John Mousinho's transfer admission as Portsmouth clarify position on loan players after Manchester United and Luton successes

However, he admits that is unlikely to happen in the 2023-24 campaign.

Latest club accounts revealed spending on loanees increased by a staggering £738,000 for the year ending June 30, 2022.

As a consequence, the Blues are eager to drive down such spiralling costs and focus on permanent recruiting this summer.

Mousinho has declared ‘in an ideal world’ his squad would not contain loan performers – but concedes realistically that won’t be the case.

He told The News: ‘If a really good loan player becomes available, we’re not going to turn that down, but, at the same time, the ultimate goal will be to reduce the amount of loans and the reliance on loans.

‘You are obviously much better off having players in the building where you control their contracts. However, if we ignore the loan market completely then we’re doing ourselves and the club a disservice.

‘Probably, in an ideal world, we wouldn’t fill five loan slots next season – but that’s an ideal world.

‘If we can get to the stage of two or three slots used, that’s brilliant, but will entirely depend on recruitment.

‘At the moment, looking at building the squad as it is and the targets we’ve got, if we can get the players then we won’t have to rely massively on the loan market.

‘But that is the absolutely ideal scenario – and it’s not going to pan out that way.

‘We don’t want to be pig-headed and say “No, we’re not going to look at loans”. We might not manage to sign these players we want – and instead others are available as loans.

‘Plymouth are a really good example this year that, if you get 2-4 of them right, then they can really benefit you.

‘In addition, with some of the players that become available for loan, sometimes there are deals to be done permanently there.’

In the case of January loan recruits Matt Macey and Di’Shon Bernard, Pompey have dipped their toe in the water.

They have subsequently liked what they’ve seen – and the duo are on their summer wishlist.

Mousinho added: ‘We’ve had a good look at a couple of the loan players, so if we’re going to take them on permanents, it becomes a bit of an easier decision for us.

‘Not only have we looked at them in games, we see what they are like day in, day out here. We know what they are like in the changing room, what they’re like in training, we know how they behave, how they act.

‘You only get the benefit of that if you have them in the building without an obligation – and then, at the back end, you can look at signing them.’