Pompey's former rivals say no 'firesale' in transfer window as ex-Southampton boss confirms League One stance

Bolton and Oxford United are through to the League One play-off finals after wins over Barnsley and Peterborough respectively and their fates will now be decided on Saturday 18 May.

Pompey, having confirmed promotion with two fixtures to go in the league, are now looking ahead to how they can strengthen their squad before the grand return to the Championship. Emotional farewells have begun to take place with John Mousinho opting not to renew the contracts of ten first team players, and the Blues boss will already be eyeing up potential replacements ahead of the summer transfer window.

Here is the latest news from Pompey’s soon-to-be former rivals as the transfer window approaches...

No ‘firesale’ says Peterborough boss

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has quelled fans’ fears that the club will lose several of its stars after failing to secure promotion this season. The Posh, who lost out to Oxford United in the play-off semi-finals, will have five players out of contract this summer with nine more set to enter the last year of their current deals.

MacAnthony has, however, issued a video message in which he thanked the fans, management staff, office and playing staff for their continuing support, while also reassuring supporters about the club’s intention to keep hold of as many of their first team players as possible.

“I don’t want to see or hear words like ‘firesale’ any more,” MacAnthony said in the video. “I’ve seen talk of us losing 9-10 players, but that just isn’t going to happen, We have a great staff and we have great players already in the building. We hope to add more great players. There will be comings and goings as is the way with our club, but we intend to help the squad and make them a bit stronger as long as the salary cap allows it.

“We are ready to execute the plan we had in case we stayed in League One. Myself and Barry Fry and Liz (Elsom, secretary) will be hard at it for the next nine weeks. We intend to grow again and we will have high aims, but without putting pressure on a young squad, and we will make the fanbase even prouder of us. The fanbase has been first class this season, from the first day they got behind our re-tooling of the squad and now I’m excited about next season.”

Ex-Southampton boss provides League One update

Former Southampton and current Reading boss Ruben Selles has provided fans with an update on his intentions heading into the summer transfer season. The 40-year-old took over as the Royals manager following the side’s relegation to League One and has overseen a difficult season, in which the club were penalised with a six-point deduction due to EFL rule breaches last season.

Selles did, however, lead the side to a 17th place finish and has confirmed that the door remains open for him to return next season. The Spaniard did note, however, that he would be most interested in working at the club under new ownership with Reading’s current owner, Dai Yongge, committing to exclusive talks with a new buyer.

“Looking ahead, longer-term, my ambition is always to come back to the top level and try to compete against the very best teams”, the ex-Saints boss said. “Hopefully one day I can compete that by doing it with the national team of my country.

“Right now I have a fantastic group at Reading that I would really like to continue working with. But we need to see what happens with the takeover. It can be that the takeover doesn’t happen. Nobody from the club deserves to have a season like that last one, with points deductions, uncertainty every payday, not being able to go to hotels the day before the game, waking up one day and seeing that they intend to sell the training ground.

“That chaos, we cannot have again. We need to focus on bringing the love of football to the players, staff and fans. Then I believe we could have a lot of fun.”