- 7 weeks ago
Pepe Lacey is joined by Neil Allen for this week's episode of Pompey Talk from The News, Portsmouth. On today's show, the pair talk about Josh Knight's arrival from Hannover 96, Makenzie Kirk, statement signings, wingers and more as the countdown continues to deadline day
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00:00hello and welcome to the latest edition of pump talk i'm pepe lacy and like last week uh i'm
00:10joined by neil allen neil i'm back we're back for another week we've made it through um this week
00:16there's no jordan cross and neil allen so uh mark maman so it's it's us once again
00:21hey just just look let's talk about the signing probably made a signing
00:26introducing you so excited you're all over the place there he's so look at him yeah yeah i'm
00:33excited well it's like a child on christmas day aren't you yeah well i mean it's almost like
00:38john massino john massino's quotes about josh knight were rather exciting that's where we begin josh
00:44knight he's pompey's seventh sign in the summer yeah we've been writing about this a lot this
00:50week haven't we since saturday really uh and it became very clear um early in the week that
00:56that pompey were very very confident of getting him and sure enough he's been unveiled today announced
01:02um on a three-year deal and disclosed fee which uh we believe is around the one million pound mark as
01:09well so um yes it's come from nowhere really in terms of a central defender because uh i can't
01:17remember that was it last week or the week before john massino was adamant he didn't need another
01:22central defender and then suddenly pompey missed out on billick at uh at birmingham he goes to west
01:28brom and then they're gonna go for for josh knight they've secured him so yeah uh it's an interesting
01:34one how he fits in so there are many center halves at the moment yeah i mean obviously we all week we've
01:41been looking at him really and just looking at his career so far he's so highly regarded everywhere
01:46everywhere he goes highly regarded in his three spells at peterborough he won player of the season
01:51at um at wickham well it didn't quite work out for him at hanover he's had such a successful career so
01:57far and has established that in playing in the championship yeah it'd be interesting to speak to
02:02himself about how it went at hanover because he played 24 games last year scored three goals
02:07there was a change of head coach in april and by all accounts um he wants to bring his own people in
02:13and um and josh knight has fallen away and he's not played at all this season i did see a message
02:20from um on twitter actually yesterday from a hanover fan who said that that uh he did really well there
02:26but um the manager wants a different profile of a passing defender and he's not quite that um so
02:35uh that's why he's sort of fallen out of favor there but he's he trained with him pre-season
02:39um and despite his lack of competitive action this season um pompey will look to bring him up to speed
02:46yeah i mean the window all started really with with rob atkinson sort of being that name to fill that
02:53fifth role that john massino wants at center back he wanted five players at center back although that's
02:59sort of tossing change throughout the summer saying he doesn't want five and then we've now got five
03:04um nathan ferguson's name was another name mentioned when he was on trial at pompey and
03:10some pompey fans wanted a loan player to come in and but josh knight has come in pompey paid a big
03:16fee for him and that just that shows where pompey are looking that's the market pompey are looking at
03:22to strengthen yeah ferguson was an interesting one because i read some people saying why didn't sign
03:27ferguson he'd be he'd been at pompey for six months training so they had a good look at him
03:34his last competitive game was december 2021 uh obviously he's had a lot of injuries despite
03:41having a lot of talent but probably had a good look at him he decided he wasn't what they were
03:45looking for um and they've gone for josh knight instead and willing to pay money for him obviously
03:51ferguson would have been free um so it's just you've got paul and shock and sue being the
03:59favorite center half in preseason and this season as well so it's interesting how that is affected
04:05hayden matthews is still here as well let's not forget yeah so what happens with him
04:11bow out as well so tom mcatar is obviously not considered but but so it's an interesting it really
04:17is an intriguing one and i did ask john messina yesterday about whether they needed a center
04:23half why they needed to send the half and the the cricket bat came out uh played it down the line
04:30there and like you pepe when you play cricket boiler counts but played it down the line that there and
04:36um yeah he said he said oh it's not a priority position um clearly it's surprising enough to
04:43spend a million pound on the new center half isn't it so um yeah where does he fit in there what next
04:48for bow out again he said yesterday that bow out they're not looking to loan him out he's there in
04:53training but with another center half five plus mcintyre surely it would make sense to loan bow out
05:00not not play competitively we've played once competitively in 15 months so he needs games
05:06somewhere so perhaps they can loan bow out so that again there are more questions to ask john messina
05:11after the game on saturday now josh knight is in the building but only yesterday uh as ever he was
05:18misleading as a little take us down the wrong garden path um and uh yes yeah saying not priority when
05:26clearly we all knew that the night was coming in and it had been widely reported as well that night
05:30was coming in as well yeah i mean that doesn't surprise me at all about john messina john messina
05:34is not the type of person to do that at all um but it's quite ruthless isn't it pompey spent quite a
05:41lot of money on hayden matthews back in january they've got the solid defense really of connor
05:46shocknessy and reganpool currently and then pompey go out and spend it spend a million pounds on a
05:52on a new defender we've seen it over the over the years where john messina has just been so ruthless
05:56look at last year pompey spent money on nicholas schmidt even though will norris was there was the
06:01number one john messina is not afraid to make those ruthless calls and bring bring in players for for
06:07sizable fees yeah we can't forget that they wanted to bring action full time not just just not just a
06:14loan they wanted to bring him in permanently uh and then as it turned out he got offered a new deal
06:19at bristol city so that they've said that if the right person's there they would sign them straight
06:25away uh and then they've waited and they clearly to for night to be the right person uh they've looked
06:32at the center half in pre-season let's not forget poppy didn't see the goal in pre-season
06:35yeah uh pool's been look really impressive pre-season as well and they were looking at these
06:42players before they lost to norwich as well um presumably before the reading game so
06:49this this is in their um their mind um yeah it's just an intriguing one but but let's not forget
06:56it doesn't mean they're not going to sign a winger it doesn't mean they're not going to sign another
07:00center forward um it's not not not cues you don't prioritize it just happens doesn't it so which
07:07comes first so yeah they've got the center half in they've got enough right backs they've got enough
07:13left backs they've got enough gold you'd imagine that'll be it now for the defensive area yeah
07:19that's that's the the other big talking point um with 11 or so days to go in the transfer window
07:25there there are still quite a few areas for pompey to strengthen isn't there yeah they they need a
07:31winger we all know they need a winger uh it was interesting again saying to him about who's who's
07:38who are the options for the right wing um uh being cheney is one obviously uh yang is one
07:45lang's injure segsich is one now because he played there didn't he um uh he played better there on
07:52saturday at snorries didn't he so they're the options matt richie's a non-runner of course harvey
07:58blair um story about that today that uh he's nowhere near it yet either coming back from his long-term
08:03injury and then on the left you've got josh murphy's an automatic starter and whoever backs him up
08:08there so they need a they need a right winger and and they need cover stroke competition for
08:15bishop because at the moment it's just uh waddingham so still plenty of work to do yeah would you say
08:23pompey is stronger on the right this season than they are last season i know you wrote a story about
08:28matt richie uh earlier in the week would you say pompey is stronger on the right than
08:32what they were last season uh at the moment looking at the first three games no
08:37no i'm not you you analyze the first three games i thought um lang was outstanding on the right
08:44in the opening game now he's injured uh so you look at the situation um yang being cheney
08:52with a flash here i thought being cheney came came on well and did well against norwich actually
08:56when the penalty caused some problems his crossing struggled to beat the the first man
09:01but it did cause them a lot of problems with his directness and his pace um and there was there
09:07was one moment where um was it darling just just brought him down yeah richard hugh style took a
09:16yeah yellow card because he was bursting through dangerously um proper old school defending that one
09:23um so uh uh but yeah at this moment in time you can only judge i'm always banging on about this i
09:32judge players when i see them playing for pompey i don't care how they did elsewhere i don't care
09:37that ryan tonicliff came through the ranks at main united therefore he must be a wonderful player
09:41i don't care that john massino got loads of goals for doncaster he must be brilliant you judge them on
09:47here him now and how they do at pompey um yang's at his moments um but physically there's been issues
09:55in there but again we've not seen a lot of him he didn't even play on last last day and we've not
10:00seen a lot of being cheney that much as well so there's still time for them to to settle down and
10:04perform as it did abu kamara a few few years ago so but in the here and now i can't see into the future
10:11i'm useless at that i i don't own a crystal ball um in this but in the here and now they're not as
10:19strong without without matt richie yeah yeah there's no way of him coming back is there that that's
10:26no it's almost it's almost like burnt bridges there that it's done matt richie's not even
10:31training at pompey anymore he he's looking elsewhere so because there's been quite a lot of comments over
10:36the past week saying just bring back matt richie it's not as simple as that no no i mean i
10:41i i've said this many times i've written it i get it both points of view um he was told um in in may
10:50that uh pompey will be looking elsewhere in that right in that right wing department signing a player
10:57there potentially um there'll be fewer first team starts for him which he wasn't particularly
11:03enamored with so in the end eventually they decided okay it's best both parties if he moves on
11:10uh so that was the agreement he's been looking for another football club that hasn't happened yet
11:17pompey been looking at right wingers um you can argue that whether that's happened or not yet as
11:22well can't you so that's the situation he's not trained with pompey he's not been at pompey since
11:28uh the first day of pre-season with the testing uh he's kept himself fit elsewhere as he would do
11:34because he's a professional and he's incredibly fit as well so yeah pompey are quite relaxed really
11:40um that um he will sort himself out elsewhere um in the meantime you have to replace him and
11:48pompey still need a right winger yeah there's there's 10 days to go 10 11 days to go in the
11:53transfer window and it's been three and a half months since those end of season conversations
11:57happened and pompey's still nowhere near to sign the right back than what they were when they told
12:01matt richard it just i wouldn't say it seems like a mess but what's your thoughts on that area of the
12:08transfer business uh well they being sheenie and but and and yang are both right-footed actually
12:16so they are both naturally right-footed john me has seen it so they can play there
12:20so he's got segasic lang say lang have been done so well there against oxford and
12:26and he was being pushed to the to the right to to fill that space and also accommodate segasic
12:31but perhaps i look at segasic now i'd imagine because um it was a funny one saturday because
12:37it was completely anonymous first half not in it couldn't get in the game couldn't get touch
12:42absolutely anonymous and he was at the start of the second half but obviously things changed
12:49lang went up injured and segasic went out right and um he got pompey back in the game didn't he with
12:56his goal that was absolutely nothing he forced a very good save before that from the goalkeeper as
13:00well with a shot from outside the box um and suddenly he came to life didn't he in that position
13:05and impressed everybody so that could be the role for him moving forward yeah um looking elsewhere
13:11uh pompey's still obviously looking for for a new striker the name mackenzie kirk has cropped up
13:16over the past couple of days um you're obviously at john massino's press conference yesterday was
13:21his name mentioned at all no there's no point mentioning the name to john massino because he's
13:28just going to say contracted player yes we don't talk about contracted players so uh yeah but it's a
13:36position we know pompey are interested in him uh it's a position they have to strengthen as we said
13:41earlier uh so yes they are they are looking at him 21 year old player um which is i think
13:50wadding is 21 now isn't he as well 2021 isn't it so um yeah not quite the experienced rival to uh
13:58for colby bishop uh and they've still got room in the loan market as well pompey yeah what do you make
14:04of the criticism of colby bishop over the last couple of days um obviously you missed that penalty on
14:09on saturday and that sparks some some talking points on social media that i don't think not many
14:15people agree what's your thoughts like yeah obviously he's missed four of his last 10 penalties
14:21which is a huge concern but overall he scored 18 of his 23 penalties which shows you that he's a
14:30really good penalty taker he's taken some big penalties in that time as well some big big penalties
14:36precious situations um so we know he can score for penalties and earlier in the week i looked at
14:43bombay's penalty takers over the years since 2000 um brett pitman remember what a great finisher and
14:50penalty taker he was he still missed two yeah so players do miss penalties now it does concern me
14:57he's missed i'll have to say four of the last 10 i did ask john massino about that yesterday but he says
15:03he remains his penalty taker so uh that's as far as he's concerned he will continue um he says that a lot
15:10of players uh don't cope with that situation mentally uh players don't want to take penalties
15:16but bishop always puts his hand up and probably if ogilvy won the penalty in that stoppage time
15:23um he would have asked he would have taken the penalty again yeah yeah yeah i just feel like the
15:28criticism on colby bishop throughout really there were question marks over whether he could make the
15:34step up to the championship and then he answered that almost instantly on his first game back and it
15:38almost feels as if he makes one mistake and it's almost sort of it gets criticized quite a lot which
15:46you look at colby bishop the first three months of last season you had marco mining cassini yangi start
15:52up front and pompey couldn't score a goal to save their lives colby bishop comes into the team
15:56and pompey are free flowing and win two of their next uh lose two of their next 17 at home
16:02he leads the line perfectly for pompey and people are saying oh we need to have better
16:08competition for colby bishop colby bishop is one of the best strikers in the championship well yeah
16:12poppy do need better competition for him without any doubt you can't have one senior striker
16:16they need to see it they need competition there without any doubt whatsoever but what i will say
16:22is that pompey's season changed for the better when he returned last year
16:26he returned they they changed the system against hull uh i think they won well they won one game
16:32before colby bishop came back in his press yeah one game and then he came back transformed them
16:39they changed the system they obviously um uh sorry not the changes in the change the the press
16:44they uh brought matt richie in for hull and it and it sparked the staying up um but what i will say is
16:53as ever in life what people have made up their mind they've made up their mind so if somebody
16:58doesn't fancy colby bishop they'll stay quiet for a bit when he's doing well and they'll just
17:02still have a go at him it's just how how things works uh sean ragged that had it the whole time he
17:07was at pompey and i think in the end majority of fans liked him but it took a long time he even won
17:14the player of the year trophy and then the following year was being hammered so it can take time can't it
17:19but but some people aren't ever going to change their opinions uh as you see every day every day
17:24really i'm surprised people haven't called uh called for john massino to re-sign sean ragged this
17:29summer based off uh some of the stuff we've seen over the last week well you see
17:33we've been uh we've been talking about um pompey needing a statement signing do you think
17:45josh knight is that statement signing defenders don't really excite
17:51yeah pompey is spending a fee and they're they're they're spending reports elsewhere saying it's
18:01it'll be over a million so pompey are spending money
18:05not really an exciting one like you said but would we see pompey fork out 1.5 up to 2 million in the
18:14next 11 days good question john was saying something money's he's repeated the money's there
18:19um so i don't know but but yeah signing no disrespect for uh to josh knight uh but yeah
18:28signing a defender when you've already got loads already it's not not a statement of signing
18:32unfortunately uh so i think a lot of fans are hoping the winger and the striker will be statement
18:39signings i'll very much doubt it for the striker uh it most likely be a loan you'd imagine yeah um
18:46or or a young promising lad uh the job has already talked a great length about the issue of
18:52recruiting another senior striker to contend with bishop um so trying to get them down here isn't it
19:00but yang you did a good job that that promotion season to pair them rivaling each other didn't they
19:05um and you got the winger as well so yeah we'll wait and see and hope and um it's it's an interesting
19:13situation because there's two glaring spots there for pompey that need strength in yeah obviously on
19:18to uh west brom on saturday uh pompey will obviously be looking to avoid their uh 5-1 defeat
19:24last time they made the trip to the hawthorns we'll be there nil um it'll also be a return for
19:30for john swift um how do you think he's fared since his since his move yeah he's done okay
19:37it's a strange one with him because john messina would admit that his best positions is a 10 or
19:44a left-sided eight as he calls it but he's actually been playing him as a six yeah the
19:50mile-on-pack role sitting in front of the defense with with dazelle dazelle playing a little forward
19:55further forward so he is playing him out of position not his best position uh these two's
20:02done okay hasn't he um he's clearly a very classy on the ball really good passer uh very like that
20:09volley he had the other day said it all yeah i'll tell you what aaron walk away in there ain't
20:16pull him off a shot like that is he so yeah you know if this is your this is your number six this
20:23is your uh holding midfielder um you know what a lovely shot that was on the chest and then the
20:29volley so um yeah uh but we know that luke larue's been put for that role we know mylon pats there for
20:37that role but it's currently injured so i think at the moment if anything swiss there
20:42keeping the seat warm uh and larue could come into the side soon maybe in the weekends you don't
20:50know do you but uh that's the situation there he's he's he's definitely i did a piece of the
20:55westbron's program actually and they sent me questions and one of the questions was um swiss
21:01known as a very attacking player how's he doing at pompey it's like he's not attacking so much at
21:05pompey's playing as an holding good fielder which he never played i've looked at i've looked at
21:10wide scout so this this is a fact this isn't my opinion it is a fact he uh john swift never played
21:16as a holding midfielder cdm whatever you're going to call it uh at west brom in almost 130 games
21:23he was always an attacking player and he's only two games at pompey uh in the league he's actually
21:29started as a holding midfielder yeah that's that there's a stat over there
21:35it's a fact it's a fact it's a fact do you think we could see him maybe move up into that number 10
21:45role on the weekend with callum lang out we could see adrian segas is potentially move out to the
21:51right if that's how john massino wants to go can we see swift move up and maybe kuzneski and luke
21:57larue come in do we know how far away they are for potentially by the all counts larue is close
22:05uh but it could well be it could be well with a shift from around there isn't it even though i
22:10thought um gizelle had a very good game against norwich um pompey had a lot of the ball against
22:15norwich admittedly when 2-0 down and norwich could afford to sit back a little little pompey had a lot
22:20the ball um and didn't didn't do it a lot with it in the first half especially and a lot of the
22:28second half until suddenly they came out of nowhere there's a grandstand finish thanks to
22:32putting a goal back so yeah he could change a little couldn't he uh larue could welcome in as a 10
22:38sorry as a 6 and that could release swift but uh yeah we'll we'll see how it goes he's got a few
22:44options there and kuzneski of course you mentioned um he's he's viewed as a as a more of an attacking
22:51midfielder himself so he could play as well yeah plenty of options for john massino that's the end
22:58of uh this week's pompey talk thank you neil for joining me uh josh knight special so i would call it
23:04thanks for joining me neil thank you very much thanks for having me on your show yeah it's my show
23:09now mark mcmahon's gone i'm here so yeah thanks for joining i'll see you in the next episode
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