Danny Cowley was defiant in his message to the board about Marcus Harness’ current contract situation.
Harness’ deal is up in the next six months, although he has a one-year extension clause that can be triggered by the club.
Cowley admitted that Portsmouth need to keep Harness and wishes that they can sort out his new contract as quickly as possible.
"I wouldn’t want to speak for the powers above but yes, it would be my strongest recommendation that they extend his contract," said Cowley, via Hampshire Live.
"He’s a valuable player, a key player and a key asset to this football club."
Cowley was extremely confident the one-year extension would be applied to Harness’ contract and also admitted that Portsmouth do not want to lose any of their best players in this month’s transfer window.
"Marcus [Harness] has an option on his contract which I would 99.9 per cent be sure that the club will exercise that option at some point. It will certainly be my strongest recommendation that they do," added Cowley.
"We don’t want to lose our best players, we want to get better. That’s our aim. If we sell our best players then it’s much harder to get better.
"Our absolute ambition going into this window is to leave this window stronger than what we came in and that means to have better balance in terms of the playing squad, more players suited towards the game idea and more players towards the culture that we are trying to create here at this football club."
Harness has been an important player for Pompey this season, having started 22 of their 23 games in League One this season. Harness played in all 46 league games in last year’s campaign also, proving to be an essential player since his arrival in 2019.
Portsmouth are currently eighth in the League One table, but are unbeaten in their last 10 games.
Their next match comes against Exeter City this evening in the Football League Trophy.
The Verdict
Cowley was adamant that Harness will remain with the club and rightly so. Losing any player on a free would be a reckless decision given the state of football’s finances at that level.
However, to let such an important player go so easily would be such a massive own goal that has to be avoided at all costs.
Keeping him around for another year only kicks the can down the road, a full and proper extension should be discussed as soon as that one-year extended clause is triggered.