John Mousinho addresses Portsmouth pre-season tour plans - and the chances of a friendly abroad

Pompey are finalising their pre-season tour - with John Mousinho open to a friendly also being included.

Europe is once again the destination as the League One winners target a stay of up to six-days for warm-weather training.

Mousinho is remaining tight-lipped over possible destinations as the finishing touches are put to summer plans.

Nonetheless, he admits friendly against foreign opposition is under consideration to form part of the early July training camp.

Last summer, the Blues spent six days in southern Spain, staying at La Cala Resort, Malaga, while they also lined up against Gibraltar side Europa FC in a friendly.

And he insists Pompey are close to unveiling their next tour.

He told The News: ‘It’s something we are working on and we hope to press the button very soon.

‘We are looking at another trip abroad and the structure of pre-season will be very, very similar to last year in terms of the sides we play locally at home.

‘If we can get in a friendly abroad then we’ll also do that because I know that one’s really popular with Pompey fans. Logistically it’s not always easy, thankfully that’s not anything that falls on my doorstep.

‘Sometimes you want to go away for pre-season to just train and focus on the training. If you have a game, you probably need to taper the training session one or two days beforehand, then you obviously don’t have the training session on the day of the game.

‘There are positives and negatives, but, having played one last year, if we can get another friendly in it would be great. It was fantastic to see all those Pompey fans in attendance in the sweltering heat last summer.

‘If we can arrange it, we will.’

Pompey faced Europa FC at Estadio Jose Burgos De Quintana in Malaga, representing their opening friendly of the summer of 2023.

They won 1-0 through Colby Bishop’s penalty in front of a huge Pompey away following on an enjoyable afternoon for the spectators.

Although Pompey’s head coach favours a destination a little less hot this time around.

Mousinho added: ‘You can go somewhere that’s hot, but sometimes it’s not the best for training. On occasions you have to train really early.

‘We are looking at different options, maybe somewhere slightly less sweltering so we can train a bit more and a bit harder - I’m sure the players would be thrilled about that!’