Source: Daily_Mail
Portsmouth ready to seal loan swoop for Stoke midfielder Liam Lawrence
Portsmouth administrator Andrew Andronikou has pointed an accusing finger at the Football League after they refused to ratify the transfer of Liam Lawrence from Stoke and Tommy Smith's sale to QPR.[LNB]Lawrence, who joined Portsmouth with Dave Kitson as part of the deal that took Marc Wilson to Stoke, is in limbo after the Football League claimed he did not complete his move until 12 minutes after the transfer window closed.[LNB]The Football League are also refusing to recognise Tommy Smith's £1.5m move to QPR after claiming that deal was completed TWO minutes after the 6pm deadline. [LNB] Tussle: Liam Lawrence (left) and Dave Kitson (right) were part of the proposed deal which took Marc Wilson (below left) to Stoke[LNB] [LNB] Andronikou said: 'Unfortunately, we are not Tottenham and are not allowed to have this issue sorted the next day as they did with Rafael Van Der Vaart. This sort of thing will only happen to us. There is proper brinkmanship going on just because we are Portsmouth Football Club.[LNB]'The whole world knew two weeks before that we wanted this deal to happen. Unfortunately, they have been finding ways of making things difficult to actually push it through. From our end, all documentation was sent on time, well before the 6pm deadline. I was there myself to see it.[LNB] 'Admittedly, the deal happened a little later than we would haveliked as the player was training with the Republic of Ireland squad. Wehaven't even had a chance to give him a medical yet.[LNB] Late move: Rafael van der Vaart's move to Tottenham was only confirmed the day after the transfer deadline[LNB]'But it was sorted before 6pm, I can tell you.'[LNB]Portsmouth, who have re-signed Kanu and Ricardo Rocha, are nowtrying to sign the Ireland international on loan but will have to sendIbrahima Sonko or Carl Dickinson back to Stoke as they cannot havethree players on loan from the same club. [LNB]If the move does not go through Lawrence cannot play for Stoke as he has not been named in their 25-man Premier League squad.[LNB] Stoke defender Shawcross hits back at Wenger's claims of rough tacticsAfter 25-man squads announced, we introduce the kids from ... Fame!No more good life for Gudjohnsen! Stoke striker wants to focus on football[LNB]
