Portsmouth boss' midfield transfer admission after recruiting 'fantastic' Newcastle man

Isaac Hayden trained with his new team-mates on Saturday after completing a loan switch from Newcastle for the remainder of the season.

The 29-year-old has made 171 appearances for the Premier League club, although not represented them since December 2021, instead playing his football on loan at Norwich, Standard Liege and QPR.

He will compete with Freddie Potts and Andre Dozzell for the two central midfield spots in Pompey’s starting XI - with the Blues now turning their attention to strengthening elsewhere.

Mousinho told The News: ‘I don’t think there will be any more in terms of signing other central midfielders.

‘He is a fantastic signing, has bags of Championship and Premier League experience, and joined QPR at a very, very similar stage last year, becoming a big part of them getting out of the position they were in.

‘He’s a very very calm and collected midfielder who knows how to play the game, is technically very good, defensively very, very rarely loses out in any of his individual battles, is good in the air, and a good size.

‘In terms of bringing someone in in the middle of the park, as a defensive midfielder he has done the lot. He’s still only 29 and we are very fortunate to have him.

‘We are managing Rob Atkinson’s minutes, he hasn’t played for two years, and we have to keep a similar eye on everything with Isaac, considering how many games he has played recently.’

QPR recruited Hayden on loan in February 2024 to boost their fight to clamber out of the relegation zone, languishing in 22nd place at the time.

He went on to make 17 appearances, including 12 starts, as they finished 18th under Gareth Ainsworth to remain in the Championship.

And Mousinho is hoping the former Premier League performer can have a similar impact at Fratton Park.

He added: ‘Hopefully Hayden will lift us further up the table.

‘We have put ourselves into a position where we can certainly push up the league. We have games in hand on the sides around us.

‘At times during the first half of the season, we definitely would have taken where we are at the moment. We just have to improve and get much, much better in picking up points.’