'Just seems out of it' - Why Portsmouth could cut their losses with on-loan Swansea forward in January transfer window

‘Florian is a really exciting player,’ said Pompey boss John Mousinho when the Blues announced the signing of Florian Bianchini on a season-long loan from Swansea at the end of July.

‘We believe there’s a lot that Florian can offer us and we’re delighted to add him to our attacking options,’ added the Fratton Park head coach as he welcomed his fifth new addition of the summer to the club.

Fast forward nearly three-and-a-half months, though, and those words could be considered far from the truth.

Indeed, 15 games into Pompey’s latest Championship season, the £1.95m former SC Bastia forward is fastly becoming the Blues’ forgotten man. Left on the bench for each of the past four games, despite the team’s obvious struggles in attack and a host of injuries to forward players, the Frenchman is increasingly finding himself on the fringes of the starting XI.

Despite desperately searching for a winning formula, Mousinho is finding solutions elsewhere in his threadbare ranks and putting his dwindling trust in others, leaving Bianchini stuck on eight league appearances, 0 goals and 1 assist from his brief spell at PO4 to date.

Only four of those eight Championship appearances have come as starts. Meanwhile, just 51 minutes of match action have been handed to the on-loan Swansea man since his last appearance in the starting XI against Sheffield Wednesday on September 20 - a game that ended in a 2-0 defeat.

If anything, the words of The News’ Pepe Lacey paint a more accurate picture of the 24-year-old. Speaking in the latest episode of Pompey Talk, the Blues writer said: ‘Florian Bianchini, he just seems out of it now. He can’t even get into the side when Pompey do have injury issues.’

Florian Bianchini’s Pompey future

With that in mind, it begs the question: where does Bianchini fit into the Blues’ plans for the remainder of the season? If at all!

Using Sammy Silvera as an indicator of Pompey’s potential intentions, it’s probably safe to say there are significant doubts surrounding the Frenchman’s continuation at Fratton Park beyond the end of this calendar year.

Just like the on-loan Middlesbrough winger, he was brought to the south coast to bring extra dynamism to the Blues’ forward line, to inject pace into the attack, and bring a level of quality that would only bolster Mousinho’s firepower.

However, Silvera was unable to produce what was expected of him - and look how that ended up. He was sent back to the Riverside Stadium in early January after 12 games, 0 goals and 0 assists.

Is a similar fate awaiting Bianchini as we approach the January transfer window and Pompey struggle at the wrong end of the table?

There is of course still time for Bianchini to make his Fratton Park mark. January is still eight weeks away, while the Blues still have nine games left to play in 2025.

But with Josh Murphy back after injury and fellow injury victims Callum Lang, Adrian Segecic, Franco Umeh and Harvey Blair on the comeback trail, his chances to impress may become even fewer.

An early return to Swansea’s Liberty Stadium in January looks increasingly likely, all things considered.

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