'Natural consequence': Portsmouth boss ready to get ruthless as he plots registering 25-man Football League squad
The Blues must create six spaces in their 25-man squad to accommodate their January recruits
John Mousinho is adamant Pompey are ‘in a good position’ as they agonise over their 25-man Football League squad.
Although he accepts it is a ‘natural consequence’ that not all of his players will be registered when lists are submitted before midnight on Thursday.
Of the Blues’ seven new arrivals in the January transfer window, just Madiodio Dia qualifies as an under-21 player, having been born after January 1, 2004.
It means room must be created for the remaining six; Millenic Alli, Ebou Adams, Keshi Anderson, Aji Alese, Jacob Brown and Gustavo Caballero.
Six spaces needed
With Mark Kosznovszky out for the season through injury, and Minhyeok Yang and Callum Lang departing, that has opened up three spaces.
In addition, Jacob Farrell is poised for a return to the A-League on loan, while there was already one available slot carried over from the previous list, thereby ensuring five of the six newcomers can be accommodated.
The real headache is prising open a final space - brutally, that will mean not re-registering one of September's squad.
Speaking hours before the end of the transfer window, Mousinho told The News: ‘We have worked everything out, we think we’re in a good position there. We’ve been constantly doing that over the past week or so.
‘It’s just being aware of it. Whenever you bring someone in you’ve got to allocate a spot for them or move somebody else out, it’s always a balance, particularly with the fact that head coaches probably always want more players! But it’s something we have to look at and deal with and go from there.
‘We don’t want to not register players at the football club, so, if we can find solutions, then great.
‘If not then it’s something which, I guess, is a natural consequence of sometimes having players in the building who you don’t think are going to contribute a huge amount, then you may have to deregister them.’
Six central defenders on Pompey’s books
As it stands, Pompey have six central defenders, of which Hayden Matthews is an under-21 player so doesn’t impact on restrictions.
The likes of Luke Le Roux and Florian Bianchini will also come under scrutiny, having failed to make a Fratton Park impact since arriving in the summer.
You would imagine Swansea’s Bianchini would be the most obvious candidate, particularly with his ongoing injury problems and the Blues adding to their wing options with Alli, Anderson and Caballero in January.
In addition, with six loan players now on their books, Mousinho is restricted to naming a maximum of five in each match-day squad.
Whoever is chosen will join Jordan Archer on the sidelines, with Pompey’s fourth-choice keeper also not having been registered in September.
Mousinho added: ‘It’s always moving, always evolving. We’ve had players you need to shift around and incomings you think that’s definitely going to happen and maybe it doesn’t - and vice versa as well.
‘So it’s just about always being on top of it.’
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