Portsmouth boss John Mousinho provides update on search for his No2 - and gives process his full backing

The Blues head coach reiterated that an appointment was close – although admitted the identity of his assistant would remain internal until next week.

He also said he was comfortable with the whole selection process and explained why the club were going down the route of interviewing candidates for the the role rather Mousinho just naming his own right-hand man.

The former Oxford United player has been largely assisted by academy lead Zesh Rehman and goalkeeping coach Joe Prodomo since replacing Danny Cowley last month.

But following the close of the transfer window, the Blues’ priority has been to find someone to support Mousinho in a full-time No2 capacity.

That has seen Pompey – led by the 36-year-old – carry out a thorough process to get the right man in.

It has seen the Blues interview many candidates, replicating their approach to finding a new head coach.

And as that search draw to a conclusion, Mousinho revealed he is delighted with how things are going and confident that the appointment will be the right one for the club.

He told the News: ‘We’re much closer (to making an appointment).

‘The way we went about it, at the end of the transfer window, we wanted to make sure that was done and dusted – and that was last Tuesday.

‘We started straightaway on the Wednesday, looking to identify a shortlist.

‘We’re pretty close now. I did say last week that we should have somebody by the back end of this week, which I think we may still do.

‘But we’ll probably just keep that internal until the start of next week.

‘It will be a club appointment, but it’s been largely led by myself.

‘The club are never going to impose an assistant head coach that I didn’t want. I’m completely comfortable with that.

‘From my point of view as well, I would like input from other people that are important to the football club because I haven’t interviewed a huge amount of people in my past.

‘I’ve done it a few times but haven’t done it for this position, so I would like another set of eyes, their expertise to be cast over it and that way I think you come to a much better choice in the end.’

Traditionally, new managers bring a reliable alley and others with them to ensure their backroom team are made up of individuals why can trust and rely on.

Pompey have clearly gone down a different route for a key role. But Mousinho believes its the correct one for everybody.

‘I’m absolutely fine with it (the process), and there are a couple of reasons why,’ he added.

‘Firstly, there’s no harm in doing that, in any environment.

‘One of the examples why I was comfortable with it was because, coming into this process, the only person at Portsmouth who knew me was Ric Hughes and that was just through conversations we had through the Pro Licence.

‘It then took an extensive, thorough process to recruit me, so that everybody in the football club was comfortable with me being here – and I think you can do that with other positions. It’s probably too ingrained in football at the moment that the head coach comes in and has his or her team that he knows is just going to come in.

‘The second part of it was I didn’t necessarily have anyone because I came from (a playing background), I didn’t come from another head coach or managerial position.

‘I’ve had people that I work with but no-one has worked with me as a head coach or an assistant.

‘So I thought that gives me an opportunity to take a step back for a minute and look through a list of candidates and see who we might be able to approach.’