- yesterday
John Mousinho talks to The News as the Blues step up their pre-season training ahead of the new season.
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00:00So, John, back for pre-season training. How's it gone so far?
00:04Yeah, it's been good. We've been back for a week now. We've had probably slightly earlier than usual,
00:10slightly earlier than usual report, but we had seven weeks off altogether after the whole game,
00:14so it felt like a really good block. We were obviously done and dusted on May the 3rd
00:18and done in terms of our league position about 10 days before that, so we knew what was coming.
00:22We were able to plan for the off-season really early and, yeah, it's been good.
00:27The majority of the work this week has been on fitness and making sure that the boys are back
00:31and they get used to very basic things like movement patterns, getting used to the ball again,
00:36getting used to actually being out there day in, day out.
00:38And, yeah, when we, I think, go away to Slovakia next week, we'll step up again.
00:42You obviously went to the Lensbury Resort for three days as well. What was the thinking behind that?
00:46Well, yeah, you would have seen when you walk into the training ground,
00:49we're still doing a lot of work on the building and making sure that we bring things, you know,
00:56probably up to then actually beyond the standard that we had certainly last year and beyond championship standard.
01:02I think it's testament to the club that we're pushing on with all these sort of things.
01:06And, yeah, there's a lot of exciting things that are going on at the training ground to get us to where we need to be.
01:11Obviously, that takes a bit of time, so it was just about taking a few days out of our schedule to go to somewhere where we could get the training in,
01:19somewhere we could get all the boys together, have them there for four days straight.
01:22Not too far, so the travel wasn't too far, only about an hour and 20 minutes for everyone.
01:26But it worked out really well. It was a very, very good break to have.
01:30Slightly unusual that we're going away twice, but to be able to do that this early in pre-season was brilliant.
01:34Did you move into Southampton at all?
01:36No, left, I think, just as they were arriving, so that was for the best.
01:41It's got a very good reputation, the facilities there.
01:44Yeah, and, you know, the most important thing for us was making sure, first of all, we gave the team a bit more time to work here.
01:52It's given us the pictures, you've seen, they look immaculate, but it's given them an extra bit of time to go in, a bit of extra time to bed in.
01:59And, again, they'll have another week next week, which is really important for us.
02:02There's been extensive work done on the pictures over the summer.
02:04We've increased the drainage on them, we've done a lot more work.
02:08There's the area just in front of the gym, we've put a lot of investment into that as well.
02:13So, yeah, we're working hard to really make sure that we keep and maintain and push the standards here at the training ground.
02:19And, yeah, it was really good in the meantime to go and be able to train someone that can match those standards.
02:25From watching training this morning, what leapt out was it now? Players are injured in the last season and are now back in full training.
02:31Yeah, which is good. So, touch wood, they stay that way.
02:34And there's a lot of those faces that we had to write off at the back end of last season in terms of playing time.
02:39So, the likes of Jacob, who was out for, you know, the back end of the season, Paddy Lane, Hayden Matthews, you know, Bam Boak's close to full fitness as well.
02:48And the only one really that isn't back at it in full training or very close to full training is Harvey.
02:54So, Harvey had the hamstring tear at the back end of last season in the last game against Hull.
02:59So, we're just easing him back into it. But, yeah, a few of those names coming back into it, it's really exciting.
03:03I mean, it must be great for you looking at it. You've got such big numbers in training now.
03:07Yeah, we're looking good in terms of just having the numbers available.
03:11We're actually looking huge in terms of the squad at the moment, which is great.
03:14We feel quite lean, which is nice. I think then we can make the additions that we want to make over the next couple of months.
03:19Certainly something that we're really relaxed about at this stage of the season, but still working hard to make sure that we bolster the numbers.
03:25But having the injuries back is really important for us.
03:27Jacob Farrell, obviously, he's been training as well. How is he at the moment?
03:31He's good, yeah. Jacob's been working hard over the summer. Very, very hard-working lad anyway. Very fit lad.
03:36And he's come back in really good shape. So, Jacob is a player we've all caught one glimpse of, I think, at home to Sheffield United.
03:42And looking forward to seeing a lot more of him this year.
03:44Do you think he's over those injury issues?
03:46Yeah, as far as we have all the information in front of us and all the testing and everything that he's done over the summer,
03:54having had surgery on the MCL, should strengthen it. So, yeah, we hope he is over those injuries.
03:59We've got to be cautious with him still. We've got to make sure we manage him through pre-season.
04:03But at the moment, he's flying, he's in really good shape, and we hope he stays fit.
04:07Obviously, he looked after him by the Australian national team as well, wasn't he?
04:11Yeah, so we wanted to spend a bit of time back home, which he did, but to be looked after by the physio at the national team was great.
04:17So, how were you handled in this pre-season? Were you dipping him in out of friendlies?
04:21I don't think so. I think by the time that we get back, I think, the first friendly on the 15th,
04:27that would have given Faz three weeks' worth of training, plus all the work he's done over the summer.
04:32So, I think he'd be fine to crack on and be treated as normal.
04:35One person who wasn't training we saw out there working hard was Boat as well.
04:39Yeah, Eban is very close to being back. He's had a couple of, not setbacks with the knee,
04:47but just feeling a bit of pain here and there. So, we've been cautious with him because he's been out for the best part of 11 months now.
04:51So, we just want to make sure that the patella itself is absolutely fine. I think whenever you come back from one of those long-term injuries,
04:57we've seen it with a couple of the other lads, sometimes it's the other bits that, you know, you start to feel.
05:01So, yeah, Ibs has been involved with us for most of the pre-season work. We're just taking the load off him a little bit now and building him back in.
05:07But what stage is he at the moment?
05:09He's very close to full training, so I suspect he'll train fully when we're out in Slovakia.
05:13Again, would you be involved in pre-season friendlies?
05:16Yeah, he'll be involved.
05:17So, we'd like to see him in action?
05:18Yeah, we'll hopefully see him in action.
05:20Obviously, the fans have never seen him. What sort of player is he when he is back in action?
05:24He's a player that we were really excited about bringing in last year, left-sided centre-half.
05:28He's got a lot of pace. He's aggressive. He's a very, very good athlete and good on the ball as well.
05:34And one of the bonuses of a ban, we've got a ban on a permanent, but having a ban and signing him from Fulham's Premier League 2 side,
05:41a lot of the time they haven't had that exposure to being out on loan.
05:44But a ban's had that twice and he's had that twice on the continent as well.
05:48So, he's a player with a lot of experience as well and that's really exciting for us.
05:52But still at a very, very young age and a lot of potential.
05:54What do you make of your centre-half situation at the moment?
05:56Because you've got six contracted.
05:58Yeah, I think we're strong. I think we're strong at the minute. We've got six contracted centre-halves.
06:02I guess the word of caution to be had on that is that if you look at five of the six of them,
06:10the injuries that we've had over the past couple of seasons has meant that, even though we do have six in the building,
06:18we like all six centre-halves. I think Byron Riley has been fit for the best part of the last hundred or so games since we signed him.
06:24Yeah, we have to just be cautious around how we manage that load.
06:28So, it might seem slightly heavy, but at the minute I think we'd always want to operate with four centre-halves,
06:33but with the state of how we are at the minute I think it's wise to be a bit prudent on it.
06:37So, obviously you were looking to sign Rob Atkinson. Are you still looking for another centre-half?
06:43I think that we're not shutting the door to it, but we are pretty happy with what we have in the building
06:49and I think if you could guarantee all of the centre-halves are fit for the entirety of the season,
06:54then we'd absolutely snap your hand off to have a unit like that.
06:56So, we'll keep an eye open, but we're certainly not prioritising that.
07:00Are you expecting exits from the centre-halves?
07:03Again, we're not entirely sure. I think that's going to be one that's going to be interesting,
07:06to see how it pans out over the summer. There may be opportunities if players have them
07:10that we wouldn't necessarily stand in their way. Christian's a really good example,
07:13so we're not looking at any of the centre-backs and asking them to find alternative employment.
07:18Because we do like all of them, we think they can all contribute,
07:20but if an opportunity would pop up for any of them, then we wouldn't necessarily dismiss it straight away.
07:25In terms of signings, you've got Adrian Tekicic so far. Any others in the pipeline at the moment?
07:31There's plenty in the pipeline, nothing imminent, and I think that's a knock-on effect of a number of things.
07:37I think that we've been done, it seems like, for a long time now.
07:41I think, first of all, the fact that we secured our championship status on Easter Monday
07:45and then we sort of had 10 days towards the end of the season to build into the Sheffield Wednesday and the whole game.
07:50So, we were done on May 3rd. It was a seven-week break until we were actually back in pre-season last week,
07:55so a good break for us. But a lot of the other clubs, either in the playoffs, the Club World Cup,
08:00there's been the England under-19s, sorry, the Euro-under-19s, the Euro-under-21s.
08:04So, the season's only just finishing, bizarrely, particularly with the Club World Cup,
08:09so it's a very, very strange year, which means that the knock-on effect of Premier League sides
08:14sorting their squads and knowing what they're going to do with them hasn't really filtered down.
08:17So, yeah, there's not a huge amount of movement at the moment.
08:20I think the majority of the movement you'd see is in League 2 and League 1,
08:25a few now filtering through in the championship. But, yeah, when I think things open up,
08:31we're ready to strike, we're ready to go, we've got our targets and we feel like we're in a good spot.
08:36Are you comfortable with that situation?
08:37Yeah, really comfortable. What we want to do is make sure that we sign players
08:41that are going to come in and impact the first team.
08:43And so, in being able to do Adrian really early, we're really satisfied with that,
08:47really happy that we've brought in a player that we think can come in and play straight away
08:50and impact the side straight away. And, yeah, we want to continue to do that.
08:53We think we've got a really solid base in terms of the squad and what we want to do on top of that
08:57is just add players that can come in and challenge for starting line-up.
09:00Do you think there'll be any new faces ahead of the training camp in Slovakia?
09:04Probably not before Slovakia, but I think by the time we're back, we'll still be in a very, very good spot.
09:08So, by the time we're back, Slovakia will be three weeks into a seven-week pre-season,
09:12so we still have four weeks left. The games start on the 15th and we've got plenty of games from that point onwards.
09:19So, it's always, if you said, if you could wave a magic wand and say, you know, would you want all your players in the first day of pre-season?
09:26My answer would be yes.
09:27And the next question would be, you know, would you want players that you don't want in the first day of pre-season?
09:32The answer would be categorically no, I want the right players in at the right time and we have to wait for that, then that's absolutely fine.
09:37Because in previous summers, you've actually brought in 13, 15 players a lot and you've got a lot of them done early,
09:43but you don't need as many this time round and obviously you're not having any early.
09:47Yeah, I think the numbers, first of all, are different. The numbers are different and I think that the circumstances are completely different as well.
09:56So, my first summer when I was here, we had a lot of players out of contract, so we needed to sign about 14 or 15 players.
10:02We signed a lot of players on frees, on low fees that I thought were relatively straightforward in terms of bringing them in.
10:08When Portsmouth are competing, I think, at the top end of League One for free transfers or even to pay fees for players,
10:15it's a lot more straightforward than it has been over the past year or so and you encounter a different set of circumstances,
10:23I think, when we go up to the Championship.
10:25So, last year was much more about making sure that we did the work that was necessary to make sure we were competitive in the Championship,
10:32which, off the back of a really quick transition from League One to the Championship, was an interesting one.
10:37And, you know, we demonstrated that again in January where we were very, very short term with the amount of loans and free transfers we brought in.
10:44And this year, it's just slightly different. I think we're, it's fewer numbers, I think, fewer numbers, increased budget.
10:51So, we're going to different places, I suppose, and looking at different markets.
10:56And all of a sudden, signings at the lower end of, say, thousands of pounds are turning into sort of a million plus.
11:06So, we need to really make sure that we do the right work on that and bring the right players in at the right time.
11:10And finally, Tom McIntyre, I didn't see him training today. What situation was there?
11:13Tom, we gave an extra week off because he had the playoff final with Charlton.
11:18So, Tom is in today, but he is doing the testing today.
11:21So, he is in with the figures and we don't want to throw him straight back into the mix today.
11:25And he will go to Slovakia. Thank you.
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