Legend Linvoy Agrees New Deal

Last updated : 03 July 2009 By Jim Bonner
Linvoy Primus has agreed a one-year playing contract with Portsmouth and will also take up the role as club ambassador and advisor to the young players in the academy.

The 35-year-old has currently played 219 times for Pompey and admits he wants to stay at the club when his playing career is over, which will probably be at the end of the season.

I was discussing with a couple of Pompey fans earlier in the season about how they define a legend.

There was one extreme when one supporter only claimed only Jimmy Dickinson and Alan Knight could be classed as true Pompey legends but the other extreme came from a Pompey fan who claimed that the entire FA Cup winning team are legends as they actually won a trophy.

The debate raged on but when Linvoy's name cropped up it was unanimously decided that he would become a Pompey legend when he retired if he wasn't one already.

His performances and his strength of character are things that people have come to love about Linvoy and I personally admire the way he has proven his critics wrong time and time again.

Linvoy himself even admitted to the official Portsmouth FC website that he "didn't think he was going to be taken on" when he was on trial 9 years ago and Harry Redknapp also believed that Linvoy wasn't even good enough for the Championship, let alone Premiership.

But he soon went on to have a major impact in Pompey's relegation battles and then he had the season of his career in 2006/2007 when he was voted into a few journo's team's of the season until he missed the following campaign with injury.

You thought he may have been forgotten but you only had to listen to the roar at Fratton Park when Pompey played Sunderland back in May to realise how much Linvoy is appreciated at the club not just as a player but as a person too after all the amazing work he has done for the community.

So even if he doesn't play another game for Pompey, he will always be remembered fondly by everyone at Fratton Park who watched him play or has read about his work.

Who would have thought that a player who scored an own goal on his debut would go on to be the club's longest serving player in 2009? (Richard Hughes is second on the list, having signed in 2002.)

A true gent and someone who always has time for the fans, Linvoy Primus is indeed a true Pompey legend.