Cult Portsmouth hero reunites with ex-Fratton Park boss for fourth time in bid to end two-year nightmare
The centre-half made 239 appearances and scored 17 goals during his time at Fratton Park
It has been an awful two years for a huge Pompey favourite since winning the League One title.
Now Sean Raggett has reunited with a familiar face in an attempt to kickstart his career once more after some torrid bad luck.
Following 10 league starts in two injury-ravaged seasons at Rotherham and Cambridge United, the central defender has joined Colchester.
By doing so, he will be working with Danny Cowley - for a fourth time in the powerful defender’s career.
Recruited from Dover Athletic
As Lincoln boss, Cowley recruited him from Dover Athletic in August 2016, with Raggett going on to score the winning goal against Premier League Burnley in the FA Cup fifth round.
After being sold to Norwich in August 2017, the central defender returned to Lincoln on loan for the first half of the 2017-18 season, making 25 appearances and scoring three times.
Yet their paths would cross once again, when Cowley was appointed Pompey’s interim head coach in March 2021.
He inherited a Blues squad which included Raggett, who proceeded to play 11 of the final 12 matches of the season under the new man at the helm.
Although Raggett surprisingly was left out of the last match against Accrington, which Pompey lost 1-0 to slip out of the play-offs and, ultimately, finish eighth.
Cowley earned the role permanently in the summer of 2021, only to be replaced by John Mousinho 18 months later and once again bidding farewell to Raggett.
League One champion
The defender would go on to win the League One title under Mousinho, featuring 44 times and scoring three goals in that memorable 2023-24 campaign, before being released.
Since leaving Fratton Park, Raggett has totalled 27 appearances in the subsequent two seasons, including a disappointing loan at Cambridge where he totalled 53 minutes of match action.
Now, following his release from Rotherham, the duo are back together again, this time in League Two, with Raggett seeking an arm around his shoulder and someone to revitalise his career.
Certainly Cowley is the right man to do that, having previously managed him in four different spells.
‘He’s a diamond’
Speaking to The News in 2024, the former Pompey boss reflected on Raggett’s quality: ‘Sean is a brilliant boy, always fit, and even when he’s not fit he’s still available.
‘He puts his body on the line, he would run through a brick wall, and willingly put his head in front of a bus to win a game of football, he’s got an unbelievable mindset.
‘When I think of all the players I managed over 800-plus games, he’s in the top five in terms of mentality, for sure. He’s a diamond.
‘He’s not easy on the training ground because he wants to win so much. He moans and argues about decisions, but all for the right reasons. He’s a winner and being a winner means there’s no switch you can put on at 3pm on a Saturday and off at 4.45pm. It’s a 24/7 thing - a born winner.
‘Sean is so robust, so reliable and so consistent. Sometimes when you work with these players close up you truly know how good they are. You also know the effect they can have on others around them.
‘That winning mentality he possesses is infectious - and so it has proven for Pompey.’
Raggett made 239 appearances and scored 17 goals during his five-year Fratton Park stay which ended in May 2024.
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