John Mousinho issues statement on Portsmouth future amid Norwich, West Brom fears | OneFootball

The young manager has impressed mightily during his time with Pompey.

John Mousinho has reiterated his commitment to Portsmouth amid supporter worries that he may be poached by another Championship club.

Getting his team to the point where they confirmed their safety in the division with two games to spare is a remarkable achievement for Mousinho and his players, but the boss in particular.

He has had such limited resources to work with compared to many of his counterparts, and yet he has still managed to succeed.

We shouldn't forget that this is still his first job in management, and he has yet to take any major step in the wrong direction. HIs first season - not a full one - he ended it strong.

The season after that he won Pompey the League One title, and now he's starting to establish them as a Championship outfit.

John Mousinho shares his loyalty to Portsmouth FC amid Norwich, West Brom concerns

Performance levels like that are always going to attract interest, and given there are other clubs in the division who are both managerless and have higher current aspirations than Portsmouth do, like Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion, there is always some level of threat that Mousinho may be poached away from the club.

Despite this, the boss has planted his flag on the Fratton Park ground.

"Genuinely, my mindset is I’d like to have a long, successful career at Portsmouth," the 38-year-old said, via The News.

"I still feel incredibly grateful to the club for taking a chance on me and a risk on me in the first place. I’ll never forget that.

"We can talk about my ambitions and the club’s ambitions matching up in the future, but this is a club that went and took a risk on me that no one else did.

"People said they didn’t know who I was and that’s fine, but Portsmouth took that risk on me. Hopefully people can see that it’s paid off so far, but it’s only two-and-a-half years.

"I think everyone, including myself, is very excited about building on that. Portsmouth fans have been through the mill and it can’t have been easy supporting this club at times, but the level of support we’ve had is incredible.

"It wouldn’t have been easy being soundly beaten at Stoke, Derby, Bristol City and West Brom but they’ve stuck with us.

"This is just focused on Portsmouth and this is no disrespect to any other clubs, but this is a very special place to play and incredibly special place to coach."

If there's any chance of any managerial movement at Fratton Park, it's more likely to be instigated by the powers above Mousinho as they reportedly hold an interest in Swansea City's interim boss Alan Sheehan, according to Wales Online.

John Mousinho contract extension now looks like a brilliant move from Portsmouth

Back in September, Mousinho and Pompey's sporting director, Rich Hughes, both signed new deals with the club.

In the case of the manager, the original deal that he signed back when he first joined the club in January 2023 kept him on the south coast until the summer of 2026. Now he is scheduled to stick around for a further two years on top of that.

Had they not locked him up when they had the chance, Portsmouth could have been under serious pressure right now to keep hold of their boss. He would've had one year left on his deal, making him a much easier target for potentially interested clubs to go after.

It was a bit of a risk at the time given the major threat of relegation that loomed over them, especially when the deal was announced - they were second bottom of the league and winless in their first five matches - but it's a risk that has certainly paid off.