'Not essential, but preferrable': Portsmouth battling to include four new signings on training camp
The Blues are flying out for their pre-season training camp today
Pompey are pushing hard to have four summer signings attending their pre-season training camp.
Although, ahead of today’s departure, John Mousinho insists having as many new signings as possible is ‘preferable, but not essential’.
As the sole transfer window recruit so far, Odin Bailey will definitely be on board when the Blues fly out for their week-long stay at a destination being kept under wraps.
New Academy graduates Chinedu Agu, Michael Ani, and Nathaniel Chioma are also expected to be in attendance, having been handed first-year professional terms.
However, in terms of signings, Pompey are still wrapping up deals for Eoin Kenny, Rocco Shein and Marko Milovanovic.
Trio close to joining Portsmouth
It is hoped all three will be able to join Bailey on the training camp, providing the opportunity to get to know their new team-mates before the summer friendly programme begins at Woking on Tuesday, July 14 (7pm).
Yet Mousinho has played down the significance if the Blues are unable to add any more to Bailey in time to make the travelling squad.
He told The News: ‘We are going on Sunday, so we will see. If we don’t, we don’t.
‘It’s preferable. It’s not essential, but it’s preferable. We went away last year with Adrian Segecic as our only signing by the time we got to Slovakia.
‘We still had a pretty good start to the season, to be honest. The start to the season wasn’t the issue we had, which indicates pre-season was fine for the players, pre-season went well.
‘It’s not essential, but preferrable’
‘The year we went up (July 2023) we had nine of our 14 summer signings on the pre-season training camp. It was a very different landscape then.
‘We were taking a lot of free transfers, we were dominant in the League One market, we could probably throw our weight around early in the summer. That’s not quite the case now.
‘If you can get players in by then, great. If not, we aren’t going to cry about it, we're going to make sure we get the right players at the right time.’
Bailey became Pompey’s first signing of the summer on Wednesday, when he signed a three-year deal following his release from Stockport.
The recruitment of Dundalk’s Kenny is also believed to be imminent, with his club revealing on Friday night that an agreement had been reached with the Blues over a deal for the 20-year-old.
Completing the potential quartet of new faces is Shein, with the Estonian international having said his goodbyes at Norwegian club Fredrikstad ahead of an expected £2.1m move to the Blues.
First friendly on July 14
Mousinho’s men are scheduled to return from their training camp on Saturday, July 11, before embarking on their pre-season friendly schedule.
They are to face Woking (July 14), Aldershot (July 15), Bristol Rovers (July 18), Wycombe (July 25), Farnborough (July 29) and Darmstadt (August 1).
The 2026-27 season kicks off on Saturday, August 8 with a trip to West Ham in the Carabao Cup.