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Portsmouth exodus to begin

Kevin-Prince Boateng and Nadir Belhadj are expected to be the first players out the door © Getty Images

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Portsmouth administrator Andrew Andronikou believes Kevin-Prince Boateng and Nadir Belhadj will be the first two players to leave in an expected summer exodus, but he warned agents that players would only be sold at "market value".

Andronikou also said no new manager would be appointed until a new chief executive was found. In the meantime, he will start offloading World Cup-bound stars Boateng and Belhadj and other players to fund a debt-reduction scheme his firm put forward on Friday. But he said the club has already rejected unacceptable offers and rejected suggestion of a "fire sale" mentality.

The Company Voluntary Arrangement proposed by UHY Hacker Young, offering non-football creditors 20 pence in the pound, would require £3million to be raised through player sales in order to pay the first portion of that £16.5m bill.

That initial instalment would be paid over a nine-month period, with the full sum payable over five years. A further £22.4m is due to football creditors, though that would be deducted directly from the parachute payments stemming from the club's relegation from the Premier League.

Andronikou said: "We need to sell those players to thin down the wage costs for next year and to create working capital for the club going forward, and also to create some cashflow in order to pay the first dividend to creditors. We're just working with the players' agents trying to move things on as quickly as possible. Most of the players involved are internationals, and there's an increased urgency in their minds to get their destinations sorted before they play in the World Cup.

"The principle two are Kevin-Prince Boateng and Nadir Belhadj, those are the two main targets who we're looking to move on. We've had no direct contact - we've got to find a club that want to buy them and we hope that club will be a preferred destination for the player. The players will have their own ideas of where they want to play.''

He insists Pompey will hold out for players' "market value'', though, and added: "We've had offers but they haven't come up to scratch in terms of our valuation. There's no fire sale - we've had lots of agents ringing up trying to advise us that we can't pay their players their salaries so they'll move them for nothing. That's not the position - we've got cashflow, we can pay their wages and we are going to sell them for their market value.''

Pompey are also without a manager after Avram Grant resigned last week, seemingly with the intention of succeeding Gianfranco Zola at West Ham. Steve Cotterill, who will leave Notts County when his short-term contract expires on Sunday, emerged as an early front-runner but Andronikou stressed no decision will be taken until a new chief executive has first been appointed.

"The managerial position will be decided by the incoming chief exec,'' he said. "I don't expect there to be much news on that position until he comes on board, which I'm hoping is going to be next week. I don't think it's for us (the adminstrators) to be choosing managers, the ultimate decision has to be the chief exec's.''

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