'Busy summer': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho on transfer plans as he plots recruitment drive
Blues boss on his summer transfer plans with a ‘busy’ close season of recruitment in store
John Mousinho has laid bare his recruitment plans as he sets his sights on evolving his Pompey squad to meet Championship expectations.
And the head coach is braced for yet another ‘busy summer’, in keeping with the previous two pre-seasons since clambering out of League One.
The Blues secured their status with two matches remaining following a timely late-season resurgence in the aftermath of the 6-1 hammering at QPR.
They went on to finish 18th, totalling one more point than the tally of 54 amassed in the 2024-25 campaign which marked their long-awaited Championship return.
Now attention is focused on recruitment, with Mousinho acknowledging there will once again be a significant overhaul of the squad to bolster Pompey’s playing strength.
There were 15 new arrivals in the summer of 2024 after capturing the League One title, while last summer saw 11 recruited, albeit subsequently proving to be an underwhelming transfer window.
And the head coach is also eyeing plenty of business this time around.
‘It’s probably a busy summer again’
Mousinho told The News: ‘I know it’s really vague, I can’t sit here and talk about discussions with owners and strategy in the future without admitting we do need to figure out what we want to do with the squad.
‘We’ve got five loans going back, which obviously opens up space in the squad. We are going to have some players who move on, we’re going to have to see what happens with out-of-contract players as well, so naturally there’s movement there.
‘And there is going to be some movement on top of that as well with players that might go on loan, players that might move on, if we lose Terry for example.
‘Straight away there’s space for five plus any out of contract who don’t sign, plus 2-3 that move on - and that’s without looking at other areas for improvement. So it’s probably a busy summer again.
‘I don’t know what the number is because myself and Rich are having conversations about players, but we’re going to move on very quickly now the season has ended in terms of what we’re going to do in the summer.
‘When you’ve spent your first couple of years in the Championship, hopefully there’s going to be a lot more turnover than when things do settle down - and we want to get to a stage where the windows aren't quite as busy.’
Short-term recruitment in January window
Although Pompey are aiming for quieter transfer windows, they were forced to turn to short-termism in January to deal with injuries and their precarious league position.
Of the seven recruited, Milli Alli, Aji Alese, Gustavo Caballero and Jacob Brown were loan deals, of which three were identified to improve their attacking potency.
While Keshi Anderson, Ebou Adams and Madiodio Dia were permanent deals, with the latter two involving transfer fees.
This summer, however, Pompey will once again be focused on long-term recruitment. In the meantime, the club’s retained list has yet to be made public.
Mousinho added: ‘In January, we were faced with an injury crisis when we didn’t have any wingers going into the Sheffield Wednesday game, while we were also short on centre-halves. So we had to do some short-term surgery to the squad and bring players in.
‘There were three wingers brought in, two on loan and Keshi on a permanent, to fill those gaps and other spots in the squad as well. While we had just lost Kos to an ACL.
‘So we had a specific process there, which meant we couldn't be as long-term as we wanted to be. But squads naturally evolve, there’s a lot of turnover in squads anyway, so that’s always going to happen.’