- 4 months ago
John Mousinho press conference; Oxford v Pompey
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00:00How have you found it and how much are you and the group looking forward to making that trip up to Oxford on Saturday?
00:12It's been a pretty good pre-season I think. There's always ups and downs and nothing goes quite as smoothly as you may be planning it in your head when you're going into the pre-season.
00:20That just happens every single year but by and large I think we've been really pleased with the progress that we've made.
00:25It's been slow and steady certainly in terms of bringing players in and integrating players and getting the current lot back into the right groove.
00:32I think from that perspective I feel like we're in pretty good shape. We've had some good results pre-season as well although they're largely irrelevant going into the season.
00:40But if you were going to have it one way or the other you'd much rather have the decent results pre-season going into the year and going into the first game.
00:47So yeah things have ramped up really nicely and we're looking forward to the season.
00:50You're on a meeting against your former club since you left to become Pompey head coach two and a half years ago.
00:55Is it one of those places you enjoy going back to? Is it always just business as usual?
00:59Just business as usual to be honest. I think there's no time for sentiment and no time for looking at records and looking at what's happened in the past.
01:06I think it's completely irrelevant. It's two very very different teams playing each other on the opening day of the season and that's going to be a real challenge in and of itself.
01:12So that's the way it is. I think maybe the first time we went back to the Kassam, the same season that I'd actually played there I think in 2023, that was slightly unusual.
01:23But apart from that it's just been straightforward and making sure that we go there and try and perform well and hopefully pick up as many points as possible.
01:31The squad's really shaped up over the past few weeks.
01:34Mark Kosonowski, Luke LaRue, Florian being keenly coming through the door.
01:37Can we expect any more over the next two days or will that be it until post-Oxford?
01:41That'll be it until post-Oxford. Nothing more in the next two days.
01:44Now Nathan Ferguson has played. He's been training with Pompey for quite some time.
01:47Played a number of times in pre-season. Maybe he didn't get any minutes against Pess Wally as some may have expected.
01:53What's the update on Nathan?
01:55Nathan's ended his trial so we spoke to him at the front end of this week and outlined the way that we've gone about pre-season.
02:04We haven't picked up any injuries. The position that he would potentially fill, we feel like we're nice and secure there.
02:09We've got three right-backs. We've got five contracted centre-halves in the building at the moment.
02:14So for us, it's one of those that Nathan's had a good pre-season with us and we wanted to give him other opportunities to pursue.
02:20At clubs, the way, he probably had more of a chance of signing.
02:23There was always the pre-season for us to look at it and see where he got to.
02:27I hope that he's done very well and he's trained for a really, really long time now on a solid block and he's stayed fit.
02:31That's the most important thing for Nathan. Hopefully he goes and picks up another club.
02:34Josh Murphy did start on that game on Saturday. He was captain until Marlon Pack came on.
02:39Is Josh someone you're looking to make captain going forward potentially?
02:42I haven't really thought about that too much.
02:44I think there's obviously Marlon as club captain, who's a magnificent club captain and has been for the two years that we've officially appointed him as that.
02:55He's been absolutely brilliant and I think he was a captain in the first game when we played Exeter here at Fratton Park.
02:59So that's the plan coming forward in terms of the club captaincy.
03:03Underneath that, we've had a couple of different vice-captains last year and I think it's really important that everybody is ready to take up that leadership role.
03:11Whether they're wearing the armband or not wearing the armband, they have to behave in the same way and they have to make sure that we have as many leaders as possible on the football pitch.
03:17So I think Murph definitely has deserved that over the past couple of years.
03:20But yeah, that's still, I think, a couple of ideas that we're playing about in that area.
03:24You said after the game on Saturday that Colby Bishop's unfortunately going to miss the start of the season with a groin injury.
03:31How's his recovery going and how much of a big miss is he to another championship season?
03:35Yeah, he's fine in terms of his recovery.
03:38Nothing major, it's just one of those that's been a bit frustrating and has come at the wrong time.
03:42But yeah, Colby will be back really, really quickly.
03:44He's obviously a massive miss.
03:45We saw how much of a miss he was last season.
03:47But in terms of the backup that we have, Tom Wadding has been in really, really good form and we feel confident about him going into the start of the season.
03:53Going on to Thomas Wadding, how do you think he did on Saturday and how do you think he's going to adapt to life in a championship in his first full season here in England?
04:01Yeah, I think he adapted really well when he first came in.
04:03I think in his first start he managed to, or sorry, in one of his very, very early first appearances, he scored against West Brom.
04:10And I think in his first start against Coventry he performed really well, blew up towards the back end of the game.
04:15Subsequently, we knew he had the injury as well.
04:17So Tom we brought in in January as someone that we thought might be able to impact the season in some way, but we didn't really have any pressure on doing so because of the centre forwards that we had in the building at the time.
04:27We had Christian, Colby, Mark, Cassini.
04:31So it's been a really good opportunity now for Tom to step up to the plate and I think he's done really well in pre-season, not just in the game at the weekend where you saw he took his goal really well and grew into the game brilliantly in the second half.
04:39And that's something that I think everybody that's seen Tom pull on the porch from the shirt knows that he's definitely got the potential to become a regular starter for the first team.
04:49He's got really stiff competition in Colby at the moment, but it's a really promising start for him this year.
04:54Trio, Matt Ritchie, Abdelai Kamara and Tom Mathetar still yet to leave club after they weren't handed to court numbers.
05:00Is there any update on those three and their future?
05:03No, nothing, nothing at the moment.
05:05And Tom, I suppose the only update we've got on Tom is that he had been, he picked up a minor injury, but he's fine now.
05:12He's trained fully with the team today.
05:13So, yeah, we'll see what happens with Tom.
05:16But, yeah, no further update on the other two.
05:18Moving on to Saturday, Oxford have recently added to their squad Brian De Kiersmacher, Brodie Spencer, Luke Harris, Nick Prelick and recently Will Lancer on loan from Tottenham.
05:27What are you expecting from Gary outside and how do you think he's going to set up?
05:31I think we'll probably, I'll leave how I think he's going to set up to the analysis with the lads, but they're going to be a very, very solid side.
05:40Gary knows exactly what he's doing at this level and he's done so for many, many years, always sets up really good sides.
05:45And I think the achievement of keeping Oxford in the league last year was a big one.
05:48And to do it without too much fuss and without too much panic towards the back end of the season, I think Oxford over the season coming up from League One as playoff winners, we're a really, really good side.
05:59And, you know, for large parts of the season, we're well ahead of us in terms of their point tally as well.
06:03So I expect a really tough match.
06:05I think opening day of the season anyway is going to be difficult wherever you play.
06:09But Oxford have recruited well over the summer.
06:13I think they've got some good players that have come in.
06:15They've added that to a good group who have stepped up and shown that they're capable of playing at that level as well.
06:20So I think it's going to be a really tough game.
06:22You had the fans forum the other night.
06:24How did you find that and how was that experience?
06:27Yeah, fine.
06:28I'm very, very used to speaking to the fans now from the very first, I think, day that I was here.
06:33We've had a really good relationship, the press, the fans, myself.
06:36And it's a different sort of forum to be able to answer questions from fans at this time of the season.
06:40So I think, yeah, before a ball's been kicked in anger, it's always a relatively calm affair.
06:46Sometimes during the middle of the season, it can be a bit different.
06:49And we probably had one or two of those last year.
06:51But, yeah, they never are anything other than fans wanting to sort of express their emotions
06:56and ask as many questions as possible while they have the opportunity.
06:59Finally, another sold-out way end at the Cassam Stadium on Saturday.
07:03What's your message to those 1,000-plus Pompey fans making the trip up to Oxfordshire?
07:08My message is I hope that we can provide you with a bit more success on the road this season
07:12than we did last season.
07:13And we can reward you with some of the tough, tough experiences that you had last year.
07:17And hopefully we've seen towards the back end of last year where our away form has significantly improved
07:21that we're going to try and carry that, carrying into that.
07:23But, you know, overall, it's never lost on me.
07:26It's never lost on anyone connected to the football club, what it takes to support any football club,
07:31particularly Portsmouth, in terms of the geography and in terms of the cost and the travel and the time
07:36and the heartache and everything that goes with it.
07:39So we're fully appreciative of everything that we get from the away support, from the home support,
07:44everybody that can't make it as well.
07:45And, you know, that's what makes the football club really special.
07:48So we're looking forward to another really good season.
07:50Thank you for your time, John.
07:51Good luck on Saturday.
07:52Cheers. Thank you.
07:52What's the realistic ambition for Pompey this season, would you say?
07:58The realistic ambition for us will be to stay in the league.
08:03That's first and foremost.
08:05That's what we want to achieve.
08:06What that gives us as a football club is another year's worth of stability,
08:09another year's worth of building, another year's worth of financial stability to go again
08:13and actually put ourselves in a better position.
08:16Now, staying in the league could mean finishing 16th like we did last year.
08:20It could mean finishing slightly lower, slightly higher.
08:23The biggest thing for me this year is that we improve upon where we were last year.
08:28And if that means league position, then great.
08:30If it doesn't mean league position, but I'm sitting here this time next year
08:32thinking actually the improvements that we made over the season
08:35have put us in a much better position as a football club,
08:37then I'm happy with that.
08:39I can live with that.
08:39And the best example I can give to you at the moment is that when we,
08:43after my first season, we finished eighth.
08:46We really felt as a football club that we were about the eighth best team in the league,
08:50but we couldn't compete with any of the top six.
08:52So when I came in, we lost to Sheffield Wednesday.
08:54We lost to Plymouth.
08:55We lost to Barnsley.
08:56We lost to Peterborough.
08:58The sides at the top of the league, we hadn't bridged that gap.
09:01And so even if we hadn't gone up the first full season in League One,
09:04what we wanted to do was become a lot more competitive
09:05and improve upon where we were the previous season.
09:09Thankfully, that meant a significant improvement in league position.
09:12But if it hadn't, as long as we were in a better position to challenge again
09:15the following season, that was the most important thing for the football club.
09:18And that's the comparison I'd probably draw to this year as well.
09:21Regardless of the league position, it's making sure that this time next year
09:23we're in a stronger position to challenge and to build upon
09:26what we want to achieve as a football club.
09:27And we don't want to stay in the championship forever,
09:30but I think we've got a bit of time to take, to build,
09:34to try and bridge the gap between us and some of the bigger clubs.
09:36And in order to do that, we've got to stay in the league.
09:38Is your team, your squad, stronger than last year, would you say?
09:43It feels like we're in a much better position.
09:47I think that we still need a bit of strengthening
09:49and ultimately we'll see when the games kick off.
09:52But I think that we were in a very, very good spot
09:55towards the back end of the year last year
09:57in terms of where we were with the squad and what we did in January.
10:00We've had to replace a few over the summer,
10:02particularly the loans that we've lost.
10:04And the loans market, for example, isn't one that has now just started moving.
10:08So, you know, clubs we've seen have finished their tours
10:12and have finished those double games in a single day
10:14and now making their players available on loan.
10:16So that's an area we'll look to strengthen.
10:17But, yeah, it does feel like we're in a decent enough spot.
10:21I think time will tell if we're in a better position than we were last year,
10:25particularly if you compare the two sort of squads that we had.
10:28We had a squad at the start of the season, a squad at the end of the season
10:30and they were very, very different.
10:31So I do feel like we're in a good spot
10:34and we've had a half-decent pre-season
10:36and that's quite an exciting spot to be in.
10:38If you look back at a year in the division,
10:41there's more experience there in the squad.
10:44You've got a bigger squad now as well.
10:45And these are characteristics that are taking you forward and progressing, aren't they?
10:50Yeah, I think as a bare minimum,
10:52some of the players that we had this time last year
10:54that had never set foot in the Championship before
10:56have had a year's worth of experience in the Championship
10:58and they've got better for it.
10:59And that's an important thing.
11:00That's a very, very important thing for us to keep hold of
11:02is the fact that even though we may not have added in certain positions,
11:06we have players that I think are better than they were this time last year
11:09because of what they've done
11:10and because of the improvements they've made.
11:12And that's really important to us.
11:14Also, we want to try and add quality
11:15to the players that we bring in as well.
11:17We're trying to do that still.
11:19That's easier said than done,
11:20but we're still trying to really focus on that.
11:21And I think if we manage to do that,
11:23by the back end of the transfer,
11:24we certainly will be in a good position.
11:27Obviously, you talked about Colby's injury.
11:29Thomas Wadden's got four goals in pre-season.
11:32Can you see him improving?
11:33Is he ready now for a start to the Championship?
11:35I think so.
11:36We felt he was ready towards the back end of last year.
11:39Hence, we started him in the big game that we had up at Coventry.
11:41We thought he was ready to go.
11:43And what he actually did on the night
11:44was impress against some top-level centre-halves,
11:47a side that finished in the top six
11:49and were probably unlucky not to progress to the play-off final.
11:52And Tom, on the night, I thought,
11:53gave Coventry plenty of problems
11:55before he came off with the injury.
11:58So we're really happy with Tom's progress.
12:01He's probably a bit ahead of schedule
12:02in terms of what we thought he would be coming in in January,
12:04but that's a real positive.
12:05Hence, we're looking at Tom at the moment
12:07to try and challenge for that number nine spot.
12:10He's just got a monumental man in Colby
12:13to try and shift off that.
12:14But Tom's patient.
12:16Tom's positive about things.
12:17And, you know, we'll see where the future takes him.
12:20What do you like about him as a player?
12:21Well, he scores goals, first and foremost.
12:23That's a really important part of being a centre-forward.
12:25His work rate is really good, really willing runner.
12:28Takes on board a lot of information.
12:30And then the parts of his game,
12:31I think that we can really improve upon.
12:32Tom has worked on over the past six months as well.
12:34So his hold-up play, running into the channels,
12:36making sure he's nice and tidy with his feet as well.
12:38I think he's starting to show
12:39that if he can put all of that together,
12:41then he's edging towards being
12:43a really good centre-forward at the level.
12:44Even when Colby's fit,
12:46do you feel you've got enough centre-forwards there?
12:50There's probably scope to strengthen in that area,
12:54although it's a really difficult one to recruit for
12:55because ultimately whenever we speak to any players
12:59that have got ambitions of playing regularly
13:01in the Championship,
13:02they probably look at the players that we have,
13:05or certainly in Colby, the player that we have,
13:07and we don't make any bones about it.
13:10Colby's our front-line centre-forward at the moment,
13:12and it's going to be very, very hard to shift him.
13:14So it's a difficult thing to recruit underneath that,
13:16but if something pops up,
13:18I don't think we're going to dismiss it.
13:21Have you spoken to strikers then this summer?
13:24Have you been trying to get on?
13:25No, it's not something we've been actively pursuing at the moment.
13:28It's one that might be the sort of cherry on top
13:30at the back end of the window.
13:31Again, is that going to be a low market?
13:33Possibly, possibly.
13:34Low market, or we'll see where things move.
13:37Things will start to move as well with permanence
13:40over the next two or three weeks,
13:42as you can guarantee the minute the first set of team sheets comes out,
13:47you'll have agents on the phone,
13:48and you'll have players that have thought they might have been involved
13:50and are out of favour.
13:51That just happens across the first couple of weeks of the season,
13:54hence there's a bit of movement right up until
13:56whenever the transfer window closes,
13:58maybe the 2nd or 3rd of September.
13:59So it's inevitably going to happen,
14:01and we do expect to see a bit of movement.
14:03In terms of the Championship and the clubs in it this season,
14:06is it a harder league than last year, do you feel?
14:08On paper, it looks it, yeah,
14:09because of the three sides, I think, that have come up from League One.
14:13A lot of people talk about Birmingham and Wrexham
14:15and how much they've spent
14:16and how much they've invested coming up through the levels,
14:19but also Charlton have been a significant outlay
14:22in terms of transfer fees and wages as well.
14:25Couple that with the three sides coming down from the Premier League
14:28that have clearly got the spending power to go again,
14:30and, yeah, it probably looks like a bit of a tougher league
14:33than what it was when we came up with Oxford and Derby
14:38and there was probably slightly more controlled in terms of,
14:41maybe not controlled isn't the right word,
14:43but just less in terms of volume in terms of spending
14:46and in terms of wages.
14:47And, yeah, it does seem on paper like it's a tougher league this year.
14:52Who knows what that's going to be?
14:53I think there's going to be some sides that surprise us,
14:55some sides that don't,
14:56and ultimately every single side that we play against,
14:58they're difficult opponents,
14:59and we found that last year.
15:00There's no easy games.
15:02Everybody, you know, right from the bottom of the league up to the top
15:04provides you with a really sort of difficult game.
15:08I guess it sums it up.
15:09Last year we took no points off Plymouth and four off Leeds,
15:12and in between that it could have been anything
15:15depending on what mood we were in.
15:18With Nathan Ferguson obviously leaving,
15:20I mean, obviously it's benefited him, this spell here, as well, hasn't it?
15:23Massively, yeah.
15:23One thing that we didn't publicise heavily towards the back end of last year,
15:27but Nathan was training with us from about February onwards,
15:30never missed a training day, was always fit,
15:32managed to get games in pre-season as well,
15:34and we've seen, particularly I think in the Reading game,
15:37how well he'd done.
15:39He showed glimpses throughout pre-season of what he's capable of,
15:42so to keep himself fit for that amount of time was really positive,
15:45to keep himself fit again during pre-season,
15:46and then take that leap to play the games for the first time as well
15:49was really big for Nathan.
15:50The game that, the 45 minutes he played against Woking,
15:53I think was his first football in about four years,
15:57and to be able to do that,
15:58and he did it again against Farnborough the day after,
16:00was really pleasing for him.
16:02So it was one of those where we were always looking at Nathan
16:04as a potential signing,
16:06depending on what happened in pre-season with players in his position.
16:09Everybody's managed to stay fit,
16:11and it's come through pre-season pretty well,
16:13so we spoke to Nathan after the opportunities now,
16:16in terms of minutes, are going to go,
16:17and we want him to try and see what he can explore elsewhere.
16:20You feel he's now in a good place to show all the clubs he's fit now,
16:23he's played pre-season, that he's over his injury issues.
16:27Yeah, so he's had that.
16:28He's had that six months' worth of training behind him.
16:30He's had a full pre-season.
16:31He can now show footage to other clubs.
16:34He can actually point to the evidence of the fact that he has played.
16:36We can send training data, we can send physical data,
16:39which is all really good.
16:39He's a very, very good athlete and a really good kid,
16:42so I think it will really help him.
16:43Are you after any more centre-hearts?
16:45No, no.
16:46No, we're looking at having five contracted centre-hearts
16:49in the building at the moment, so we're fine there.
16:52Will that change?
16:52Should Tom McIntyre leave?
16:54I don't think so.
16:55I still think we've got those four contracted centre-hearts
16:57in the building.
16:57We were monitoring that during pre-season,
17:00because if you do look at the four of them,
17:02all four of them had significant injury worries last year.
17:05Regan was probably the only one that didn't,
17:06so Regan was the previous season that he did his ACL,
17:09but he was still out from the start of the season last year.
17:11So it's one of those that we've been wary of,
17:13but all four of those have got through pre-season really well,
17:16so we're pretty happy with the state that we're in.
17:17Which obviously explains why you didn't keep Nathan Ferguson,
17:19because you're not looking for a centre-half at the moment.
17:21Yeah, and it was simple as that.
17:23We set foot on the grass for the first time in pre-season.
17:27We had Iban has never played for the football club.
17:31Hayden played, I think, four or five games.
17:33Chocs played six games last year.
17:35Regan played the most out of the four,
17:36but had come off the back of a serious knee injury.
17:40So we just wanted to monitor that.
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