Tales of the unexpected as Portsmouth deadline-day deals highly improbable but not impossible

The Blues' 22-man squad is already at bursting point and Kenny Jackett's happy with his set-up heading into the second half of the season.

However, there have been tales of the unexpected during the Pompey manager's three-and-a-half year reign at Fratton Park.

Particularly on January transfer deadline day in his first two seasons, Jackett made 11th-hour signings that caused surprises.

During the 2017-18 campaign – Jackett’s first season in charge – Tottenham's Anton Walkes and Wolves duo Connor Ronan and Sylvain Deslandes were recruited early in the window.

As the cut-off point approached, the Fratton faithful rightly clamoured for an experienced centre-midfielder to be signed.

Danny Rose had suffered a broken leg, while Stuart O'Keefe was also sidelined with a long-term groin problem, leaving young-duo Ben Close and Adam May as the only options.

Pompey had been monitoring Derby's Jamie Hanson to potentially fill a void in the engine room, although injuries at Pride Park meant he wasn't allowed to depart.

As the clocked ticked down towards the deadline, concerns among supporters grew.

The Blues would go on to make a signing minutes before the window shut - but no-one could have predicted who it would turn out to be.

Rather than a central-midfield operator, keeper Stephen Henderson returned to PO4 on loan from Nottingham Forest.

Luke McGee had featured in every league game up to that point. He’d only joined the previous summer from Spurs and hadn't made glaring errors.

Of course, Henderson's second spell at Pompey would last 85 minutes as he sustained a thigh injury on debut against Doncaster, ruling him out for the remainder of the term.

Twelve months later, Pompey would add two fresh faces to their ranks on the final day of the window.

James Vaughan had trained with his new team-mates that morning and conducted interviews with the press before his loan arrival from Wigan was officially announced.

He was the Blues' fifth January signing, with everyone believing was business done and dusted.

Yet Jackett simply couldn't pass up the chance to bring Viv Solomon-Otabor to the south coast when he received was made aware of the winger’s availability.

As a consequence, it rendered Lloyd Isgrove surplus to requirements, even though he'd arrived from Barnsley just days earlier.

You can even argue the signing of Joe Mason on August 2019 deadline day caught plenty of people off guard.

The only way Pompey are likely to bring anyone in before tonight's deadline is if the player is a major upgrade to what they already have.

Although the Blues are at their salary cap limit, they’re still able to deregister fringe men such as Paul Downing or James Bolton from their League One squad.

Jackett's side are also permitted to strike deals with any player under-21 as they don't count towards wage ceiling regulations.

Highly improbable but not impossible - we've been thrown curveballs before.