Portsmouth boss’ revealing stance on amount of transfer activity expected before close of window

And the Blues boss has left the door ajar for a frantic flurry of signings, as he pointed to the imponderable nature of the January window.

The first week of winter recruitment activity has seen Rob Atkinson arrive from Bristol City on loan for the season, with a temporary deal also lined up for Newcastle’s Isaac Hayden.

Elias Sorensen has left for Norwegian outfit Valerenga with further departures expected to offset the arrivals, and Pompey needing to keep within the confines of the 25-man squad limits in place in the Championship.

It’s known another couple of attacking additions are on the shopping list, with a winger and deep-lying central attacker sought.

But a curveball was thrown this week, in the shape of Aussie Jacob Farrell’s latest injury setback, prompting the need for cover at left-back. Mousinho feels that scenario is typical of the surprises which can emerge in the window, while there could be other opportunities to potentially upgrade the squad before February 3.

For that reason, the Pompey boss isn’t prepared to limit the arrivals to the four key positions they were looking to fill going into the new year.

Mousinho said: ‘We’re not putting a number on because things can move really quickly.

‘If you look at the Jacob Farrell injury, for example, that’s changed things slightly. Again, we’re monitoring where we are with the centre-halves, but we’ve brought another body in Rob (Atkinson) there - which covers us.

‘That puts us quite heavy once the dust has settled and we have everyone fit, though we don’t have everyone fit at the moment.

‘We’re just monitoring that through January really and will see where we are at the back end in terms of strengthening.

‘We’ve got the constraints of the 25 and we’re always moving that around, whenever we bring a player in or think about moving a player out. We will always move a few bits around and we have to make sure we get to the back end of ‘January and we’re in a good spot with the 25 - and the 25 registered are really competitive.’