Portsmouth boss’ revealing insight over missed transfer targets as window heads to climax
Pompey’s transfer pace has quickened - with John Mousinho relaying positive news to fans over targerts this evening.
Pompey have still to miss out on their major transfer targets in an accelerating summer of recruitment.
Boss John Mousinho has revealed the Blues have dealt a minimal amount of setbacks, when it comes to the key additions they’d had in their sights in this window.
Mousinho: Pompey confident they’ll land targets they speak to
Mousinho’s insight over recruitment arrives with just three-and-a-half weeks left of business, until the cut-off point for signings on September 1.
Pompey have so far brought in five new faces with Adran Segecic, Mark Kosznovszky, Luke Le Roux, John Swift and Florian Bianchini arriving to date.
Meanwhile, Spurs winger Yang Min-hyeok is set to be signing number five as a temporary deal is lined for the South Korea international.
The activity has quickened in a window where the first signing didn’t arrive until June 18 in Segecic, with there nearly a month’s gap until Swift joined on July 15.
Le Roux and Kosznovszky were then confirmed in quick succession on July 25, before Bianchini’s capture was confirmed last Thursday.
There’s been players Pompey have explored to varying degrees who haven’t joined, with Danish midfielder Pelle Mattson one example of a target who hasn’t ended up at PO4.
The good news is, according to Mousinho, there’s not been many who’ve fallen by the wayside.
He said: ‘The way I’d define that (missing targets) is we’d have long lists and we can cross some of them off quite early.
‘I don’t know if you can define that as missing out on a major target. They’d be players we’d like, but straightaway we’d know they’d be beyond us or they’re going elsewhere.
‘When I talk about missing on major targets, they’d be the ones we get down to maybe presenting to the player and really looking in depth at offering contracts and we’re in a rivalry with another club.
‘We may have missed out on a couple, but we speak to a fair few players and cover a lot of bases.
‘We’re just honest in terms of what we expect from the players and what they can expect from the football club.
Pompey an ‘easy sell’ to targets
‘We don’t have too much of an issue selling the place, it’s a pretty easy sell particularly when you’ve had players who’ve played at Fratton Park.
‘We’re just honest and tell the truth about what it means to play for Portsmouth, what it means to live in the city and most of them like it.’