16 Portsmouth transfer topics John Mousinho addressed in full this week - including Josh Murphy, Alex Robertson and Abu Kamara latest: gallery

By Mark McMahon

Published 22nd Jun 2024, 05:00 BST

The News headed down to Pompey’s Hilsea training base on Tuesday for a catch-up with Blues boss John Mousinho.

As you would expect at this time of the year, transfers were on the agenda. So we did our best to extract as much information as we could out of the head coach to determine where the club is exactly during their latest recruitment drive.

He’s a round-up of what he said as the Blues enter the second week of the transfer window.

Mousinho said: ‘There are a few bits, we are relatively close. I speak to Rich and the recruitment team every day in terms of making sure we keep every iron in the fire. The window has probably been relatively slow so far as a whole (for all clubs), there hasn’t been a huge amount going on, particularly in the Championship. When players start reporting back for pre-season, there’s probably going to be more of an urgency to make decisions and to decide where their future lies. With us, I expect things to start moving this week, if not next week, but we are relatively relaxed about the situation.'

1. More signings

Mousinho said: ‘There are a few bits, we are relatively close. I speak to Rich and the recruitment team every day in terms of making sure we keep every iron in the fire. The window has probably been relatively slow so far as a whole (for all clubs), there hasn’t been a huge amount going on, particularly in the Championship. When players start reporting back for pre-season, there’s probably going to be more of an urgency to make decisions and to decide where their future lies. With us, I expect things to start moving this week, if not next week, but we are relatively relaxed about the situation.' | Portsmouth FC

Mousinho said: ‘We’re working hard behind the scenes and making sure we tick every box at our end, hoping for the right outcome in terms of the top targets. We have plenty underneath that as well, just in case they don’t come off. Possibly there may be signings this week, but I don’t know, it depends on a number of factors. From our point of view, we are doing everything we possibly can to get these players in. The most important thing is to make sure we get the right players at the right time. We shouldn’t panic on anything, let’s give players enough time to make the correct decision. Last year we were able to announce a raft of signings in the first week of the transfer window opening - and this year everything is different. There is that fine balance of making sure we get our business done as quickly as we can, but also take the players we want to take.’

2. More signings continued...

Mousinho said: ‘We’re working hard behind the scenes and making sure we tick every box at our end, hoping for the right outcome in terms of the top targets. We have plenty underneath that as well, just in case they don’t come off. Possibly there may be signings this week, but I don’t know, it depends on a number of factors. From our point of view, we are doing everything we possibly can to get these players in. The most important thing is to make sure we get the right players at the right time. We shouldn’t panic on anything, let’s give players enough time to make the correct decision. Last year we were able to announce a raft of signings in the first week of the transfer window opening - and this year everything is different. There is that fine balance of making sure we get our business done as quickly as we can, but also take the players we want to take.’ | National World

Mousinho said: ‘The truth on that is I know Josh, and he’s a fantastic player. He had a really good back end to the season but for those kind of players, whether there’s interest or not, we want to keep everything respectful of the players, other clubs and everything else going on. There is links with Josh because I played for him previously, but whether we’ve got any interest or not it’s something we have to leave alone and not really comment on.’

3. Josh Murphy

Mousinho said: ‘The truth on that is I know Josh, and he’s a fantastic player. He had a really good back end to the season but for those kind of players, whether there’s interest or not, we want to keep everything respectful of the players, other clubs and everything else going on. There is links with Josh because I played for him previously, but whether we’ve got any interest or not it’s something we have to leave alone and not really comment on.’ | Getty Images

4. Matt Ritchie (Newcastle United)

Getty Images

Pompey John Mousinho

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.