Portsmouth boss' message to fans questioning goal threat of Cardiff City target as former Hull City and Oxford United man becomes free agent

And John Mousinho has backed himself to be improve the levels of the players he recruits this summer.

Whyte is someone who’s firmly on Pompey’s radar this summer, as the Northern Ireland international becomes a free agent as he leaves Championship Cardiff.

Some fans have highlighted the 27-year-old’s lack of goal return of late as cause for concern, with a lack of cutting edge from that area of the pitch an issue for some Pompey wingers in recent seasons.

Whyte returned two goals last term and the same number the previous campaign while on loan at Oxford, though he did deliver a decent nine assists for the U’s.

The Belfast lad has shown goal threat in his career, however, scoring 10 goals in his first campaign in England - and smashing in 24 goals in 49 outings for Crusaders in 2017-18, before crossing the Irish Sea.

Mousinho said: ‘I know it’s a frustration for Gavin himself, the one thing he’d like to put right is to score a lot more.

‘That season when he came to Oxford (on loan) I know his numbers in terms of assists was really high, he just maybe didn’t get the goals.

‘It’s hard to pinpoint when it happens, because he was still putting himself into good positions.

‘I suppose the positive is missing chances, though for some players that’s good and others that’s bad. I think it’s always good to put yourself in a position where you can miss them, though.

‘I’m sure wherever he ends next season though, it will be a nice restart for him and he will be able to kick on and return to the productivity we saw before.’

Mousinho now has to decide whether to advance a move for Whyte, who is reported to also be attracting interest from Oxford. The challenge will be to extricate that goal and assist threat once again, if he does so - a task he believes he can rise to.

Mousinho added: ‘That’s what recruitment is all about, weighing that up and weighing up the positives of bringing in someone who has that pedigree versus the reasons, and this can be for any player, why they haven’t necessarily performed how they would like to perform.

‘Certainly most managers would back themselves to be able to rekindle some of that form.’