'Unlikely' - Portsmouth to make pre-season friendly decision that will disappoint Fratton faithful

Pompey are unlikely to include a pre-season friendly in their warm-weather training camp this summer.

Andy Cullen has revealed neither head coach John Mousinho nor sporting director Rich Hughes have it on their agendas when the first-team squad go abroad at the beginning of July.

Attention will instead be tailored towards team bonding and coaching sessions. But the Blues chief executive stressed fans who wished to travel to the yet unnamed destination will still be accommodated.

Pompey are yet to reveal details of their forthcoming trip, with their base in Europe remaining a closely-guarded secret. It’s understood, however, that the second week of July has been pencilled in for Mousinho & Co to jet off to sunnier climes.

The Blues have spent part of the past two summers in Murcia and Malaga respectively and have scheduled pre-season games during those times away. That included matches against Qatar SC and FC Europa - fixtures that were enjoyed by a sizeable number of Pompey fans who made the journey abroad to watch their team in action on both occasions.

It was initially thought similar plans - albeit at a new location - would fall into place this year. However, that no longer appears to be the case.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, Cullen explained:  ‘We hope to announce something over the next few days. We’re getting a trip organised as we did last year.

‘Just in terms of overseas games and tours in pre-season, most clubs now - and most head coaches - prefer to make sure they’re fully focused on a training camp when they can have 2-3 sessions a day, subject to heat and where they go, but also in terms of team bonding or whatever.

‘The problem you have with a game is you’ve got a bit of travel to and from the stadium, you lose a whole day because you can’t really train on a match day, so time is precious.

‘There’ll be a number of pre-season games that will take place in this country but it will be unlikely that we’ll have a pre-season match (abroad). 

‘That’s the wish of John and Rich. We’re fully focused, again, on what worked so well for us last year - that camp was brilliant in terms of fostering a sense of togetherness amongst the players, many of whom were in place by the time we travelled to Spain last year.

‘Again, that’s what we’ll look to do. That’s not to say, any fans who do travel to the destination that we will announce shortly (won’t be welcome). We will look at offering an opening training session so there’s an opportunity for those supporters who do make the trip to have some engagement with the players and watch a training session.’

The Pompey players are expected to report back for pre-season testing on Thursday, June 27, ahead of a resumption of training on Monday, July 3. The opening day of the 2024-25 season is pencilled in for the weekend of August 10.

As of yet, no local pre-season friendly games or dates have been made public.