'Happy with what we've got': Portsmouth boss rules out strengthening one position during transfer window

The Blues boss insists he’s ‘happy’ to have Connor Ogilvie and Jack Sparkes scrapping for the position in the Championship next season.

Pompey’s sole arrival so far this summer has been the addition of Jordan Williams at right-back, a role left vacant following Joe Rafferty’s exit and Zak Swanson’s future unclear.

But Mousinho has backed Ogilvie and Sparkes to once again battle for the left-back spot, having both featured in their League One title success.

And, as a consequence, he is adamant it’s not a position the Blues are currently seeking to strengthen.

The head coach told The News: ‘We’re not looking for left-backs at the moment. With Connor and Jack, we are happy with the balance in terms of what we’ve got.

‘I thought it worked really well last year, considering the amount of games Jack ended up coming in for and playing because Connor was out.

‘Both can compete in the Championship. We have to make sure we keep improving both of them and, from Jack’s point of view, his career trajectory has to make sure he improves again to step up to the next level, but I thought he did a really good job for us last year.

‘Connor has stepped up every level he has ever played, so it will be really interesting to see how he fares in the Championship. We obviously wouldn't have given him a new contract if we didn’t think he could do it.

‘Eventually, by Jack’s own admission, it caught up with him around the Christmas period, but up until then he was brilliant going forward and picked up something like seven assists.

‘Around that time we had a couple of external people come and look at how we were setting up and what our strengths and weaknesses were. It was really interesting, a lot of it revolved around stopping Jack Sparkes . If you stop him, you nullified a lot of the threat,

‘He had a couple of defensive tests around Christmas and the New Year time and we brought him out of the side because we knew how reliable Connor was, but what was really pleasing was when he came back into the team.

‘Jack was absolutely superb against Peterborough marking Kwame Poku, who is one of the best wingers in the league. Then again against Lincoln, when he was also brilliant on the day.

‘Coming out of the cold for both games at short notice is testament to how far Jack has come.’

Ogilvie, who featured 25 times during an injury-hampered campaign as the Blues won promotion, signed a new two-year contract at the weekend.

While Sparkes, who has 12 months remaining on his deal, played 43 times, of which 27 were starts.

Mousinho added: ‘Since the disappointment of losing his place in the side after Leyton Orient, Jack got himself a lot fitter and found a lot better positions, so when he came in for those one-off games he performed excellently.

‘That was certainly a spot last year where we thought “Okay, we have proper competition in that left-back area”. Both players had a massive contribution to the league games.’