‘Players we’re in for go for high fees’: Portsmouth boss’ revealing transfer update with £3.5m Abu Kamara set to leave Hull City
Portsmouth have money to spend on a winger in the transfer window, but rivals in the Championship and beyond are pushing the boundaries. Here’s John Mousinho with the latest.
John Mousinho admitted the pressure’s on to get it right as Pompey eye loosening their purse strings to land a winger.
And the Blues boss has acknowledged potential targets are moving for ‘really high fees’ to other sides, as the transfer window reaches its climax.
Mousinho: ‘Players we might be in for go for really high fees’
Pompey are pushing on with their final recruitment, with just over two weeks remaining until summer business ends at 7pm on September 1.
A new winger remains a transfer priority, with Mousinho indicating there’s money to spend and potential to even push the existing budget for the right recruit.
The financial power of rivals is making that business a challenge, however, with the likes of Wrexham yesterday spending £10m to bring in Nathan Broadhead in from Ipswich Town.
Pompey are known to be fans of Abu Kamara, but some heavy-hitters have moved for the winger with Birmingham, Rangers and La Liga outfit Getafe eyeing a reported £3.5m deal.
Mousinho explained the club are pushing on undeterred, however, in what could be a critical period for their transfer business.
He said: ‘We’ve got to get the right balance as a football club.
‘This year we’ve spent more money on transfer fees and increased the budget significantly.
‘But we’re still competing with a lot of other clubs who have parachute payments, or even if they haven’t you can see the likes of Norwich who we play this weekend and the amount of money being put into the club this window.
‘It’s the same with the clubs who’ve come up. We’ve spoken about Birmingham, Wrexham and Charlton have had a really good go this summer.
‘For us, it’s a tough balance between trying to make sure we stick to what we believe as a football club.
‘We’re not all of a sudden going to become what these clubs are. There’s no right or wrong by the way, but it’s just the way we are.
‘It’s what we’ve been since I became head coach, it’s something we’ve done pretty well over the past two and a half years.
‘We have to get it right when we do spend a bit more on certain players, we have to get those ones right.
‘We’re competing in a market which is really competitive at the moment.
‘Players we might be in for go for really high fees and we have to reset, recalibrate and then go again.’
Pompey still trying to ‘make sure it happens’ with winger
Pompey have so far landed six players this summer, with three of those signings requiring fees in Mark Kosznovszky, Luke Le Roux and Adrian Segecic.
Meanwhile, John Swift has arrived on a free transfer after leaving West Brom with loan deals agreed for Swansea’s Florian Bianchini and Spurs’ Minhyeok Yang.
Mousinho has been consistent in his position the club are in a position to raise their spending from the £1.27m shelled out to land Hayden Matthews from Sydney FC in January.
It hasn’t yet happened in terms of the winger Pompey are seeking, but the Blues pointed out there’s still time for that to change.
Mousinho added: ‘It (asking the owners to push levels of spending) is within reason, we’re not going to go and ask to sign Jacob Murphy.
‘But I think when those opportunities come up we’ve seen in the past we can go with a case, the answer has been yes.
‘We haven’t quite come up that answer in terms of that wide position at the minute, but we’re still trying to work hard to make sure it happens.’