Portsmouth boss sounds realism warning over Championship battle with likes of Norwich City, Ipswich Town and Wrexham
Money has been spent at Pompey this summer and the playing budget has gone up, but John Mousinho has highlighted there still need to be pragmatism about where his club stands in the Championship spending table.
John Mousinho served up a reality check over Pompey’s Championship position as he once again aimed to get his side punching above their weight.
The Blues boss made no bones about where his side remains in the second-tier spending pecking order, even amid the increased levels of spending witnessed across the summer transfer window.
Mousinho: Realism needed about Pompey’s place in pecking order
Pompey upped their playing budget for the second campaign at the level, with £1m fees paid for Mark Kosznovszky, Luke Le Roux and Josh Knight.
In addition, a figure in excess of £500,000 was shelled out for Makenzie Kirk and a £500,000 fee attributed to Franco Umeh’s signing from Crystal Palace.
Keeper Josef Bursik arrived from Club Brugges for an undisclosed figure with a ‘substantial six-figure’ amount paid to Sydney FC in training compensation for Adrian Segecic.
Free agent John Swift and loans Florian Bianchini and Minhyeok Yang also moved to PO4, with the boat then pushed out for the deadline day loan capture of Conor Chaplin from Ipswich.
The reality, however, is Pompey will be at the bottom of the Championship spending table once again, with the likes of Wrexham and Birmingham City joining the division this term along with the three relegated Premier League outfits.
Mousinho is accepting of that scenario, however, and refuses to see that as a barrier to success this term.
He said: ‘Ultimately with where we are as a squad and where we are as a football club and the pecking order in the Championship it’s a challenge for us.
‘We will always drive to outperform and we always strive to be better than that, but there is a bit of realism in terms of where we are.
‘It doesn’t mean we are going to be negative about our ambitions and where we want to finish, but I think realism is also a very healthy thing to have as well.’
Time needed for new Pompey faces
Pompey departed from their broad recruitment plan in January, when they recruited for the short term with their Championship position at stake. Mousinho is firm that was the right call with the ends justifying the means as survival was secured with two games to spare.
Recruitment took on a different view this summer, with the likes of Adrian Segecic, Mark Kosznovszky, Franco Umeh, Mackenzie Kirk and Luke Le Roux signed with an eye on the future. Mousinho feels that creates a different scenario in allowing those new faces to adapt to their new surroundings.
He added: ‘When you have the situation we were faced with last year, we would’ve done 100 per cent the same now. In January we were very short-term. We decided to go with six loans all together. We brought in for in January and went for a couple of short-term contracts as well.
‘That means you have a lot of replacing to do again in the summer.
‘But the priority was to stay in the league in January and not sign five players who were building for the future. That was far more important. That was something we did in the summer and we have those players to bed in.
‘Out of the players we signed in the summer we had Adrian Segecic who was the only one we had for the first day of pre-season. That’s always a difficulty as well.’