Portsmouth boss launches impassioned response to fan criticism as heat rises ahead of Sheffield United
A fiercely heartfelt, detailed and intense reply from John Mousinho to frustration rising off the back of south-coast derby defeat and tonight’s Fratton Park clash under the lights.
John Mousinho has launched a passionate response to fan criticism as temperatures rise ahead of tonight’s clash with Sheffield United.
The Pompey boss has delivered an intense and heart-felt riposte to flak flying in his direction off the back of Sunday’s south-coast derby defeat to Southampton.
Mousinho on Pompey extremes: ‘I was the worst appointment in the history of football…this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing’
And Mousinho has outlined his mindset in needing to have the strength of his convictions to deal with the intense swings felt in the Fratton managerial hot-seat.
In an extended and incredibly revealing insight, the 40-year-old spoke of the challenges he’s faced in 45 months in his maiden managerial role, experiencing the best atmospheres he’s known in football and his hope that backing is there under the lights against the Blades this evening.
Speaking to The News, Mousinho said: ‘We’ll do our best to start with that tempo and start on the front foot and we’ll try to get the crowd behind us. If it doesn’t happen we have to keep trying to do that through the first 45 minutes and beyond that.
‘We’ll try to give them that, and, if we don’t, we still ask for that support. If it’s not there it’s not there, but I think it will be there.
‘That will be my point. If we’re winning, losing or drawing, playing well or not playing well - we’re going to try to win the game and do everything possible to win it. The more support we have the better it’s going to be.
‘Fratton Park has been an unbelievable place to play football for all of my time here and many years before that, that’s what we want again.
‘Look, there’s going to be disappointment off the back of Sunday. I completely get that, but I don’t think that’s going to be an issue by the time we kick off.
‘I’ve just got on with it. What do you want me to do? I didn’t sit there on Sunday pleased, I was devastated.
‘That’s all I can do, pick myself up and not sulk.
‘I was back in Monday morning and let everyone know about the performance, where we can improve and what we need to do better.
‘I reviewed everything we did as well. Sometimes we get things right and sometimes we don’t get things right.
‘It is what it is. Everyone has their opinion on football and I can’t get embroiled in what goes on outside of these four walls.
‘If I got embroiled in that I would have walked out on day one, because everybody thought it was the worst appointment in the world.
‘I can you give you a quick snapshot of my time at the club so far.
‘Jan 23, signed - nobody knew who I was and thought I was the worst appointment in the history of football.
‘The back end of that season we got relentlessly booed at home for a style of football.
‘I think “stand up if you’re still awake” was the chorus we had for the Accrington and Morecambe games.
‘We knew what we wanted to do as a football club to progress things forward.
‘We started off the League One season and there was real apathy because we weren’t scoring goals or producing enough.
‘We then went on a 27-game unbeaten run, got to January and lost a couple of games on the spin and it was “the wheels are falling off again - this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, we need to change things”.
‘This isn’t everyone by the way - 100 per cent - but this is if you get carried away with this and that.
‘Then we’ve had two years in the Championship where we’ve had some real lows and question marks around everything we’re doing here at the football club.
‘You get these crazy swings where you go from last season and there’s a clamour for me to stay for another 10 years, to what you get when there’s a disappointing loss and understandably a devastating feeling when you lose football games.
‘My overall take is I’ve had an incredible relationship with the fans here for the best part of four years and a huge amount of support.
‘Some of the atmospheres we’ve had, home and away, have been the best I’ve been involved in in football. It’s an unbelievable football club to work for and be here every day.
‘My point again with that is you take the rough with the smooth with it as well.
‘So as great as it’s been at times, it’s been really difficult at times as well. There’s always question marks over it as well, what you’re doing as a head coach and manager.
‘There’s question marks over what the club is doing. That’s football and that’s modern football in particular.
‘It’s something you have to deal with and live with and I think if you pay too much attention to it, what you’re going to do? Read social media and resign the next day?
‘It’s load of nonsense, you have to have confidence in your own convictions and go from there.
‘If you don’t have that and a bit of belief in what you’re doing and try and draw on those past experiences then there’s no point in being here.’
Mousinho spoke of the situation around retaining the support of Pompey fans and not having absolute clarity that’s the case ahead of tonight’s game.
He highlighted the importance of personally keeping balance against that backdrop, as noise and criticism is ‘amplified’ on social media.
Mousinho added: ‘The majority of fans, I think but don’t know, are unbelievably supportive of where we’re going and understand what we’re trying to do. Hopefully they trust me in terms of the decisions we’re making.
‘But this is not new. Team selection gets questioned every week and when you lose games you’re the worst manager in the world - and when you win games you’re the best thing since sliced bread.
‘The truth is, I think, you land somewhere in between you land somewhere in between.
‘I’ve just experienced that across the spectrum here. We’ve had runs where we were 27 games unbeaten and we’ve also had one win in 15 at the start of the Championship season as well.
‘So we’ve had the highs, lows and extremes. It’s a very important thing when you’re a footballer, coach or anyone to do with a football club.
‘Look, if things aren’t right you need to try to change them. I’m more than willing to change anything we do here.
‘I’ve gone through about eight different iterations of the playing style and the way we want to play.
‘My only priority is to try to win games and the only thing I’ll try to do is change style to do that and adapt as best as you possibly can.
‘Again that’s the focus. We tried to win the game at the weekend and I completely understand why there’s a huge amount of devastation, frustration, anger and whatever it is among the fans.
‘But when I walked over to the away fans at the end of the game it wasn’t a negative reaction from my standpoint.
‘Sometimes everything can be amplified what you (the press) do here and see on social media. Everything can be amplified based on the result.
‘I get that. I understand that, I’m a football fan as well - absolutely fine, you have to live with it and move on.
‘I watched the World Cup and everyone thought Thomas Tuchel was the worst coach in football off the back of semi-final.
‘We just need a bit of balance and perspective on everything. You can see everyone is trying to win games, if you get it wrong you get it wrong and you lose your job. That’s the nature of the game.
‘It can go both ways really quickly, I know that. It’s not an industry for the faint-hearted, it’s not a nice place to be.
‘But that’s what makes it extremes both ways. It’s extreme when you win games and extreme when you lose games. I feel like everybody at the football club feels it.’