The transfer window is less than a week away and Pompey are expected to be busy in the market.
John Mousinho is expecting transfer action to begin ‘hotting up’ within the next week.
And the head coach has made it clear the Blues are ready for the forthcoming window which opens in less than a week.
The market gets underway this Sunday and will remain open for the first 10 days of June before slamming shut. The shutters will then be raised once again on June 16 and will stay open for business until deadline day on Monday, September 1.
With work well underway behind the scenes at the club’s Hilsea training base, preparation is continuing in the recruitment department as Mousinho looks to strengthen his side ahead of their second-successive campaign in the second tier.
But following the conclusion of the Premier League season on Sunday as well as the Championship and League One play-off finals over the bank holiday weekend, the head coach has made an exciting claim over when transfer action could heat up.
Pompey boss expecting transfer action to be ‘hotting up’
Speaking on his end-of-season chat on the Blues’ official YouTube channel, he said: ‘There’s been lots of work going on here at the training ground. A lot of the pitches are in the process of being redone, we’ve been going at that for the last couple of weeks.
‘You can see that driving past and I’m sure any of the health club members will see their car parking spaces have been cut down by the amount of sand in the car park. There’s plenty of improvements going on at the training ground – not just with the pitches but also to the building itself.
‘We’ve used this time to try and maximise the use of all that time we do have off in the summer, similar things are also going on at Fratton Park. Really pleased we’ve managed to crack on with that.
‘Away from that and away from the training ground, it’s not all systems go yet in terms of recruitment because we are still waiting for the season to end and we’re still waiting for a number of clubs to publish their released and retained list but things will start hotting up from next week onwards.
‘Certainly by the time the domestic league finishes with the Premier League going on until the 25th of May, once that finishes and the Premier League sides are back off their tours, things start to settle down a bit more in terms of the market and things start to move.
‘We’re ready, we’ve been working hard over the past couple of months and certainly since the back end of the January transfer window to make sure we’re in a good position.
‘It’s a very, very different focus now. We go from focusing on matches week in week out and making sure we’ve got that tactical preparation right to not having that pressure and now we’re focusing on a different type of pressure in trying to get the recruitment right.’
Following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, 11 faces have already departed Fratton Park, five players released following the end of their deals, while the Blues’ six loan figures have also returned to their parent clubs.
Meanwhile, Pompey have triggered the options in Andre Dozzell and Zak Swanson’s contracts and will remain at PO4 for the 2025-26 campaign. Ben Killip has also been offered fresh terms.
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