Portsmouth boss’ stark message to players over their Fratton futures

And the Blues boss believes that should be one of the factors motivating the players to stop the campaign drifting into obscurity.

The mood around many supporters is the 2022-23 campaign is petering out with 16 games remaining, with their side 14 points from the play-offs.

Mousinho is laying down a marker to ensure that doesn’t become the case, however, five weeks and seven games into his Fratton tenure.

The 36-year-old made it clear he is still at an early stage of assessing his squad when it comes to deciding what lies ahead for them.

And it’s up to them to show their suitability to be part of the the Pompey picture moving forward.

Mousinho said: ‘It’s never good for the season to drift away.

‘It’s important to me - and that’s a message to the players.

‘We’re not going to wait six months down the line, we’re implementing our plans now.

‘We asking them to take responsibility and it’s in our interests to do this now.

‘We want to be really front-footed and aggressive on the press.

‘We are going to be doing that next season, so we may as well start doing it now.

‘The players need to keep taking the messages on board and keep enjoying their football.

‘Whatever situation we’re in, this is a huge opportunity.

‘We’re still in the infancy of them being players under the new staff structure here.

‘There’s a lot of players here - even the ones who’ve started all seven games, I’m still getting to know them.

‘I feel there is a bit of pride from the group in their performances, and that’s all fans ask for. They want to see a team they are proud of.

‘So this is now a massive opportunity from now until the end of the season for the players to prove themselves.’

A pressing issue for many of the existing squad will be their contractual situations moving forward.

A total of 15 players, including five loans, see their deals come to a close in addition to three youngsters.

Mousinho knows those players will be thinking about what lies ahead - and has no problem with that being a motivating factor.

He added: ‘That helps at this level.

‘Contracts run out and players will be wary of that.

‘You’ll always be aware of that anyway.

‘The best players are always playing for something.

‘If contracts are an extra added incentive for some then no problem.’