Straight-talking Portsmouth boss' reassurance to Fratton faithful over classy Callum Lang's future

This season’s outstanding performer scored all four of the Blues’ goals in Saturday’s stunning 4-1 triumph over Coventry.

In the process, he became the first Pompey player to register a league hat-trick since Marcus Harness in October 2020 - and not since Yakubu in May 2004 has anyone netted four times in a match.

With nine Championship goals to his name, only Norwich’s Borja Sainz (15) and West Brom’s Josh Maja (10) have registered more so far this season.

Next month marks the opening of the January transfer window and inevitably there’ll be concerns among the Fratton faithful over Lang’s ongoing Fratton Park presence.

But Mousinho is adamant Pompey haven’t even considered a potential exit.

He told The News: ‘The possibility of Callum leaving in January hasn’t crossed my mind at all.

‘I suppose the only factor there is if any club wants to come in for him - but we don’t need to sell players, so it would have to be really significant.

‘Having said that, we are not thinking about that at all. As far as I’m concerned, he is not for sale.

‘When we watched Callum when he was in the Championship with Wigan I thought he was really good. We spoke to him in the summer about how he actually felt he was a bit better in the Championship than when he played in League One.

‘Certainly this time around at that level he has excelled, he has surpassed his goal-scoring records previously and there’s more to come from him.

‘During my time here, we haven’t sold any players that we wanted to keep, which is a really promising sign. There has never been pressure on us to sell players.

‘We want to develop that model where if we bring good young players through then it might 2-3 years later that they’re available for sale.

‘But certainly in the situation we’re in at the moment with the league, we’d like to keep hold of all of our players in January.’

Lang arrived late in last January’s transfer window from Wigan for around £400,000 and registered on his debut against Oxford United after coming on as a substitute.

He has now totalled 13 goals in 29 appearances, while also added a 2023-24 League One title to his collection of silverware.

Mousinho added: ‘Callum has been excellent since the moment he set foot in Portsmouth. He was one of our top targets in January (2024) and we decided to go and get him to get us over the line.

‘He’s hit the ground running this season, not looking back, and fully deserves it, he keeps himself in incredible shape.

‘You can see that by the physicality, the running, the pressing, and the fact he can hold the ball up as well as his finishing has always been very, very good.