Danny Cowley delivers honest verdict on John Mousinho’s Portsmouth appointment | OneFootball

Danny Cowley has revealed that he is not surprised that John Mousinho has been appointed as his successor by Portsmouth and has backed the club’s new head coach to achieve success at Fratton Park.

Cowley was relieved of his duties by Pompey earlier this month following a disappointing run of results in League One which led to the club falling down the standings.

After an extensive search, Mousinho was handed over the reins at Portsmouth by the club’s hierarchy last week.

The 36-year-old made the perfect start to life in charge of Pompey at the weekend as his side secured a 2-0 victory over Exeter City.

Portsmouth will be looking to back up this particular display by securing a positive result this evening when they head to Highbury Stadium to face Fleetwood Town.

Currently nine points adrift of the play-off places, Pompey’s target in the coming weeks will be to close this particular gap with Mousinho at the helm.

Making reference to his successor, Cowley has backed Mousinho to go on to achieve some success with Portsmouth.

Asked by Jim White on talkSPORT (as cited by The News) about whether he was surprised by Mousinho’s appointment, Cowley said: “No because I think I understood where the club were coming from and what they were trying to achieve.

“Probably, I think the club has to keep working and trying to create the narrative and trying to communicate well with the support base.

“But, ultimately, Michael Eisner and his family have had unbelievable success in their lives and absolutely have the club’s best interests in their heart.

“Like they’ve said from day dot, really, they’re trying to create a sustainable football club.

“They absolutely want success but they also want longevity.

“They’ve appointed a young manager and I know John.

“I’ve just finished my pro licence with him so he’s someone I know well – really intelligent, articulate – (and) I have no doubt he has all the attributes to be a really successful manager/head coach.

“But the remit is there, is they really want to develop young players, recruit young players and have success at the same time.

“Ultimately, that takes time and I think we’ve left the club in a better place than we found it.

“I genuinely believe that and we hope that we’ve created the foundations that John can build on and the club can go on to the success that it wants.”

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The Verdict

Portsmouth’s supporters will be hoping that Mousinho will be the right man to guide the club to new heights.

Having received Cowley’s seal of approval, it will be interesting to how Mousinho will fare during the opening months of his spell.

Cowley has left Pompey’s new boss with a relatively strong squad of players who have definitely underachieved in recent times.

By defeating Fleetwood tonight, Portsmouth could potentially use the confidence gained from this result to their advantage in their upcoming league fixtures.