Pompey boss John Mousinho previews his side's Championship opener at Leeds United along with Matt Ritchie's return, Alex Robertson joining Cardiff, playing budget chat and much more.
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00:00How much of a lift has Matt given the crew?
00:04I think a massive lift, he's come in and obviously having the Premier League experience first of all
00:09I think adds a lot to the dressing room from that perspective
00:15he's lived it, he's breathed it, and not just in the Premier League but in the Championship as well
00:19with Newcastle and Bournemouth and that's invaluable
00:22so with some of the challenges I think we're going to face as a club this season
00:26having that valuable presence, the calm head to know what to do in certain situations is really important
00:32and then I think the most important part is the fact that you know Matt's a fantastic player
00:37and we wouldn't have done it unless we thought he could come in and affect the team
00:40so we've got a player that's come down, he played Premier League football last year
00:43having contributed massively to a really successful Newcastle side over the past six or seven years
00:48he coming into this dressing room in a place, in a club that he loves and knows he wants to be
00:52I think that's really important
00:53He's a fit lad even at first, he's got very high standards, how ready is he to compete?
00:58Well Matt hasn't played any pre-season minutes competitively
01:01he's been training with Bournemouth's under-21s which I think gives him a real leg up in terms of
01:05him versus other free transfers that possibly haven't been training or haven't been training with other football clubs
01:10so he's come in, he's looked nice and sharp today, he looked quite sharp when we did a little session yesterday afternoon
01:15and I think that the training sharpness and fitness isn't going to be a problem
01:20I don't think it's just the match fitness and the minute swings getting to his legs that are going to develop over the next couple of weeks
01:24Yeah, he might have to look to the side a bit, I think there are a few moments where he'll have to look to the side
01:29Yeah, I think that's fair
01:33What were your conversations with Matt about where you see him getting into the equation?
01:37I think there's a lot of flexibility there, he's a very good technical player
01:42and when you've got players that can handle the ball and understand the game
01:45I think you can play him in a variety of positions
01:47Certainly where I see him now is anywhere in behind the front three
01:50or sorry, anywhere behind the number nine in any one of those front three positions
01:53I think he's good enough to play in, in all three of them and good enough to adapt to whatever you put him in
01:57Has he played a bit of a tech match in the team?
02:01Not quite sure
02:02I mean, no, he's played more as a left winger but I don't think that should, I think a player of his calibre should be able to fit in there and adjust really well
02:10Obviously he's got goals, he's got putting his heart and everything into the yellow frame of reference
02:15Yeah, I think so, otherwise we wouldn't have mentioned it
02:19and I think that he has been flexible in terms of where he's played in his career
02:22whether it's been as a left winger or a right winger
02:24He's played as a ten, he's played as a left wing back, a left back at times
02:28I think he's got a lot of potential to be versatile and that's a really important point as well for us in terms of bringing a certain player in
02:36So not a left back or left wing back would be an immediate consideration?
02:39No, no, not immediately. I think certainly in terms of where we are at the moment, we've definitely seen more of him as a tackle player
02:45Alex Robertson, at the weekend, he was fairly up in the air, what's the situation he's in now?
02:52Yeah, that's in Alex's control at the moment so there's not too much more we can do on our end
02:57It looks fairly unlikely at the moment, I think that's the best way to manage the expectation
03:01but that's much more of a question for Alex than for us because we've done everything we possibly can ourselves
03:06You've made it clear that you wanted it but you can't always get it back
03:09No, it's no problem if Alex decides not to sign for Portsmouth, that's absolutely fine, we understand it
03:14We have done everything we can on our side and I think that's the most important thing for us
03:19to make sure that whatever decision other players make, we act appropriately on our side
03:24and make sure that we act appropriately and just make sure that we do everything within our power to try and bring players to the Football Club
03:31I think probably it's Alex, but that's led him to a lot of football playing budgets for amongst the fans
03:36Can you just outline your position there? Are you content with what he's already done?
03:42So I think the way I try and frame it is that our playing budget has significantly more than doubled
03:50and the transfer fees that we've been given are available and there for us to spend
03:56We've put bids in for players and we've bought players and the wages that we are offering players
04:03we think are really good wages in the Championship
04:06So I think financially we're certainly not able to compete with some of the boys that are coming down from the Premier League
04:13and have been really established Championship clubs
04:15but I think in terms of where we are and the backing that the board has given us
04:19compared to where we were last year where we had a really healthy budget in the league one last year
04:24to go up and have that jump into the Championship this year, it's been brilliant
04:28I think we've been fully backed by the board from that standpoint
04:30It still means we're in a different position in terms of recruitment to what we were last year
04:36I think we've made no bones about that
04:37Last year when we were recruiting players we were pretty much top of the tree in the league
04:40and that would be budget-wise close to the top
04:44and also with the players, the attraction of the size of the club
04:49and when we're selling portions to players in league one it's a pretty easy sell
04:54Sometimes now we're competing with different clubs in the Championship
04:57so it's just very very different, that's the way I'd describe it
05:00but we're really happy with where we are financially and the backing that we've been given
05:05I think it's been incredible from the owners
05:08and certainly as we've gone through the transfer window looking to the back end of August
05:11there's plenty more support available
05:13You say they're doubled and this is the world that you're into now
05:17even with that piece of backing you've got teams in Pacific County playing
05:22there have been in Pacific County playing but this is the terrain now
05:25Yeah, this is what we've got to deal with
05:27and it's an interesting one the Championship
05:30with the likes of Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth
05:35side two in my time, I played for Brentford in league two
05:39I played against Brighton and Bournemouth in league two
05:41Now these clubs have made themselves into Premier League clubs
05:44it pushes down some of the real big hitters into the Championship and into league one
05:47which makes the league a lot more competitive
05:49and now if you look at the Championship it's strung with former Premier League clubs
05:53Portsmouth being one of them
05:55and with parachute payments existing it's a massive talking point
06:00and I know everybody's spoken about it
06:02I've not ensured I've got the solution to it
06:08but it makes for a really interesting league from that standpoint
06:12and the Championship is an amazing league, it's a brilliant league
06:15and that's just the reality of it in terms of what goes on when you do get promoted
06:21and it's a brilliant challenge I think from our perspective
06:23And players all go to clubs for different reasons
06:26I think the absolute situation with the Panthers is quite interesting for Portsmouth to want to do
06:32but there's lots of different parts of playing to a deal where one player goes to X club
06:38Yeah there's loads of reasons, there's always a variety of reasons
06:42The only thing I'd say about Alex in terms of where we were as a football club
06:46and what we could do is that we did everything we could
06:50and we pushed it as far as we were able to push it
06:54so sitting here now completely satisfied with everything that we've done on the club side to do it
06:59and the full backing of the owners to be able to go and do that
07:01it's territory that I've never experienced in my time as a head coach
07:05certainly in terms of some of the figures and the numbers we're talking about
07:08and that's something that is obviously a natural thing to happen when you go into the Championship
07:13but yeah really happy with everything we've done there
07:16I haven't got any complaints about any of that
07:18Players will choose other clubs and that's just part of life, that's something you have to live with
07:23So what you have to do and it looks like you have done is try and innovate and create opportunities that way as well
07:29Yeah and we've got to be clever, we've got to be smart about how we recruit
07:32and smart about what sort of players we bring in
07:34and it is different, it's about trying to make the best out of the market
07:38and trying to pick up really sensible threes like we did with Andre, like we did with Matt
07:43like we did with Josh Murphy etc
07:46you know the likes of Jordan Williams and Jordan Archer as well
07:50so we combine that with the spending fees here and there
07:53and it's just been one of those markets, if you look at the very top level
07:57there's hardly any movement in the Premier League at the moment
08:00and that always has a knock-on effect into the Championship
08:03compared to other seasons there's not a huge amount of movement in the Championship
08:06I think League 1 and League 2 have been fairly fluid in terms of players coming in and out
08:10but I think that is a different level, in the Championship it's been a bit slower
08:13I think there will be a knock-on effect in the next couple of weeks
08:16once all of the players from the Euros return to full training with their clubs
08:21once 21 players are released and once a bit more business happens at the top end of the market
08:26there's always a knock-on effect as we go down through the levels
08:29but no-one in the door, is there a number?
08:36Yeah, we haven't got a definite number on it but there's a few more positions we'd like to fill
08:41Are all areas being looked at?
08:44Yeah, there's certain areas that we wouldn't look at at all
08:49for example the full-back areas, we think we've got two right-backs, two left-backs in
08:53if there's anything else that pops out in other areas I still think there's the strength needs to be done there