Pompey: First-team trio staying put
Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie says first-team trio David James, Sylvain Distin and Niko Kranjcar will not be leaving Fratton Park this summer.
Full-back Glen Johnson and striker Peter Crouch have already left the south coast during the close-season for Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
And reports suggested that they could be followed out of the Fratton Park door by others, with England goalkeeper James linked with Spurs and Sunderland, defender Distin with Aston Villa and Liverpool and Croatian midfielder Kranjcar with Everton.
However, Storrie has now moved to nip any further stories regarding the threesome's future in the bud, after telling the Portsmouth News that the club do not need nor want to sell them.
"I want to avoid selling. If my hands are forced with certain things not happening it's a different situation, but we're not there yet," he said.
"The ones that are going to go now are purely to do with tactical reasons. We want David, Sylvain and Niko to stay.
"We still continuously get enquiries [about Distin] but we are just not interested in selling him.
"We want him to stay with us for the next two or three years and have had interim discussions with his agent on a new contract, so it's in his hands really.
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"Niko has always made it clear he wants to stay and see out his current deal, but doesn't want to sign a new contract.
"As for David, he's already come out and said he will stay."
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Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.
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