Mousinho makes Portsmouth transfer admission as Whiteman decision made
Alfie Whiteman’s Portsmouth future has been decided following his loan spell in pre-season.
After being released by Tottenham over the summer, Whiteman joined Pompey on trial and even featured for the Blues in their pre-season fixtures against Woking and Crawley.
With Jordan Archer’s future up in the air following reported interest from Salford City, another goalkeeper needed to be added to Pompey’s ranks.
Now, John Mousinho has given his verdict on Whiteman’s future in PO4, as the Blues boss made a new goalkeeper transfer admission.
Whiteman not offered contract with Pompey despite need for extra goalkeepers
Nicolas Schmid has been a fantastic addition to Mousinho’s side since arriving last summer, with the Austrian shot stopper being the club’s clear first choice going into next season.
Behind him in the pecking order is Ben Killip, who recently put pen to paper on a new two-year deal to remain on the south coast.
Whiteman looked to be on the brink of earning a contract with the Blues to provide valuable depth in the goalkeeping department amidst the uncertainty surrounding Archer.
However, this no longer appears to be the case, as when speaking to The News (30 July), Mousinho revealed that the former Spurs man has left following his trial spell.
“Alfie’s no longer with us on trial, and he hasn’t been with us this week, but we’ll be keeping a keen eye on where Alfie ends up,” Mousinho said.
Mousinho also made an admission that, ideally, he would have four goalkeepers at Fratton Park next season, but with Whiteman’s departure and Archer potentially following him, this could prove to be tricky.
As things stand, Mousinho has only the following to call upon:
- Nicolas Schmid
- Ben Killip
Pompey therefore potentially need to sign two new goalkeepers for next season.
“We do speak about wanting to have four goalkeepers, and a lot of the time that’s for training standards,” Mousinho said.
“We play a lot of small-sided games where we have two pitches going on at the same time, and in order to do that to a high level, you need to have four goalkeepers.”
Pompey need to get a move on if they want to meet Mousinho’s request
The need for four shot stoppers is something Mousinho has spoken about frequently over the summer, but with under two weeks until the start of the Championship campaign, the Blues will need to act quickly in the market if they want to make this a reality.
Pompey potentially need two new goalkeepers to add to Schmid and Killip, which makes the decision not to offer Whiteman a contract a puzzling one, considering he had featured in pre-season.
The Blues should continue to explore the free agent market to bolster the position, as using funds on players that are unlikely to play for the first team at all next season would be a waste of money.
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