'A bit more steady': Portsmouth boss' transfer admission as he plots summer signings

Certainly the Blues’ head coach is adamant there will be no overhaul to match the high levels of recruitment witnessed in the previous two close seasons.

Irrespective of Wednesday’s disappointing defeat to Plymouth, Pompey remain well placed to preserve their hard-earned Championship status with nine matches remaining.

The previous two summers under Mousinho and sporting director Rich Hughes have totalled 28 new arrivals, with 14 signed in each.

At this season’s end, the Blues will lose their six loan players, while the likes of Anthony Scully and Tom Lowery’s deals will not be renewed.

However, even with the inevitable drop in numbers, along with other potential squad exits, Mousinho insists there will not be a huge influx of players.

He told The News: ‘It certainly won’t be as bad as last summer or the summer before.

‘We did 14 in the summer (2024), then eight in January. If you look at the transfer windows we’ve had, the first summer’s transfer window we were very, very clear about what we needed to do in order to compete in League One.

‘We wanted to build a squad ready to compete at the top end of League One. We bolstered that again in January, so 19 new faces coming in across the season. We were really comfortable with that.

‘Having stayed in League One an extra season, there would have been far less activity in the summer, but we got promoted and, in order to compete at this level, we thought the right thing to do was to have that squad overhaul again. To make sure that we’re competitive at the next level.

‘We did that in the summer, we’ve done it again in January. If we do manage to stay at the level then things will be a bit more steady.

‘We will still look to bring players in, obviously, but you’ve got to go through a few of these transfer windows to get to a position as a football club so that, like some of the sides higher up the league, you only bring in one or two every transfer window.

‘Maybe it’s one or two with a bit more quality and costing the club slightly more in terms of fees, etc, but we are certainly not in that place yet. We’ve got to keep building, we’ve got to keep being aggressive in the transfer windows. That will probably come with two or three more windows at least.

‘You have to do enough to make sure you stay in the league. Our sole focus has been to make sure we did enough last summer, then bolstering the squad again in January to try to stay in the league.’

Seven Pompey players out of contract

Freddie Potts, Isaac Hayden, Rob Atkinson, Adil Aouchiche, Mark O’Mahony and Kaide Gordon will all return to their parent clubs after the final game on May 3.

In addition, seven players presently have deals scheduled to expire - Lowery, Scully, Kusini Yengi, Zak Swanson, Andre Dozzell, Cohen Bramall and Ben Killip.

Those potential departures, coupled with the need to strengthen, invariably mean there will still need to be changes ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

Mousinho added: ‘We will look at that in the summer. If we do manage to remain in the Championship, we have to make sure we follow it up next season

‘Once you’ve had a couple of windows, a couple of years, a couple of big summer windows, then I think you can start to become a bit more solid, a bit less fluent, in terms of the squad rotation and the squad turnover,

‘Just add little bits here and there.’

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