QPR and Sheffield Wednesday set to lose transfer race for striker as Portsmouth close in after bid accepted

Portsmouth look set to win the race to sign highly-rated A-League striker Thomas Waddingham after reports claimed the south coast club are favourites to complete a deal for the Brisbane Roar man.

Over the weekend, Roar boss Ruben Zadkovich said the A-League club had accepted a bid for the in-demand Waddingham with the proposed deal a ‘financially positive’ one for Brisbane. Last week, Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday were both said to have submitted offers for Waddingham while Portsmouth were also linked.

It was unclear which club had advanced with a deal for Waddingham as Zadkovich refused to confirm which of the interested teams had managed to have their offer accepted. The striker is under contract until 2026 and was left out of the club’s most recent game amid speculation over his future. He has made 40 appearances for Brisbane, scoring 15 goals in that time.

Pompey ‘favourites’ to sign Waddingham

According to The News in Portsmouth, John Mousinho’s side are favourites to complete a move for Waddingham. The Pompey boss was asked about the possibility of signing the striker but refused to be drawn on the issue. He said: “It’s the same answer as always - as long as those players are contracted to other clubs there will be no comment on that.

“The most important message to everyone is first of all we’re trying to make the squad better at the back end of it (the window). We want to impact the starting XI and impact the 14 or 15 key players in the squad. If we do anything which is ‘developmental’ it won’t be in the way of other signings. We’re not going to ignore it, we’re not going to ignore players who have a bit of promise for the future for the sake of it. If we do take players we think will develop six months down the line, it’s just not going to be at the cost of getting someone else in - that’s the most accurate way of looking at it.

“Take any position, if we think we need to do something to impact it we’ll do that first and then something developmental later. It’s not one or the other, the priority is definitely here and now.”

Zadkovich confirms talks

Zadkovich gave an update on the player’s future after he was left out of the Roar’s squad for their clash with Melbourne City on Saturday. Asked if the striker’s omission from the team was due to a potential move, Zadkovich said: “Yeah it is, those rumours are true. Like I’ve been saying for a few weeks, there’s been a lot of interest around Tommy – and rightly so. I’m not going to talk about the inner workings of that deal, but let’s just say it’s a positive for Tommy and his career and it’s a positive for our club financially.

“Look, there’s been a couple of offers to be honest and until it’s concrete, I’m not really going to comment on who that is.”

Speaking previously about the player’s qualities, Zadkovich said: “He’s that old-chool, proper number nine. He’s got so many areas he can improve and grow and I think he’s a massive asset to the club. We know that we’ve got an asset, we know that we’ve got a fantastic young player and you know we’ll keep working on developing him and bringing him to the top of the pile.”