Nugent heads for the exit

If David Nugent hasn’t got the message already, then he did this morning.
If he’d read our back page today he would have learned of his omission from the 23-man UEFA Cup squad.
He certainly hadn’t been told of his axing before last night’s reserve game, that’s for sure.
The whole scenario reveals how low down the pecking order this one-time England player is.
Firstly, the fact the club have not bothered to tell him shows not only a lack of respect, but little regard for a player who did, let’s not forget, cost Pompey £6m.
More pragmatically, it means Nugent will not be UEFA Cup-tied come January - when Pompey will almost certainly try to off-load him again.
It’s hard not feel sympathy for the player, whatever his on-field merits are.
A big-money signing, he has not been given a fair crack of the whip.
Harry Redknapp didn’t fancy him from the word go, which begs the question why did he buy him?
Whatever the answer to that question, the suspicision is Nugent is out of his depth in the top half of the Premier League.
I hope he proves me wrong because he is honest and willing.
But he seems to lack the composure to cut it at the top.
It is obvious to all, except maybe the player himself, that his Fratton Park fate has already been sealed.