Williamson signs on; James stays; Nugent leaves with Niko…

Pompey today finally completed their long-awaited capture of highly-rated Watford defender, Mike Williamson.

Williamson has joined Portsmouth in a deal that could be worth up to £3m. The former Wycombe Wanderers man has signed a four-year contract and links-up with former Hornet teammate, Tommy Smith.

The 25-year-old has signed a four year deal, and becomes the third and final signing of a hectic transfer deadline day, with defender Tal Ben Haim and midfielder Hassan Yebda also completing their moves to Pompey earlier this afternoon.

After brief stints with Torquay and bitter rivals Southampton, Williamson made a name for himself at Wycombe, making 144 appearances and scoring 11 goals during his four-and-a-half-year-spell.

His bright performances for Wycombe brought attention from many Championship sides, which helped see him move to Watford in January, where he went on to score three goals in 23 appearances.

With the arrival of both Tal Ben Haim and Williamson, manager Paul Hart now has a number of defensive options and the cover in which he needed after Sylvain Distin’s recent departure.

One other defensive player who was lined up to join the Blues today, but failed to agree terms, was Villa left-back Nicky Shorey.

Portsmouth and Aston Villa had today earlier agreed a deal, which would have seen the former Reading man sign up for a season-long-loan.

However, after travelling down to Portsmouth for talks with Pompey officials, Shorey was unable to be guaranteed first-team football. Because of that, the deal was called off.

In other news, ‘keeper David James did not secure a much-speculated switch to rivals Tottenham Hotspur. In what became much of a non-story, the 39-year-old spent much of the day at Portsmouth’s training ground, nursing his knee injury.

Two first-teamers who have moved on however, include midfielder Niko Kranjcar and forward David Nugent.

Kranjcar has moved to Spurs in a cut-price £2.5m deal, which will see him link-up with fellow Croats, Luka Modri? and Vedran ?orluka. The 25-year-old had only one year left on his previous existing Portsmouth contract.

Nugent secured a late move to Burnley, which will see him go on loan to Turf Moor for the next six-months, with the Clarets then having the option to buy the one-time England international.

Hull City were also rumoured to be interested in the former Preston man, but the 24-year-old has decided to link up with manager Owen Coyle, in the hope to prove his critics wrong.

Portsmouth’s 2009 young-player-of-the-year, Matthew Ritchie, has joined Notts County for a three-month loan spell. The Magpies had been known to be long-term admirers of Ritchie, and will have the option to extend the loan spell, if proved successful.

18-year-old midfielder Tom Kilbey has secured a one-month loan deal at League Two side, Dagenham & Redbridge. Kilbey was joint-top-scorer in the Barclays Premier League Reserve League South last season and will now hope to make an impression on all parties concerned.