Door left open for Portsmouth return swoops for Sheffield Wednesday and Dundee transfer targets
Luke Graham and Svante Ingelsson were wanted at Fratton Park in the January transfer window but stayed with their clubs. There may still be hope for Pompey, however.
John Mousinho hasn’t given up hope of landing the targets who failed to arrive in the January window.
And that means the door is still ajar to bring in highly-rated Dundee defender Luke Graham and Sheffield Wednesday’s Svante Ingelsson moving forward.
Sheff Wed and Dundee targets could still be revisited
The transfer window closed on Monday evening, with Pompey bringing in seven new faces to supplement their Championship survival chase.
Not all pursuits proved fruitful, however, with the Blues making a bid to land Ingelsson, who was also chased by the likes of Millwall.
The 27-year-old opted to stay with the stricken Owls, however, with his existing deal coming to a close this summer - though his club hold a 12-month extension option.
Meanwhile, Graham was fancied to bolster the middle of the backline, which is heavy in numbers but lacking in players who can stay fit consistently.
Talks over the Scottish under-21 international went into the final day, for a player eyed by a swathe of clubs across Europe.
Dundee’s asking price is believed to have sky-rocketed, however, with the fee starting around their £1.5m record and then rising as the hours counted down to the window’s conclusion.
That led to Pompey turning to Haugesund’s Senegal defender Madiodio Dia late in the day, with the 22-year-old recruited on a two-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee.
Mousinho explained there’s been a lot of groundwork put in on those players, however, which may not necessarily be wasted moving forward.
He said: ‘We will see what the situation is with those players.
‘It’s like Gustavo (Caballero). We missed out on Gustavo in the summer, so we kept an eye on that because we obviously liked the player. We said we’ll see how it pans out over the next three or four months.
Mousinho: ‘We will keep an eye on their situations’
‘It happens and that’s absolutely fine (deals aren’t completed), but you never know what could happen at the end back end of the season.
‘We’ll always monitor it and keep an eye on things. Whatever way it goes, we’ve done a lot of work on a lot of these players - so we will keep an eye on their situations.’
Mousinho told The News yesterday there was money available to spend for January targets, but Pompey weren’t prepared to spend beyond their valuations of those in their sights. That certainly appeared to be the case with Graham.
He said: ‘What happened was the valuation of the other club got far too high for what we felt was good value.
‘Whether you’re the richest or poorest club in the world, you have to do the right thing at the right time otherwise you’re in trouble as a football club and squad.
‘It then has knock-on implications for the rest of the window and the summer.
‘Like with Callum Lang, we value the player at a certain level and we think it’s the right thing to do.
‘It’s the same with incomings. If we value a player at a certain level, we are more than willing to put the bid in and will spend the money.
‘But as soon as the valuation becomes too much, and it became far too high in a couple of cases, it’s time to move on.’