Paterson: A bullet dodged! PLEASE keep it that way

The pursuit of Martin Paterson this summer has reached 'stalking' proportions.

I would say that the vast majority of us Pompey fans, at least here on Vital Pompey, have been of the opinion that we need to give up on him and move on - although Steve Cotterill was not doing this, by all accounts...

Well, it seems that we have dodged a bullet with this one as the Burnley man came off at half time in their opening nopower championship game yesterday!

Vital Burnley reports the following: 'Martin Paterson will miss Northern Ireland's Euro 2012 qualifier against the Faroe Islands at Windsor Park on Wednesday.

He had been expected to make a start for Nigel Worthington's men after receiving his first international call-up in a year

Pato came off at half-time yesterday in the 2-2 draw with Watford blaming a lack of match fitness.

Speaking about the situation Burnley boss Eddie Howe said:

'Martin was just not feeling 100 per cent. I wouldn't say it was a recurrence of any injury, but he said he couldn't play to his full potential, so he had to come off.

'We need to make sure we get him 100 per cent. He has done all his pre-season and been fine, so it came as a bit of a surprise because I thought he looked quote sharp in the first half as well.

'He won't go with Northern Ireland now though. We will try and speak to them and tell them we need him here with us.'

Clarets fans tough will no doubt be worried after losing Pato to a persistent thigh strain for most of last season. Hopefully this is just a fitness problem and not a recurrence of the old injury problem.'

It seems that a few of the members on Vital Burnley are thinking that Eddie Howe made the wrong call in rejecting our advances, with them now 'doubting' that Cotterill will make an improved offer for the striker as a result of this setback...

Read that full article, and see some Burnley fans comment, over on Vital Burnley - here.

PLEASE Cotts, heed this as a warning and drop the interest, dare I say obsession, that you have with Paterson!

We have wasted too many weeks pursuing a player that Burnley would not even sell, as a result I think we have missed out on better players - who would have scored more than him anyway.

Given our squad size, bringing in a player with his injury record was a concern anyway, if we now still bring him in, especially for 'decent money', with this latest fitness worry about him it would be almost suicidal!

Having, as I say, 'dodged' that bullet if Cotterill is crazy enough to keep courting him then I have this feeling that his 'possible signing' could end up seeing that bullet come back and costing him...

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