Pompey trio start for England

Pompey players, David James, Glen Johnson and Jermain Defoe have all been named in Fabio Capello's starting 11 in tonight's game against Germany.

Defoe lines up in attack next to Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Glen Johnson is back in the side after his quality performances for Portsmouth, but the England side is a weakened one.

Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand, David Beckham are all out of the running in the big international derby.

David James retains his England no1. jersey in net.

Pompey's Peter Crouch is also expected to start on the bench.

Tony to quit if Defoe is sold

Pompey boss Tony Adams has told current owner Sacha Gaydamak that he will quit as manager if Jermain Defoe or any other players he wants to keep, are sold.

There have been plenty of rumours surrounding some of Pompey's top players with a move away from Fratton Park in January, most of them being linked with Harry Redknapp at Spurs, but Adams isn't going to let them go without a fight.

Adams said: "He's a threat (in front of goal) and I'm sure there will be some big clubs trying to get him but hands off because he's mine.

"Big offers? I can't wait ...because the owner has been very supportive and although I've not made an issue of it I've told him that everyone stays who I want to stay or I don't do the job.

"I told him that at the very start. He was very supportive of Harry and now he's being very supportive of me.

"He phones me on the way home and says 'what do you want, Tony, how can I help you and I say keep Defoe where he is and there's no problem. He says fine, anything else?' He's totally behind me."

Along with Defoe, Lassana Diarra, Niko Kranjcar, Glen Johnson, Sol Campbell and David James have all be linked with a move away from Pompey.

Despite this, James has already stated his intentions to fulfil the whole of his contract at Fratton Park, which will keep the England stopper at Portsmouth until 2010.

Niko Kranjcar has most recently been linked with a £12m move to Spurs, with Diarra being linked with Man City, Spurs and Man Utd.

Four Pompey players make England squad

Picture: Realmadrid.pl

Fabio Capello has included four Pompey players in his squad for England's mid-week encounter with Germany.

David James, Glen Johnson, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch have all been named in the 23-man squad, more than Man Utd, Liverpool, and Arsenal put together.

Whether all four will start is down to Capello, but the little n large partnership has done well recently, and David James and Glen Johnson's clean sheet today will do the duo justice.

There were a few shocks in Capello's squad, with David Beckham and Michael Owen excluded, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney were withdrawn by Sir Alex Ferguson.

On-loan Wolves defender Michael Mancienne, Spurs striker Darren Bent, and Villa players Gabriel Agbonlahor, and Ashley Young were all included in the squad.

England take on Germany away on Wednesday night, and we'll all be hoping we can get one over the Germans before travels to Wolfsburg during the start of December

Goalkeepers: Carson, Hart, James.

Defenders: Bridge, Johnson, Davies, Lescott, Terry, Mancienne, Upson, Richards.

Midfielders: Lampard, Gerrard, Wright-Phillips, A Young, Downing, Barry, Carrick.

Strikers: Agbonlahor, Bent, Defoe, Crouch, Walcott.

Ben Sahar and family not happy with Pompey

On-loan striker Ben Sahar has stated his unhappiness about not being played in the first team so far this season.

The Israeli has yet to feature for Pompey this season despite looking very handy in pre-season, and although Sahar is only on a 6-month loan from Chelsea, it doesn't look like he's going to be getting a game soon.

Sahar said: "I'm fit and I feel ready to play. It's difficult because of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch. They are great players. I'm training well, but it's not all about training.

"I can't say I regret going to Portsmouth. I wouldn't have preferred to stay at Chelsea."

As well as Sahar expressing his annoyance at a lack of first team football, his mother has been quoted in the Jewish Telegraph over-reacting about the situation.

"It's nothing to do with fitness," Batia told Sportsword. " It's because his name isn't da Santos and he's not from France or Italy or Spain.

"For Ben, football is everything I cannot look at him every day so disappointed. If he was happy we wouldn't need to live with him.

"If he was Ben Sahar da Santos it would be different matter. If he was from any other country he would be playing. It's unfair not to give him a chance.

"He's living in Portsmouth and has no friends there," said Batia. "They are all in London. The only thing he's thinking about is football. It it was me I would go home, but he's strong. It doesn't break him."

I think this is absolutely ridiculous, if Sahar and his family are that unhappy then jog on back to Chelsea where you will never get a chance. As for life in Pompey, I am sure the players have been kind to him and made him feel at home, and there will be plenty of places where you can get kosher food (another thing that Mrs Sahar has been moaning about) in Pompey, you just haven't looked.

Also we have no Spanish or Italian players at Pompey, and I would like to point out to the dippy Batia Sahar that in my eyes, our current star player is Nadir Belhadj, and he's Algerian.

Despite this, I would like to see Ben Sahar feature for Pompey, maybe in the early rounds of the FA cup or late on during a Premier League match would be a good time to give him a try, but don't expect to jump ahead of Crouch or Defoe da Santos quite yet!

West Ham v Pompey preview

Pompey head up to London to face West Ham this weekend, with the Blues looking to continue their unbeaten Upton Park run in the Premier League.

Pompey's main injury concern is Sol Campbell, who hasn't trained this week after picking up a toe injury.

Younes Kaboul looks to be the one to step in for Campbell in defence to hold a solid back four, although Tony could once again revert to a 3-5-2 system using Glen Johnson and Nadir Belhadj as wing-backs.

Midfielder John Utaka is also a major doubt, after the Nigerian was told to stay away from Pompey's training ground to recover from a virus.

Fringe striker David Nugent played a full game against Liverpool reserves at the weekend and so may feature on the bench for Pompey as Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe look set to front the Blues in attack.

Niko Kranjcar is now fully fit, with an assist and a goal in his last two returning matches, we will hopefully see Niko back in flying colours against the Hammers.

West Ham will have Valon Behrami, Carlton Cole and James Tomkins back fit. The Hammers will be without Kieran Dyer and Diego Tristan after picking up mid-week injuries.

Possible starting XIs

West Ham: Green, Behrami, Collins, Upson, Ilunga, Faubert, Parker, Mullins, Bowyer, Bellamy, Cole.

Portsmouth: James, Johnson, Kaboul, Distin, Pamarot, Kranjcar, Davis, Diarra, Belhadj, Defoe, Crouch.

Derek McGovern = Idiot

I haven't used this blog for many rants despite within the Pompey set-up, but today I read a report by the Mirror's betting guru Derek McGovern.

If you read the link below you will understand why I am so grumpy about this report. With Adams' odds of leaving or being sacked being quite low, we kind of expect bad reports and news surrounding Adams' future, but the way in which Mr McGovern claims that a loss tomorrow against West Ham will be a very bad set of results with one win from five games.

Did he not see the unlucky point against Fulham, the four times we hit the bar and three times the ball was cleared off the line against Wigan, and the unlucky penalty that left us hanging our heads at Anfield? If you ask me, we have had a really unlucky set of results, and despite playing our worst in four games against Sunderland, we picked up all three points, but McGovern has decided to claim and suggest that Adams should and will be out of a job if we fail to beat the Hammers.

For this statement I think he is a complete idiot, and needs to get his facts straight when giving his opinion. Four great games against mixed opposition, and we were unlucky with all three results. McGovern if you want an opinion on Pompey and their manager's future then maybe you should watch their games and try being a manager following in the footsteps of the legendary Harry Redknapp.

Manchester City have won just one game in seven, on top of a multi-million pound spending spree in the summer and most likely another one in the january transfer window, Mark Hughes isn't being slated by McGovern is he?

To read the article by McGovern click here