Portsmouth boss’ ruthless recruitment message as former Liverpool man awaits his fate
Liverpool capture Harvey Blair is in Pompey purgatory, with John Mousinho already making cut-throat player decisions this summer.
John Mousinho admitted it’s inevitable players will fall ‘by the wayside’ as he aims to carry Pompey forward in the Championship.
And the Blues boss made it clear employing a cut-throat approach to squad management is necessary, if his club are to progress in the second-tier.
Mousinho on big squad calls: ‘That unfortunately leaves a few players by the wayside.’
Mousinho’s clear statement over making tough decisions over squad members comes in a busy period of transfer activity and player trading at Fratton Park.
And it arrives with Liverpool signing Harvey Blair waiting to see what lies ahead for him, as he finds himself left in the cold at PO4.
In terms of business, 11 new faces arrived and 14 players were either released, sold or loaned out by the close of the summer transfer window.
There was some big decisions made by Mousinho with £1m defender Josh Knight and £1.25m Aussie Hayden Matthews leaving Pompey on loan. Meanwhile, £1m South Africa international Luke Le Roux’s contract was torn up,
The likes of Ibane Bowat, Jordan Williams, Makenzie Kirk and Josef Bursik all departed, before Jacob Farrell returned to Australia on Tuesday night - as he signed on loan for Sydney FC.
Now Blair faces being left in Fratton purgatory unless he can join a club in a country where their transfer window remains open.
The winger has not been named in Pompey’s 25-man squad with Keshi Anderson, Josh Murphy and Connor Ogilvie likely earmarked for the three remaining spaces when they return from injury.
Mousinho has shown he will not shirk tough decisions in his three-and-a-half years as Pompey boss, with that headstrong stance required to take the team forward in his eyes.
Mousinho said: ‘The first port of call is to cover ourselves - and I think we’ve done that.
‘We’ve had two seasons where we’ve finished in decent enough positions in terms of where we were aiming for at the start of the season.
‘If we want to carry on finishing in those positions then we can sit still, not do anything and try to maintain the status quo.
‘It’s not easy doing that anyway, but we want to really try to move on and push forward.
‘That in itself can go wrong and we’ve seen that with clubs over the past few years.
‘So we’ve got to be cautious, but we want to get things right and we’re trying to improve - and improve year on year.
‘When we do that, that unfortunately leaves a few players by the wayside.’