Soccer:Portsmouth have received permission to sign Liam Lawrence on loan after the Republic of Ireland midfielder's permanent move hit the buffers yesterday. Lawrence believed he had completed the move from Stoke ahead of the transfer deadline, only to discover the required documentation had not been processed in time.
Lawrence could have been forced into returning to Stoke, who had already omitted him from their 25-man Premier League squad, but the clubs were strike an emergency loan deal.
The Championship club expect the new deal to go through before the weekend and the 28-year-old should be available for this weekend’s fixture at home to Roy Keane’s Ipswich Town. .
“It is obviously disappointing that we have had to adjust things but it is now just a paper exercise to make sure we end up in the same place as envisaged,” said a Portsmouth spokesman today. “Nothing changes in the sense that Liam is still fully committed to coming to Pompey.”
Lawrence knew nothing about the hitch until yesterday when he was informed by international skipper Robbie Keane, who had seen a television report, and quickly contacted his agent.
Lawrence said: “Robbie Keane came in at dinner and said, ‘Have you seen the telly?’, and I said, ‘No, why? What has gone on now?’ He said, ‘You had better ring your agent, then’.
“I spoke to my agent and said, ‘What’s going off?’, and he said the deal had not gone through properly, it was a few minutes late or some rubbish. But we had four minutes to go when we sent the fax off, so I don’t know what the big deal is.”
Lawrence’s comments came after he had played his part in the Republic’s 3-1 Euro 2012 qualifier victory over Andorra in Dublin last night with the two clubs working to sort out the problem.
“I don’t know whether it will be one of those loans with a view [to a permanent transfer] and I have already signed. These deals are weird how they work, you wouldn’t believe it, so we will just have to wait and see what happens when I get back.
“To be fair, because it took me so long to decide and to sort the deal out — it was a big decision for me, moving down there — I left it quite late. But there was still plenty of time and we got the fax sent off, so I don’t know what has happened.”