'Not far off now': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho encouraged by winger progress after Swansea struggles
The Frenchman made 38 appearances and scored three times in 2024-25 for Swansea
The Kassam Stadium represented Florian Bianchini’s longest spell on pitch for six-and-a-half months.
It’s a crucial landmark which explains John Mousinho’s satisfaction with the Frenchman’s Oxford United contribution, despite a mixed personal performance.
And, with a cameo against Reading now also under his belt, the Blues boss is convinced the Swansea loanee is edging encouragingly towards full fitness.
Recruited by the Swans in August 2024, Bianchini fell out of favour at the turn of the year, starting just one of their last 17 matches as they finished 11th in the Championship.
As a consequence, his 67 minutes against Oxford was the most he had played since a 5-1 humbling at Norwich on January 25.
And with Bianchini in the frame to retain his place against the Canaries at Fratton Park on Saturday, Mousinho is pleased with his ongoing progress.
Portsmouth boss: He’s not far off now
He told The News: ‘It’s one of those where we probably didn’t anticipate having to start Flo at Oxford, then, because of Murph’s injury, he came in and did a brilliant job. However, it’s one we are going to have to keep building up.
‘His pre-season has been a bit stop-start. He started it with Swansea, frequently training as you would do, then he played a match, before it became apparent they would let him out on loan - and we were interested.
‘At that point, very rarely do you then get the minutes and, as the loan agreement and transfer goes on, once you get them in the building it has been 5, 6, 7 days out of training. If you’re lucky, at best.
‘Luke (Le Roux) and Mark (Kosznovszky) were a lot longer than that, but Flo was in that time period.
‘From that, he has gone straight into the game at the weekend. When you take that into account, you can see why I was pleased with his performance.
‘He’s not far at all from full fitness now. Flo probably needs to keep building up another 10 minutes here and there until he is up to 90.’
Then, following 67 minutes against Oxford, he featured off the bench for 20 minutes in the Carabao Cup clash with Reading on Tuesday night.
And once up to speed in terms of fitness, Mousinho is confident the Blues possess an attacking talent who can shine in the Championship.
‘We know he’s only going to get better and better’
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘We are lucky these days, certainly in the Championship, that we get all the physical stats from all the players. We can look at individuals, all the clubs have access to that.
‘We can click on Flo and his performances for Swansea last year and see how physically good he was, how much he ran and how quick he is. It’s a really useful tool in recruitment.
‘It’s not all about that, but certainly if you have a player who has the ability and attacking flair we know Flo has when at his best, putting that with the work-rate, then we know he’s going to get better and better.’
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