Contract fears forced Portsmouth to sell £2m Niko Kranjcar to Tottenham

03 September 2009 11:33
Portsmouth have admitted they had no option than to sell Niko Kranjcar to Tottenham because the Croatia international was determined to leave Fratton Park. Chief executive Peter Storrie was reluctant to enter another deal with Spurs after selling Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch to the London club. But he said: 'Niko was in the last year of his contract so, as with others in that position, was not exactly 100 per cent up for it. At the end of the day his heart was no longer here and he was looking to move on. 'In that case it was probably in the best interests that he did leave but you are not going to get millions and millions for a player in the final year of his contract. 'To be fair to Niko, he always said to me he was not going to sign any contract we offered. If ever a biggish club came in he wanted to consider it. 'I didn't really want to do another deal with Spurs but they were the only one there interested so what do you do? If you hold him to his contract you get an unhappy player and it's demoralising. That's not what you want. 'I thought he was going away on international duty with Croatia on Monday. Then it transpired he wanted to go and talk to Spurs. 'Niko is a great lad and a great professional who always gave 100 per cent and did so much for this club. But he wanted to go, that's the decision he made and we couldn't stand in his way.'

Source: Daily_Mail