Exclusive:'We've overachieved massively’: Portsmouth boss John Mousinho demands greater Fratton Park ambition
The Blues have finished 16th and 18th since returning to the Championship in 2024-25
John Mousinho is convinced Pompey have ‘overachieved massively’ during his time on the south coast.
And approaching a third successive Championship season, he has called on the Blues to ramp up their ambition and target loftier league heights.
This summer saw Bristol City interest in Mousinho for a third time, before they opted to appoint Lincoln’s Michael Skubala as manager at Ashton Gate.
According to Pompey’s head coach, there were also ‘a couple of other bits of minor interest’ during the close season as clubs eyed tempting him away from Fratton Park.
Nonetheless the 40-year-old remains with the Blues, fully focused on continuing to advance a club which was languishing 15th in League One upon his January 2023 arrival.
By his own admission, the club have long been punching above their weight in terms of finances and infrastructure - and Mousinho wants to aim even higher in 2026-27.
‘I think we have overachieved massively‘
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Leaving? It never really came to that at all. My position was very, very clear at the end of the season, it’s not a football club I am looking to leave.
‘Any demands I made of the football club - or anything I wanted to improve here going forward - was for the betterment of the football club. It’s something I think the fans deserved, the football club deserved, and, as long as I am here, I am going to keep pushing.
‘Whether it's the back end of the season, whether it’s now, I’m still going to keep pushing for things which I think are going to make the football club better.
‘My job here is to try to make Pompey as good as possible and to try to make us even more competitive in the Championship. And one day - I’m not saying that’s soon - to kick on and be a club which can compete for a spot in the Premier League.
‘I know it got painted as final show-down talks (with the owners), but it was never that. For me, it was look here’s how we’ve been for the past couple of seasons, this is where we have managed to finish.
‘I think we have overachieved massively over the past two years, over the past three years to be honest. I know there were certain expectations in League One, but I still think we overachieved that year as well.
‘We have done a fantastic job of staying in the league over the next two years and we need to have ambitions now. Not all of a sudden becoming a side which competes at the top end of the Championship, but to kick on from that. In order to do that, we need all these things.’
Increased transfer and playing budget
According to Mousinho, Pompey’s playing budget has increased 16 per cent on last season, while the transfer budget has also risen.
As a consequence, they are in the market for costlier purchases this summer, including the likes of Luke Graham, Rocco Shein and Marko Milovanovic.
Although free agent Odin Bailey has been the first signing of the transfer window, joining from Stockport on a three-year deal, the Blues are pursuing plenty more expensive options at present.
‘We want to achieve, we want to try to push as high as we possibly can’
Mousinho added: ‘We are not sitting here all of a sudden saying we are demanding top six.
‘The demand from myself, as it always has been, is overachievement. We want to achieve, we want to try to push as high as we possibly can in the league.
‘There is a real determination to move away from where we’ve been in the past couple of seasons and improve upon that.
‘If we can and we become comfortably mid-table as a starting point, if we can take ourselves away from a relegation battle with eight play-offs spots in the Championship this year. If we get a lot right then all of a sudden that maybe becomes a possibility.’