'We're now stronger': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho details Michael Doyle's new dual role in backroom reshuffle
The former Leeds and Sheffield United midfielder made 97 appearances and scored three times as a Blues player
Michael Doyle has been handed a dual coaching role following his emotional return to Fratton Park.
According to John Mousinho, the Irishman has taken over set-piece responsibilities from Joe Prodomo, who will now focus on his goalkeeping coaching.
That’s in addition to first-team coaching duties, with the former Leeds and Coventry man also challenged to help out on the training pitch.
The League Two title-winning skipper represents an expansion to the existing coaching set-up, with Mousinho keen to introduce more specialist roles to the Championship club.
And he’s delighted to secure the 43-year-old for a third Pompey spell, having previously served as a popular player and then with the Academy as assistant professional development phase coach under Sam Hudson.
‘We thought it would be beneficial for everyone’
Mousinho told The News: ‘As a football club, we don’t want to become too heavy or too bloated as a staff, but we also want to try to get up to that Championship standard.
‘There’s always something to do, probably everybody at the club at the moment has a job and a half, which is great, everyone likes that. But this is an area we could add to, we thought it would be beneficial for everyone here.
‘We didn’t need to get rid of anyone, we thought we could strengthen, we could make things better, we could add someone who has fantastic coaching experience and even better playing experience.
‘Michael will be in as first-team coach and set-piece coach as well. He has only been in the building since Friday, so the PEC Zwolle set-pieces were still taken between Joe (Prodomo) and I.
‘Joe has done a fantastic job over the last two-and-a-half years since I’ve been here, taking all the set-pieces and being a really, really dominant side. Especially in the League One season, where we scored so many goals.
‘As a Championship club, what we want to do now is specialise a bit more. Nobody here needs me to tell you about Michael’s career, I’m really pleased to have added him and I think he will have a big impact.’
Appointed Pompey’s goalkeeping coach in June 2022
Prodomo, who previously worked in Bournemouth’s Academy, was appointed as Blues goalkeeping coach by Danny Cowley in June 2022.
Upon Mousinho’s arrival as head coach in January 2023, he was also handed set-piece responsibilities, after impressing with his knowledge and organisation.
It proved to be a highly productive appointment, helping establish a key strength in Pompey’s armoury during the League One title-winning campaign, both in terms of attacking and defending.
Now Mousinho has opted to hand over duties to Doyle, with Prodomo focusing entirely on coaching a goalkeeping department consisting of Nicolas Schmid, Ben Killip, Jordan Archer and Toby Steward.
Mousinho: ‘We now feel stronger’
Mousinho added: Joe has had a huge impact on the goalkeeping side, you only have to look at the history of what we’ve done with goalkeepers over the last couple of years.
‘I thought he made Matt Macey a much better goalkeeper, he’s done the same with Will Norris, the same with Nico - and pretty much every other goalkeeper we’ve had here.
‘It’s something we spoke about with Joe, we’re happy to make sure we have somebody coming in who has that focus and to become slightly more specialised in that area.
‘It won’t be the only thing that Michael does, he will be first-team coach as well, but we look at it now and feel we’re stronger.’