'A multitude of reasons': Portsmouth boss' honest assessment on why Elias Sorensen transfer didn't work out

And he believes the Dane’s unsuccessful Championship spell was down to a ‘multitude of reasons’.

Recruited in August following the diagnosis of Colby Bishop’s heart issues, the former Newcastle man enjoyed an encouraging start to Pompey life, netting just 23 minutes into his debut at Leeds.

However, he subsequently started just three more times, while totalled only 23 minutes during the last 13 Blues matches of his disappointing time on the south coast.

Now Mousinho has explained why he consistently overlooked the 25-year-old - and the reasons for allowing last week’s departure to Norwegian club Valerenga.

He told The News: ‘We didn’t want to stop Eli from having that opportunity, he wasn’t playing a huge amount here and we didn’t want to stand in his way. We certainly didn't want to stand in his way in terms of forwarding his career.

‘Our initial take - and in terms of where we were with our transfer policy in the summer - was that Colby would be out until January. He obviously came back a lot more quickly and Eli struggled for minutes recently with a combination of many, many things.

‘Initially we didn’t think him leaving was something we’d be able to get done because of the fact he had already played for one club before joining us, but there are slightly different rules with him going to Norway.

‘There are always a multitude of reasons when a player doesn’t get picked, part of which is Eli was unlucky. When he played, he certainly gave us everything and certainly put a shift in.

‘You never know what the sliding doors moments are. If he puts the penalty in against Oxford United, all of a sudden his confidence is boosted and he gets a couple more. You never know what the difference will be.

‘That didn’t happen, but that’s one example of where things might have changed and been a bit different.

‘Certainly with the way we’ve been playing recently and how we’ve been a bit more direct, going to a target man a lot more, that has suited the likes of Colby, who is a very, very different player to Eli. There are many different things and I don’t think playing style should be discounted either.

‘You are never going to look at a player who has been here for six months and not played a huge amount of games and say it has been a roaring success.

‘But Eli was a great kid, he kept his head down in training, he scored a really important goal for us up at Leeds and had a really big contribution.’

Sorensen’s last Pompey start was at Cardiff in October, when he was withdrawn at half-time with Mousinho’s men 2-0 down.

From that point, he never totalled more than 13 minutes in an appearance, while on occasions was excluded from the 20-man match-day squad completely.

And he made his Fratton Park escape last Thursday, joining Valerenga for an undisclosed fee on a three-and-a-half year deal.

Mousinho added: ‘You never know until the back end of the season what that contribution is going to amount to, what the goal or other bits of effort he put in during the season are going to give us.

‘He was keen to go and that was no surprise because of the amount of minutes he’d had. He wasn’t itching for a move by any means, he was looking to compete and stay here, but when the opportunity came up we didn’t want to stand in his way.

‘We wish the best and I’m sure he will have a great time in Norway.’