David James - Stoke City move off

David James - Stoke City move off

Stoke have pulled out of a deal to sign veteran Portsmouth goalkeeper David James on loan for the rest of the season.

James had been lined up for a move to the Britannia Stadium as manager Tony Pulis sought to increase competition for places in his squad.

Pulis was hoping to wrap up the deal in time for the 39-year-old to be available to face his former club Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime.

However, the switch was not finalised before Friday's noon deadline, prompting Stoke chief executive Tony Scholes to confirm the deal is now off.

The transfer to Stoke was viewed as an ideal move for all parties with James looking to impress enough to guarantee his place in the England squad for the World Cup in South Africa.

The keeper has made just one first-team appearance in the past two months due to injury, while his departure from Fratton Park would also have helped to ease Pompey's financial troubles.

And Pulis was keen to add James to his squad due to rumours concerning the future of Stoke's current No.1 Thomas Sorensen.

The Denmark international has been linked with German giants Bayern Munich and Pulis was wary about being left with Steve Simonsen as his only senior keeper.

Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie later revealed the deal collapsed over a disagreement between the two clubs over wages.

Storrie claims the Potters were looking to pay only part of James' wages and were expecting cash-strapped Pompey to make up the rest.

Storrie told Sky Sports News: "As far as I am concerned, if a fellow Premier League side want to take a Premier League player, then pay his wages. Why bother even ringing if they are not going to pay his wages?

"They wanted to pay part of his wages, an appearance fee and some more money if they stay in the Premier League."

And Storrie claimed there was also another issue that made the deal unacceptable.

He added: "They only wanted to do that until the end of the season, where generally if you take a loan of a Premier League player, you pay it until June 30, the end of his contract period.

"I don't think we were being unreasonable. When we want to sign players on loan from the Premier League we have to pay them until June 30.

"I made it abundantly that even if we had wanted to let David go, which had not yet been defined, it wasn't worth us going down that line until there was an offer on the table that was reasonably acceptable."