John Mousinho makes clear Portsmouth FC transfer claim | OneFootball

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho wants a bigger squad ahead of the club's return to the Championship next season.

Pompey will return to the second tier of English football after a 12-year absence, and Mousinho is keen to stress that he'll need a bigger squad if his side are to be competitive next season.

The club released a number of players at the end of the current campaign, including experienced campaigners like Sean Ragett and Joe Rafferty, so Pompey supporters can presumably look forward to a number of signings to replace the departing players, and give the club some strength in depth.

The gulf in quality between League One and the Championship is a big one, so Mousinho will clearly have to recruit this summer, and a number of players look set to come through the door at Fratton Park in the coming months.

John Mousinho wants a bigger squad next season

John Mousinho believes that he will need a squad of around 24–26 players next season as his side get ready to return to the Championship.

With nine players needed on the bench, and Pompey suffering a number of injuries during their victorious League One campaign, Mousinho doesn't want to take any chances next year.

Speaking to The News, the Pompey boss said: "We probably need two more players in the squad compared to this season.

"It’s amusing now, but at one point our injured starting line-up was something like Swanson, Poole, McIntyre, Ogilvie, Lowery, Morrell and then a front four of Devlin, Scully, Anjorin and Lang.

"You can’t do that with a 24-man squad and try to get away with it, hence why we increased the size of the squad towards the back end of the year. "We ended up with 24 fit pros, with Josh Dockerill coming back making it 25, yet still 6-7 on the injury list. We needed to bolster it with the five in January.

"Squad size is never an exact science and we’ll pick up injuries, but for the Championship it will be around 24-26, especially considering you can have nine on the bench now.

"This season we wanted two players in every position and an extra man in the centre-forward spot, which is why we had the three.

"We also had the cover early on with Toby (Steward) as a goalkeeper, you can recall them on loan, unlike outfield players.

"We needed players in every position, yet only two outfield players were available for every game - Jack Sparkes and Abu Kamara."

Portsmouth set to look overseas for new signings

After signing Kusini Yengi from the Australian A-League last summer, John Mousinho has confirmed that Pompey will look overseas for new signings yet again this summer.

With the club now being in the Championship, they'll be a more attractive club for prospective foreign players to sign for, but Mousinho was quick to point out that it's difficult to sign some foreign players due to the country they are from.

He told The News: "You can see that from our recruitment which was as close as Northern Ireland and as far as Australia. We do look everywhere and we are really open-minded to what we are able to bring in.

"But we will certainly be looking in the same places as before."

This should be music to the ears of Pompey supporters, and they could be set to recruit some more hidden gems this summer as Mousinho looks to increase squad depth.