The 25-year-old centre-back has joined for a reported fee of around £3m and is in line for a possible Barclays Premier League debut at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 12th September.
Manager Paul Hart, himself a centre-half during his playing days, is confident Williamson has what it takes to succeed at the highest level.
Hart told the official club website: "He's a young, hungry centre-half, a big lad who's uncompromising and does the basics first.
"We've watched him play and he's shown great promise which hopefully he will build on under our guidance.
"We were a centre-half short before Sylvain Distain left but now we have Tal Ben-Haim and Mike Williamson.
"We signed Ben-Haim to fill a role and Mike has come here to prove himself as a front-line player."
Williamson began his career at Torquay United making six appearances for the Gulls before joining Pompey's south coast rivals Southampton for £100,000 in 2001.
Williamson struggled to break into the first-team with Saints who were then in the Premier League. He had loan spells back at Torquay and with Doncaster Rovers and then Wycombe Wanderers whom he joined permanently on a free transfer in May 2005.
It was at Adams Park that Williamson began to flourish, establishing himself as a force in the centre of their defence.
He made 144 appearances and scored 11 goals with the Chairboys before swtiching to Watford in January 2009. He netted three goals in 23 appearances for the Hornets before being snapped up by Portsmouth.
However Hart has just missed out on Aston Villa left-back Nicky Shorey whose proposed loan switch to Fratton Park fell through.
0 comments:
Post a Comment