Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp admits he's wary about splashing out on a prolific striker from the lower divisions.

He told the Portsmouth News: "How many strikers are good enough in the lower divisions to perform in the Premier League? That's the problem.

"The lad Nugent, probably, but other than that you are taking a big gamble. A few years ago there was the case to take a chance - there might have been one on two in the second or third division. Now it's very difficult because there's such a big gap between the Premier League. I remember Ted MacDougall. He scored goals in the third division. Then he went to Southampton and Norwich and scored goals at the highest level. He was the leading scorer in the top division.

"The same went for Phil Boyer at Southampton in the 70s. I'm not sure it's the same now. Nugent is not the only striker out there, there's definitely other talent, but you need to take a chance and I can't do that. Nugent is young, English and scores goals in the Championship. What's to say he can do that in the Premiership?

"Billy Sharp at Scunthorpe scores goals. If you want to take a gamble you can see if that comes off. That's fair enough if you're Tottenham and you have Berbatov, Keane, Defoe and Mido. Give them a year to find their feet, let them bed in and see what happens. Just have a gamble.

"We need someone to come straight in and score goals. If I doesn't work out I am stuck up front. At West Ham I signed Steve Jones from Billericay for £22,000 and he did well. We later sold him for £150,000. I could afford to take a chance, though, with people like Di Canio and Kanoute there.

"Whoever I bring in has to be the answer - straight away. We haven't got time to let them settle, we need them to start scoring straight away."