Portsmouth FC warned against transfer agreement with Cardiff City star - There are "other options" | OneFootball

FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit discussed a potential Fratton Park return for Cardiff City's Alex Robertson

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

The transfer saga involving a potential Portsmouth return for Alex Robertson is set to re-emerge for a second successive summer, with the Cardiff City midfielder of interest to John Mousinho once again after suffering relegation to League One in his debut campaign with the Bluebirds.

Robertson enjoyed a memorable loan spell at Fratton Park from Manchester City during the first-half of Pompey's 2023/24 League One title-winning campaign, starring in his 27 appearances before seeing his season curtailed by injury in January.

After achieving promotion, Portsmouth pushed hard to bring Robertson back to the south coast on a permanent basis but eventually lost out to Cardiff.

Head coach Mousinho revealed that Portsmouth pushed it as far as the club could within their financial means, and Cardiff instead beat off competition from a total of six Championship clubs to the signing of Robertson, who ultimately chose to join the Bluebirds and penned a four-year contract to join in an initial £1 million deal - which could rise to £3 million if all add-on criteria are met.

22-year-old Robertson enjoyed an impressive debut campaign in the Welsh capital by posting three goals and three assists apiece from 35 Championship appearances in central midfield, although he was unable to prevent Cardiff's relegation to League One as his impact on proceedings began to wane somewhat in the second-half of the season.

However, the classy operator remains very much a hot property, with numerous clubs looking to test Cardiff's resolve and lure the club's prized midfield asset away from South Wales this summer. According to a recent report from The News, Robertson is set to hold discussions with new Cardiff head coach Brian Barry-Murphy - whom he previously worked with at Man City - regarding his future.

Robertson is reportedly keen on a return to Portsmouth after developing a strong relationship with both Mousinho and the Fratton Park faithful, while he also has interest from 12 Championship clubs - one of which suffered relegation from the Premier League last term - along with undisclosed suitors across Europe and the MLS.

Portsmouth FC warned against transfer reunion with Cardiff City's Alex Robertson

FLW asked our resident Portsmouth fan pundit, Miltos Ioannidis, whether he believes Mousinho should go all out in a bid to bring the Australian-born midfielder back to Portsmouth once again, or if Portsmouth should now snub Robertson given that he opted to join Cardiff last summer.

Although Miltos does not hold a cynical or bitter view towards Robertson, whose move to Cardiff split Pompey supporters, he has argued that there are plenty of other available midfield options on the market, such as already-linked Silkeborg man Pelle Mattson.

Miltos admitted that he would welcome a return for Robertson - a player he conceded is "fantastic" - but he is concerned about how financially difficult a deal could be to pull off, and he does not believe it's the end of the world if Portsmouth fall short of signing the ex-Man City prospect for a second straight summer.

"Alex Robertson, the saga continues," Miltos told FLW.

"It was the same last summer - where is Robertson going to go? Is it going to be Pompey or Cardiff? In the end it was Cardiff and I personally think it was his own decision completely that he joined them over us or any other club.

"There are a lot of rumours circulating around that it was wages or something else, but I think it was purely down to him that he decided to join them. Obviously his uncle [Gavin Rae] also played for Cardiff, so that probably had something to play.

"Robertson is a fantastic player and I can't imagine he'll be overly pleased to be playing in League One. He's way too good for that level.

"I think he's set to hold talks with Cardiff's new manager Brian Barry-Murphy, so they're probably going to talk in regards to his future. I don't think he will leave, there's a high chance he will stay at Cardiff as he's under contract.

"I don't think we should pursue this deal if it's not really going to make sense for us financially. I think there are a lot of other options out there for us.

"He had a really successful loan spell with us, let's not beat about the bush with that. But we're currently linked with other players elsewhere like Pelle Mattson, the Danish midfielder from Silkeborg. He looks a real prospect.

"I truly believe there are a lot of quality options elsewhere so we shouldn't get stuck into the idea of Robertson or nothing - I think that's far away from how things are.

"Would I take Robertson back? If the conditions are going to be right then of course, and any other fan saying otherwise is lying to themselves. He's a quality player who would instantly make us undeniably better, but we should also look elsewhere because for the amount of money we could pay to get Robertson back, we could buy a lot more quality players.

"We had Freddie Potts on loan, and in my opinion, he was a much more complete player than Robertson.

"Robertson set that bar really high for us to replace him.

"We'll see if that develops any more, but I don't think it's the end of the day if we don't sign him."

Cardiff City may ask for significant Alex Robertson transfer fee from Portsmouth FC and others

Despite returning to English football's third-tier for the first time in more than 20 years at the end of the previous campaign, Cardiff are not in a position whereby they need to conduct asset-stripping exercises of the playing squad and find themselves forced into sanctioning sales in order to balance the books following relegation according to chairman Mehmet Dalman.

The Bluebirds will surely only negotiate any potential sale for Robertson if the price is right, and he is perhaps the club's most valuable asset after star striker Yousef Salech. His arrival last summer did not come cheaply, one which Portsmouth themselves eventually could not compete with, yet Robertson's value will have arguably increased in spite of relegation after proving himself in the Championship for a year.

He remains under contract for another three years, too, so Cardiff are in no rush to sell. As Portsmouth and a number of other suitors could find out in the coming days and weeks, the chief drawback to signing Robertson could be the financial factor.

The Bluebirds starlet is, of course, a sensationally-gifted technical operator in the middle of the park with his best years still firmly ahead at 22, and his signing would come with no shortage of upside, but it's not going to be an easy deal to get over the line.