Portsmouth boss discusses his future as reputation grows amid table-topping form

And the Blues head coach praised the new football operation structure at Fratton Park and his players for embracing his approach, and allowing him a flying start at PO4.

Mousinho admitted he could never have seen himself take his first steps in management at a club like Pompey, with the 37-year-old now nine months into first role.

His side go into this weekend’s clash with Port Vale on a 22-game unbeaten league run, and top of the formative League One table. Yet the notion of his work garnering admiring glances from elsewhere is firmly an alien concept to Mousinho, as he focusses on delivering success for the Blues.

Mousinho said: ‘It’s a question I’ve honestly never considered.

‘A lot of that for me is because I’d always imagined if and when any interest was to come for me, it would be from clubs like Portsmouth - because I was managing at a different (sized) club. The reason I say that is because if you’d told me before I took this job I was going to be head coach of Portsmouth in my career, I would have thought that was the pinnacle.

‘At the minute that sort of talk is just something I haven’t even had the chance to process. It’s probably best to just joke about it when that sort of things happens and honestly so, so far from my radar.

‘I’m just loving every minute of being at Portsmouth and very, very grateful for the opportunity. To be honest, I feel a million miles away from any of that (talk of interest from other clubs), I just need to keep myself grounded and focus on the next game.’

Mousinho acknowledged his start to life as Pompey has exceeded his own expectations coming into the role as Danny Cowley’s successor in January.

The former Oxford man feels he has the likes of sporting director, Rich Hughes, and his players for buying into style of operating for that early success.

He added: ‘It’s probably gone better than even I could’ve imagined.

‘I put that down to a lot of factors, not the least the structure behind the scenes here and how that is let me just be able to focus on coaching the side. Then how good the players have been is enormous, too. I feel very, very lucky to have been dropped in at this point.

‘The second part is as good as we’ve been, I naturally want to restart and go again (on the next game) and we’ve achieved absolutely nothing. So we don’t get carried away with anything - and that includes myself.

‘I’m always very critical of the team, how we go about things, the staff and myself, too. It’s a really important point that it’s been a really good start - but there’s still lots of work to do.’