LATEST: Portsmouth hopeful of winning race for ex-Cardiff man Marlon Pack as Shrewsbury and Bristol City target weighs up emotional Fratton Park return

The midfielder has held talks with Danny Cowley over coming back to the south coast following his end-of-season departure from Cardiff.

The News understands Pack has been impressed by Cowley’s ambition for the Blues and is prepared to drop into League One.

Pompey are hopeful of securing the 31-year-old, yet face competition from two other unnamed clubs, in addition to Bristol City and Shrewsbury, who have previously been linked.

Pack, who hails from Buckland and started his career at Fratton Park, is currently away on holiday weighing up his future.

Yet Cowley’s men feature strongly in his thoughts as he contemplates a reunion with the club he supports and a place he has previously described as having ‘unfinished business’.

Should he move into League One, it is believed Pack’s overriding preference is for a club with genuine promotion aspirations coupled with regular first-team football.

That puts the Blues firmly into the equation, with Cowley convincing him of his desire to restore them back to the Championship following a decade away.

In turn, Pack perfectly fulfils the central midfielder criteria that Pompey’s head coach is searching for during his summer player hunt.

Cowley is eager to recruit a holding midfielder who can serve as a foil to either Joe Morrell or Louis Thompson next season.

Pack has spent the last seven seasons as a Championship regular, firstly with Bristol City and then Cardiff.

Last term he made 26 outings for the Bluesbirds, before manager Steve Morison elected to blood more youthful options with one eye on the future.

Regardless, he totalled 109 appearances and scored five goals during three seasons at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Of course, the lure of returning to Fratton Park cannot be underestimated in the battle to secure former City of Portsmouth Boys pupil.

Pack came through the Pompey ranks alongside Joel Ward and Matt Ritchie, before shown the door by Steve Cotterill in the summer of 2011.

By that stage the midfielder had made two outings for his boyhood club, with his league debut ironically coming against Cardiff in the Championship in August 2010.

In an interview with The News in June 2020, Pack described growing up in the Blues’ youth team as ‘the best days of my life’.

He was one of four youngsters handed match-day duties in the November 2008 visit of AC Milan, having his photograph taken with Ronaldinho, Kaka and Pirlo.

The former South Stand season-ticket holder, who began his playing affiliation with Pompey around the age of six, would also clean the boots of Sean Davies and Niko Kranjcar.

Following loan spells at Wycombe, Dagenham & Redbridge and Cheltenham, Pack joined the latter in May 2011 upon his Pompey release.

He later played for Bristol City, claiming the double of the League One title and the EFL Trophy in 2014-15, before linking up with Cardiff in August 2019.

Now – 11 years after leaving Fratton Park – Pack is mulling over whether he should return.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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