Exclusive:Portsmouth boss warns out-of-favour players face Championship purgatory at transfer window’s climax
It’s a situation the Pompey boss wants to avoid, but the reality is players being deregistered is on the cards as the club adhere to EFL rules.
John Mousinho warned Pompey’s fringe players they face being deregistered if they remain beyond the transfer window.
The Blues boss acknowledged the threat of those out-of-favour men who don’t depart before Tuesday’s 11pm being left in the Championship cold is real.
Pompey boss Mousinho: ‘We hope that we don’t have to deregister people - but it might be.’
Mousinho’s statement comes with his club needing to move on or deregister a host of squad members, to comply with the EFL’s 25-man rules.
Midfielder Iyad Mohamed today arrived at PO4 as Pompey’s 10th summer arrival, sealing a three-year deal when joining from Portuguese side Casa Pia for around £350,000.
Mohamed takes the Blues’ squad total to 38, with Mousinho expecting at least another two additions before the deadline.
Eight of those players don’t count towards the 25-man total as contracted under-21 players, but that does mean as many as seven men needing to leave or be deregistered to remain within the rules.
That’s the case if the two anticipated new faces are not contracted under-21 players, while there’s Birmingham City’s interest in Adrian Segečić to consider.
The likes of Josef Bursik, Luke Le Roux, Harvey Blair, Hayden Matthews and Josh Knight are those under the microscope, with Jacob Farrell and Mark Kosznovszky injured.
Mousinho made it clear there’s a plan in place to avoid deregistering players, but if people don’t move on that could be the outcome.
Mousinho told The News: ‘There’s a couple (of players) we’re working out - and there’s a couple of different permutations we’re working through.
‘The younger lads we know don’t need to register (as part of the 25-man squad), but we do have to be wary of that.
‘In an ideal world we don’t want players in the building who are not registered, but we have done it before where we’ve ended up not registering players.
‘We want to prioritise the here and now and what we want to put on the pitch, it’s a tough ask. It’s tough
‘We hope that we don’t have to deregister people. We’ve worked it out so we think, if everything goes our way, we’re in a position where that’s not the case - but it might be.’