Pompey boss Kenny Jackett has made it as clear as he possibly can he wants to see off any bids for Matt Clarke - and make him a pivotal figure in the 2018-19 promotion bid.

The Blues have braced themselves for good offers for the central defender who was voted player of the year last season.

Jackett told The News: 'We stated we want to keep him last season and through the summer. We haven’t had any bids — and that’s a good thing because we want Matt to stay here.

'We want to be successful with him and have said we want to build it around him. We upgraded his contract last season, which we felt he deserved. And since then we’ve said many times we want Matt to stay with us.

‘But for myself as manager, do I want to keep him? Yes. Do we want a successful season and keep building and improving? Of course we do. We want to be in the top six this season and to do that we have to keep our best players.

‘From my own point of view I’ve enjoyed working with him and would want him in the team. That’s a definite. For the future it’s hard to assess what will happen if there’s outside influences and other clubs.

‘We haven’t had any enquiries but I don’t know if that’s the case with his agent. But we haven’t had any enquiries or bids at the club.’

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