Portsmouth boss’ transfer message as Luton Town, Hull City, Cardiff City & Co splash cash in survival bid
But the Blues boss acknowledged the delicate balancing act between delivering a squad fit to fight for their second-tier place this season, without hurting longer-term recruitment strategies.
The transfer window closed on Monday night, with Mousinho confident his squad is now stronger for bringing in eight new faces. Pompey’s business was a mix of four loans and four permanent deals, with the £1.3m shelled out to bring in Hayden Matthews the biggest fee paid in 14 years.
That figure paled in comparison to the sums being spent by relegation rivals, however, with the likes of Luton, Cardiff and Hull City doing some big business with fees to match. The Hatters shelled out £5m for Isaiah Jones, Cardiff £3.5m for striker Yousef Salech while Hull did a swathe of impressive deals including landing Kyle Joseph for £2.5m.
‘Luton have parachute payments and have spent money not many in the league can spend, let alone teams down the bottom. The likes of Hull have been busy, too, so it’s been a bit of a mixed bag.
‘What we can’t affect is what other sides do and we had our strategy going into the window, slightly varied from where we were in the past.
‘We’re very clear that what we had to focus on was being stronger now and making sure we affect ourselves between now and the end of the season. We had to do that and the best way to do that was with loans, but we didn’t want to lose sight of the longer-term ones as well.
