Portsmouth boss won't rule out potential move for ex-Manchester United man - despite arrival of reported Sheffield Wednesday target

The Blues moved to strengthen the centre of defence by snapping up the highly-regard Regan Poole on Monday evening.

The former Manchester United man appeared to be the alternative for Bernard, who remains away on Gold Cup duty with Jamaica and not presently contemplating his domestic future.

Certainly the signing of Poole has been well received, with the Blues – and former club Lincoln – expecting him to head to the Championship this summer.

But Mousinho wouldn’t rule out following up their long-running pursuit of Bernard.

He told The News: ‘It’s not necessarily the end of our interest Di’Shon.

‘Regan strengthens us significantly in that department and not to rule it out – but it probably changes the landscape of what we are looking for as we go forward.

‘We have ticked that box in this pre-season and got someone who probably, for all intents and purposes, we thought was going to go to the Championship.

‘We possibly don't need any more defenders, but if Di’Shon came up it would be a conversation we’d have internally.

‘At the moment it’s not something that has become a possibility for us, but I think we’ll just keep it flexible.

‘Don’t rule it out, if Di’Shon came to us tomorrow and said he was willing to sign we would have a good look at it.

‘I don’t necessarily think we have the answer for you on what that would look like, but I don’t think we’d dismiss it straight away.’

Poole was club captain at Lincoln in the second half of the season and operated either in the centre of defence or right wing-back.

And Pompey were delighted to capture him amid reported interest from Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City.

He added: ‘Regan was available and when you are looking at those sort of players – top-end free transfers who are available when we thought it was slightly beyond us - we wanted to take what's in front of us.

‘We targeted Regan a very long time ago and probably thought he had gone by us in the meantime, but for him to come back on the table, we are really, really happy with.

‘It was a no-brainer for us to do the deal when he became available.’