Aji Alese’s Pompey stay is over after just 11 minutes with his season over and the defender back at Sunderland. John Mousinho makes an admission over his club’s recruitment circumstances, as frustration mounts among supporters.
John Mousinho believes Aji Alese’s curtailed Pompey stay after just 11 minutes of football proves the cold reality of where his club’s recruitment stands.
And the Blues boss underlined his view taking calculated risks on deals for players like the Sunderland defender and not ‘proven’ Championship defenders ‘who are fit’, has to be the recruitment way at Fratton Park presently.
Mousinho: ‘We’re not in for proven Championship defenders who are fit’
Alese’s stay at PO4 is over before it meaningfully started, with Mousinho confirming on Saturday the 25-year-old has returned to the north east with his season over.
That’s after the former West Ham man tore his quad muscle in the defeat at Preston North End, when entering the fray four minutes from the end of normal time.
The move has drawn criticism from supporters, given Alese arrived off the back of a year out with a broken leg and a long line of injury issues.
It puts more focus on the factors behind Pompey’s ridiculous level of injuries, which only shows signs of growing rather than relenting.
Mousinho isn’t hiding from the reality of the circumstances around the decision, which led his club to recruit a player who is now of no use to them a little over two weeks on from his arrival.
He said: ‘Aji has unfortunately torn his quad at Preston and that’s him out for the season.
‘These are the sort of deals we’re in for in the transfer market.
‘We’re not in for proven Championship defenders who are fit - because they are not available to us.
‘That’s absolutely fine, we’re in the market for an Aji Alese like we were last year for a Rob Atkinson. Aji’s broken down.
Pompey boss: ‘We need to put some of these games away’
‘We took Aji on with the full understanding he’d not played for a while, he’d played 45 minutes and 60 minutes for Sunderland's under-21 side.
‘We felt he was good enough to play 15 minutes and build up from there, unfortunately it happened pretty early when he came on. He’s gone back to Sunderland for treatment.’
It means the Blues have come away empty-handed from two consecutive games, where they can argue they were much the better side.
Mousinho added: ‘It’s hard to digest and break down, I had to properly think what I was going to say to the boys.
‘I wanted to remain positive, but also for them wake up and realise we’re a good team when we put everything together.
‘We need to be a lot better in certain moments to be honest, if we concede that goal it has to be in a performance where we’ve put the ball in the net a couple of times.
‘I’ve felt that since around the Blackburn game we’ve kicked on, apart from the Bristol City game and there was plenty of reasons for that.
‘Beyond that we’ve been a pretty good side - but we do need to put some of these games away.’
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