Confirmed: Portsmouth's EFL 25-man squad list announced - with one player excluded
The Football League have announced the 25-man squad lists of all member clubs
Pompey’s 25-man squad list submitted to the Football League has been announced - and there remains one vacant slot.
The Blues have elected not to register Jordan Archer, ensuring the goalkeeper who made three appearances last season now cannot feature until January at the very least.
That leaves Ben Killip and Josef Bursik to challenge Nicolas Schmid as John Mousinho’s first-choice during the first half of the campaign.
Pompey had been open to offloading the former Spurs man this summer, with his future remaining in the balance right up until deadline day, when Bursik was recruited as a potential replacement from Club Brugge.
Efforts to find Archer a new club are likely to resume in January, particularly with him entering the final six months of his existing deal.
Well stocked for goalkeepers
Certainly Mousinho is well stocked for goalkeepers, not forgetting Toby Steward currently on loan at St Johnstone and drawing some excellent reviews.
Of course, it also made little sense in naming four goalkeepers in their 25-man squad simply to fill up the numbers - another reason for Archer’s exclusion.
That allows Mousinho to add a player from the free agent market, should he so wish, as was the case with Alexander Milosevic last season.
Sporting director Rich Hughes deserves credit for impeccable planning over the summer transfer window to prevent the waste of paying players who aren’t allowed to feature in matches.
Forced to leave out three players in September 2024
Last September saw the Blues opt against registering Tom Lowery and Ben Stevenson, while Colby Bishop was in the process of recovering from a heart operation and also not initially listed.
That left Lowery and Stevenson in the unenviable position of continuing to train yet not allowed to feature for the Blues until January 2025. Inevitably, they never played for the club again.
This time around, however, there are no such issues, with just Archer - a fourth goalkeeper - absent from the submitted list.
Meanwhile, Steward and Harry Clout are included, despite being presently out on loan to St Johnstone and Farnborough respectively.
Although, as under-21 players, they don’t count towards the 25-man squad anyway, thereby aren’t taking up any spots.
Finally, Tom McIntyre, who is on loan at Bradford, is another not included, yet the defender was never in the reckoning having been informed he has no future at Fratton Park and not even given a squad number.
Pompey’s squad:
Goalkeepers: Nicolas Schmid, Ben Killip, Josef Bursik.
Defenders: Jordan Williams, Zak Swanson, Jacob Farrell, Connor Ogilvie, Regan Poole, Josh Knight, Conor Shaughnessy, Ibane Bowat.
Midfielders: Marlon Pack, Andre Dozzell, Terry Devlin, John Swift, Luke Le Roux, Mark Kosznovszky.
Attackers: Josh Murphy, Harvey Blair, Florian Bianchini, Callum Lang, Minhyeok Yang.
Strikers: Colby Bishop, Conor Chaplin.
Contracted under-21 players: Reuben Swann, Thomas Waddingham, Hayden Matthews, Adrian Segecic, Toby Steward, Harry Clout, Makenzie Kirk, Franco Umeh