Pompey snubbed Geovanni

Geovanni: Overlooked

Related links

Teams

• Hull City
• Portsmouth

Players

• Geovanni

Also see

• Portsmouth fixtures
• Portsmouth stats
• Portsmouth forum

Tony Adams has revealed that Portsmouth turned down the opportunity to sign Geovanni last season.

The Brazilian was taken on a short-term trial at Fratton Park prior to joining Pompey's Premier League rivals Manchester City.

Things did not go to plan for the former Barcelona man at Eastlands, though, and he moved on to top flight new-boys Hull City over the summer.

He has been a revelation at the KC Stadium this term, helping lead the club to fifth spot in the table, and will be hoping to shoot down Adams' side when Hull travel to the South Coast on Saturday.

"Geovanni came on trial with us and played in a pre-season friendly at Yeovil," said Adams.

"He looked good, scored a goal and was available but I think it was felt at the time we had enough in (that) position. Benjani and a few others were still here."

Miracles

Pompey instead opted to splash £6million on Preston's David Nugent, plus £7m apiece on John Utaka and Sulley Muntari.

Nugent and Utaka have struggled to make an impact at Portsmouth, while Muntari joined Inter Milan during pre-season.

Adams, though, insists the club did not made a mistake in overlooking Geovanni, and has lauded his weekend opponents for the manner in which they have assembled a side made up of promising youngsters and established stars.

"They've done fantastically well and Geovanni's obviously a quality player who needed time to settle into the game here," he added.

"Hull have worked extremely hard and deserve the points they've got. They've spent some money and their position in the table doesn't lie. They are showing that clubs who use the little cash-injection they get when they come up can stay up.

"I think it was similar with Portsmouth. Money was spent, the team upped the work-rate through the roof and we've shown since that if you reinvest year on year, miracles can happen."