Portsmouth boss lifts lid on title-winning keeper’s exit and transfer boost from former Burnley and Wolves man leaving

And John Mousinho has told how the title-winning hero’s departure from Fratton Park was one which helped action other transfer business, in a logical call when it came to managing his squad.

The Blues has lifted the lid on the ‘sensible conversations’ which took place with Norris, paving the way for his move to Wycombe this week after being usurped by Austrian Nico Schmid.

Norris’ time at PO4 came to a close on deadline day, just 10 months on from lifting the League One silverware in an ever-present league campaign.

Mousinho has explained in detail how that came to be, with the former Burnley man joining promotion-chasing Wycombe in the third tier on a permanent deal.

He said: ‘The thinking from a football perspective was, though sometimes letting a keeper go doesn’t look like the best idea and it wasn’t a slight on Will whatsoever or the football club, but he didn’t want to be here in any other capacity than a number one.

‘That’s not in a negative way and it’s a bit different with keepers, because of the way keepers come in and keep their place.

‘Will played a significant number of games last year, was our number one and played every minute of every single league game while captaining the team on occasions. He lifted the trophy and then played the first nine games of this season as well.

‘He was a player brought in to be number one and was used to being number one.

‘He didn’t want to be at the football club as anything other than a number one, and I didn’t have any issue with that whatsoever. Absolutely fine that.

‘So we had a grown-up and sensible conversation around what that would look like.

‘The decision from a football perspective was we want players competing all the time for spots, and we want things to be fair and as strong as possible in that goalkeeping department.

‘We felt and Will felt, that it was the right decision if he could go somewhere and be that number one.

‘At the moment he’s not because Nico has done so well, and we told Will there was no plans in the short term to have him out of the team.

‘So if that was something he wanted to pursue from a football perspective, it was much better to have a happy Will exit with him not playing in recent months. From a football perspective it made sense, though I can see why from the outside that may not have been the case.’

Business sense

There were some eyebrows raised over Norris leaving Pompey, especially with his exit quickly followed by the announcement Ben Killip had arrived from Barnsley until the end of the season.

With Norris joining as one of the side’s top earners after leaving Burnley in 2023, there was financial benefits to the move which helped action some of the other January business which took place.

Mousinho added: ‘From a financial perspective it has freed up some wages from now until the end of the season.

‘We have managed to go out and recruit eight players, not because of that but in part. Then in the summer it gives us a bit more flexibility to decide what we want to do in the goalkeeping department.

‘So it made sense from a business sense, though it was by no means a driving factor in the decision.

‘There was never a conversation where someone said we needed to shave anything off the wage bill - nothing at all, hence us keeping players who may look like they’re nowhere near the first team.

‘It was purely a footballing decision made by me over what we thought was the best thing to do for the squad - and how we can be stronger moving forward.’