John Mousinho admits transfer rethink as Portsmouth weigh up shelving defender hunt

Newcomer Jordan Williams will be the Blues’ first-choice in the role next season following his arrival from Barnsley on a free transfer.

However, Mousinho is still short in that area following Joe Rafferty’s departure and out-of-contract Zak Swanson’s Fratton Park future uncertain.

Understandably, Pompey remain in the market to strengthen at right-back this summer - although the head coach is adamant there are also alternatives within his squad.

And he concedes they instead may opt to promote from within, utilising Regan Poole or Terry Devlin as potential back-up options to Williams.

Mousinho told The News: ‘We would like to have another right-back, ideally. We are trying to get two for every position.

‘One other thing we have our eye on this year is Regan, who isn’t fully back fit yet, but we do have him in the building and he can play right-back. He played a lot at right-back for Lincoln previously and right wing-back.

‘The other one we are looking at at the moment is Terry. I thought he was excellent there against Port Vale, excellent against Fleetwood, and excellent for half-an-hour until he did his shoulder at Oxford.

‘I also saw a lot of attributes there which would encourage me with Terry. He’s a really flexible player in terms of the different positions he can play. When we put him at right-back last season, I didn’t think we had any issues whatsoever.

‘I like that flexibility and it’s one of the reasons why we wanted to sign Terry. It’s definitely one of the reasons we think he’s going to be an exciting player next season.’

Before his season-ending injury in November, all 15 of Poole’s Pompey starts had come as a right-sided centre-half.

In contrast, the versatile Devlin started three successive matches at right-back in January during a Rafferty injury absence - before himself being struck down.

Mousinho added ‘It’s going to be interesting for Terry pre-season. I don’t know this 100 per cent, but I think he just wants to play anywhere, whereas sometimes players want to nail down a position.

‘I like his flexibility, I like the fact we have put him on at left wing, right wing, played him as a central midfielder, as a 10, and at a right-back.

‘We’ll probably have to try him out at left-back and centre-half as well just to box all that off!’