Stoke City close to signing David James on loan

Stoke are believed to be on the verge of securing the loan signing of England international David James from Portsmouth.

The current Portsmouth number one has struggled to play regular first team football this season due to a reoccurring calf injury.

It is believed that the only stumbling block left to overcome is the issue of the player’s wages. Stoke have a salary cap that they are unwilling to exceed, meanwhile Pompey, who are suffering from their own financial woes, don’t want to have to foot the majority of the keeper’s hefty wages.

Pompey could end up contributing at last 50% towards James’ pay. The South coast club would obviously prefer Stoke to take on James’ wages for the final months of his contract as they seek to reduce their wage bill.

A compromise is required but despite this problem, Tony Pulis remains confident of landing the signature of the experienced James

“If this does go through, I tell you now it’ll be a cracking deal for us,” said Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager.

“If he comes to Stoke he’s got good competition with Thomas Sorensen and Steve Simonsen. But he’s got the opportunity, if he gets in our team, to prove that he’s good enough to be on the plane going to South Africa.”

Thomas Sorensen has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich. Subsequently the move for James is not only to provide competition for the current keepers at the club, but also to insure Pulis has back-up should Sorensen be tempted by the bright lights of Munich.

“We’ve heard the rumours that there are clubs in Europe who fancy Thomas, and it makes it more important that we cover ourselves,” said Pulis.