Portsmouth boss addresses future of reported Sheffield Wednesday target Colby Bishop after £3m man's arrival
The League One title winner scored four goals in 43 appearances in all competitions in 2025-26
John Mousinho is adamant Colby Bishop’s future remains at Fratton Park.
The long-serving Pompey striker finds his place under threat following the arrival of Marko Milovanovic from UD Almeria for around £3m.
The Blues had been desperate to strengthen their attack this summer after Bishop, formerly leading scorer for three successive years, netted just four times in 43 appearances last term.
Pompey believe they have now addressed that goal weakness with the capture of Milovanovic, who will challenge Bishop and Thomas Waddingham for the lone striker spot in the forthcoming campaign.
Sheffield Wednesday were last month linked by the Sheffield Star with interest in Bishop, but Mousinho has again reiterated that the popular 29-year-old is going nowhere.
‘We are keeping him’
He told The News: ‘There is absolutely no change in terms of Colby's position. There has been no interest in him, we are keeping him.
‘We still want him to be firing on all cylinders, we want players to compete in every position. I have spoken to Colby about this one over the past couple of weeks and he is relishing the competition.
‘Colby and myself spoke about it at the back end of last season, about bringing another centre-forward in to bolster the ranks and running with three centre-forwards we think can compete at the level.
‘First of all, physically trying to do it for 90 minutes every week against some of the centre-halves for 46 games is really difficult, Colby is running on empty a lot of the time and we want to give him some support.’
Portsmouth holding back unleashing Milovanovic
Milovanovic wasn’t in Pompey’s squad for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat Wycombe, with Bishop wearing the captain’s armband to lead the line.
The Serb isn’t expected to feature for his new club until potentially the Championship game against QPR on August 15, with the Blues wanting to bring him up to speed after not having a pre-season.
In the meantime, substitute Waddingham’s last-gasp header at Adams Park made it two in two appearances this summer for the fit-again Australian.
With Makenzie Kirk loaned to Barnsley for the season, Mousinho is looking for Waddingham to put his long-term injury issues behind him and put pressure on Bishop and Milovanovic in the starting XI.
For the time being, though, the 21-year-old will vie with Bishop during the remaining two friendlies at Farnborough and SV Darmstadt, plus the Carabao Cup trip to West Ham (August 8).
‘There’s a lot of potential there’
Mousinho added: ‘Marko is a big, mobile centre-forward. For his size he moves very well and he links play very well, he’s had a really interesting couple of years.
‘It was a pretty successful loan last year playing out in Portugal and he scored quite a few goals. There’s a lot of potential there, there’s a huge amount of presence, he can definitely lead the line and chip in with quite a few goals as well.
‘That’s the sort of player we are looking for, that all-round centre-forward who can move and has that physical presence.’