John Mousinho clarifies ex-Norwich man's Portsmouth future amid reported Gillingham interest

And Pompey’s head coach has dismissed reports of Gillingham interest in the powerful centre-half.

The 30-year-old faces a fight for his first-team place in the forthcoming season following this month’s arrival of Regan Poole.

Indeed, Mousinho wants the pair to battle it out for the right-sided spot in the centre of Pompey’s defence with their Bristol Rovers opener looming (August 5).

Meanwhile, Raggett has been linked by The Sun’s Alan Nixon with a move to home-town club Gillingham, where former Blues boss Kenny Jackett is serving as the League Two club’s director of football.

However, Mousinho has made it clear no such approach has been received – nor would he welcome it.

He told The News: ‘We saw the talk about Gillingham and I don’t know where it has come from.

‘They haven’t made an approach to us and we are perfectly happy where we are – I would like Raggs to stay.

‘As far as we are concerned, we are really happy with five centre-halves in the building.

‘Raggs played 72 minutes on Saturday against Crawley, captained the side, so, as far as we are concerned, there is nothing in it. Certainly from our end, we haven’t heard anything.

‘He was brilliant for me towards the back end of last season, playing every minute of every game up until we had nothing to play for anymore and dropped out of the play-off race.

‘That was down to wanting to look at Di’Shon Bernard in that position, nothing else, and Raggs has been a good servant for the football club.

‘He has that experience, is excellent aerially, he’s aggressive, is a really good defender, and better on the ball than a lot of people give him credit for, he has really worked on that.

‘One thing that has been pleasing about Sean since my time here is not only has he tried – and done well – playing out from the back, but also done really well defending one-v-one, where people might have had question marks.’

The summer additions of Poole and Conor Shaughnessy have bolstered the Blues’ centre-half options.

The duo join Raggett, Ryley Towler and Haji Mnoga, while Connor Ogilvie possesses the flexibility to switch from left-back to a more central position.

Unlike last summer, when Raggett’s pre-season was hampered by a back issue, he has featured regularly in the Blues’ friendly schedule.

And having dominated the running drills over mid to long distance, the long-serving defender is clearly in fine shape.

Mousinho added: ‘He’s a great athlete, you’ve seen that in pre-season, he’s quick and strong as well.

‘Across those options at the back have left us with a real headache in terms of what we’re going to do heading into the first game of the season.’