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Portsmouth transfer news: Marko Milovanovic is a no-show for Almeria pre-season return Pompey fans have been waiting patiently for the Blues to announce the signing of striker Marko Milovanovic By all accounts, Pompey’s move for Serbia striker Marko Milovanovic is a done deal. Indeed, at present, the only thing standing in the way of the Blues officially unveiling the 23-year-old as their next summer signing is a work permit. The only doubt surrounds the transfer fee Pompey will hand UD Almeria for the front man, with Fabrizio Romano recently quoting a figure of €6m. The News understands, however, the fee is closer to €5m, €3.5m of which will be paid up front, with a further €1.5m forthcoming in add-ons. Regardless, there’s many members of the Fratton faithful who won’t believe a word of it until they see the player, also known as Marezi, in a Pompey shirt and putting pen to paper on a contract in one of the club’s social media posts. And that’s despite a host of evidence collated over the past month that the player is on his way to PO4. Separate from some of the journalist work that’s gone on behind the scenes to get to the bottom of this transfer, earlier tell-tale signs that pointed to a move to Pompey included Milovanovic and his partner following the club on Instagram. There’s also the case of the striker’s dad, Milan, liking almost every story written by The Portsmouth News on Facebook! Now, a further development has surfaced, namely Milovanovic’s absence as his set-to-be former Almeria team-mates returned for pre-season training on Wednesday. Welcoming them back to work was new manager Garcia Pimienta, who has been tasked with getting La Unión back to La Liga after two seasons away from Spain’s top flight. But there was no sign of Milovanovic among the group of 30 who reported back for duty, with the Pompey-bound forward among four players not present as their futures elsewhere are sorted. Almeria have clearly moved on and are once again preparing for a new season without the frontman, who spent last season on loan at Alverca in Portugal. While the wait for Marezi’s Fratton Park arrival continues, though, his two current rivals for Pompey’s starting striker role next season sent John Mousinho a timely reminder of their goalscoring capabilities. Indeed, both Colby Bishop and Thomas Waddingham netted in the Blues’ pre-season friendly win against Woking on Tuesday night. Fellow striker Makenzie Kirk was not part of the Fratton Park side’s match-day squad for their trip to The Cardinals. Instead, the Northern Ireland under-21 international was a noticeable absentee as he applied the finishing touches to a loan move to League One Barnsley.