Portsmouth boss responds to prospect of European Championship player raid

But the Pompey boss feels the ‘huge’ transfer fees commanded by most of the players on show in Germany renders such a prospect unlikely.

The Blues are continuing their player hunt this summer, with five players through the door to date and more arrivals anticipated.

Two new faces have linked up with the group in triallists Sean Patton and Jamal Baptiste, with both players handed runouts in the warm-up win at Gosport.

It’s the notion of raiding the 24 teams who made the Euros which is intriguing some Pompey supporters, however.

Speaking to The News in a recent Q&A, Mousinho was asked about the chances of bringing any of the players who caught his eye this summer for next season’s Championship campaign.

Though leaving the door ajar for that to happen, the Pompey boss believes doing so remains unlikely with finding value the challenge.

When asked if he would look to by players from the Euros, Mousinhi said: ‘There’s always possibilities that these players pop up.

‘I guess the answer is of all the teams we’ve watched in the Euros there hasn’t been any players on our radar.

‘That’s not to say that they’d be out of our reach, but it’s not quite so straightforward as watching a player at the Euros and then being interested in them. There’s lot of different permutations.

‘You can see now from the way international football is going (how hard it would be). 

‘You saw this with England’s games early on, we come up against a side who 10, 15 or 20 years ago would’ve been a walk in the park.

‘The competitive level of international football is so high at the moment. That leads to the answer that even the players with so-called lesser sides still command huge transfer fees.

‘They are playing for some of the best sides in Europe, so it’s that much harder to do that.’