Ryley Towler loan exit to hit the skids after Portsmouth win v Swansea
Portsmouth started 2025 in the best possible fashion, sweeping aside a hapless Swansea City at Fratton Park.
Among the quartet of separate goalscorers in PO4 was Ryley Towler, whose season has been a long-term stop-start mission.
The 22-year-old centre-half headed a superb third on the afternoon which reinforced the fact that Pompey’s home form is the least of their worries; stark contrast to on the road, where a 3-0 and 4-0 defeat have defined John Mousinho’s teams last away trips in the Championship.
Towler was widely expected to head out on loan this month, having started the first four league games of this season and then not featured a single time again until the 4-1 win over Coventry City on 21 December.
Things change quickly in football, notably Mousinho’s trial-and-error routine of central defensive pairings. In the absence of both Conor Shaughnessy and Regan Poole, it was midfielder Marlon Pack who partnered Tom McIntyre, which appeared a loud message that Towler wasn’t trusted by his head coach.
Ryley Towler has attitude to admire at Portsmouth
I’m a firm believer that it’s about how you respond to harsh managerial decisions that can potentially dictate your entire future career.
Towler wouldn’t be worth his salt if he wasn’t incensed when Pack was chosen ahead of him to play alongside McIntyre after Poole got injured, having not played since a 3-1 defeat by Sunderland back in August. There is also no Under-21 team with which to tick the minutes over.
But there was no public sulk, no demand in the press to leave the club – which would have been the far easier option with the January window approaching. Instead, come the first day of the New Year, he has got himself on the scoresheet to contribute to a superb win.
Whether Towler is the long-term defensive answer in the Championship is a different discussion. There have been some dodgy moments, far from just at his door. But he has made Mousinho’s decision abundantly more difficult as to whether to lend him out at some stage this month.
That defiance is exactly the kind of mental strength required at this level, and should be valued tenfold in the dressing room of a team battling for survival. Keep him at Fratton.
In other Portsmouth news, a Blues coach has confirmed his departure to join Chelsea.
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