'A nice bit of sun for the fans': Portsmouth boss on plans to go abroad for pre-season

The Blues boss is currently drawing up the summer schedule in preparation for the 2022-23 campaign, with a tour abroad under consideration.

Last July, Danny Cowley took his squad to Murcia in Spain for a week, where they beat Qatar SC 2-0 in a friendly at the Pinatar Arena Football Center.

This time around, and now under the management of Mousinho, Pompey have drawn up a shortlist of four countries, one of which is the Republic of Ireland.

The head coach’s preference is for a week-long training camp, consisting of a friendly which can be attended by Blues followers.

And, most of all, he’s keen for the sun being present to greet those in attendance.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Most likely we will be going abroad, it just breaks up everything because it will be a long stint of training.

‘Hopefully there will also be a nice bit of sun for the fans when they come out to watch us – as opposed to the snow at Accrington the other week. That would be a nice reward to the travelling support.

‘There are a couple of ideas about a tour, it’s Europe at the moment, and hopefully we’ll be close to finalising something within the next 2-3 weeks.

‘We’re looking at four countries and going for a week. If it’s the right time to play a game – and you get the right opposition and the right facilities – then we’ll look to do a match over there too.

‘In terms of the overall pre-season, we’ve had a little look at scheduling and timings of when we’re going to be back, while starting to think about fixtures as well.

‘As soon as you blink, the pre-season will be upon us, so we need to make sure we start planning, which we’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks.

‘Tours abroad can be really useful. I don’t want to say it breaks up the monotony because it’s not monotonous, it’s great coming in and training every day, but usually you have training every single day so need to break that up.

‘In a season, games and travel do that, but in pre-season you’ve got that block where you’re in training day after day after day – and a tour helps.

‘Also, having the lads 24/7 relatively early on in the pre-season helps, they get to know each other, we get to know them, we get to spend a bit of time when them, do a bit of team bonding, a couple of activities, that’s why those trips can be really useful.’

Among the options is the Republic of Ireland, where, as an Oxford player, Mousinho has experience of training in Malahide, outside of Dublin.

Coincidentally, it was also the location for Pompey’s July 2019 pre-season training under Kenny Jackett, which included current players Sean Raggett and Ronan Curtis and involved staying at the Portmarnock Hotel.

Mousinho added: ‘The Republic of Ireland is on the table, it has some excellent facilities.

‘I’ve been there before with Oxford, spending a bit of time at Malahide. We went there when it was 40 degrees, so it felt like you were on the continent.

‘I loved it out there, that’s one we’ve looked at.’