier this afternoon.

However, the Wales international has now joined the Hampshire side, where he is reunited with Danny Cowley, his boss during a loan spell at Lincoln City.

Morrell is likely to be a first-choice at Fratton Park, while he would almost certainly have found himself behind Lee Evans and Rekeem Harper at Portman Road.

The Ipswich-born schemer has signed a three-year deal with Pompey with the club having an option for a further year, the clubs having agreed an undisclosed fee.

Portsmouth director Eric Eisner tweeted his thanks to the Hatters for honouring the deal which the two clubs presumably agreed at the end of last week prior to Town making their interest known before later removing it.

Town will now have to look elsewhere to add to their central midfield options where it’s understood they’re looking for more two players.

Among those who we understand has been under consideration in recent weeks is Derby’s Scotland international Graeme Shinnie.

Photo: Action Images

Wallingford_Boy added 23:17 - Aug 9 Great player, played Pompey.
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CavendishBlue added 23:17 - Aug 9 Splitter!!!!
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OwainG1992 added 23:23 - Aug 9 I would have liked him as I'm biased with the Welsh connection. I think he's a good signing for them at this level. But Harper and Evans are certainly the two I'd rather see starting.
3

FramlinghamBlue added 23:32 - Aug 9 I only knew about this player four hours ago and now I'm gutted! 😂
5

90z added 23:33 - Aug 9 Not fussed at all by this, we have signed some great players already and im sure Mark & Paul will pull something special out the bag if they still want some cover in this position.
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Mediocre_Quick added 23:44 - Aug 9 I smell a bit of salt in the announcement 😅 good deal for them, good little player
4

ldnj added 00:03 - Aug 10 Sensible move, probably didn't want to be one of the 20 subs !
2

chepstowblue added 00:28 - Aug 10 Ripped us apart at Sincil Bank a few seasons back and is obviously a talented lad.I think he'll get more first team opportunities at Pompey than at Portman Rd this season. Quite relieved this deal hasn't gone through as we're already spoilt for choice in the attacking midfield department and I'm as confused as hell. Did I mention we need a centre half or two ?!!
2

istanblue added 00:50 - Aug 10 Disappointing.
1

BcarefulwhatUWish4 added 01:00 - Aug 10 Unexpected. Thought we had a good chance of getting this player in.
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BcarefulwhatUWish4 added 01:01 - Aug 10 Pompey fans will be loving this.
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FrankMarshall added 01:24 - Aug 10 Absolutely gutted. He's potentially a world class player and there is no way he will be in League 1 for long. He played a great game in Wales' 2-0 win over Turkey and reeked havoc in their defence= https://www.lutontown.co.uk/news/2021/june/morrell-wales/ He was also outstanding against Switzerland and Finland and dominated the midfield in both teams. An undoubtedly outstanding talent. I would predict that Portsmouth are certainties to go up if he stays fit. Portsmouth have a huge squad of players though so surely one of their midfielders will need to move on? Shaun Williams, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Marcus Harness, Ronan Curtis, Michael Jacobs and now Joe Morrell (all in the first team). They already have 6 strikers just in their first team alone so can hardly push any of these players into other positions either! The biggest challenge Cowley will have is keeping so many players happy over the course of a season.

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Suffolkboy added 03:33 - Aug 10 Looks like .very much like. Smoke and mirrors ! Still can't believe anything said , until reality dawns ; almost sure Crowley said they couldn't really afford him ! COYB PS DO please arrange inward movements for central defenders !
0

ArnieM added 06:06 - Aug 10 Ah well it matters not . You can't win em all. Move on ….
0

Essexnblue added 06:28 - Aug 10 FrankMarshall, if he is that good, why are Luton getting rid of him and why is he dropping down a division? One minute Cowley is whingeing that they cannot afford him, the next he is signed. Expect a few fireworks when we meet Pompey.
6

bluewarrior added 06:40 - Aug 10 Esssexnblue. My thought entirely. Don't see many ‘potentially world class' players (as quoted above 😂) being sold by bloody Luton and dropping down a div to play for low budget Pompey. As always take the speculation with a pinch of salt and concentrate on the facts. Let's face it, with most of the players we've signed, there was little or no speculation then bang, we're closing in on x,y or z and next they're photo'd in a town shirt at PR.

4

davidswindlehurst added 07:23 - Aug 10 FrankMarshall Where do you get your stats from? They have one of the smallest squads in the league at present and only have 2 center mids in there squad, one went off injured in saturdays warm up and they had to play a left back midfield, Curtis, harness and Jacob's are wingers and attacking forwards and they only have 4 strikers with one of them going also to Oxford or Wednesday!! Morrell would of been a great signing but we got what we deserved after the way we treated Jacob's

2

OwainG1992 added 08:03 - Aug 10 I think FrankMarshall is a closeted Pompey fan.
0

KernewekBlue added 08:32 - Aug 10 You're never going to get all your transfer targets over the line so nothing to worry too much about here. Shame about Jacobs though. If we had an agreement in place, all but signed, it would have been the honourable thing to do to see it through. Hope it doesn't come back to haunt us during the course of the season. I do, however, think Kyle Edwards is a class signing and will be great in a Town shirt. Like many others here have mentioned, it would be great to see some more defensive acquisitions coming in to bolster our backline. If there's one area that ought to be a priority now, it's in defence. Some more decent cover at right back and a couple of strong central defenders would put a lot of people's minds at rest. Gary Cahill, for one, is still (I think) a free agent. Not a great age at 35, I'll grant you, but bags of experience at the top levels. Could still do a real good job at League One level and would be a good, steady head to bring on our younger lads and pass on his knowledge. I trust that our well structured and well informed management team have players in the pipeline for these positions and we'll all soon breathe a little easier when we're having to defend. COYB

0

CraigEdwards added 08:33 - Aug 10 Couldn't get in the Luton side last season!
1

itfcserbia added 08:42 - Aug 10 So Luton just won't do any business with us this summer. How odd... On other note Morrell reminds me of David Healy - great at international level but for some reason just not reciprocating that at league level. Great player none the less. Can't win them all, moving on...
0

carlo88 added 08:43 - Aug 10 I don't think we've come out particularly well in this though, sounds like Luton honoured the deal despite us possibly offering more money. We may be getting a poor reputation already.
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WalkRules added 09:24 - Aug 10 Interesting comment in the Portsmouth press that he was concerned about the lack of opportunities - which of courae does make sense when you consider the amount of attacking flair we have in the squad. Hopefully we will focus our efforts now on defence.
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PortmanTerrorist added 09:25 - Aug 10 Nothing to see here. Has loyalty to Cowleys just as other signings want to come play for PC. Besides, he is a Welsh international that would probably warmed the bench in league 1 given the players we already have. Regardless of cash, that is a hard sell too far it seems.
0

Lightningboy added 09:42 - Aug 10 Hmmmm,thought being an Ipswich lad would've been a big thing in our favour. He's a good defensive midfielder but I wouldn't have put him ahead of what I saw from Evans & Harper's partnership last Saturday. We still need midfield back-up for those two though.
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