Portsmouth boss John Mousinho delivers transfer update after suffering double blow
The Blues have yet to sign anyone in the January transfer window
John Mousinho insists Pompey’s target of 3-6 new signings this month will not be revised - despite the unplanned double set-back of losing Minhyeok Yang and Mark Kosznovszky.
While the Blues’ recruitment drive is not expected to gather pace until after this weekend’s FA Cup third round fixtures.
Yang was this week recalled by Spurs from a scheduled season-long loan and has since linked up with Coventry, while the Blues have learnt Kosznovszky will be out for up to 12 months after sustaining an ACL injury.
Pompey had already been looking to strengthen the wing and central midfielder areas before losing the pair from Mousinho’s first-team plans.
Now the need is even more pressing, although, for financial reasons, Kosznovszky will not be directly replaced, irrespective of losing his services for the remainder of the campaign.
Instead, Mousinho’s wish list remains fixed at 3-6 new players.
‘We will have to be a bit more creative’
He told The News: ‘Certainly with Minhyeik going, there is that potential to do like-for-like in terms of the fact we have lost a loan, so we have a loan spot which has opened up and the wages have been freed up.
‘The difficulty with Mark is that we still have the player in the building and obviously Mark is still on the wage bill, which is obviously how it works with injuries. I think we’ll have to be a bit more creative with that one. It is still between 3-6 players.
‘It’s going well, it’s really, really early, a week and a bit into January. It’s still very, very early, there’s not a huge amount in terms of transfer activity.
‘I think post-FA Cup third round there will be a lot more activity because you will see Premier League sides having held onto players they don’t necessarily want to loan out or let go to fulfil their third round fixtures.
‘It will be a lot more fluid after the weekend, which will have a knock-down effect on the rest of the league.
‘There’s flexibility within that, we have targeted a number of areas, we have targeted a number of players, we will see how that lands.
‘That’s always a fluid situation with the squad and injuries and seeing how players return, so that’s why we are keeping our minds open to different possibilities.’
Two signings by January 10 last season
By January 10 last year, Pompey already had Rob Atkinson and Isaac Hayden through the door, both on loan deals.
The pair would establish themselves as central figures in the subsequent successful fight to remain in the Championship.
As of yet no deals have been concluded this month, although Mousinho points to three strong previous January transfer windows under sporting director Rich Hughes as an indication they can succeed once more.
He added: ‘We’ve definitely had some good ones over the past couple of years. I came in January 2023 and, if you look at some of the signings we made that January, it was pretty successful in terms of the impact that they had at the football club.
‘Forgive me if I miss anybody, Matt Macey came in and was excellent, Paddy Lane came in in that January and was one of the best players we had in the promotion-winning side, Di’Shon Bernard came in and really affected things.
‘In the League One promotion season, the likes of Callum Lang, Owen Moxon and Tom McIntyre came in and really strengthened the push. Myles Peart-Harris as well.
‘Last year was a short-term window to make sure we got ourselves out of the problem we had in the league. We had a couple of outstanding loans which really helped with that and outstanding long-term signings as well.
‘So we’ll be looking for more of the same this year.’
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