Nugent signed for Pompey last summer from Preston North End, but struggled for regular first-team football during his debut campaign.

He told The News: "Over the summer you always have a look in the papers to see what's going on and you cannot ignore the fact we have been looking at a couple of strikers.

"It's all about competition for places and although Milan Baros is not coming back, Ben Sahar has arrived and now it looks like Peter Crouch will be as well.

"That's football. I'm not going to get frustrated about it. It's down to me to just prove what I can do.

"We are in Europe and I want to be part of it. I don't want to leave this football club now and I intend to stay. I want to show what I can do.

"I read in the papers earlier this summer that Birmingham and Hull were supposedly interested in me.

"Well, I would not want to join a side that had just come up to the Premier League or a team that has just been relegated."