John Mousinho plotting Portsmouth transfer window departures in crucial mid-season rebuild
The Blues head coach wants to add up to six players to his 33-man squad next month
John Mousinho insists Fratton Park departures are essential next month as Pompey implement a mid-season rebuild.
The head coach is targeting between 3-6 new recruits when January’s transfer window opens as the Blues strive to strengthen their struggling side.
As it stands, they have one place remaining in the 25-man squad registered with the Football League, with Jordan Archer the only exclusion.
However, an influx of potentially six players would mean others would either have to depart or find themselves unregistered and unable to feature in the second half of the campaign.
Pompey boss: ‘There will have to be people leaving’
Mousinho told The News: ‘There will have to be people leaving. We’ve only got one squad space, so there would have to be departures.
‘We’ve been planning, you can’t pitch up on January 1 and then all of a sudden decide what you are going to do there.
‘We will be well-prepared come January 1 to do any business we can do. Then it’s whatever becomes available after that because things are fluid and probably change after the third round of the FA Cup.
‘At that point sides are maybe a bit more willing to let players go based on what they are looking at with their squad, so things are very fluid and we’ve discussed that.
‘I don’t think our three loanees will change, we haven’t got any intention at the moment with that.’
Although Pompey have a 33-man squad at present, they possess eight players born on or after January 1, 2004 who are classed as under-21s, thereby do not count in the Football League tally.
In addition, Tom McIntyre is on a season-long loan at Bradford, where he has featured nine times, starting just three League One matches.
The Blues recruited 11 players last summer, having lost the services of first-team stalwarts Rob Atkinson, Freddie Potts and Matt Ritchie, however few have come off.
And Mousinho admits the team is currently ‘really different’ to the side which stayed up in the Championship with two matches to spare and finished 16th.
‘It’s a different side’
He added: ‘Compared to the team which finished last season, it’s just really different, it's a really different side.
‘Ultimately, you are going to be judged on results - and the results we had at the back end of last year were really positive. At the moment they are not, so where we are in the league table is probably a good reflection of how we’ve been. That is probably the best barometer.
‘The returning players have improved the team, we had that immediate bounce when we played against Millwall, although we didn’t quite manage to follow that up.
‘But it’s a really important point to note that we are now a couple of weeks down the line with those players with added fitness, added match sharpness and everything else in between that really plays into it.’