PORTSMOUTH are understood to be considering persisting in their chase for Martin Paterson – even though Eddie Howe yesterday insisted that Burnley have no intention of selling the striker.

Former Clarets boss Steve Cotterill, now in charge of Portsmouth, has made Paterson one of his prime targets for the summer and still has money to spend after being taken over last month by Convers Sports Initiatives, backed by Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov.

Burnley turned down two bids from Pompey a fortnight ago, with the second thought to be as high as £1.5m, and told the south coast club that further offers would not be welcome.

But reports earlier this week suggested that Portsmouth’s interest in Paterson remained alive and Burnley responded yesterday with an article on their official website, in which Howe stressed that the 24-year-old remained a firm part of his plans.

“We are not encouraging any talks and we are not discussing any bids as far as I’m concerned, and I’m sure the board are concerned,” said Howe.

“Martin Paterson is our player and I desperately don’t want to lose him.

“I want to build my squad around our best players and I certainly think Pato is one of them.”

Cotterill refused to discuss Paterson or Howe’s comments at a press conference yesterday afternoon and sources on the south coast have indicated that he may not yet be ready to give up on securing the forward’s signature.

Portsmouth do not expect to add to their squad before they jet off on a 12-day tour of America tomorrow but have already signed David Norris, Jason Pearce, Luke Varney, Stephen Henderson and Greg Halford this summer and are prepared to splash out further in a bid to improve their side.

Paterson came through the academy at Stoke City, where Cotterill was briefly manager in 2002, and returned from a lengthy spell out with a thigh injury in Burnley’s opening pre-season friendly at Altrincham last weekend.

The Northern Ireland international, who joined Burnley from Scunthorpe for more than £1m in 2008, scored 19 goals in the Clarets’ promotion season two years ago.

But the livewire forward has seen his progress hampered by injuries since then, restricted to just two substitute appearances since Howe arrived at Turf Moor in January.

Paterson did score at Altrincham, though, before being rested for Tuesday’s friendly at Bury - with four of the club’s five most senior strikers now off the mark during pre-season.

Alex MacDonald and Chris Iwelumo have both scored twice and Charlie Austin notched his first Burnley goal at Gigg Lane, with only Jay Rodriguez yet to score.

"There will be competition,” said Howe, whose side return to action in the first match of their south west tour at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.

“It's good and you always want your strikers to have a good pre-season and score goals to be confident going in to the season. It's been a good start for all of them.

“In an ideal world you want everyone to give you a headache.

"We do have a good squad so there is competition for places, not just in the forward line, in the midfield and defence as well, so it's a good problem to have.”