Hart moving on from Portsmouth’s woes

Paul Hart claims he is just dealing with Portsmouth’s transfer embargo and is not letting it affect their bid to upset the Premier League relegation odds.

The Fratton Park side currently sit bottom of the Premier League two points adrift of West Ham placed above them, and their ambitions to climb out of the relegation places could be affected by the ban imposed on them.

Earlier this week, the Premier League placed a transfer embargo on the south coast club until they have settled all their outstanding debts related to the purchases of Lassana Diarra and Glen Johnson.

Portsmouth still owe Arsenal and Chelsea part of the fees they paid for the former players and the club is aiming to resolve the whole situation as soon as possible.

Hart was only made aware of the situation when he was blocked in an attempt to sign midfielder Eugen Bopp on Monday as his side were without seven players ahead of their 4-0 Carling Cup win over Stoke.

The manager described the whole situation as “disappointing” and remained confident in the ability of Portsmouth’s new owners to settle the situation.

“These problems are here to be overcome, and I think we will overcome them,” Hart told the BBC.

“If the ban is still in place in January, then that would be a serious situation, but we are in the process of dealing with it.”

Portsmouth resume their drive to save their Premier League status with a home game against Wigan this Halloween.

Hart has Michael Brown available to face his former club after completing a one-match ban, while John Utaka, Papa Bouba Diop and Hermann Hreidarsson are all doubts for the game.