'Fernandes Staying Here'

Peter Storrie has reassured Pompey fans that Manuel Fernandes will sign for the club permanently and not Man United or any other club.

Storrie said:

'The option of signing Manuel is with us.
'No club can come in and take him. If he is fully fit and playing regular Premier League football, he will sign for us. He will not come to the club until we are certain he is 100 per cent fit. First of all, he's got to be fit to play 90 minutes of Premier League football. We hope that can be in the next couple of weeks.

'Then we will want to make sure, by seeing him play in a few more Premier League games. We've got to be certain he's 100 per-cent right before we make a commitment. We're not judging his abilty. It's purely on medical grounds.

'But if he satisfies those criteria, we would be absolute idiots not to sign him. He's young and exciting. He has the potential to be one of the best players around. He's one of the best talents to come out of Portugal.'

'He's had a serious problem with his groin. It was a nasty scar-tissue injury. Our medical team have been absoutely brilliant nursing him back to fitness - the signs are good. Manuel has been superb. He's been patient.

'He knows his own body. He's being sensible, and so are we. We hope and pray his groin will be okay.'

Fernandes played 90 minutes against Mansfield but only fifteen against Bolton. He likely to start against West Ham and should sign for Pompey before January.

This article was wrote on Thursday while the network was down, apologies if this is old news to you