Exclusive:Portsmouth boss confirms position over winger's Fratton future with interest in former Liverpool man
The Pompey has confirmed for the first time to The News, the position over the £300,000 signing’s Fratton future. Here’s the details.
Harvey Blair will be allowed to leave Pompey before the close of the transfer window.
John Mousinho has confirmed the winger will be allowed to depart in the coming weeks, after two injury-hit years at Fratton Park.
Mousinho on Blair leaving: ‘I think that is one one we’d entertain’
But the Blues head coach has not completely shut the door on the Liverpool signing, as he challenged the 22-year-old to prove his fitness.
Blair has been touted for a move to the continent, amid reported interest from the likes of Widzew Łódź, Servette and Ferencváros in his services.
Mousinho has confirmed for the first time the £300,000 signing will be allowed to leave before the 11pm deadline on September 1.
With Blair in the final year of his existing deal at Fratton Park, the Pompey boss wants to see the talented wide man get his career firing - and hasn’t ruled out a loan departure.
Speaking to The News over Blair’s future, Mousinho said: ‘I think that is one one we’d entertain.
‘Harvey isn’t fit yet, but we’ll have to see when he’s back. He did train for part of the session yesterday and once he’s fit, which he will be very quickly, I think he’s a very exciting young player who needs to get his career going and play football games.
‘I’ve always had a real soft spot for Harv. We’d love to get him going here at this football club, so if he needs to get games elsewhere to potentially come back we could do that.’
After an injury-riddled couple of years which has restricted Blair to just seven league starts amid 28 appearances, Mousinho is clear the first task for the Huddersfield-born man is to not have a recurrence of the hip and hamstring issues which has hindered him.
That will then allow Blair to move towards fulfilling the potential the Pompey boss clearly feels he has.
Blair added: ‘That’s the big thing (proving his fitness). I’m not sure the longest Harvey has been available, but when we got him into the team Christmas last year he had a decent run in the team until Arsenal in January.
‘He couldn’t get himself fit after that properly and at crunch time at the end of the season we went in a different direction in terms of players available.
‘Harvey came in at the back end and did very well against Stoke and Birmingham, which was a step up from the previous season when he played well against Sheffield Wednesday and got injured against Hull. So there’s been steps in the right direction for Harv.’