Portsmouth boss’ revealing insight into transfer window finale amid summer spending confession
John Mousinho has given a transfer overview at the window’s climax including what’s the chances of further spending and the levels reached so far.
Pompey will be ready to react to any late opportunities to open their transfer chequebook at the transfer window’s climax.
But John Mousinho acknowledged the Blues have yet to push their spending levels beyond the level hit earlier this year, as summer trading nears a conclusion.
Mousinho: ‘We want to do is spend the money wisely’
Pompey’s football operation is pushing on with completing their final business, with five days now remaining to get deals over the line.
Attacking areas are now the major focus with a striker and winger sought, before the close of play at 7pm on September 1.
Fees in the region of £1m were paid for the latter trio, which represents a significant cumulative increase for Pompey on past windows.
But, individually, it stops short of the £1.27m Hayden Matthews arrived for in January, with Mousinho indicating in March Pompey would be able to push on from that level of expenditure.
The Blues boss indicated that doing so isn’t a specific ambition in the coming days, though it does still remain a viable option.
Mousinho said: ‘As a football club we’re not looking to spend a huge amount of money before the end of the window, because we’ve done that with a few signings we’ve made this summer.
‘But if the opportunity presents itself you know what the policy is and we’ll flag that to the board.
‘We’ll see where that takes us, but what we want to do is spend the money wisely and not waste it.
‘Transfer recruitment is always difficult in terms of the way you go about your business, but if there’s any opportunity we think is worthwhile and fits within the parameters of where we are as a football club the evidence tells me so far that the board will say yes.
Pompey boss: ‘Not been window to push to £2.5-3m’
‘We probably haven’t yet (spent beyond the levels of the Matthews deal) and that is one again where we’ve gone however many times our budget from last season, which has been a significant jump.
‘But it’s probably not been for this window if you’re looking to push to £2.5-3m, but certainly as we progress as a football club those are the signings we’ll be looking to make.
‘The biggest thing we need to highlight is progress, that’s why I highlight the spending increase in every window and the increase and willingness for us to to spend as a football club.
‘What we don’t want to do is jump to £7-10m players all of a sudden, which is what some clubs have done and is absolutely fine because they have different structures, different resources and that’s the way they want to do things.
‘We want to do things slightly differently at this club, to build to get to that stage and if we build window on window. Whether we get to that stage or not next year I don’t know, but we will be a lot closer.’
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