Verdict: Portsmouth boss John Mousinho doesn't need massive squad rebuild in the summer

And one of those with his foot in the latter camp is The News’ very own Pepe Lacey.

Despite the Blues remaining in mid-table following John Mousinho’s appointment and finding themselves 12 points off the play-off places following Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Plymouth, our Pompey writer believes a complete end-of-season revamp of the squad in uncalled for.

New additions are needed, but the Fratton Park outfit can avoid the type of summer overhauls that were overseen by Danny Cowley – according to our man in the latest recording of Pompey Talk.

When asked if the Blues currently have the players needed to produce the front-foot, energetic, aggressive brand of football the club aspires to, Lacey said: ‘Yes and no.

‘I think there are good players in the team at the moment, a couple of which are on loan unfortunately, and I’m not sure how that will play out in the summer.

‘Like every Pompey loss at the moment, people on social media are saying such and such players need to go.

‘That is fair enough – some players, through no fault of their own, have been caught out in this transition, when Pompey want to play this style of football.

‘I don’t want to elude to a summer rebuild, but there’s going to have be some players coming in that allow John Mousinho to do what he wants to do.

‘You just have to go back to the start of the season when Pompey had a fully fit squad. They were unbeaten for their first nine games and then haven’t had a real fully fit squad to chose from since.

‘It will be interesting to see how that develops when those player get back.

‘John Mousinho is hopeful quite a lot of those players will be back within the next month.

‘If they do, and Pompey have all their players to chose from, then they could go on a run.

‘There’s nothing to suggest they can’t – that influence of new players who have been on the sidelines for weeks and weeks, that will add something to the squad.

‘At the moment there still needs additions in the summer to enable John Mousinho to play his style of football. But nothing in the way of a massive summer rebuild where half the squad need to go.

‘Only a few additions are needed and I think that’s something that quite a lot of Pompey fans think as well.’

Pompey have 15 players, including those on loan, out of contract at the season’s end.

That means the Blues need to make their minds up on which players they see fitting into the brand of football that lies on the horizon.

But Lacey insisted that key decision doesn’t have to be made just yet.

He added: ‘It’s too early to say who has to go or who should be retained (from the out-of-contract list).

‘Ronan Curtis is out of contract in the summer, so is Jay Mingi, and we haven’t really seen them play under John Mousinho.

‘You need to wait until late March or April maybe to make a decision.

‘In terms of the overall retained list, you need to a couple more weeks or months to see if some of those players can thrive under Mousinho.

‘It’s too early to say just yet, but that will change in the coming weeks.’