Portsmouth boss’ revealing insight over players exits as he prepares for summer squad cull
Details on how Pompey player transfer exits are set to shape up this summer.
John Mousinho admitted Pompey are set to take a view over players they feel aren’t ready to continue on the club’s Championship adventure next season.
And the Blues boss acknowledged there are a ‘few more than we’d like’ in that category in his squad at present.
Mousinho on players leaving: ‘Might be a few more than we’d like.’
Talks were slated for this week over what recruitment is going to look like in the summer, with Mousinho seeing ‘significant figures’ needing to be spent to land Championship-ready players with less risk attached to them.
Last year the likes of Mark Kosznovszky, Luke Le Roux and Josh Knight were signed for in and around the £1m area, with none of those additions proving to be hits so far.
Meetings will take place in the wake of the campaign’s finale, where players will be told the pathway ahead of for them.
The likes of Le Roux and Knight could potentially be told they could move on, either temporarily or on a permanent basis, with fringe men such as Ibane Bowat, Harvey Blair, Makenzie Kirk and Hayden Matthews others conceivably in that category
Mousinho said: ‘There always is (excess fat to trim from the squad), there always is. Very rarely will you get to the summer and not want to make some changes.
‘Players are going to naturally want to move on, players who’ve not had a huge amount of playing time are going to want to move on and progress their careers. That’s absolutely fine.
‘We are going to take a view on players who we think are ready for the Championship next year and players who aren’t.
‘That is going to be a conversation that every football clubs has. With the place we’re in at the moment, there might be a few more than we’d like.’
Mousinho pointed to the need to recruit with pressing survival issues as a contributory factor, when it comes to having more players who may need to move on than the club would want.
He added: ‘It’s because of the short-term nature of how we’ve been going about our business.
‘So how do we break out of that cycle? It’s difficult, it’s really difficult to break out of that cycle.
‘That’s because we aren’t all of a sudden going to say we’re going to sign 20-year-olds for the future. You have to get that mix and have that experience we need in the side.
‘There’s no doubt in my mind when we to the academy building for a change of scenery and sat down after the QPR when we came back, there’s no doubt in my mind looking around the room and seeing the amount of experience we had that it was going to be massive factor in getting us out of the trouble we were in.
‘I was sat there look at and talking to Conor Chaplin, Marlon Pack, Colby Bishop, Regan Poole and Conor Shaughnessy, to name a few.
‘It was a really important factor but, at the same time, those players aren’t necessarily the 22 or 23-year-olds you can develop at a football club. So it’s getting that mix right and balance, that’s a challenge for us going forward.’