Triallist D-Day: Portsmouth boss delivers update on Fratton futures of ex-Premier League pair
The triallists have both spent time in the Premier League before training with Pompey this summer
John Mousinho is readying to deliver his decision on the Fratton futures of Pompey’s triallist pair.
Although, in the case of ex-Spurs man Alfie Whiteman, the Blues boss insists it has been ‘difficult to assess’ the goalkeeper.
The fate of Whiteman and Nathan Ferguson will become clearer on Monday as Pompey head into their final week of pre-season friendlies.
They visit the Hawks on Tuesday (7pm), followed by hosting Dutch top-flight side PEC Zwolle on Saturday to wrap up their summer schedule.
While Whiteman, who has spent the last fortnight with the Blues, was present at the Madejski Stadium as third goalkeeper behind Nicolas Schmid and Ben Killip, although wasn’t named in the match-day squad.
Stuart Moore left Blues upon their return from their Slovakia training camp - and now decisions must be reached over Whiteman and Ferguson.
Portsmouth boss: He is welcome back next week
Mousinho told The News: ‘Alfie has still been training with us this week. We wanted to get 90 minutes into Nico at Reading, but we brought Ben along and Alfie too.
‘I don’t know what his future is here, it depends on what Alfie wants to do next week. It might get to a point where there’s maybe another opportunity elsewhere, we don't want to drag it out forever with Alfie.
‘He is welcome to come back next week if he’d like to, but if there’s something else elsewhere then we can live with that.
‘I guess part of the problem we’ve had with Alfie is, in the games we have played, we’ve seen a lot of goalkeepers with the ball at their feet and they haven’t had much else to do. So that has been a difficult one to assess.
‘Even on Saturday, I can't remember Nico having to make a save - so trying to assess players coming on trial has been difficult.’
The ex-West Brom man has featured in three friendlies
Whiteman played the second half of Pompey’s opening friendly at Woking and also replaced Schmid at the break in the behind-closed-doors match with Crawley.
As for ex-West Brom and Palace man Ferguson, who joined them for their six-day training camp at the X-Bionic Sphere in Samorin, he has featured in three of their four friendlies to date.
The only pre-season fixture the 24-year-old has missed out on was the behind-closed-doors 1-0 victory over Crawley, when he was an unused substitute.
Yet he was back into the action on Saturday, as Colby Bishop (two), Callum Lang and Williams netted in a comfortable 4-0 success at League One Reading.
Although that could be his final involvement with the Blues.
‘We will see what he wants to do’
Mousinho added: ‘With Nath, we will see where he’s at in terms of what he wants to do.
‘I thought he played pretty well when he came on against Reading, which was really good. We couldn’t get him any minutes last week which was frustrating, just because of the nature of the game against Crawley.
‘We will see where Nath is. If there’s nothing with us, hopefully it has put him in the shop window for clubs to come in and see how well he has done.’