Portsmouth boss outlines triallist details as trio of new faces arrive

Danny Cowley has stated he will open the door to look at potential signings as he reshapes his squad this summer.

The Blues brought in a keeper and two outfield players as they reported back for duty at their Roko base yesterday.

That took the total to 18 outfield players and three keepers for the double session, as the players underwent fitness tests and an afternoon training session in the summer heat.

Pompey signed the likes of Jayden Reid and Jay Mingi 12 months ago, after weighing up the pair first in training and warm-up games.

With the club stating a transfer policy of trying to bring in young players on the rise who can be developed and increase their resale value, going down the route of bringing in triallists makes sense to Cowley.

He said: ‘We had three in for the first day.

‘They’ve all got good athletic quality and lots of potential.

‘It was good to see them training with us.

‘Last year we took Jay Mingi and Jayden Reid, good young players.

‘So we will look at triallists, absolutely.

‘For us, if there’s the possibility to do that it makes complete sense.’

Although keen on looking at players, Cowley has no intention of seeing a repeat of the vast intake from 12 months ago.

On that occasion triallists were required to get a workable session on, with the amount of players the Pompey boss likes to work with.

A constant stream of new faces continued to arrive across the summer, with Jake Hesketh, Layton Ndukwu, Sean Goss, Elijah Dixon-Bonner and Ludwig Francillette just a few of the players to come in.

Cowley added: ‘We had 10 (contracted players last summer) and we like to work with 20 players, so that was where we were at.

‘We’re not in that situation this time around, but if we have the opportunity to look at triallists we’ll do that.’