John Mousinho’s remarkable stance on his Portsmouth future ahead of Charlton Athletic showdown
There’s been questions over John Mousinho’s future this week, as his side fell into the Championship bottom three. The head coach delivers an honest and measured response to those doubts.
John Mousinho feels it’s fair to question his Pompey future amid his side’s Championship difficulties.
And the Blues boss admitted there will come a point where a change is needed at Fratton Park, if his side’s foundering form doesn’t pick up.
Pompey boss’ remarkably honest response to questions over future
But Mousinho is certain his near three-year tenure at PO4 is not yet at that juncture, as he fired his team up for a huge three-game week starting at Charlton Athletic.
The Pompey head coach has delivered a remarkably honest and balanced assessment of his current position, as his side aim to arrest a run of one win in nine league games.
Mousinho accepts such runs will see questions asked of his position, but is adamant the expectations he and his staff place on themselves is the greatest pressure they face.
He said: ‘I’ve been here for three years now, I’m not sitting here naively thinking we can just sit here in a losing position and nothing will happen.
‘I always think I’m under the pump and my job’s under threat, that’s a good place to start from. I think it’s healthy to be that way, so I don’t feel I’m going to just drift through this and at the back end of it I’ll be fine.
‘I think there has to be pressure I put on myself and, I guess at some point, a question to ask (about his future).
‘Sometimes a change is needed to freshen things up after a period of time, but I don’t think we’re there. I’m looking forward to many more years here, if possible.
‘When we go to Charlton we have to attack it with a certain togetherness. It may sound cliched, but we have to attack it with a certain togetherness as a squad, a staff and football club.
‘The brilliant thing is the fans may be nervous coming in, but I know that won’t be felt in the amount of support we receive.
‘So we have to go out there and put on a display. We have to come away from that game and make sure our fans leave the stadium proud of the team they’ve supported. That’s the most important thing, that’s what we have to do and if we do that more often than not we’ll be fine.’
The board, through chief executive Andy Cullen, this week reiterated their support for Mousinho as Pompey fell into the Championship bottom three after defeat to Bristol City.
Mousinho: ‘I hope everyone who supports Pompey knows that about me’
The Blues boss feels that’s good news for the club over the long term, but he has more immediate issues to think about right now - with no excuses over the team’s position.
Mousinho added: ‘There’s never been an ounce of pressure from above when we’ve had poor results.
‘That doesn’t change what we do day to day, though, that doesn’t change how I feel about losses and poor performances.
‘I’ve spoken about the pressure we put on ourselves internally, and that’s far worse than any pressure anyone else can put on us externally.
‘We could’ve laid down, looked at last year and thought the league is too tough. We could’ve looked at where we were in the pecking order, cried about our budget and said we’re destined to go back down to League One.
‘We didn’t want to do that.
‘That’s the big thing we hold on to. It doesn’t matter if that support’s there or there’s fierce pressure from above, we still have the same pressure on ourselves.
‘The backing’s a really important part of what we’re trying to do. Ultimately at the minute, with January a good example, we need to be a bit more short term than long term with our recruitment strategy and some of our decisions will need to be more short-term based.
‘But the board’s backing does enable us to think about the long-term future of the football club, to improve things and try to get it right.’