Portsmouth’s thriving freebies dominating £33m of Southampton talent as Championship season accelerates
The West Brom and QPR arrivals didn’t cost Pompey a penny in fees, but they came out on top against Shea Charles and Flynn Downes last weekend - with their Championship promise now apparent.
John Mousinho lauded his emerging midfield bargains as they bloody the noses of their expensively assembled rivals.
And the Pompey boss has vowed his club will continue to bid to unearth further talent in the mould of Andre Dozzell and John Swift, as their partnership in the middle of the park begins to prosper.
£33m of Southampton talent come off second best to free transfers
Dozzell and Swift have been partnered for all five of the Blues’ Championship outings to date, amid a very decent opening to the campaign.
The pair’s form is quickening with Dozzell thriving so far and picking up deserved plaudits for his current displays, particularly against Preston and Southampton. Meanwhile, Swift has dropped in from the role further up the pitch where he has operated for the majority of his successful career.
The Gosport lad’s Fratton stay hit an early high last Sunday after his free transfer arrival from West Brom, dictating proceedings in the middle of the park against Pompey’s fierce rivals.
Southampton had Flynn Downes and Shea Charles to call upon, with Downes arriving for a reported £15m rising to £18m from West Ham last year. Meanwhile, Charles’ arrival from Manchester City was said to be for £10.5m rising to £15m in 2023.
In contrast, the Pompey pair didn’t cost a penny in fees, with Dozzell arriving after leaving QPR a year ago and now really starting to show his worth. Mousinho heaped praise on the duo and sees no reason why the club can’t unearth similar talent without splashing the huge fees seen across the Championship.
When asked if last weekend was Swift’s best Pompey game, he said: I think so, but I think there’s been a couple of performances where he’s really got going and ticked over. There was the second half against Oxford and as the game started to drift on against Norwich, I thought he started to control the tempo.
‘Certainly as an overall game in there against Downes and Charles who were £15m or so each, I think it was a really good performance. I think so (the midfielders came out on top against Southampton). That’s what we need to do as a football club, we pride ourselves on trying to pick those players up.
‘When we picked up Doz this time last year, maybe slightly earlier, we thought we were in a good position. It’s taken him a while to get going, but now he’s really made that position his own.
‘With Swifty, he’s a player who’s had a really good Championship career. He’s coming towards the back end of that obviously at 30, but these are the signings we have to make.
‘We are not going to get a John Swift at the age of 22 or Josh Murphy at the age of 24. Doz is a slight exception to the rule there, but these are the sort of deals we’re in the market to make and we’ll make the most of them - we can pick up some really good players.’
How Pompey midfield pairing have grown in Championship
Pompey now have Marlon Pack back in contention after knee surgery, with Luke Le Roux also pushing for inclusion centrally. It will be Swift and Dozzell who are favourites to start against Sheffield Wednesday this weekend, however, as their link-up grasps what John Mousinho demands of them in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
Mousinho added: ‘We’ve been really pleased with Swifty so far, especially as he’s been playing out of position. We didn’t bring him in as a six, but we’ve had a couple of issues with Marlon being injured and Luke Le Roux coming in late.
‘John’s come in and done very well in most of the league games he’s played in. Him and Doz have formed quite a good partnership.
‘Again at the weekend I thought Swifty was very good. We’ve probably asked for a little more defensive discipline we’ve asked from him and dropping a bit deeper in possession.
‘To be honest, even if we play with a six and an eight, when we defend we ask them to do the same job because of the shape we drop into when we defend. So there’s not a huge amount of difference, if he was playing as an eight we’d ask him to do the same job off the ball. We need him to be nice and physical - and keep dominating there.
‘He’s one of those who’s played in the Championship a lot of years and scored a lot of goals in the Championship. That was part of bringing him in, having that experience and having a local lad helps as well, though it wasn’t the reason we brought him in - but it helps.’