Portsmouth boss identifies plundering market which has unearthed Burnley, Bristol City and Cardiff City gems at Oxford United

The Pompey boss believes there’s a fertile breeding ground for talent across the Irish Sea which can be plundered.

Mousinho highlighted his Oxford United experience as evidence of what can be achieved, when identifying the right players to bring in from both the League or Ireland and Irish League.

The U’s landed the likes of Gavin Whyte, Luke McNally and Mark Sykes via those leagues in recent years.

All three are now operating in the Championship after successful stays at the Kassam Stadium, with Whyte at Cardff, Sykes with Bristol City and McNally going to Coventry on loan after signing for Burnley.

It’s also proved a lucrative avenue for Oxford to travel with both Whyte and McNally generating £2m fees, while Sykes went to Ashton Gate on a free.

Now Mousinho is looking for Pompey to benefit in a similar way to his former club.

He said: ‘Ireland is always an interesting one, just from my personal background with Oxford when you look at what they managed to do with the Irish market.

‘They managed to bring through player like Gavin Whyte, who is now playing for Cardiff and Mark Sykes, who is scoring every week for Bristol City.

‘Then there’s Luke McNally, who went to Burnley and has gone on loan to Coventry.

‘So there’s the opportunity for some real success there.

‘There’s some really good examples of them coming over from part-time football.

‘It’s stereotyping slightly, but when they come from part-time football it increases their hunger.

‘They love it and still look like they are playing on the playground with that freedom. That can be a real asset.’

While Ireland is a market Mousinho is keen to explore, the Pompey boss doesn’t expect to see his club cast their net any wider in the hunt for talent at present.

The 36-year-old feels there are a number of obstacles in the way of the club trawling Europe for new players.

He added: ‘Going into Europe can be trickier because of Brexit and work permits.

‘There’s also an inability to see players live.

‘When we talk to the recruitment department we want to make the checks, and be able to tick off that you’ve seen the player live.

‘You can do a lot of video analysis, but there’s more due diligence needed - though we wouldn’t close ourselves off to that by any means.’