LATEST: Portsmouth boss set to make brutal calls and tell contracted stars they can go

The Blues boss will speak to fringe squad members in the coming days and say they can end their Fratton adventure in the months ahead.

Mousinho believes it’s better for those who the club don’t see playing a big part moving forward, to be aware of their situations sooner rather than later.

Individual meetings have started and will accelerate after Saturday’s final Championship game of the season against Hull on Saturday.

Mousinho feels the club could hold off affording clarity to those who aren’t seen as integral to the squad moving forward, but Pompey are in a strong enough position now to be honest with those in that position.

Ryley Towler looks set to be a player who falls into that category while the likes of Christian Saydee, Paddy Lane, Abdoulaye Kamara and Tom McIntyre are others who could conceivably be in the same position.

Mousinho said: ‘If it’s something we see (contracted players not featuring) we’ll definitely have that conversation.

‘We want to try to be in the position next season that if we do sign the players we’ve targeted in the summer, we don’t want to be unfair and selfish towards the players we have here.

‘We won’t wait for them to come back in pre-season and ignore their calls, calls from their agents and calls from other interested clubs then let them know later.

‘So the conversation might be in a couple of cases: “Look, if there’s a conversation that comes up to go somewhere we might try to facilitate that”.

‘We’re not going to be selfish and turn things down at that stage because the best thing may be for the player to move on, so there might be a couple of those conversations.

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‘The worst thing for a player is to not have the truth in front of you and know what we’re thinking as a club, or being led down the garden path for us to have more bodies around and be more protected.

‘Of course we have to protect ourselves and the football club, but we feel we’re in a strong position in terms of bringing players in.

‘We will ultimately only make decisions which are right for the football club, that’s the most important thing, but unfortunately it’s a ruthless industry.

‘It’s not a nice industry to be part of when these things happen, but hopefully players have a bank of evidence for their future employers to look at because they’ll say “yes, we’re going to go with that player because they’ve had a good season in the Championship”.’

Pompey boss Mousinho’s contract admission

Mousinho acknowledged players who are still contracted at Pompey are well within their rights to sit tight and see out the duration of their agreement, even if it means limited playing time.

The Pompey boss feels the club also have a duty to be realistic about which players could generate a fee this summer, while considering those more likely to leave on loan.

He added: ‘Ultimately we’ll honour the contract. We signed them on a contract and if we’re talking about moving them on, there’s a bit of an onus on the club to be realistic about what we want - whether that’s a loan or fee.

‘I guess they (contracted players who can leave) are not quite as cleancut and straightforward, but at the same time if the contracted players come back and feature for us in pre-season that’s no problem either.’

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