Portsmouth boss provides exciting recruitment update as Blues close in on key appointment

Pompey are close to finally appointing Zesh Rehman’s successor at Fratton Park - nine months after his exit.

And John Mousinho has provided an exciting update as the Blues boss looks to bolster his coaching ranks.

The former QPR and Fulham man departed PO4 in December, bringing an end to a successful three-and-a-half-year stay at the club to pursue a new position in Saudi Arabia.

Rehman arrived on the south coast in 2022, initially joining as academy lead professional development phase coach during Danny Cowley’s tenure.

Following the head coach’s exit in January 2023, the former Pakistan international stepped up to take charge on an interim basis alongside Simon Bassey for games against Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur.

The 42-year-old remained with the first-team before being appointed development coach after Mousinho’s appointment at the start of 2023.

Former Pompey favourite Joe Morrell was subsequently sounded out over a potential return to the Blues to fill the vacant first-team development role.

However, the 29-year-old opted to begin his coaching career at Bristol City with the Robins’ U21s, although he would last just seven months at Ashton Gate.

For the Blues, it has left Jon Harley, Michael Doyle and Joe Prodomo in Mousinho’s coaching staff in the absence of Rehman.

Pompey boss provides exciting coaching update

But the head coach has revealed the interview stages are now in the final stages, with the last meeting taking place earlier this week.

‘We are in the final stages,’ Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent in Wednesday’s press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Charlton Athletic.

‘We had the final stage interviews at the back end of last week and we are actually doing the last one today (on Wednesday).’

Since Rehman’s exit last December, Shaun North has continued to help out and maintains his long-standing Fratton Park links.

Initial plans shelved by Pompey last season

The hugely-respected figure has chipped in along with Doyle, Prodomo and Harley in Mousinho’s coaching staff after the Blues initially shelved the process during the second half of last season.

The head coach told The News in March: ‘Not at the moment, we are fully focused on what we want to do in the league at the minute and we feel we don’t want to distract ourselves at the minute.

‘Changing anything to do with the coaching staff and the impact of a new coach coming in at this stage of the season is something which probably isn’t the right thing to do. So we’re going to leave it until the summer.

‘If you look at us in my first two-and-a-half years here, we had myself, Jon and Zesh, three coaches, so we always had three coaches. Now, even without Zesh, we have three coaches because we added Michael (Doyle) last summer.

‘So we feel that, as a coaching staff, we can cope with that at the moment. We still want to add that in the summer, but, for the short-term, we think it’s fine.’

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