Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News in Croatia, with the Blues head coach updating on the club's training camp, transfers and preparations for the Championship.
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00:00Here with Pompey boss John Massino, fantastic setting, the Eastern Peninsula John, what
00:07a wonderful place to build up for the season.
00:10Yeah, it's been brilliant.
00:11I obviously arrived yesterday morning and the weather's been great, we're out here,
00:14you can see the facilities behind you, we've got this brilliant sports centre with the
00:17two pitches that we're able to access, backing out onto the sea and then we're just a short
00:21minute from the hotel and everything's been top draw from that point of view, so really
00:25pleased with everything so far and then the most important thing is that the lads have
00:28been working really hard, so a couple of sessions out on the grass and a lot of intensity, a
00:32lot of hard work and they're looking in very good shape.
00:34Guys did their homework on this facility, lots of recce missions and for good reason
00:38wasn't it when you look at what we've got here.
00:40Yeah, I think it's a really important part of the whole season, not just pre-season but
00:43making sure you get these sort of things right.
00:45We're asking the lads to do three sessions a day, we're asking them for that intensity
00:49we spoke about in training and we're asking them to be away from their families, it's
00:53obviously an enjoyable job, I'm not bemoaning any of that but I also think they've got a
00:57we've got to make sure we get it right, so it does take a lot of preparation and a lot
01:01of detail does go into it and thankfully so far it's running very smoothly.
01:05From the testing really onwards, you've been rather pleased with how the players have reported
01:09back in terms of their conditioning.
01:11Yeah, they were really good with the numbers that we had on Thursday and Friday with the
01:14testing and since then we've still done a bit of conditioning but most of it's been
01:18done on the pitch with the footballs and been really pleased with everything that I've seen
01:21there, so the group have come back in really fantastic shape and that's the thing these
01:25days it's very different from when I first started playing and the bulk of the first
01:29couple of weeks of pre-season was about probably losing a couple of kgs and getting back into
01:33shape before you could really do any proper conditioning but it's very, very different
01:35these days.
01:36The lads have come back in in really good nick and they're going to benefit from it
01:40in the long term.
01:41I guess the days of the kind of long beastings are gone now, it seems shorter but more intense
01:45stuff but we just sat here and watched the players work for two hours in pretty testing
01:49and hard conditions.
01:50Yeah, we also want to make sure that we get the right balance between making sure that
01:55we cut things down, keep things intense and also work the lads appropriately so that by
01:59the time they get to the games they find them easier than training sessions, that would
02:03be the ultimate goal and that's what we want to do here, we want to make training sessions
02:06really tough, really competitive, make sure that we do things right.
02:10I mean today was probably the longest we'll go for the entire season but once we start
02:14to cut down those sessions they'll look slightly different but at the moment we've got a lot
02:17of time to play with so we've still got four and a half weeks until the start of the season
02:21so there's plenty of time to play with and plenty of time to be creative in terms of
02:24the way we do things.
02:25The group of 24, 25 players out here, that's a good number in the building already.
02:28Yeah, we've got 25 out here all together and we're looking good in terms of numbers.
02:32It allows us to put sessions on, it allows us to do tactical work in the afternoons and
02:37being able to do that I think is really important.
02:39There's still a couple I think we'll look to bring into the building before the start
02:43of the season or before the end of the transfer window but at the moment I think we're looking
02:46in really good shape.
02:47How is that going, that search for players?
02:48Yeah, it's going well, it's very, very I guess intense as well.
02:54There's a lot going on behind the scenes and the recruitment team are obviously working
02:56really hard to make sure that we get the right players in, we don't miss out on any targets
03:01and there's a lot of moving parts to it so we're still really early in the transfer window,
03:05there's plenty of time to go obviously until the end of August but things are progressing
03:08really nicely.
03:09You've got five in the building, are you close to any more at the moment?
03:12Nothing particularly close right now but there's plenty of lines in the fire.
03:18And in terms of players going out, what's the situation there?
03:22No, same at the moment, we're happy with the squad as it is at the minute so I think we'll
03:25reassess that next week.
03:26We've got the three non-league games next week which we need a decent enough squad for
03:30particularly with the turnaround on the Friday and the Saturday with the Bognor and Havant
03:34game so we've got to make sure that we have a squad that can cope with that.
03:36I think we'll look at where everyone is after that sort of spot and look where the squad's
03:40at, we don't want to be over-inflated, we want to make sure that we do have players
03:44in the squad that are competitive and if there are any that need to move out or feel they
03:47need to move out at that point then we'll look at it then but at the moment we haven't
03:50got any thought on that.
03:51The name's constantly coming up, one in the last couple of days, Josh Dakis-Cogby, the
03:55defender.
03:56Yeah, obviously the way that we've been dealing with these over the past year or so or six
04:02months is that players like that who are contracted, we're not going to comment on either way whether
04:07there's any link or not so obviously in Josh's case, fantastic player, he was brilliant last
04:11year but nothing in from us.
04:14So when I say Aidan O'Neill, I'm going to get a similar answer.
04:16Yeah, same thing.
04:17Obviously, I think Aidan was out of contract last season and he's gone into Europe this
04:22year but under contract so I think out of respect for those clubs, we all want it to
04:26happen in the other way so we just leave those ones alone.
04:29How do you find the market, is it evolving now, obviously the free transfers are earlier,
04:33you find that most of the free transfers are now being picked up?
04:37Mostly yeah, there's still a few that are floating about but I think most of the time
04:39at this stage of the season most of them have been picked up and players tend to want to
04:43be somewhere for the start of pre-season so if there are players that are still going
04:47to move on, they're at their club and it's looking to be a loan or maybe a fee later
04:51on in the window.
04:52So I think it's starting to evolve, most of the fees have gone, particularly in our case
04:57the two fees that we had right at the top of our list in Josh Murphy and Jordan Williams,
05:03we managed to get done early, we managed to get in the building, we were absolutely delighted
05:05with those so I think we've obviously got that done.
05:09Most of the rest of the business that we'll probably do is going to be loans and fees
05:12and certainly with loans, we obviously got Sammy in the door quite early but I think
05:17Middlesbrough and ourselves, we had really good discussions early on about what that
05:21looked like and what the purpose of the loan was so I think with other 21s in particular
05:26that are coming through, the academies on the 21 side for Premier League for example,
05:31a lot of them are with the sides pre-season, there's no rush on getting anything out and
05:35they tend to move a bit later on in pre-season.
05:37And with the fees, the better premium players will have options no doubt.
05:42Yeah and that always happens, I think as a rule of thumb, we always want to try and get
05:47our business done early, it's great if you can but at the same time we don't want to
05:50get the wrong business done early so we're not going to rush anything.
05:53We could have taken 10 players a month ago but that's not what we wanted to do, we want
05:56to make sure we get the right players in and sometimes you have to wait and be patient
05:59and when you're waiting for things to develop with clubs and agents and players, it just
06:04takes a bit of time.
06:05I'm really confident that we're working in the right direction, I'm really confident
06:08that we've got everything in the right place and we're very, very diligent in the way that
06:12we do those sort of things and I'm really happy with the stage we're at.
06:16And so in terms of pre-season, you've mentioned sometimes players come back and surprise you
06:20in pre-season or play themselves into contention when you might be thinking about maybe a loan
06:24out for those players.
06:25Are you seeing that with any members of your squad?
06:27There's a few that have come back in really good shape and that's the most important thing
06:30early on so in those Thursday and Friday sessions where we had the physical testing, one way
06:35just to stand out straight away is just to show the coaching staff that you've done a
06:39bit over the summer and that you mean business coming into this season and then obviously
06:42when the football kicks in, we're always looking at sessions when we're live, we're watching
06:46sessions back to see who the best performers are and then ultimately the chances will properly
06:50come in the games, that's when it's the real bread and butter for the players so we want
06:53players to perform really well in training but the games that we've got coming up next
06:57week and then the subsequent games against league sides going into the season, that's
07:01where I think it really counts for these players.
07:03Do you feel your group is in a good place at this stage of pre-season?
07:06Yeah I think so, there's plenty of work to do, the bulk of the work we're doing at the
07:11moment still is conditioning and that includes when we've got the balls out but I think we're
07:15in a really good spot, we're starting to introduce a couple of tactical concepts to the boys
07:18as well which I think have landed really well over the past couple of days but really happy
07:22with where they're at.
07:23Just finally, did the head coach have to set standards in the run in there at the end of
07:25the session?
07:26I don't know if I set the standards but I thought it was a long day, the lads had worked
07:31in the heat, they got out there, there were a lot of cones out there and I thought I better
07:35try and boost morale by getting involved in them and it helps I think because at least
07:41I know, I always tell the lads anyway, I know how difficult they are, I know how difficult
07:44these days are and for me to sort of trot along and try and stay on the coattails of
07:48some of those boys was an interesting experience.