'We have a lot of potential targets': Portsmouth boss on crucial January transfer plans

That’s the message from John Mousinho, whose side are now five points adrift at the foot of the Championship following the 1-0 defeat at Plymouth.

The Blues recruited 15 players last summer, yet that sizable influx hasn’t prevented the subsequent struggle to stay up following the League One title triumph.

In addition to monitoring potential new signings, Mousinho is hoping to offload Ben Stevenson and Tom Lowery ahead of the expiry of their contracts in the summer of 2025.

While he is also prepared to loan out those squad members currently unable to break into his team.

The Blues’ head coach told The News: ‘We’ve been looking since the back end of the window in August. We have a lot of potential targets, but it’s far too early to properly tell who’s going to be available and what spots we need to fill.

‘We’re looking at every position at the moment because you never know what’s going to happen in January. It’s about populating those lists, making sure we whittle them down, seeing who is available, and then going from there. We have done a lot of work on it, but so far nothing too specific.

‘Regardless of our position, we want to try to strengthen. In any window, you want to come out of it better than you went into it.

‘We don’t know what the window is going to look like, but most likely there will also be departures.

‘Look at the two players we didn’t register - Ben and Tom. If we can find them somewhere in January that would be great.

‘There’s going to be other players we can bring in at that stage, so we’re probably going to have to move other players on. As it stands, there’s still a lot of competition for places and we don’t know who that is going to be.

‘I’m less concerned about the numbers in January, it’s about actually having the players in the building that we want to have in the building.’

Another option open to the Blues when the January window reopens is to loan out fringe players to free up space among the 25-man squad registered to play in the Football League.

Presently that squad is at its maximum, although Ibane Bowat will be unregistered to create one spot, having been ruled out with a season-ending knee injury.

Mousinho added: ‘We will definitely consider loaning people out. Players who have not had a huge amount of game time who we might think “Have they got a future with the club?”. That’s where the loan system comes in really well.

‘Should any players leave permanently, obviously the deal has to be right and we must make sure we know they’re happy to go.’