Michael Doyle has no plans to retire just yet - and hopes he can continue his Pompey career into a third season.

He is 35 and realises that makes him a little vulnerable as the Blues look to see which of their out-of-contract stars should get a new deal ahead of the 2017-18 season in League One.

Doyle told The News: 'I would like to stay here at Pompey. You get to my age and take it a season at a time, but I feel I’m going to play on for a couple of years at least. I’m enjoying my football, I love it, I love competing, you just want to keep going.

‘Hopefully it’s a crest of a wave at Pompey now and, going into another division, it would be nice to be part of that. We’ll see what happens. One thing I’ve never had in my career — and rightly so — are first-team guarantees. I’ve never had a manager guarantee me to play and would never want that.

‘All you want is a chance to compete with the fella next to you to play. I have always loved competition and thrived in that environment. When you step up with big clubs like this you are going to attract better players and I have been at a lot of big clubs and always played.

‘But I know how football works, the one thing I’ve always said is if I’m not playing well enough then I won’t play. I will, though, continue working hard on the training ground to get myself in the team.

‘That’s all you can do. Nobody is guaranteed their place, especially at clubs like this, and that’s not healthy anyway. ‘If somebody is playing better than you then they play, it’s as simple as that. ‘I want to play every week, but if I’m not then I’m not.’

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