Pompey boss John Mousinho speaks to The News to preview the trip to Middlesbrough and bring the very latest transfer news after the Blues completed two new signings.
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00:00Here with Pompey boss, John Massino. John, how's the mood as we gear up to the weekend and more and more frenetic transfer window?
00:08Really positive I think after the opening week of the season. We got a couple of points on the board, again it's a really tough opposition in Leeds who I think are promotion favourites.
00:17We saw what a difficult task it is up at Elm Row and then I think to come away from the loon game disappointed to not take all three points is a good sign of where the group's at at the moment.
00:25We're very, very positive going into the weekend, it's going to be another tough challenge but plenty happening off the pitch as well so really good times things are on the up at the moment.
00:34With the results, naturally it would be players stepping up, even a smidgen of reticence about stepping up to Championship level, does that just reassure those players if there were any small downs?
00:44I think so and it really should have done and I think there was a bit of hesitancy in the opening ten minutes of the Leeds game and we nearly paid the price for it.
00:52I think once the players settled down and realised that these are good players, it's a different level but we're more than capable of playing at this level, we saw a much better level of performance up at Leeds.
01:01I think we saw that again at Luton, didn't have the greatest of starts but as soon as we settled into the game and decided that we were going to be able to play on the same pitch as some of these players and there's actually nothing to fear then we were good.
01:11I thought we were really good, even against 11 men or especially against 11 men. I thought we were a real threat, I thought we caused a lot of problems and it was one of those where I think we should go with confidence off the back of those two results.
01:22You were hopeful of a couple of signers this week, Abdoulaye Kamara won through the door.
01:26Yeah, really pleased with Abdoulaye, he's come over from Borussia Dortmund, previously been at PSG and he's got a really fantastic pedigree coming in from those two football clubs.
01:40I'm very, very excited to get him across at 19, a really exciting prospect that I think had a lot of interest in other European and English clubs as well. He's come in, he's trained straight away and he looks like he's fit and ready to go.
01:51Nicholas Smith, goalkeeping keeper in the building as well.
01:55Yeah, it's one of those departments we were looking to strengthen, that goalkeeping department, so we had three goalkeepers that we thought could compete for the number one spot and we think we've managed to do that, bringing in Jordan and bringing in Nicholas and that's very, very competitive I think now for any spot.
02:08I think even for a spot on the bench, I think it's become extremely competitive and we're really pleased to be able to do that, to bring in a player with a bit of experience at 27 who has played at a top league in Europe as well and will come over and it will be a challenge.
02:20Would you expect any more before the weekend?
02:22I don't think any more before the weekend, so any business I think we'll be conducting next week, obviously in the build-up to the end of the transfer window.
02:29So fair to say you could expect a busy finale?
02:32Yeah, it'll be a busy one.
02:35Hold your hats, names being mentioned everywhere on the centre, Abu Kamara has come up again, you've mentioned that, you've said that might be on the record already.
02:44Yeah, same spot, same spot with Abu, he's one of those, I know he is contracted at Norwich but we don't mind talking about him in Monrovia because they were here from London last year but in the exact same position as we were last year with Abbas and having no movement on that.
02:56I think Harvey Blair, the lad at Liverpool, you have said before, mentioned a little bit about his assets but again, that's a name that's resurfaced.
03:03Yeah, again, I think Harvey's still contracted to Liverpool, so yeah, as long as he's there then we won't have to comment on that one.
03:10Alex Murphy at Newcastle.
03:12Yeah, same, he's out of contract.
03:14So, Freddie Potts at West Ham.
03:17Yeah, same with those, we'll be linked to loads of players over the summer and some will turn out to be true and a lot of them will turn out to be false, so everybody will find out, if everybody can wait another week then they'll find out.
03:29I think you said about the one-in-one-out situation and sort of it being along those lines, how does that stand now?
03:36So, at the minute we had 20 players, obviously 20 players, that's what you can put on the Championship squad list for the weekend, so we had 20 players at the weekend and one of those was Harry Cloud, who has done really well pre-season but we probably didn't anticipate that he'd be in Championship squads this season.
03:55So, at the minute with bringing players in, we're not quite yet looking to move any out until we're in a bit more of a stable position with injuries, mainly injuries at the moment because we've got players in the building, it's just getting those injuries back and getting them fit again.
04:08So, at the minute, no movement on that, I think if we get a couple more back next week and we do get a couple more in then things may change but it's very, very difficult for us to let anybody go at the moment with the fact that we've named that 20-man squad and we don't have anybody else fit.
04:21So, that's about really self-preservation and protection?
04:24Yeah, the number one priority is Portsmouth at the moment and our season in the league and there are going to be some players I think over the coming week or so that maybe realise they want to go elsewhere and we'll have to take those decisions if and when they come but at the moment I don't think there's any point in us entertaining anything going out of the door because of the fact that we don't quite have the numbers.
04:45On the other side of the coin, have you found that to your detriment when you're looking to bring players in this season and other clubs doing likewise?
04:51Yeah, and naturally players will do that so they'll protect themselves and they'll keep a fourth choice or a fifth choice centre-back just in case of injury and to be honest, the way that we did it last year, we had a lot of interest in players towards the back end of the transfer window in August.
05:06A player that there was a huge amount of interest in this time last year was Sean Ryan and we made the decision that we weren't going to let him out of the building because we knew how important he'd be to the success that we had last season. We didn't quite know how he'd be to play that many games, we couldn't necessarily anticipate that Regan was going to tear his ACL against Chesterfield but it turned out to be the right choice for us and even with players like Rielly, Rielly didn't play a huge amount last year but we wanted to keep him in because he was incredibly good to have around the place, really good cover, we knew we could rely on him if he needed to come in for any league games which he actually did.
05:35He came and played some pivotal games and so we ended up holding on to four centre-backs, five at times in January and that was the best way to do it. That's just an example of the way that clubs build squads and even if a player is not getting the minutes that that player thinks he should get and the same with the club, sometimes there are players that I think should get more minutes but we just can't give them those minutes, we still want to keep them in the building because it's the right thing to do for the football club and I think that goes for every football club around the country.
06:01How are injuries shaping up ahead of Middlesbrough?
06:31No problems with concussion at all, just a really stiff upper neck and back and a bit of a doubtful weekend so we'll have to see how that settles down on Friday.