Portsmouth have been knocked back in their attempt to sign Stoke City's young centre-back Harry Souttar, according to Football Insider.

Kenny Jackett is eager to bring in more defensive options with star man Matt Clarke closing in on a move to Brighton and Hove Albion after a fee of just under £4million was agreed.

The 6ft 7in Potter spent the second half of the previous season on loan with Fleetwood Town in League One and impressed during his 11 appearances under Joey Barton.

But unfortunately for Pompey Nathan Jones has big plans for the 20-year-old next season with a move away, either permanently or on loan, looking very unlikely, according to the report.

Souttar is yet to make his league debut for Stoke since moving from Dundee United back in 2016 but has appeared twice in the League Cup.

Portsmouth will be desperate to strengthen this summer having come close to winning promotion back to the Championship last season.

Jackett's side spent a large part of the season in the automatic promotion spots but fell away in 2019 before being narrowly beaten by Sunderland in the play-off semi-finals.

The verdict 

This would have been an excellent signing for Pompey so the fans can be confident that their club are looking in the right places.

But I am pleasantly surprised that the enquiry was rejected flat out. Stoke's side was not a good one last season after a huge summer of spending and it simply did not work for them.

So it is great to see that Jones is ready to give the likes of Souttar a chance after earning it in the previous campaign.