The deal that would have taken Marezi to Bournemouth has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Portsmouth with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Portsmouth, and it is not being withdrawn.
$5.6M was the most the club would pay and Crystal Palace were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 29 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Portsmouth heard it as anything else.
$17.0K on the table at Luton Town. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Portsmouth go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portsmouth can pretend not to have heard.
$5.5M on the table at Crystal Palace. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$5.5M was the most the club would pay and Crystal Palace were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marezi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brentford have kept their man, and Portsmouth go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$5.5M was the most the club would pay and Crystal Palace were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abu Kamara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Portsmouth, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Portsmouth have made the call to Burnley. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Portsmouth know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutJohn Swift has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portsmouth can pretend not to have heard.
24 appearances at Stoke City and the goals have stopped going in. Portsmouth lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I did not go to Huddersfield Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Portsmouth and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 38 matches say the rest.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zak Swanson is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Portsmouth know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 goals in 40 games at Milton Keynes Dons — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Portsmouth updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Jordan Williams has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Southampton, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Portsmouth dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Abu Kamara falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Ross after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Josh Murphy's
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Portsmouth lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Leicester City moved on, Jordan Archer reports back to Portsmouth, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Caballero. 2‑1 against Bristol City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oliver Ross on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Looking aheadPortsmouth take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutBenjamin Arthur is still being punished for one mistake
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Portsmouth lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Portsmouth can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Portsmouth until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal that would have taken Adrian Segecic to Wolverhampton has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Portsmouth with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Stoke City paid $1.6M and Portsmouth took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tottenham keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portsmouth this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Portsmouth will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Portsmouth lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 against Coventry City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The offer from Wrexham for Jordan Archer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toronto FC have kept their man, and Portsmouth go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Portsmouth are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oliver Ross after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Portsmouth lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑4 to Hull City, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Portsmouth, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Stockport County for Adrian Segecic was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Portsmouth go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Márk Kosznovszky has come up in conversations Portsmouth were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.