Exclusive:'It's difficult': John Mousinho delivers his verdict on Portsmouth's £11m transfer window
The Blues have landed 12 players this summer, taking their recruitment to 54 signings since June 2024
John Mousinho surveyed another busy Pompey summer of recruitment and insisted: Judge the quality of our business in three months.
Chairman Michael Eisner sanctioned £11m worth of signings during the transfer window with the arrival of 12 new faces, of which eight involved paying fees.
In terms of departures, Ibane Bowat was sold to Huddersfield, while another six players were loaned out, with Josef Bursik and Jordan Williams set to see out their Fratton Park contracts while away.
It represents another significant overhaul for a club which has now signed 54 players since June 2024 ahead of their Championship return.
Yet with some newcomers having moved from abroad and Jayden Meghoma and Tyrese Shade still to make their debuts, Mousinho believes it will take time before the success of their summer dealings can be accurately gauged.
‘It’s further down the line when you realise if they’ve got the value you thought’
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘We have done a huge amount of work and we have brought in some very, very promising players. We’ve seen some real positives from a lot of them.
‘Ultimately, you can judge a transfer window 2-3 months down the line when you’ve seen how the players settle in, how they adjust, how they actually do play.
‘Maybe it’s a bit further down the line when you actually realise if they’ve got the value you thought you had with them when we first signed them. Look at the likes of Segs last season, we started to really see that towards the back end of the year.
‘It’s difficult to tell at the moment, the proof is in the pudding in terms of how these players perform and how they fit into the side.
‘Look at the ones who have been here longer, the likes of Marko, who has only just managed to get himself a start, probably because of the physicality of where we were when he first signed.
‘As it stands right now, though, doing 12 signings and spending a bit of money, I think it has been positive.’
Five signings aged 20 and below
Of their 12 signings, five are aged 20 and below - Eoin Kenny, Luke Brooke-Smith, Benjy Arthur, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen and Jayden Meghoma.
In Rocco Shein, Marko Milovanovic, Daniel Bielica and Iyad Mohamed, this represents their first time in English football, with all featuring in Tuesday night’s 2-0 defeat to Derby.
Tyrese Shade has never played above League One, Odin Bailey is back in the Championship after a six-and-a-half year absence, while Abu Kamara is very much a known quantity following that outstanding season-long loan in the 2023-24 League One title-winning campaign.
And, according to Mousinho, several of the newcomers have already shown encouraging glimpses of their talents.
‘I expect to see more’
He added: ‘We've had way more from Luke Brooke-Smith than we probably expected at this stage of his career, the same with Eoin, who has come in and had a good impact.
‘They are players who I think can impact the first-team now, but are good ones for the future as well.
‘Across the board there’s a variety of different contributions we’ve had from the new players. Once the season starts to settle down, I expect to see more from the ones who have been here a while.’
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