Mous focused on matches, not contracts

John Mousinho has pinpointed when Pompey’s out-ofcontract players will discover whether they have a Fratton future.

The week beginning May 8 is pencilled in as D-day for the 13 whose contracts expire on July 1.

That represents the day after the last match of the League One campaign, when Wycombe visit Fratton Park.

That date could change if the Blues manage to rejuvenate their fading play-off hopes.

Still, Mousinho’s preference is for his players to focus on the final five matches rather than being ‘clouded’ by the prospect of contract decisions.

He told The News: ‘What we want to do at the moment is actually focus on everything that’s going on on the pitch.

‘That has been the right way to do things, we don’t want to have any contractual decisions clouding that.

‘Come the end of the season, we will sit down and have good honest conversations with the players.

‘No players have had an issue with that, none have come up to me and said “We need to know what’s going on with contracts next season”.

‘I think mainly because, when the season finishes, there is still a huge amount of time before players are even allowed to talk to other clubs.

‘There’s a strange myth that players are allowed to talk to other clubs in the final six months of their contract – it’s not true. Players can talk four days after the last game of the season or the third Saturday in May.

‘Everyone knows what the situation is and gets on with it. We haven’t started to think about end-of-season discussions yet because we don’t know when they’re going to be. We hope at the back end of May, if not then we will deal with them after the Wycombe game.’