'The end of speculation': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho's emphatic response over Callum Lang's Fratton future

John Mousinho reflected on Callum Lang’s timely first-team return and insisted: That should put an end to all the speculation.

The 26-year-old marked his comeback following a hamstring injury by netting in the 23rd minute of Pompey’s 4-0 friendly victory at Reading this afternoon.

Last weekend, Football League World had claimed Preston had lodged a £2m bid for the attacker - only for the offer to be rejected by the Blues.

Coinciding with his injury absence from Crawley, it sparked concerns among some of the Fratton faithful that Pompey were positioning themselves to cash in on Lang.

However, Mousinho is adamant the popular player will be remaining at Fratton Park for this season at the very least.

And he is absolutely ‘not for sale’.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘It’s one of those (rumours) which always brings a smile to my face, but you could see today that’s a player not playing for the sake of it.

‘You can tell his commitment to Pompey and wants to be here - and I thought he was excellent in a different position. It was really pleasing to see Callum back out on the pitch and hopefully that puts an end to all the speculation.

‘Has hamstring issue is why we brought him off after 45 minutes. It is honestly why we didn’t play against Crawley.

‘I know sometimes there’s a coincidence of what pops up online and then not seeing him in the starting line-up and I know we had spoken about the fact he wouldn't be playing in that game. We decided to play Colby because he’d had a knock, but Callum has been great all week, he has been at it and it was really good to play him.

‘There are always going to be links when a player scores 10 goals and that is a compliment to Callum. As far as I am concerned as a head coach, we know Callum is going to be here this season, we know he is not for sale, which is a really positive part of this football club. There is absolutely no reason to sell any players if we'd receive bids.

‘That's not to say it’s never going to happen in the future with any player - but certainly we are not in a position where we need to think about selling a player like Callum.’

Lang had arrived from Wigan in January 2024 to bolster Pompey’s League One promotion push - and thankfully made an instant impact.

Last season he finished as the Blues’ second-top scorer with 10 goals, despite largely missing the remainder of the campaign after sustaining a hamstring injury at Oxford United in February.

When asked whether Pompey had received a bid for the former Wigan, Mousinho added: ‘I have no idea, that is honestly nothing which comes to my door.

‘I just got a call on Saturday morning about all the rumours online, how there was absolutely nothing in it, Callum is your player, you are not going to have to deal with any of that.

‘That is the beauty of being head coach because I can just concentrate on winning a game.’