Pompey CEO Mark Catlin has expressed words of high praise for Christian Burgess as Pompey try to convince the popular defender to stay.

The Blues have offered the centre half a new deal but he has yet to decide whether to stay or move on.

Pompey say they have done all they can to try to get Burgess to stay and cannot force his hand.

Catlin told The News: ‘Christian is a slightly different case to our other out-of-contract players and we have been talking since January. It has been going on for quite a number of months and we continue to have dialogue.

‘We’d like him to stay, he knows we would like him to stay, but, as I have always said, you cannot force players at any point to extend or sign a new contract. That is a decision for the player.

‘Both on and off the pitch, you will struggle to find anyone better than Christian. We have made our feelings known to him, but, ultimately, you cannot hold a gun at any player’s head and say “sign this”.

‘The player and his agent must be happy to sign and, to a degree, that is out of our hands now. We have always said we don’t want to discuss individual contracts in public, but it is fair to say we have been talking to Christian for a long while. Ultimately, it is down to a player if he wants to stay or not.’

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