Portsmouth chief executive Andy Cullen reveals why John Mousinho is new Blues head coach

The Blues chief executive said the 36-year-old former Oxford player/coach was the standout candidate during a process that saw a wide and diverse range of candidates interviewed for the position vacated by Danny Cowley on January 2.

He added the now ex-defender had outstanding leadership and motivational skills, and with a clear vision of how he would like Pompey to go forward, it’s an identity and approach that would work well with sporting director Richard Hughes.

After Moushino’s appointment on a ‘long-term’ contract was announced Cullen welcomed the new man to Fratton Park and what he’ll bring to the Blues going forward.

He said: ‘We are delighted to welcome John Mousinho as our new head coach.

‘Following a thorough process, where we spoke with a number of people, John was the standout candidate.

‘After meeting him and conducting our interviews, we were able to conclude the search and offer John the opportunity to coach this great football club.’

Cullen continued: ‘John possesses real leadership and motivational skills – evidenced by his position as captain at a number of clubs and election as PFA chairman.

‘A UEFA Pro Licence holder, he has a clear vision and an identity he wants to bring to Pompey and is comfortable working with Rich Hughes within the new football structure that has been put in place to deliver our short, medium and long-term goals.

‘I am a firm believer that to achieve success, you must possess an openminded approach. By simply doing the same things again and again, we only reduce the prospect of propelling the club forward.

‘That is why our head coach search embodied speaking to a wide and diverse range of candidates and why we also now have a sporting director to deliver progress across all our football operations.

‘There has been much success achieved by new head coaches and managers given maiden opportunities at several clubs over the past three years and we firmly believe John has all the credentials to bring success to Portsmouth Football Club.

‘I hope everyone will give John the incredible Pompey support and encouragement, both tomorrow and beyond. With that, John will be in an excellent position to deliver the long overdue success that we all want to see.

‘I will be forever grateful to Simon Bassey and Lorenzo Dolcetti who have now departed and we would like to thank them both for their service to the club, particularly over the past few weeks.’

Hughes added: ‘I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work with John. He’s a natural leader and his personality really shone through when we met with him.‘He has a real clarity on the way he wants to play and displayed the characteristics we had identified during our process. It’s a pleasure to welcome him to Fratton Park.‘I look forward to working closely with John, Andy and the rest of the football club to work towards bringing success – both in the short-term and for our longer-term vision.’