Portsmouth keen on Viduka deal

Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie admits his Premier League club are keen to sign Australia striker Mark Viduka.

Viduka, available on a free transfer after leaving Newcastle at the end of last season, is on Portsmouth’s wanted list as they look for a targetman to replace Peter Crouch, who joined Tottenham last week.

The 33-year-old is currently on holiday but Storrie believes a deal could be done if the former Leeds star proves his fitness.

“A fit Mark Viduka is still a very, very good experienced player and this is a special year for him because he has the opportunity to captain his country in the World Cup,” Storrie told The News.

“We would be fools not to want Mark here. But at the moment he’s still on vacation as I understand it.

“We would have to see what his fitness levels are like and how long it is going to be before he is fit.

“You never know, he might have been working out right the whole way through and be pretty fit. So of course he would interest us.”

However, Storrie was less convinced about doing a deal for Egypt forward Amr Zaki, who initially impressed n on loan at Wigan before falling out with then boss Steve Bruce.

“That is mainly agent talk. The agent has been on to me constantly about him and out of respect we always look at things like that,” Storrie said.

“With Zaki, firstly we would need to be sound and positive about the deal and, secondly, we certainly wouldn’t pay any loan fee until we knew what the stability of the boy was like.”