The inside track on Portsmouth’s 25-man squad ahead of official EFL announcement
The EFL will not confirm squad lists until next week, but The News has the lowdown on how things are set to pan out for Pompey on that front.
Pompey’s 25-man squad has now been registered with the EFL, after the transfer window’s close on Monday evening.
But there is not likely to be official confirmation of how the Blues group shapes up until next week, when the league publish the squads on their website.
Clubs had to upload their groups within 24 hours of the window closing at 7pm on Monday evening, via the FA’s Inter-club Football Administration System (iFAS) used by the EFL.
There is no confirmed time for the publication but they are expected next Monday or possibly Tuesday, allowing Pompey fans to definitively see John Mousinho’s immediate options.
Despite that, it’s still possible to ascertain how things are going to pan out - with the constraints in play clearly a consideration for the football operation as they went about their January business.
The Blues are going to need to find space for all but one of their seven new additions, within the 25-man group. The exception to that will be Senegal defender Modiodio Dia, who falls into the category of being a contracted under-21 player.
These players don’t count towards the 25, with the cut-off players born on or after 1/1/04 - Dia squeezes inside that date being born on 15/01/04. He joins Harry Clout, Makenzie Kirk, Hayden Matthews, Adrian Segecic, Toby Steward, Reuben Swann, Franco Umeh and Thomas Waddingham as the other contracted under-21 players.
That leaves 29 other senior players to be accounted for. Of that number, Jordan Archer remains, but wasn’t registered over the first half of the season.
Jacob Farrell is still at the club, but is widely expected to complete a loan move to Australia to pick up playing time. The Australian transfer window runs until February 10.
Mark Kosznovszky will not be registered, with the Hungarian on the long, long road to recovery from an ACL injury picked up against Charlton in December. Umeh’s season is also over through a hamstring injury, but doesn’t count towards the 25 as an under-21 player.
Mousinho details Pompey squad strategy
Mousinho has indicated there will once again be a space kept open in the squad, in the event of needing to bring in a free agent. That has been the case with Lee Evans and Alexander Milosevic during his three years at the club.
To do that, Pompey would need not to register another two players from that group. There has been the suggestion that could well be what happens to Swansea loanee, Florian Bianchini, who is currently injured and had a tough stay at PO4 to date. Defender Josh Knight is another player who appears a long way from being available, as he deals with a back issue.
Pompey will afford themselves a degree of flexibility on that front, however, with the club confirming with the league injured players can be added to the squad at a later date. Pompey secretary, Ally Knell, is the man across the details and is intimately acquainted with the EFL handbook.
The approach is one Mousinho confirmed is being employed, when speaking to the The News this week.
He said: ‘I think if you include all the injured players then yes (Pompey would be over the 25-man limit), but we will register the fit players and go from there.
‘We won’t deregister anyone, if that makes sense, we just won’t register them. There’s a difference between the two, because you can not register someone and have them available for registration later on.
‘Deregistration implies they are never going to be involved, which isn’t the case.’