Portsmouth boss delivers squad vow as players return for pre-season training

The Blues boss has broken down his squad make-up and challenged his ‘breakthrough group’ to make the transition into the first-team setup this term.

Pompey report back for duty today after their summer break, with testing scheduled for this morning before an afternoon session at the club’s Roko training base.

Cowley currently has what he considers 13 senior players contracted for next season and five youngsters on the fringes of the first-team setup.

That leaves three players in Jayden Reid, Jay Mingi and Haji Mnoga making up a section he’s looking to potentially see graduate into his senior group, over the coming campaign.

Even without a senior striker, Cowley sees that as progress from where the first team was last summer.

He said: ‘We’re further down the line in terms of numbers, because this time last year we had only 10 players contracted to the club.

‘Now we have 13 senior players with three players in the group of those we’d like to develop.

‘Then there are the young players who we’ve signed on third-year scholar or first-year pro terms this summer.

‘We talk a lot about the young players we’d like to develop.

‘I’d like to think one or two of the likes of Jay Mingi or Haji Mnoga may be able to graduate this year and become senior players.

‘The young players I would class as Liam Vincent, Harry Jewitt-White, Alfie Bridgman, Dan Gifford and Toby Steward.

‘Then we have the “breakthrough group” which we hope will be the likes of Haji, Jay Mingi and maybe Jayden Reid, although Jayden had a disrupted season last year.

‘The aim is to get those players to break through into the first team squad, or even better the starting XI.’