Chapter 1: What recent transfer news is affecting Portsmouth FC?
The latest Pompey news. Updates every day from the Pompey Sound News Desk.
The following transfer news story was broken by the news. Go to their website for the full SP. It's now being widely reported elsewhere. The gist of the story is this. Portsmouth have reportedly set their sights on Ligue 2 striker Nesta Elfage as a potential January signing.
According to reports, manager John Messinao is eager to add more firepower up front before the transfer window closes on February 2. Elfage currently plays for Grenoble Foot in the French second tier. The 25-year-old has a towering presence, standing at 6ft 5in and has chipped in with four goals and three assists so far this season, for his 13th-place side.
Now it seems Grenoble might have a fight on their hands to keep one of their key players, if Pompey get their way. Misenio is said to be desperate to bring a new number nine to Fratton Park to boost the club's fight for Championship survival.
Currently in their second season back in the division, Pompey are dangerously close to the drop zone and need a change in fortunes to avoid an immediate return to Ligue 1. It's believed Grenoble have slapped a Ā£1m price tag on the forward, but it's unclear if the South Coast club are prepared to meet that valuation to bring him over from France.
Portsmouth's interest stems from the Frenchman's significant height, with the club hoping he can offer a different kind of attacking threat and make a real impact. The Championship side has apparently been scouting the player for months and are now ready to make a move.
However, with a contract running until the summer of 2027, the French club are in a strong negotiating position and under no pressure to sell this month. As things stand, Pompey sit 21st in the Championship table, just one point clear of the relegation places, ahead of a crucial clash with Sheffield Wednesday. Bringing in a player like El Fij could certainly give Portsmouth a different dimension.
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Chapter 2: Who is Nesta Elfage and why is Portsmouth interested in him?
His sheer size would make him a handful for Championship defenders, and offer a profile that Moussinho's other strikers don't have. While he's shown promise in France, his goalscoring record isn't prolific, which might be a concern for a team desperate for a reliable goalscorer. Oh, let's hope it's true. Let's hope there's something in this one.
because I for one am fed up with saying to the bloke next to me at five to three on a Saturday afternoon by the way I use those words metaphorically because we don't play too many games any longer at 3 p.m.
on a Saturday afternoon but that's another discussion I'm fed up saying to the bloke next to me they're big aren't they and compared to us practically every championship side simply is big I mean sometimes they're very good at football as well and they're very athletic and they're very fast and And they're very well organised and they've got good ball control. Of course, those things.
But those things are matters of opinion, largely. You know, formations and skill. But the fact that somebody is 6 foot 5 and your player is 5 foot 10 is a factor. Because there is blood and guts about football. It is a combative sport. You know, it's a tactile sport. You knock into each other a lot.
And a bigger guy, particularly if he can handle himself and knows what to do with his weight advantage, will win. Even if they don't necessarily win the ball, they will win the mental battle. So a six foot five inch centre forward for me. OK, so this sounds old fashioned. Any day of the week. as long as he can play the game to a certain extent.
If he's just used as the target man so that the goalkeeper's option of going long doesn't mean that Colby Bishop, Colby Bishop, Colby Bishop every time is sought for with the long ball and has to do a tussle with often a six foot three, four, five inch centre half, that's a good variation.
If we had two players who were good at receiving the long ball, then the opposition's defence have got some thinking to do. So, yes, I say, what about you? You can always drop us an email if you feel like contributing your two penneth. It's radiopompey at gmail.com. Radiopompey. at gmail.com. And this big fella?
Yes please. He signed from Exeter City for a seven-figure fee after a blistering start to the season that saw him bag 12 goals before January. Ali made an immediate impact, scoring four times in his last six games as he almost single-handedly kept Luton in the Championship. Although the team were ultimately relegated, he remained a regular in League One under former boss Matt Bloomfield.
However his fortunes changed dramatically when Jack Wilshere took charge in October. After starting in Wilshere's first game against Mansfield, the former Halifax man has found opportunities hard to come by, playing just 110 minutes of league football since.
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Chapter 3: What impact could a 6'5" striker have on Portsmouth's performance?
The likes of Gideon Codua and Cohen Brummel were preferred, Shaden Morris has seen more action recently, and the arrival of Manchester City youngster Emilio Lawrence on loan last week seems to have pushed Ali further down the pecking order. Now Football League World is reporting that a deal is close for him to join a Pompeyside desperate for reinforcements.
John Messinao's team sits 21st in the table, just a point above the drop zone, and has been hit by a string of bad luck. Tottenham recalled winger Yang Min-hyuk only to send him to Coventry, while Callum Lang, Josh Murphy, and Franco Ume are all injured, and Mark Kuznowski is out for the season. The report states.
Portsmouth are making moves to bolster their options in the final third, and they are in advanced talks to sign Luton Town attacker Malenik Ali on loan for the remainder of the campaign. Wilshire himself admitted last week that a loan move was likely. I think Millie has to play football, Millie definitely has to play football, he said.
He's not a young player who can dip in and dip out, he's at an age where he probably feels like this is his time. I also understand that he needs to play, so we could be open to that, yes.
It's just a rumour at the moment, a piece of gossip at the moment, but it's being reported quite strongly in not one but three particular news agencies as if it's something that's rumbling towards becoming a reality. So Millie Alley, his full name is Millenic, Ali, it's A-double-L-I, but I believe it's pronounced Ali rather than anything else.
It's not spelt like Muhammad Ali, but it's pronounced Ali in the same way. He's Irish. He's past his very first flush of youth, but he received a great many really enticing write-ups when he was a younger player. And he had settled himself in to life with Luton when Jack Wilshere arrived as the manager, having been interim manager at Norwich. And he's still cutting his teeth.
Wilshere's only been in the job about eight weeks, I think. And... If a manager, a new manager, takes not a dislike to a player, but is unconvinced by a player, particularly if that player doesn't quite fit the way the manager wants the team to set up, then that poor player has got nowhere to go. And in the case of Ali, Mili Ali, he can't even find room on the bench.
So they're looking to send him out on loan and he plays exactly where we want him. He is versatile, but primarily a wide right player who scores goals. It crossed my mind that maybe Jack Wilshere doesn't like him because Jack Wilshere himself played a similar sort of role at the various clubs that he played for, including over 100 times, of course, for Arsenal.
And Wenger always had some nice things to say about him. But the impression that you get if you look through his biography, and it's a huge Wikipedia entry, is that there was something about him that didn't click at each of the clubs that he went to as a player, ending up in, I think, in Holland or Denmark on a year-long contract because nobody else seemed to want him. He was without a club.
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