Latest: John Mousinho addresses Marlon Pack's Portsmouth future - and you'll like what he has to say

The head coach is ‘confident’ his captain is staying with the Blues - and expects a deal to be agreed soon.

Pack has been in negotiations over a fresh contract since the end of last season, with his two-year agreement expiring. 

The signs continue to be positive over retaining the services of the hugely influential 33-year-old for Pompey’s long-awaited Championship return.

And Mousinho, who today returned from holiday, believes Pack’s future will be secured ‘soon’.

He told The News: ‘I am going to catch up with Rich, but there have been positive talks for the last couple of weeks and that is something we are confident of being able to get done.

‘Hopefully we will have that done and dusted and boxed off relativity soon, but I’ll catch up with Rich and find out today what the latest on that is.

‘I know we speak about this a lot, but one of the advantages of this structure at the football club is that my interaction with Marlon is purely on the football side.

‘I don’t have to get involved in the contract and money side, so Rich is taking care of everything with Marlon’s agent.

‘It does really allow me to separate the two and hopefully Marlon comes back for the first day of pre-season.

‘All our focus is everything which goes on on the grass and we don’t have to worry about contracts.’

Pack has made 78 appearances and scored eight goals since returning to Pompey in the summer of 2022.

Along with Connor Ogilvie, the midfielder was offered a new deal following promotion to the Championship, unlike 12 of their team-mates.

Ogilvie signed a fresh two-year contract on Saturday - and Pack is also nearing agreement.

Mousinho added: ‘It’s encouraging, everybody at the football club will be pleased to see Marlon back for next season, he had such a fantastic year.

‘By his own admission, it was a dream come true to do what he did and he is fully deserving of everything which came to him in terms of The News/Sports Mail Player of the Season, the accolades and recognition/

‘He’s the club captain, we absolutely love working with him. To get Marlon back in the building would be a real positive for us.’