Portsmouth boss' strong message over future of ex-Arsenal starlet amid reports of Coventry and Swansea interest

The highly-regarded right-back was last week linked with Championship pair Coventry and Swansea.

Although injury curtailed his Blues involvement in the final three-and-a-half months of last term, it represented an encouraging maiden Fratton Park season for the ex-Arsenal youngster.

Swanson made 25 appearances, scoring twice, while produced an impressive man-of-the-match display at Spurs in the FA Cup Third Round in January.

And Mousinho insists the 22-year-old is going nowhere.

Pompey’s boss told The News: ‘We wouldn’t welcome any interest in Zak. He has a huge amount of talent.

‘I have heard absolutely nothing about Coventry and Swansea so, as far as I am concerned, he is coming back in as one of our players on Monday for pre-season.

‘Genuinely nothing has come from either of those two clubs – or any other club for that matter.

‘Zak played in my opening three games here, the first time he had played the 90 minutes in a week. That’s what we need, a bit more robustness from him.

‘I was actually looking over some of those games as a post-season review and had forgotten how well he had done, particularly in the Exeter and Fleetwood matches.

‘If we can get him back firing to that and competing with Joe Rafferty for that right-back spot, I think we have two really good right-backs in the building.’

Danny Cowley signed Swanson from Arsenal for an undisclosed fee in July 2022.

He has one year of his contract remaining, although the Blues possess a club option to extend that by an additional 12 months.

And, following late-season injury problems, he’s expected to be back in full training for next Monday’s return to training (June 26).

Mousinho added: ‘Interest is always flattering, for everybody associated with the club.

‘It is good, we don’t want to have a season where no clubs are interested in any of our players because that means we are not doing a very good job.

‘Although, at the moment, we’d like Zak to be here and haven't got any plans to move him on.’