GIVING RETURN SERIOUS THOUGHT
MARLON PACK is agonising over an emotional Fratton Park return.
The midfielder has held talks with Danny Cowley over coming back to the south coast following his end-ofseason departure from Cardiff.
The News understands Pack has been impressed by Cowley’s ambition for the Blues and is prepared to drop into League One.
Pompey are hopeful of securing the 31-year-old, yet face competition from two other unnamed clubs, in addition to Bristol City and Shrewsbury, who have previously been linked.
Pack, who hails from Buckland and started his career at Fratton Park, is currently away on holiday weighing up his future.
Yet Cowley’s men feature strongly in his thoughts as he contemplates a reunion with the club he supports and a place he has previously described as having ‘unfinished business’.
Should he move into League One, it is believed Pack’s overriding preference is for a club with genuine promotion aspirations coupled with regular first-team football.
That puts the Blues firmly into the equation, with Cowley convincing him of his desire to restore them back to the Championship following a decade away.
In turn, Pack perfectly fulfils the central midfielder criteria that Pompey’s head coach is searching for during his summer player hunt.
Cowley is eager to recruit a holding midfielder who can serve as a foil to either Joe Morrell or Louis Thompson next season.
Pack has spent the last seven seasons as a Championship
regular, firstly with Bristol City and then Cardiff.
Last term he made 26 outings for the Bluesbirds, before manager Steve Morison elected to blood more youthful options with one eye on the future.
Regardless, he totalled 109 appearances and scored five goals during three seasons at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Of course, the lure of returning to Fratton Park cannot be underestimated in the battle to secure former City of Portsmouth Boys pupil.
Pack came through the Pompey ranks before being shown the door by Steve Cotterill in the summer of 2011.