Breaking: John Mousinho future latest with Portsmouth boss favourite for West Brom role

John Mousinho remains content at Pompey after becoming bookies’ favourite to become West Brom boss.

The News understands talk of the Blues boss moving to West Brom is wide of the mark, after he was made favourite to succeed Tony Mowbray at The Hawthorns this afternoon.

Mousinho is now at the head of the field with a number of different bookmakers at a price of 3/1, including Bet Victor and talkSPORT BET.

That’s ahead of the likes of West Brom caretaker boss James Morrison, former Manchester United coach Eric Ramsay, Spurs coach Ryan Mason and QPR’S Marti Cifuentes.

No truth in Pompey boss’ West Brom links

That’s got Pompey fans fearing an exit for the architect of their side’s rise to the Championship and successful campaign, as they survived in the second tier this term.

There has been no official move for Mousinho by their Championship rivals, however, and no steps taken to sound out the 39-year-old for the post.

Mousinho remains happy at Pompey continuing with the project he’s spoken about with such enthusiasm in recent weeks.

The man who arrived at Fratton Park at the start of 2023 outlined his commitment to the Blues cause last month, in the wake of the West Brom post being vacated by Tony Mowbray and Norwich head coach Johnanne Hoff Thorup leaving Norwich City.

He told The News: ‘Genuinely, my mindset is I’d like to have a long, successful career at Portsmouth.

‘I still feel incredibly grateful to the club for taking a chance on me and a risk on me in the first place. I’ll never forget that.

‘We can talk about my ambitions and the club’s ambitions matching up in the future, but this is a club that went and took a risk on me that no one else did.

‘There’s that alignment there, in terms of what we’re trying to achieve.

‘I’m incredibly excited about what we can do as a football club, I think this is now a brilliant opportunity.

‘It was so, so important for us to stay in the league. It wouldn’t have been disastrous from the club’s perspective, we weren’t about to fold the next day if we went down - but it would’ve felt like that to me if we’d not managed to stay in the league.

‘It was so important for us to do that and it gives us some greater scope to build again as a Championship club.

‘I just find that incredibly exciting and I find it exciting working here, so I think we’ll keep that going.’

Mousinho signed a new deal this season which runs until the summer of 2028, an extension of two years on the terms agreed when arriving at PO4.

Sporting director, Rich Hughes, has indicated he expects there to be interest in the Pompey head coach, as one of the game’s brightest, young operators.

But Hughes feels Mousinho is ‘very happy’ at Fratton Park after bringing him in from Oxford United and giving the massively popular figure his managerial break.

He told The News : ‘Yes I am concerned (about interest), just on the basis of what a wonderful job he is doing here, but John knows what we are trying to build - and there’s room to grow and room to keep getting better.

‘We speak every day and I know he is very happy at the football club. He feels there’s room to grow and keep getting better. That's the really important thing for us as a football club and individuals, to keep making progress.

‘I cannot speak for other clubs, I am sure John will be on the radar of clubs because he has done a wonderful, wonderful job here. I can’t speak for how other clubs operate, how they hire head coaches and what their MO is, it’s very difficult to say.

‘But I love working with John and I know he’s very happy here. There’s certainly nothing in the imminent future that we are remotely aware of at the moment.’

YOUR NEXT POMPEY READ: Portsmouth announce 2025-26 season ticket details as prices rise.