On this day: Peter Storrie’s pledge to cut out Portsmouth ‘cock ups’ in transfer market

On this day in 2006, Pompey pledged to cut out the ‘cock-ups’ they have made in the transfer market.
Former Pompey player Collins Mbesuma PICTURE: MATT SCOTT-JOYNTFormer Pompey player Collins Mbesuma PICTURE: MATT SCOTT-JOYNT
Former Pompey player Collins Mbesuma PICTURE: MATT SCOTT-JOYNT

The Blues admitted they were blighted by bad buys that nearly cost them relegation.

And the club appointed a new network of international scouts to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes again.

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Laurent Robert, Zvonimir Vukic and Collins Mbesuma were named among the biggest blunders.

At the time, just two of the 12 players brought to the club by former boss Alain Perrin the previous summer had a part to play in Pompey’s future – Brian Priske and Andy O’Brien.

Fratton chief executive Peter Storrie said poor signings stretched back to the Velimir Zajec reign – with the likes of Greek goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias.

The return of Harry Redknapp meant Pompey now had a shrewd judge in the transfer market again.

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But more information would now be gathered on all players before they signed.

Speaking to The News at the time, Storrie said: ‘Let’s be honest, we’ve made some cock-ups. We have to hold our hands up.

‘We’ve bought some good players in, but we’ve also bought some bad ones.

‘You can never get it 100-per-cent right. No club in the country can.

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‘So our job now is to make sure we get it as right as we can.

‘We’ve had bad ones because we have not had the right information about players and how they will settle in the UK.

‘We’re remedying that by getting far more information on players and being more selective.

‘We’re doing deep analysis on players, particularly those coming from Africa and South America who might find it harder to adapt to life here.

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‘We’ve employed more scouts around the world to help us make more thorough assessments of players.

‘Laurent Robert, Kostas Chalkias, Collins Mbesuma and Zvonimir Vukic were all bad buys.

‘Collins, for instance, is a nice lad, but he’s not right for this level.

‘The leap from South African football was too great. But that’s not saying he won’t go to another league in Europe and do really well.

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‘But we’ve done fantastically to get rid of some of the players where it has not worked out for them here.

‘Gregory Vignal, who I didn’t think was a bad player, has been moved on because we’ve done another clever deal.

‘People don’t realise how much money we’ve saved. They could have all been sitting here still earning money.’