Portsmouth boss offers encouraging transfer update in race against time for Sheffield Wednesday

John Mousinho offered the Fratton faithful much-needed transfer hope and admitted: There could be more than one player in by the weekend.

Approaching the January window’s midway point, the Blues have still to unveil a new signing, despite an ever-lengthening injury list.

Numbers have further diminished with Franco Umeh unlikely to play again this season following a hamstring injury and Harvey Blair ruled up for three weeks.

Mousinho has long been confident there could be fresh arrivals before Saturday’s trip to Championship bottom club Sheffield Wednesday.

And, speaking today ahead of the Hillsborough visit, he believes that remains the case.

‘There is the potential for more than one’

Mousinho told The News: ‘We are still hopeful (before this weekend), I am not entirely sure who or if we’ll have any players before the weekend, but are still hopeful.

‘There is potential for more than one, but there’s nothing confirmed at the minute.

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‘I still think we’ll get up to six players. There’s money to spend, it’s relative isn’t it, but there's money to spend. We will definitely see more through the door by the end of January.

‘I still feel the window is in its infancy, regardless of the fact we haven't done any business yet, the general feeling in the market that there's not a huge amount moving.

‘There has been a bit more this week, but, if you check out the amount of transfers that have gone through, if you compare to what you see in the last week of the window, I think it will be 4-5 times the amount we’ve seen in the first two or three weeks.’

Linked with Luton’s Millenic Alli

While Umeh and Blair have now been added to the treatment room, Mousinho doesn’t expect any other injured players to return to action in time for Saturday.

Potentially that gives him a squad of 19 senior pros to choose from against the Owls, yet that number consists of three goalkeepers in Nicolas Schmid, Josef Bursik and Ben Killip.

Meanwhile, the Blues have today been linked with a loan move for Luton’s Millenic Alli, by Football Insider.

The 25-year-old winger hasn’t featured for the League One side in their last six matches, failing to be included in Jack Wilshere’s squad on each occasion.

While The News understands Grenoble striker Nesta Elphege has also attracted interest during the January transfer window from the Blues.

‘I’m not frustrated’

Regardless, the wait continues for fresh faces to be added to Mousinho’s shrinking squad options. Although the head coach insists he hasn’t been frustrated over the Blues’ transfer progress so far.

He added: ‘It hasn’t really been frustrating, we haven't missed out on anything, we’re just waiting on players to become available.

‘That’s probably the hardest thing in January, players aren’t always readily available to go straight away.’

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