'The cherry on top': Portsmouth boss makes striker transfer admission as he targets more business
The Australian has made five appearances since joining from Brisbane Roar in January
John Mousinho is convinced Thomas Waddingham is ready for the Championship - but still wants to recruit another striker.
The Australian is set to lead Pompey’s line for Saturday’s Championship curtain-raiser at Oxford United, with Colby Bishop sidelined by a groin issue.
They represent the sole centre-forwards in the Blues squad, with Kusini Yengi, Christian Saydee and Mark O’Mahony leaving since the end of last season.
Certainly Bishop’s absence highlights the need to strengthen that position, with 20-year-old Waddingham in line for only his second competitive start since arriving in January.
And while Mousinho confesses they are not presently ‘actively pursuing’ another centre-forward, he’d like one before the window shuts.
He told The News: ‘There's probably scope to strengthen in that area, although it's a difficult one to recruit for because, ultimately, whenever we speak to any players who have ambitions of playing regularly in the Championship they probably look at Colby.
‘We don't make any bones about it, Colby is our frontline centre-forward at the moment and it’s going to be very, very hard to shift him.
‘So it’s a difficult thing to recruit underneath that, but, if something pops up, I don’t think we can dismiss it.
‘It’s not something we have been actively pursuing at the moment, it’s one that might be the cherry on top at the back end of the window. Possibly a loan market, we’ll see where things move.
‘Things will start to move with permanents over the next 2-3 weeks. You can guarantee that the minute the first set of team-sheets come out, you will have agents on the phone and players who thought they might have been involved and are out of favour.
‘That happens across the first couple of weeks of the season, hence there’s a bit of movement right up until whenever the transfer window closes.
‘Inevitably it’s going to happen and we do expect to see a bit of movement.’
Debut goal against West Brom
Waddingham’s Pompey career got off to the perfect start in January, when he netted on his debut in a 5-1 defeat at West Brom.
The former Brisbane Roar man went on to make five appearances last term, including a first start in April’s trip to Coventry, only to be forced off with a hamstring injury and ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
Now fully recovered, he scored four times during pre-season, including an 89th-minute winner against PEC Zwolle last weekend.
‘He’s probably a bit ahead of schedule’
Mousinho added: ‘We felt Tom was ready towards the back end of last year, hence we started him in the big game we had at Coventry.
‘What he actually did on the night was press against some top-level centre-halves, a side which finished in the top six and were probably unlucky not to progress to the play-off final. He gave Coventry plenty of problems before he came off with the injury.
‘We are really happy with Tom’s progress, he’s probably a bit ahead of schedule in terms of where we thought he would be coming in January, but that’s a real positive. Hence we are looking at Tom at the moment to challenge for that number nine spot.
‘He scores goals first and foremost, his work-rate is really good, a good runner, he takes on board a lot of information. Tom has worked on the parts of his game he could improve upon over the last six months.
‘That’s his hold-up play, running into the channels, making sure he is nice and tidy with his feet. I think he’s starting to show that he is edging towards being a really good centre-forward at this level.’