Portsmouth transfer news: John Mousinho ready to sanction player exits as part of Fratton Park squad rebuild
Pompey boss John Mousinho has revealed a period of player exits is on the card at Fratton Park
John Mousinho has confirmed a raft of Fratton Park exits could be initiated within the next week.
The Pompey boss said departures are on the cards for certain members of his squad as he looks to finetune his first-team options with less than three weeks before the start of the season.
To date, the majority of the Blues’ summer transfer business has centred on incomings.
Odin Bailey, Eoin Kenny and Rocco Shein have all made the south coast their new homes over the past month, with Marko Milovanovic and Daniel Bielica set to join them in the coming days.
The Blues also continue to work on a deal to bring former loanee Abu Kamara back to the club, leaving Makenzie Kirk’s loan move to League One Barnsley as their only outgoing transfer.
More players are set to join the Northern Ireland under-21 international out the door, though, as Mousinho’s options improve.
The imminent arrivals of Milovanovic and Bielica will be accompanied by the returns of Josh Murphy, Ebou Adams and Zak Swanson from injury this week, with none of the trio yet to feature in any of the three pre-season friendlies played so far.
In their absence, along with the Blues’ inability to call upon the injured Connor Ogilvie, Josef Bursik, Franco Umeh, Keshi Anderson, Mark Kosznovszky and Jacob Farrell, Mousinho has relied heavily on academy members and first-year pros to make up the numbers at Woking, Aldershot and Bristol Rovers.
Triallist Arvin Appiah was also utilised in the 1-1 draw with The Gas.
That dependency is set to change, though, kick-starting further Pompey departures.
‘We’ve needed the squad’
Mousinho confirmed to The News on Saturday he is open to offers for midfielder Luke Le Roux.
And when speaking to BBC Radio Solent, he added others are in the same boat and can expect to leave very soon.
‘We've needed the squad. We barely fulfilled the fixture on Tuesday night (against Woking),’ said Mousinho.
‘I think we had at the game, altogether, 12 first year or academy players. I think it was nine players from the academy altogether and I think six of them were involved, so there's absolutely no way we've been able to do that (move more players on) and fulfill the fixtures, which is obviously a spot we need to try and improve.
‘We should this week have Murph (Josh Murphy), Swanny (Zak Swanson) and Ebou (Adams) back, with Ebou and Swanny hopeful to play 15-30 minutes at the weekend when we play Wycombe.
‘Once we have those bodies through the door and maybe a couple more signings we can look to move players on.
‘We're not stopping anything happening but the market's still pretty slow anyway. ‘
Possible Pompey exits
South African Roux, a £1m signing from Varnamo last summer. joins Ibane Bowat and Jacob Farrell in being told his future lies away from Fratton Park.
Question marks remain over Josh Knight, who didn’t make the trip to Bristol Rovers due to illness, Harvey Blair and Franco Umeh.
Meanwhile, Milovanovic’s arrival from UD Almeria could see Colby Bishop go in search of regular first-team football elsewhere, with the Serbian expected to start the season as Pompey’s first-choice centre-forward.
Bishop was linked with a move to Sheffield Wednesday last month.
Pompey continue to anticipate interest in Terry Devlin emerging. But, to date, no offers have been received for last season’s player of the year.
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