According to the Daily Mirror, Portsmouth already have their eye on a replacement for Real Madrid-bound midfielder Lassana Diarra, with the club already said to be in talks wih Middlesbrough to bring Gary O’Neil back to the club.
Pompey are set to pocket a large sum from the £20m+ sale of Diarra, and £5m of it looks set to go to Boro for the 25-year-old O’Neil, who departed Fratton Park for the Riverside in a £5.5m deal in August 2007.
With the exception of loan spells at Walsall and Cardiff, O’Neil spent his entire senior career at Portsmouth before moving to Boro, and while he has done well on Teeside, there have been reports that he and his family have had issues settling in their new surroundings.
So, if the opportunity does come up for him to return to Pompey, I’d imagine he wouldn’t be opposed to it, and the Fratton Park faithful would no doubt welcome him back with open arms, considering his great contributions at the club in his time there.
Another plus for Pompey is that they won’t be spending a great deal of the Diarra fee on a quality replacement, and even so, Boro still owes them a portion of the fee from their purchase of O’Neil, so that lessens what it’ll cost for Tony Adams to bring him back to the club.
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