Paul Cook has begun his summer recruitment by signing Danny Rose as a free agent after he declined a new deal with League Two champions Northampton Town.
It should be a good signing although it is a little strange how he could be deemed surplus to requirements by Michael Appleton at Oxford and yet can walk into a better side. Cobblers fans are mixed about his decision to leave, with some claiming he'll be a huge miss and others saying he isn't good enough for League One anyway.
The 28-year-old should start the majority of league games next to Michael Doyle in a defensive midfield position, although he is more likely to get forward than the skipper. This signing will raise questions on Danny Hollands's future as he is likely to see little game time if he is to sign a new contract, but perhaps he thinks he can get a better deal (in terms of playing time, at least) elsewhere?
The most believable rumour of the summer so far has been the possibility of Kieron Freeman making a permanent return to Portsmouth after being transfer listed by Sheffield United. It's a rumour that hasn't particularly gone down well with Pompey fans.
However, isn't it a little unfair to be judging him based on what we've seen of him in a blue shirt? Yes, he stupidly got sent off against Northampton but then Pompey have had so many good players down the years who have received silly red cards in their careers but yet certainly weren't bad players. Christian Burgess and Enda Stevens were both needlessly dismissed last season and yet they were two of Pompey's best players last season.
Freeman's performances weren't terrible when he actually did get the chance to play and with a run in the side, who knows what he could do? He at least deserves a chance to show us what he can do and he has the approval of fans from other clubs who have seen him play, so can he really be that bad? He might well be needed in Ben davies decides against staying another year...
Unfortunately it seems like some Blues fans have already made their minds up but then these people probably dismissed Kanu as "past it" when he was signed on a free and labelled Glen Johnson as "shit" after his loan spell from Chelsea was made permanent. Look how those signings eventually worked out.
The only other credible transfer news is that midfielder Duane Holmes could be set to join Paul Cook's team after his release from Huddersfield. The 21-year-old midfielder hasn't played very many games for his parent club and has had short loan spells at Yeovil and Bury, too.
With so little game time under his belt, it's difficult to assess how good he might be at Pompey. He is followed on twitter by Jack Whatmough and Ben Tollitt as well as a couple of Portsmouth journalists, but Whatmough claims that people are looking too much into this as he also follows Lionel Messi and it's not like the world's best player will fancy a move from Barcelona any time soon!
Chesterfield's Jay O'Shea has also supposedly been on Paul Cook's radar with a bid reportedly already turned down for the 27-year-old attacking midfielder. Rumours are always going to be rife with links to any old Chesterfield players regardless of what club they're at and thus it's easy to dismiss the majority of them.
Adam Webster's move to Ipswich is imminent with Pompey receiving Matt Clarke and at least £500,000 for his services. That is a huge sum of money by League Two standards and hopefully Cook can find a striker capable of scoring over twenty goals whilst fitting into his preferred 4-2-3-1 system.
Other than that, social media is packed full of garbage rumours that just simply aren't true. Matt Taylor has had to come out and claim he has had offers from Championship clubs afteris release from Burnley after fans thought he may return to Pompey at the age of 34.
Then you get those people who create accounts just to start unfounded rumours like one person who stated that Kieran Agard of Bristol City was going to have a medical on Monday. Absolute nonsense but there are still so many gullible people who will believe it!
Hopefully there'll be reports from more reliable sources during the summer and Pompey fans can look forward to some high quality players coming into the squad with pre-season already on the horizon.