The unlikely revival of Ryan Tunnicliffe as ex-Ipswich Town, Millwall, Fulham and Luton Town man enjoys Indian summer to Portsmouth career

This off the back of a summer where Ryan Tunnicliffe saw his name pretty constantly linked with an exit from Fratton Park.

Stories of interest from Australia and the MLS in the midfielder circulated incessantly, with it clear the midfielder had little role in Danny Cowley’s bigger Fratton picture.

Tunnicliffe never publicly agitated over being left in the stiffs, however. Instead getting on with his day-to-day business with his head down.

Now the new year has offered the former Manchester United trainee as many league starts, as he’d previously picked up in the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign.

That’s included all four of John Mousinho’s starting XIs, since he succeeded the man who brought Tunnicliffe to Fratton Park in the summer of 2021.

The Luton Town arrival has undoubtedly been one of the big beneficiaries of the new head coach’s move to a three-man midfield.

Assuming one of the two number eight roles in front of Marlon Pack, Tunnicliffe has gone about his business in tidy and efficient manner.

His game is always going to be less about setting new GPS benchmarks, and more about popping up in pockets and creating openings with his prompting.

That he’s done to good effect, starting all four of Mousinho’s games in charge as Pompey offer some renewed vibrancy after the toxic dying embers of his predecessor’s reign.

It always felt as if Tunnicliffe’s style of play wasn’t the most natural of fits to Cowley’s hard-running approach.

And so it proved, as, after a strong opening to his Fratton stay his minutes diminished on his return to the fray from a hamstring injury in February of last year.

Still, there was no public dissent from the 30-year-old, as pretty clear public attempts to free up his wages from the playing budget unfolded in the closed season.

Now there’s an opportunity for Tunnicliffe to build up his playing time over the second half of the campaign.

For all Pompey’s midfield strength, they aren’t blessed with an abundance of players who can ask questions going forward from central areas.

That’s clear enough as Joe Morrell is detailed to do just that, and pop up in the final third in a fashion hitherto unseen in his time at PO4.

How Paddy Lane is deployed could change the make-up of the midfield trio, with the Northern Ireland international comfortable centrally as well as down the flanks.

But the picture is certainly looking brighter for Tunnicliffe than it’s been for much of his Fratton stay.

How that shapes up beyond the summer remains to be seen, with his existing deal at a close and Pompey holding a 12-month option to extend that agreement.

In terms of that two-year deal nearing a close, however, it’s certainly shaping up into an unlikely Indian summer for a player rejuvenated by Pompey’s managerial change.