London Loan for Linvoy

Portsmouth Football Club today announced the finalization of defender Linvoy Primus' three-month loan move to London Championship side Charlton Athletic. While the media were originally reporting on Wednesday that Primus would be joining the London side on a season-long loan, Portsmouth refused to allow the player to leave for such an extended amount of time.

Primus is not unfamiliar with football at The Valley, having started his career with Charlton in 1992, before having spells at Barnet and Reading, signing for Tony Pulis' Portsmouth side in 2000.

Overall, this is a great bit of business for all parties involved. After an immense season beside Sol Campbell at the heart of Portsmouth's defense in 2006-2007, Linvoy suffered a crushing knee injury during pre-season preparations last year and failed to make any appearances in the league. Although there were fears the defender would be forced to "hang up his boots," he has finally recovered enough to play competitively again.

While there will certainly be fears that Linvoy won't be the same player we saw two seasons ago -  winning accolades in what was arguably one of the most solid and efficient defenses in the league that season - I am confident that Linvoy is going to bounce back successfully. This hasn't been the case for many Portsmouth favorites, however, with our Division 1-winning striker Svetoslav Todorov never quite recovering from his injury problems several years ago.

Although another year older and having always lacked pace, Linvoy has an excellent tactical mind, impressive positional play, and a confidence and consistency that not every defender has. Charlton supporters can look forward to knowing that in Linvoy, they have a defender who will add considerable steel to their backline regardless of who he is playing against.

This is also excellent news for Portsmouth as well; with Primus' contract coming to its end at the close of this past season, the defender was offered a new one-year contract with the club. The decision will have been welcomed by many supporters, and Linvoy has been a firm-favorite at the club for a number of years.

The reason the loan move looked to have fallen through on Wednesday is simple: Charlton and Manager Alan Pardew know the quality of player they are getting in Primus, and wanted him for as long as possible. Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp knows that Linvoy needs a competitive fixtures under his belt before he will be back to his best, which will be difficult to provide outside of the reserves with the competition from Campbell, Sylvain Distin, Younes Kaboul, and Noe Pamarot.

When Primus returns in three months time, I'm confident he is going to be back to his ever-present self, and will provide excellent depth for our defense as the season grinds on.

I hope that Charlton supporters will enjoy having such an excellent player in their side early in this season, and I hope they won't be too disappointed when Linvoy returns to Fratton Park in three months time.