Why Alex Robertson missed Cardiff City’s League One opener amid summer talk of Portsmouth return
There has been talk throughout the summer of a Fratton Park return for Alex Robertson - although that avenue has since been closed.
Alex Robertson was missing for Cardiff City’s League One opener against Peterborough United on Saturday.
There has been plenty of speculation over his future in the Welsh captial following the Bluebirds’ relegation from the Championship last term. Talk of a return to Fratton Park arose earlier in the summer, with a move to PO4 appealing to the Aussie sensation.
But a switch to the south coast never came to fruition as Pompey’s football operations continued their search for new midfield additions.
However, Robertson was missing for the Cardiff’s season opener against Peterborough on Saturday, with Brian Barry-Murphy’s side going on to win 2-1.
Why Alex Robertson missed Cardiff’s season opener.
While there has been talk of a departure in recent weeks for the 23-year-old, his absence was down to injury after picking up a nasty cut in the Bluebirds’ final pre-season friendly against Notts County last week. An issue which required stitches for the Socceroos star on the eve of the new campaign.
Speaking ahead of the curtain raiser, Barry-Murphy told Wales Online: ‘Alex has quite a bad gash on his shin. I thought it was a poor tackle at that height, and he’ll need stitches.’
Talk of a departure from south Wales grew following Cardiff’s relegation from the second-tier, with as many as a dozen Championship clubs keen on the ex-Manchester City ace.
But it set tongues wagging among the Fratton faithful, who were excited by the prospect of a return to PO4 for the League One title winner.
It comes just 12 months after Robertson snubbed Mousinho’s men in favour of Cardiff, where he penned a four-year deal from Manchester City despite Mousinho’s men agreeing a deal with the Premier League outfit.
John Mousinho on Pompey’s midfield options
Any move for the midfielder now appears to be over, however, with Pompey bolstering the engine room with three new faces.
John Swift completed a switch to his boyhood club in July, while Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Le Roux arrived from MTK Budapest and IFK Varnamo respectively.
The head coach told The News: ‘I think we are pretty well placed in the centre of the park now.
‘If you look across it, we have Luke, Marlon, Dos, Swifty and Mark. They are a pretty good five in there, with a lot of players which complement each other and can fill those positions.
‘Never say never, we will always keep looking if anything pops up, but I think that’s a pretty good five.
‘Overall, we are still looking to strengthen in other areas, so we’re not done yet. I guess there’s plenty of time and very little time at the same time, if that makes sense.
‘The season is coming up really quickly and we have seen how long some of these transfers take to get done.
‘We stand by our guns, though, and want to bring the right players in at the right time, rather than just filling the squad for the sake of it.’