‘Seems like it will’: Boss' picture of transfer market and how window will unfold for Portsmouth, Derby County, Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic & Co

John Mousinho feels all the signs are pointing to a hectic conclusion to the transfer window.

The Pompey boss believes a slow start to winter business suggests a frantic finale is once again on the cards this month.

Mousinho reckons clubs are still getting their houses in order in terms of who could be departing over the coming weeks.

That has accounted for a relatively quiet first few days of activity this month, with a total of eight players signed by League One clubs so far.

Like most, Mousinho’s preference would be to have deals done early, but he feels that isn’t a realistic ambition in the winter window.

He feels there’s a wait for deals to be done at a higher level - and that could have a knock-on effect over  how clubs see their squads as players become available.

Mousinho said: ‘At the moment I suppose it seems like it will (build to a crescendo) because there’s not a huge amount of movement early on.

‘I genuinely think that’s because clubs just aren’t sorted in terms of their outgoings.

‘If you look at us for example, we’ve probably got one definite outgoing that if clubs call us up we can say he’s available. Apart from that, as far as we’re concerned, no one else is available at the moment.

‘A lot of clubs in our position are similar. Some of them are more cut and dry, but there’s not a huge amount of movement early on.

‘Things start to change at the end of January, players decide they want to leave and get themselves a move.

‘Some of them (available players)  had looked really cut and dried a couple of months ago, but things change really quickly.

‘I think as always, because of that tight time period you’ve got, things always tend to happen in the last couple of weeks. We’ll just be ready. We’d love to have business done on day one- but it’s just not realistic.’