Liverpool to hijack Muntari

SULLEY Muntari was Pompey's hero at Villa Park last Saturday as he hit two impressive long-range strikes to add to Craig Gardner's early own-goal. Pompey's 3-1 victory saw them stretch their unbeaten run to 11 Premier League games and notch their sixth successive away league victory.

Muntari was unsurprisingly the topic of conversation amongst the 35,000 people at the game and the millions watching on television and that has already set tongues wagging as to whether Portsmouth can hold onto him any longer if the big clubs come calling.

Already teams like Newcastle United and Liverpool have been mentioned with Rafael Benitez said to be eyeing the gritty Sulley if the Liverpool hierarchy fails to sanction the outright purchase of Argentine hardman Javier Mascherano for 17million pounds according to a Sunday newspaper report in the UK.

Muntari himself has said he will like to play for one of the biggest clubs in the Premiership and his double monstrous strike against Aston Villa has made everybody sit up and take notice. "I want to play well and end up at one of the biggest clubs. That is every player's dream and that is my ambition as well. Of course I will try my best here, to help Portsmouth win many things, maybe qualify for Europe, but eventually I would like to play for a bigger club."

But the 23-year-old midfielder says manager Harry Redknapp is the reason for his and his team-mates' fine form. He said: "Harry Redknapp is a great manager and he is like a father to us off the field - that is the reason why we are playing so well at the moment. He treats us well and with respect and that makes everyone happy. It was great to score two goals and I especially enjoyed the second one”. The Black Stars midfielder continued “I won the ball and I was looking to play it to Benji but he was doing a good job of drawing the defenders away from me and I was able to shoot lucky for me it went in.” he added. It will be recalled that Muntari nearly missed the Villa match after collecting six yellow cards but the English FA pardoned him. An FA spokesman said: "A further ban now would be punishing the player twice. The red card expunged the two bookings in the same match and so he is currently on four cautions.”