Patrik Berger recently returned to the Czech Republic for the sake of his family but has revealed to The News how he twice nearly came back to Fratton: ‘it just came down to my family in the end. I nearly joined Pompey in January but Villa wanted a fee.
‘I spoke to Harry again after the FA Cup final and he told me the offer was still there if I was still interested.
‘I was very tempted, but I have two teenage children who wanted to return home.
‘So I had the choice of being away from my wife and family for a year or going back to play in the Czech Republic again.
‘I really enjoyed my time at Portsmouth. I enjoyed working with Harry, the fans really are the best in the league, and I loved living on the south coast.
‘But it was just the right time for me to return home.’
Berger was a great footballer, and luckily we got a good couple of years from him without that many major injury setbacks, but these have hit him hard again since he went to Villa – I think I read somewhere that he had started less than 10 games for them in his time with them?
I liked the fella but I am glad he has not come back as had this not worked out for him this time it might have tarnished his fantastic spell from before…
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Linvoy Primus is going to be rubbing shoulders with the stars next week as he finishes up his rehabilitation in Los Angeles.
He will be using the facilities that LA Galaxy do so there is more than a chance that he will be rubbing shoulders with David Beckham and his showbiz friends.
More importantly though his rehabilitation is almost complete with Primus telling The News that he is confident of being fit for pre season, which will begin in around 3 weeks time: ‘I’m going out to Los Angeles to get a good week’s work under my belt.
‘There’s no problem with the knee. It’s just a nice place to go to focus on getting the knee right.
‘I’ve just been ticking over since the end of the season. It’s a change of scenery, and I can get ready for when I come back next month.
‘I don’t know what to expect but I’m looking forward to getting out there.
‘I’ve been working at the same intensity and keeping the strength in my legs since the end of the season.
‘But it’s going to be important that I’m in the same position as the rest of the lads when I join in with pre-season training.
‘I’ve taken care of the knee. I don’t want to come back and then break down as soon as I get back into training.’
It will be great to see Primus back. He might be on the outside looking in, but do not be surprised to see him force his way back in again guys!
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And finally, Richard Dunne looked almost nailed on to sign for Pompey a few weeks back, and although the thoughts are that he will now stay with Citeh afterall following the arrival of Mark Hughes a deal could still happen.
Harry Redknapp is not giving up hope of a deal being ‘dunne’ just yet, telling The News: ‘Richard Dunne is a player I like.
‘I would love to bring him here, and Peter Storrie has been doing the work on it.
‘It does seems to be dragging on a bit at the moment. But hopefully he can meet with him again and see what we can do.
‘Maybe Mark Hughes going there as manager is part of the problem. But I think there’s a bit of a problem with the deal or something, though.
‘We should know where we are going with it in the next couple of days.
‘If we were to get him it would be great. He’s a powerful player and he would make us very strong at the back.
‘We’ll have to see what happens.’
Should this not be resolved by the end of the week then he will turn to other targets, which reports claim include Younes Kaboul and John Mensah: ‘we are working on a few options and seeing what we can do.
‘It’s not a case of looking at one player for each position. We are looking at a few in each area.
‘Things are going okay and hopefully we can get something done soon.’
I would be delighted if we could get Dunne, but if not, if the reports that we could get Kaboul for as little as £3m are true I would bite off the hand that is offering what we will a quality footballer for so little…
What do we reckon fellas Dunne, Kaboul or Mensah? Or maybe even none of the above!
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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