Birch: No more bids for Pompey squad

Trevor Birch has revealed the lack of transfer activity in light of Joel Ward’s departure yesterday.

The 22-year-old finally completed his switch to Crystal Palace for a fee of around £400,000.

However, there are no other bids for the remainder of Michael Appleton’s players.

Administrator Birch is adamant there remains interest in several other players.

Those linked with summer moves include Greg Halford, Luke Varney and David Norris, as Pompey look to lower their wage bill and bring in crucial funds.

As it stands, though, there is a lack of any concrete approach to follow Ward, Jason Pearce and Stephen Henderson out of the Fratton Park exit door.

That trio were among the lowest-paid members of the Blues’ squad.

Yet with Birch desperate to move on the big earners, he is still waiting for clubs to put in bids for others.

The administrator said: ‘No other players have been bid for, as it stands.

‘The interest has been there from what has been said to me in the past.

‘They might be talking to agents about moves and not especially ringing me to keep me in the loop. That is entirely possible.

‘But in terms of solid bids, there is nothing.

‘At the risk of repeating myself, this is a quiet period with clubs not doing much business at this moment in time. However, we are still looking to bring the wage bill down and move out players to achieve that.’

Pompey have raked in around £1.5m in total from the sales of Henderson, Pearce and Ward.

However, the need to remove high earners is now crucial.