Portsmouth in race against time to offload out-of-favour attacker amid Polish interest
Harvey Blair has made just 29 appearances since joining from Liverpool in August 2024
Pompey face a race against time to offload Harvey Blair with his Fratton Park future in doubt.
The former Liverpool man has been the subject of strong interest from Widzew Lodz in the latter stages of the transfer window.
Yet while that has quietened down over the last few weeks, it is understood the Blues are still open to doing business with the Polish club over the 22-year-old.
What’s more, Poland’s transfer deadline is at midnight tonight, allowing the opportunity for a late development in Blair’s situation.
Left out of Pompey’s Football League squad
Intriguingly, the winger wasn’t included in the Blues’ 25-man Football League squad list, which was announced on Monday evening.
He was omitted along with Connor Ogilvie, Keshi Anderson, Jacob Farrell, Mark Kosznovszky and Josh Murphy, with Pompey electing to keep three spaces available.
Yet while the absences of Ogilvie, Anderson, Kosznovszky and Murphy are likely because of injury, the reasoning behind Blair is not so clear-cut.
Certainly there has been no suggestion of injury, with the attacker last involved in a Pompey squad against Derby on September 1, when he was named on the bench, albeit unused.
He was subsequently left out of the 20-man match-day squad on Saturday against Cardiff, along with the likes of John Swift and Madiodio Dia.
Interest from Poland, Switzerland and Hungary
Blair has also previously been linked with Servette (Switzerland) and Ferencvaros (Hungary), although both their transfer windows have since shut.
That leaves long-time admirers Widzew Lodz as a possible destination for a player whose contract is set to expire at the end of the 2026-27 season.
Despite their injuries, Pompey suddenly have welcome strength in depth in their wide positions.
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Luke Brooke-Smith, Eoin Kenny and Abu Kamara have all arrived this summer, with encouraging early performances from all of them.
Regardless, Blair still made a surprise first appearance of the season off the bench in the 2-1 defeat at Bristol City last month.
Replacing Kavuma-McQueen, the ex-Liverpool man operated on the left-wing for the final 27 minutes, having been preferred as a substitute to Brooke-Smith.
Widzew Lodz are presently 13th in the Ekstraklasa, having won just one of their opening seven league games this season.
Hugely disappointing
Blair has made 29 appearances and scored once since arriving at Fratton Park in August 2024, representing a hugely disappointing stay so far.
Although there have been undoubted glimpses of quality, including an assist for Adrian Segecic at Stoke in April, his availability has been devastated by persistent injury.
And with his Pompey contract up at the season’s end, at this stage it must be considered unlikely that it will be extended.
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