Portsmouth boss on why he wants 'brilliant' Ipswich striker to return to Fratton Park - and why it won't happen

But he has warned the Ipswich striker he cannot offer the regular first-team football he craves.

Pigott has returned to Portman Road for the final 12 months of his contract after seven goals and nine League One starts during a season-long loan with Pompey.

The outstanding form of 24-goal Colby Bishop impacted severely on the 29-year-old’s game time, largely restricting him to a bench role which inevitably would have frustrated.

Regardless, the former AFC Wimbledon man impressed sufficiently in his 44 outings to warrant Mousinho considering his return next season.

Although it won’t be as an automatic choice in his Pompey starting XI.

The Blues’ head coach told The News: ‘I don’t know what Ipswich’s plans are for Joe next year.

‘I’ve asked him to let us know what that looks like. I don’t know if they want to loan him out or possibly see if there's a permanent deal out there for him.

‘But we would be interested in bringing him back and I’ve had a conversation to Joe about that. It’s going to be a case of finances and what he wants to do.

‘We really, really value what he did for us this season – and I’ve told him that. I thought he was excellent. When we used him as a nine he did really well, while when needed as a 10 or a wide left – as in the last game of the season – he was brilliant.

‘He’ll now have interest from clubs that will want to play him for 46 games next year, but that probably isn’t the case here because of how well Colby has done. We want to be honest with Joe about that.

‘We’ve been playing one up top and I don’t think anyone would argue Colby fully deserves his place in the side – so that has been difficult for the other two centre-forwards.

‘If Joe wants to be right in with a chance of playing 46 games, that’s probably not here, so that’s something he needs to think about.

‘But, if there is an option to bring him back, that’s something we would entertain.’

Pigott found starts hard to come by under both Danny Cowley and Mousinho, with just five arriving in the league during the second half of the season.

While he finished the campaign as a substitute in five of the last seven matches.

Mousinho added: ‘Whenever Joe’s come on, he has been a threat. Considering how little he has been employed over the past few months, he also scored quite a few.

‘In all honesty, if he hadn't been sent off against Accrignton I could have seen him nailing down that number 10 role until the end of the season, especially when we played two holders and a 10.

‘He was just coming into his own, getting fit, and it was an unfortunate time for him to pick up the red card.

‘We saw plenty of Joe to like what he offers and he was pretty much always the first sub we looked to to change the game.’