Portsmouth transfers Q&A: Neil Allen's verdict on John Marquis' Lincoln move, Tyler Walker's switch from Coventry and more signings to come

Here, Portsmouth News Head of Sport Mark McMahon is joined by Chief Sports Writer Neil Allen to discuss why it didn’t work out on the south coast for Marquis and and what else lies in wait for the Blues this month following the arrival of Coventry striker Tyler Walker on loan.

Here’s what he had to say.

Q Neil, you broke the John Marquis story on Monday evening, are you surprised by how quickly his move to Lincoln developed?

In terms of the transfer, yes.

We always knew John Marquis would be a difficult player to move on in the transfer window purely because of his wages and the size of his salary.

He was Pompey’s top earner, so how would other clubs in League One and League Two afford him, other than the obvious Sunderland and Ipswich who weren’t going to sign him?

So how could other clubs in League One afford him?

He was always going to be a difficult one to move on, he’s got a good reputation outside Fratton Park but his form has not been good this season which would surely have reduced the amount of clubs interested.

It was always going to be a tough shift really, but Pompey have done it and done it midway through the transfer window so fair credit to them.

They’ve now removed five players, and while I know there’s been an outcry that we’ve let another one go, let's be honest, these five that have gone weren’t good enough for Pompey.

Of course they need to be replaced by better quality, but it’s good for Pompey that they've removed players who couldn’t get into the side, who weren’t performing and needed to be moved on.

Q Everything was pointing towards Marquis staying because of his wages, he liked the area and he wanted to prove himself in the remainder of his contract. In that respect, Cowley needs to get a bit of credit for manufacturing this move.

Perhaps Lincoln owed him a favour!

You mentioned Marquis always wanted to prove himself and you could never fault his effort – even on Saturday.

Little did we know that would be his farewell appearance, he was putting it all in, chasing people down.

It’s all very well him wanting to prove himself, though – he’s been here two-and-a-half years played 127 games, so you've had a good shot at it.

He didn’t really have much to prove. It didn’t work out.

I don’t care what he did at Doncaster, you can only judge what he did at Pompey and it was a flop, a poor signing and it didn’t work out.

It’s not his fault, but that’s football so he should just move on.

Now Cowley has to utilise the space he’s created in the budget to bring in better players, better strikers, players who can perform more effectively at this football club.

Forget sticking with players because they did well at Doncaster two-and-a-half years ago, I don’t care and Pompey need to continue this rebuilding under the Cowleys and try to become a promotion force because they’ve faded from that now.

They have to try to rebuild and bring the players in that will make them better.

Sticking with players who have not delivered continuously over two-and-a-half years is not going to get you any closer to the play-offs and the Championship.

Cowley has realised that, he’s removed them and hopefully there’s better things ahead.

Q Why do you think fans were split on John Marquis? Some would say he wasn’t given enough service, while to others he just wasn't good enough.

It’s difficult because there was a split.

There are some fans who backed Marquis and were of the opinion that Kenny Jackett ruined him.

He’s played 30 odd times under the Cowleys, it’s easy to blame the manager, but what about the player?

Did we see enough from John Marquis to suggest he deserved to stay at Pompey for the rest of the season? No we didn’t.

He scored 10 goals in his last 55 appearances. At what point after 127 appearances do you say that’s enough?

You don’t go to someone who’s played that many times and say: ‘Go on, have some more, we’ll stick with you’.

It wasn’t working out, his goals had dried up, his performances for me were very poor having seen a lot of his games, and it just didn’t work out.

You can talk about his game, his excellent work-rate, other parts of his game, but for me, he lacked massively.

When George Hirst came in it was a breath of fresh air to see a striker win the ball in the air, see a striker hold the ball up.

It just didn’t work out for him. It’s nobody’s fault and it’s not John Marquis’ fault being the top earner.

He was bought by Pompey for £1m and naturally he was made top earner, it’s not an issue, it just didn’t work out.

I hope he does really well at Lincoln, good luck to him, but it didn’t work at Pompey and the club cannot keep a player on their books purely because he scored goals for Doncaster two-and-a-half years ago.

This is a different beast at Fratton Park, different pressures.

We’ve seen him, he’s not produced that Doncaster form, he’s not suddenly going to produce it two-and-a-half years in with a different system.

It was time to move on.

I know people have got a great belief that the managers have ruined him, but the player has to take responsibility as well.

Is it Kenny Jackett’s fault that John Marquis has not played well this season? Jackett left in March and Marquis is still here.

You’ve got to judge a player on how they’ve performed for this football club, otherwise last season we would’ve been shouting to keep Charlie Daniels in the team because he played for Bournemouth in the Premier League!

I don't care what Marquis did at Doncaster.

He didn’t do it here and it was time to move on. Good luck to him.

Q You revealed that Pompey were hoping to have a new signing through the door before Sunderland on Saturday. They’ve now brought in Tyler Walker, what do you know about him?

Pompey were hot on the trail of Walker, who looks a good signing as well.

By all accounts, Coventry fans rate him, regard him as a finisher and I believe he was their top scorer as well last season.

It looks like a really interesting signing.

Pompey have been working on that and it will give everyone a massive lift.

I’ve been saying this for over a year that Pompey need two strikers.

Honestly, I’ve said it so many times publicly, even when Marquis and Harrison were here, that Pompey need two new strikers.

Obviously, Hirst is here, but in the summer they definitely needed two strikers permanently.

I’ve not seen Walker play and again I like to judge players on how they play at Pompey.

I’ve not seen him perform at all but hopefully he’ll come to Fratton Park and lift us – a different type of striker because Pompey need goals from somewhere.

Q We know what Danny Cowley’s priorities were at the start of the window: a new centre back and a striker. He’s already acted in those areas so do you think that’s it in terms of transfers for Cowley this month or do you expect more?

I’m definitely expecting more.

I’ve been reading some criticism of how Pompey have let Marquis, Harrison and Co go before they’ve signed replacements.

It doesn’t work like that, if someone wanted to sign John Marquis now, snap their hands off.

Don’t say to Lincoln ‘can you just wait until we’ve got a replacement please.’

No, it doesn't work like that, just go. They don’t need to form a nice orderly queue.

I doesn’t work like that, so just let the players leave if there’s interest and continue to work.

Cowley has not suddenly thought we better sign someone now Marquis is gone, they’ve been working on this all window, looking at things before this transfer window.

There will be other players coming in hopefully, Cowley wants them, no doubt there will be other arrivals.

He said he wanted a striker and he said he wanted a centre-half. He’s there already.

For me they need a left wing-back because they haven’t got one in the building.

They need more players because the squad is small, but give them time and it’s all about the quality.

There’s two weeks to bring in the quality.

Cowley has always said we wanted to be stronger when we leave the window than when we went in.

Five players have departed, they weren’t good enough for this football club so he now has to replace them with players that are good enough for this football club.

We just have to wait to see what happens next.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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