Kaboul to lift Pompey's spirits
Younes Kaboul has lifted some of the gloom over Portsmouth's penalty shoot-out shambles at Wembley by agreeing a four-year contract to sign from Tottenham.
The French centre-back, 22, formerly with Auxerre, was having a medical at Pompey on Monday and is expected to join in time for next Sunday's Barclays Premier League opener against Chelsea.
Kaboul's arrival will be a morale-booster for Harry Redknapp's FA Cup winners, who lost the Community Shield to Manchester United on Sunday, 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out after a goalless 90 minutes.
Whether he will get into the side straightaway is a matter for conjecture, because central defenders Sylvain Distin and Sol Campbell and ever-dependable goalkeeper David James were by far the best facets of Pompey's pugnacious if punchless performance against champions United.
Lassana Diarra and Glen Johnson both ballooned their spot-kicks over Edwin van der Sar's crossbar - and substitute Arnold Mvuemba's effort struck the legs of the Dutch goalkeeper - leaving Jermain Defoe as the only scorer as Carlos Tevez, Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick all notched for United.
It would be pushing things to say Pompey held their own before that.
United - even with nine first-teamers missing, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney - had ample chances and possession to have won handsomely.
