That gave Neil Allen and Jordan Cross the brilliant opportunity to get a real sense of how John Mousinho’s team are shaping up ahead of the enormous challenge that awaits them in four weeks time.
It also presented them the golden chance to pick the brains of the head coach and sporting director Rich Hughes to see how Pompey’s ongoing recruirment drive is going. There’s still plenty of work to be done in that department, despite the arrivals of five players since the transfer window opened on June 14.
Speculation remains rife in regards to a number of issues. So what better way to address those subjects that to speak directly to the key men at the top to the chain? We’ve provided you with their responses all week via portsmouth.co.uk. But with so much discussed and situations remaining fluid, we thought it’s worth putting together a transfer state of play so you can remain as up to date as possible when it comes to Pompey’s current transfer window.
We hope this proves useful, with close to 20 transfer issues addressed.
1. '5-6' new signings still wanted
Rich Hughes said: ‘We probably want around 5-6 new players across various positions. We know exactly what that looks like and have a hierarchy in terms of who we want to bring in and the knock-on effects on other things, so it will probably be around that number. We want to strengthen the central midfield, we’ll look to bring in another right-back, potentially another centre-back. Then we’ll look to bring in a number 10 and a goalkeeper as well. That’s the structure we are going to work from.’ | Portsmouth FC. Photo: Portsmouth FC.
2. Colby Bishop
When asked if the Pompey striker was for sale this summer, Mousinho emphatically said: 'No!' Photo: Bryn Lennon
3. When the next signing will arrive
Mousinho said: ‘There’s nothing particularly close right now, but there’s plenty of irons in the fire. The better players will have options, that always happens. As a rule we’d like to get our business done early, it would be great if you can, but at the same time we wouldn’t want to get the wrong deals done early. We’re not going to rush anything. We could have taken 10 players a month ago, but that’s now what we want to do. We want to make sure we get the right players in and when you do that sometimes you have to be patient. You have to wait for things to develop with clubs, players and agents - sometimes it just takes a bit of time. I just feel really confident that we’re working in the right direction and I’m really confident we’ve got everything in the right place and we’re very diligent with the way we do things. I’m very happy with the stage that we’re at.’ | National World
4. Why next week will be important
Mousinho said: ‘There’s plenty going on and I’m expecting there to be more movement towards the back end of next week, or start of the week after that. That’s because teams are getting back into pre-season this week and settling down. Managers will want to look at players, so nothing is hugely moving at the moment. So we’re staying patient, keeping an eye on the targets and the ones we want.’ | Alex Livesey