UK time is: 01:54:43

Vital Login

Social Login

Portsmouth News 24/7

Choose your club

Other Sites

Network Navigation

Vital Partners

'If It's Football, It's Vital'

Check out the forum! There are 2 members viewing right now. Click here to join in!

Niko planning summer exit?

According to 'reports' coming out of Croatia, and how true they are is unknown, Niko Kranjcar is planning - and expects - to leave Pompey in the summer?

A new deal with the club is on the cards but Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List is reporting that he expects to leave in the summer regardless: 'I am waiting (for a move) there is no rush. Until the end of the season I will be with Portsmouth.

'After that the club will make a decision on what is best, and they will probably sell me - even though we have started negotiations over a new deal.'

Arsenal and Spurs have both been linked with the Croatia, but he denies having held talks with 'Jamie's Dad' about a move to Spurs: 'Redknapp has not called me, and anyway my position there is well covered with Luka Modric playing well.'

Not exactly what we want to hear at this moment, even if they are not entirely accurate - and I would expect a counter claim against them to be honest. That said a summer departure would not surprise me at all and in an ideal world, if he does go, a move to Arsenal in a player plus cash deal to bring in Armand Traore permanently would be fantastic...

So, maybe Kranjcar is leaving, but a move to bring Jermaine Pennant to Fratton on a permanent basis is not being ruled out.

As we know he is on loan until the end of the season, a free transfer move away from Liverpool is then expected and should all parties be in agreement then he could stay here in the long term?

PLAY UP POMPEY!

Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for the British GP

Seconds Out! Vital Boxing is here!

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.

Writer: pompeyrug

Date:Thursday January 22 2009

Time: 6:14PM

Your Comments

I also get the impression that the club wants to sell Niko come the summer, so I'd have to agree with him. I wish it were otherwise because I think he's the kind of player we need, but I don't think he figures in the club's plans regardless. Yes, if we have to sell him, let's hope we can at least get AT as part of the deal.

PhilTaglia

persnally... I hope he stays.

pompeycarpet

Nice to see the media are twisting things again. An american website has titled it - Kranjcar can't wait to leave Portsmouth. Daft idiots.

powered_by_pies

When hes on form hes class, but he is SO inconsistent and disappears so often that if I had to choose i'd rather have someone not quite as good but who can turn in a performance week in week out... On a side note, I also think he should cut his hair again. There's almost a direct correlation between his hair length and how well he plays! Crap/Long - Good/Short.

SUAC51

Just seen Hull have agreed a fee for Jimmy Bullard. Surely we should have a cheaky bid?

SUAC51

Has been plagued with injuries this season but these rumours do not help the atmosphere at the club when they all need to pull together.
PUP

eastneydave

SUAC51 I always say this, there are a million examples of players who play better with certain hair-styles than others. It's really strange but I swear it's true!

ArsenalRob

I think I said a while back, when it was mooted that the Gunners were gonna offer £12m for him that we should bite their hand off for anything over £8m .. I still stand by that. Overrated and inconsistent in my opinion he's a luxury the team can not afford.. Although if he played like he played in the first half on Sunday all the time.. I would quickly change my view.. but unfortunatley I just can't see it happening..

Chix

I don't think that there's too much substance in the Arsenal roumers btw, although I'm not sure of cause.

ArsenalRob

Chix you got it spot on there. He's one of our most talented players but he requires a run of about 15 games before you start to see his real quality. He was good for 60 mins against Spurs but he began to tire and lost the ball too easily and he doesn't track back to make up for mistakes.

stillthewhizz

chix - completly disagree. He is basicly what our current team is built around. Our team has just two players that can actually turn a game around, find a killer ball, and create openings for others. kranjcar and johnson. loose either of them, and we will struggle to score goals even more than we are already. Fitness this season has been a problem though - people feared burnout from last season, and I think we are seeing it.

pompeycarpet

Swap him for Traore, what a great prospect he is, do anything to keep the kid.

Owenspompey

Pies....why are you expecting sense from an American site??? I think Niko has lost a few yards pace this year and you have to look forward. If there were any way we could get AT permanently (although I am not sure he'd be that keen) then it would be worth it. I'd love to see us with two evil, nippy flanks in full flow against a coupe fo flaky full backs! Mmmm!

hammersmithblue

He seems to be saying he MIGHT leave in the summer and it depends what happens. So many players have come and gone lately, Krunchie is a class player at times, but disappointing at other times. I would like him to stay, but que sera and all that.

tracyc

Yes this rumours are truth. Niko said that he is dissapointed because club sold Defoe,Diarra,Muntari... and that the club expect to much from him, he also added that he asked Peter Storrie to buy some quality players and Storrie response was no. To cut the long story short Niko said my heart is no longer with pompey i seriously expect to leave the club if not i January then in summer for sure.

Kranjcar19

does pennant not count as a quality signing?

pompeycarpet

The selling makes sense for the club especially if it means buying in 2-3 other players. Quality as Niko is , he may be too much of a luxury. Should we still have our prem status next season, we may well have a very tough season & need some different quality in depth.

storagematt

With Crouch as the lone striker on a 4-5-1, Niko is our main player when he plays off of Crouch in the centre. Anywhere else and he is a waste of space. Until the last few games, he has been poor and a liabilitie since his return from injury. At the moment I would like to keep him, but if keeping him means that he is played on the left side of midfield, then I wouldnt mind us getting the cash while we can.

jbaker

d Excuse me for asking, but does Kranjcar19 have more information than the papers and Sky, or is the name he uses just some kind of alternative cyberspace imaginary life.....speaking of which, Ive just spoken with Defoe24..said he was never ever going to leave spurs again..unless they get relegated.., and JDickinson49 said he cant believe I earn over £100 a week, i explained to him of course that i was an oscar nominated actor.Then of course Redknap19 ambled over to our table... I told Adams 67 dont you tell him anything about our potential transfers he is bound to run and get his own bid in......Fortunately, PStorrie8 was on hand to say dont worry all our targets are near completion.

plymouth graham

I think Kranji hasn't had the best season because the team hasn't suited him. If Pennant can produce the goods and Little stay fit, I can see him playing behind Crouch in a 4-5-1. Then maybe a good 2nd half of season will follow and the picture will change but, right now, I can see why he's unsettled.

Pompeyscum

Dude if you can read croatian then read this http://www.24sata.hr/sport/clanak/kranjcar-ne-znam-hocu-li-potpisati-novi-ugovor/97503/ and also Kranjcar representative Emil Zgur said "Niko doesnt want to sign new contract" then the writer of the article said that he is got an offer from the land most probably from Italy. Zgur said "we have scheduled talks with Peter Storrie over the possibility of transfer "but dont know if you knew Kranjcar also had his transfer request rejected. Btw this newspapers in Croatia are 99% the real thing. They were the one who announced transfers of Modric, Eduardo, and Kranjcar from Hajduk to Pompey http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2009,1,17,,148722.jl plymouth graham here is the article so if you can read it you will know if no stop writing bull****.

Kranjcar19

Croatian press could hardly be worse than ours so fair play K19....however, is anyone keeping tally of how many players have been mentioned in the Window season? Sorry, I lost count at 40

hammersmithblue

Well i will concede that you must know more that the papers and the sky tv, or at least you do more research. and i guess you know mnogobrojan ispričavati se ako ovaj prekršitelj te

plymouth graham

ps.. Kranjcar19 jesu prebivanje in uk?,

plymouth graham

to every one one else who do not speak croatian, I have apologized to K19 for any offense my light hearted trip into the surreal. I do not speak Croatian so i used an online tranlator

plymouth graham

lol sorry plymouth graham but i can't understand a word you're saying :) , if you are asking me do i live in UK then the answer is no. I live in Croatia in beatiful little town called Osijek but during the summer i am at my sister's house on even more beatiful island Krk. :) and if you wanted to say "many apologies if i offended you" then you should wrote "jako se ispricavam ako sam te uvrijedio" :D, but there is no need to apologize. haha i am still laughing plymouth graham you made my day.

Kranjcar19

K19 - I was in Zagreb not long ago and saw Dinamo play Osijek at the Maximir - great country and I am personally a HUGE fan of Kranjcar and think that he'll one day be a massive star. He's inconsistent, sure, but at least he's less inconsistent than Portsmouth Football Club at the moment!! Seriously though, he'll be a HUGE loss.

PFCGino

Niko is class but maybe the time has come to consider selling him to Arsenal for anything in excess of £12m plus Armand Traore. Good business all round. I can understand people saying our team is built around him but I'm inclined to agree with Chix; we're surely looking for a strong team ethic here where flair and hard graft are delivered by every player in equal measure. Best I've seen us play was against Milan - no shortage of flair and creativity, superb passing and retention of possession - all without Niko.

NinjaTim

PFCGino nice to see someone who is watching our league. :D Yes Niko is inconsistent but that is the reflection of other players in pompey team we all know Niko is not Ronaldinho and that he will never be Ronaldinho but who can play first touch football with Davis, Diop, Hughes, Kaboul ??? Just remember last season how Niko played great with Muntari, Diarra or even Mendes he fitted like a glove. This year Belhadj and Traore (loan) basicaly just Belhadj is the only pompey player with great technique who can play with Niko a simple passing footy we all love.

Kranjcar19

Kranjcar19, you have to remember who writes/edits these articles. Zidak is in charge at Jutarnji - hardly the model of unbiased, well informed journalism is he? He's too friendly with Mamic and that's where he gets his info about Dinamo transfers. Niko may go in the summer and maybe he does want to leave, although so far he's only been very supportive of both Tony and the team in his statements; but I kinda doubt he'd be confiding in Zidak about it. So who knows what the old fool chopped out of his words. Being a journalist myself, although not a sports one, I know how easy it is.

malaga1

Yes, I love Croatia, think it's a beautiful country, although the standard of football is.... well.... Dinamo got beaten by Spurs 4-0 so that's saying something! I think Kranjcar playing in th middle just behind the striker(s) is his best position - he can be more creative and unlock defences with the through balls he is famous for

PFCGino

Just saying we should not jump to conclusions until we hear more about this, preferably from another source as well.

malaga1

malaga1 i agree 100% but then again he always seems to be right. Now about our league i think the main problem is obvious lack of quality but then you have to say this little fact Dinamo sold over 60 million euros worth of players in last two years. I think i europe only Ajax is better then Dinamo when it comes to selling players.

Kranjcar19

NinjaTim

i agree to make him part of a deal to land traore, i just think it was criminal of harry to sell taylor to accomodate kranjcar, apart from the dedication from taylor you got goals out of him, more than niko, and i would imagine the assists were about the same too. hind sight eh?

ruffcider

I have always thought of Kranjcar as one of pompeys top player but only when the formation suits his play, as an only attacking player. A bit slow too for the EPL, Italy is very slow and undemading style, he would be good in that league. Kaka only looks high quality in the italy league because it is so slow.

saviolafan

K19 - the quality of football in your league is poor compared to the Premiership, however I will not fault the atmosphere. I would say that there were only around 800 fans there but they had the Maximir rocking, even if I was scared for my life when they lit the flares! There is, however some Croatian talent knocking around, particularly if clubs like Dinamo and Split are churning out players such as Kranjcar, Eduardo and Modric. With regards to Kranjcar, I think that he is one of the best players I've ever seen in a Pompey shirt and I think selling him would be a mistake unless it was for big money to a big club. That's just my personal opinion though!

PFCGino

Very good point Ruffcider.

NinjaTim

Oh, and the latest is that Niko is out injured for several weeks with torn groin muscles.

NinjaTim

PFCGino - I compeltely agree with you. Kranjcar is certainly one of our best players (I would probably put him top 2, along with glen johnson?). Swapping him for traore would be a MASSIVE mistake - traore is fast, but he simply can;t play one touch football. or really even two touch football. and he can't cross to save his life (not that kranjcars crossing is much better...). Saviola fan, I also agree. he does require the formation to suit him - but right now, it is practicly built around him. Kranjcar19 - if he DOES go, are there any other good croatians we could try to "steal"... I must confess I don't follow the croatian league that much... sorry.

pompeycarpet

Plymouth Graham thanks for making me laugh so much. If it is true that Niko's heart isn't in it, then we should sell him for as much as we can get. But looking at the interview in the News today, it sounded more like he felt the club would want to sell him -perhaps its reassurance he needs? Bad news that he's injured AGAIN though - we're already desperately short of midfielders. Thankgoodness 'Ughesee is back!

tracyc

on you tube it has a funny film of kranjcar scoring from around halfway agaist england, that goalkeeper was useless. for replacement of niko how about forward midfielder Ivan Rakitić, although he would be of a high price.

saviolafan

he was fairly good at the euros if i rememnber correctly... although I wouldn;t say he was on the same class. still, I wouldn't complain...

pompeycarpet

pompeycarpet we have loads of talent again in our league. The best i think are ST Kalinic, ST Mandzukic, AMC Tomasov, AMC Ticinovic, AMC Sharbini. This players can cope with premiership for sure but the problem is they are not cheap. :D BTW Kranjcar won't be out for to long Croatian team doctor confirmed that Niko torn adductor in lenght of 4 cm, but he can walk he doesn't feel any pain and he already started therapy.

Kranjcar19

Rakitic is similar to Niko, technically sound and a clever player, but he's even slower than him. He's young though, only 20 so i guess he can be trained to run more, but he'll never be naturally pacy and that is always one of the major complaints people have about Kranjcar. He is a great talent though. Gutted to hear about Niko's injury...we need him badly in the national team and I hope it doesn't drag on.

malaga1

i hope he doesn't go i like him, and he's quite good.

MFFP

Have Your Say

with your social network OR with your Vital account

Recent Articles

Game on?! (Tuesday June 18 2013)

On this day in history...18th June (Tuesday June 18 2013)

Pompey face our biggest neighbours in Capital one (Monday June 17 2013)

A preference anyone? (Sunday June 16 2013)

On this day in history...16th June (Sunday June 16 2013)

If it aint broke... (Saturday June 15 2013)

On this day in history...15th June (Saturday June 15 2013)

Rooney another possibility for Pompey (Friday June 14 2013)

Pompey non-seeds for cup draw (Friday June 14 2013)

On this day in history...14th June (Friday June 14 2013)

Archived Articles

Vital Pompey Articles from 2005
Vital Pompey Articles from 2006
Vital Pompey Articles from 2007
Vital Pompey Articles from 2008
Vital Pompey Articles from 2009
Vital Pompey Articles from 2010
Vital Pompey Articles from 2011
Vital Pompey Articles from 2012
Vital Pompey Articles from 2013

Vital Members League (view all)

1.	eastneydave	32
2.	mslorna48	21
3.	pompeyrug	20
4.	Pompeytim	19
5.	Jimsmithswig	13
6.	storagematt	8
7.	Lemmi	6
8.	Gandor1	5
9.	dedmans	4
10.	BarneyArmy	3

League Results (view all)

Latest Results
Shrewsbury	3	-	2	Portsmouth
Portsmouth	3	-	0	Sheff Utd
Brentford	3	-	2	Portsmouth
Portsmouth	0	-	0	Stevenage
Portsmouth	1	-	0	Tranmere
Preston	1	-	1	Portsmouth

League Table (view table)

Team	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
18. Stevenage	46	15	9	22	-17	54
19. Oldham	46	14	9	23	-13	51
20. Colchester	46	14	9	23	-21	51
21. Scunthorpe	46	13	9	24	-24	48
22. Bury	46	9	14	23	-28	41
23. Hartlepool	46	9	14	23	-28	41
24. Portsmouth	46	10	12	24	-18	32

Breaking League News

Excitement builds ahead of fixtures release

» Crewe : 18/06/2013 21:22:00

Trip into the unknown for Alex

» Crewe : 18/06/2013 21:15:00

Departures can open opportunity - Davis

» Crewe : 18/06/2013 21:07:00

Four teams off the list of first day opponents

» Doncaster : 18/06/2013 20:54:00

SUFC Unsworth - Weir will be a big hit

» Sheff Utd : 18/06/2013 20:09:00

Anniversary Game Against Sheffield United

» Notts County : 18/06/2013 18:55:00

Skipper loss still expected

» Crewe : 18/06/2013 17:28:00

Current Site Poll (view all polls)

Cookie Policy
At Vital Football, we along with most other modern websites use small files called 'cookies' to create the most secure, effective and functional website possible for our users. Without these files our business model, based on advertising, breaks down and we would be unable to continue to provide the services that you are here to utilise. By continuing to use this website after seeing this message, you consent to our use of cookies on this device unless you have disabled them. For full details please read our Cookie Policy which can be found here. However, if you would like to disable cookies on this device, please view our Cookie Policy which contains an opt-out tool for disabling advertising cookies. Please also visit our information pages on 'How to manage cookies' if you would also like to block all other types of cookies. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies.