James Hill and Devante Cole should be among those on Portsmouth FC’s transfer shortlist right now

 

Portsmouth need to see their results drastically improve if they are to give themselves the best chance of staying up in their first season back in the Championship, and so boss John Mousinho may already be looking toward the January window to try and add to his already relatively large squad.

Pompey have not enjoyed the best of starts in the second tier so far, in this their first campaign back at the level since 2011/12, but there have been some positives in that they have been able to take points off the likes of Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United.

Mousinho must be wondering where it all went wrong, as the summer transfer window gave him a good chance to make adjustments to what looked like a strong group of players, given their ease at becoming League One champions, but most of his new signings have failed to deliver so far.

He has also had to contend with a host of injuries to key players in recent months, but January will represent a chance to make further changes and give his team the best chance of keeping their Championship dream alive come May.

With that said, FLW have picked out three ideal, but realistic, signings that the Fratton Park club should put on their transfer shortlist for the new year.

James Hill

Little good has come of Portsmouth’s defensive efforts so far this term and so it makes sense for them to look to delve into the loan market for a competent centre-back to bolster their backline for the second half of the season.

James Hill would be a realistic pickup for Pompey and he should be available on a short-term deal given his lack of minutes at parent club AFC Bournemouth in the top-flight up to now.

Hill became Fleetwood Town’s youngest-ever player when he made his senior debut at 16 in 2018, and his League One breakthrough with the Cods saw the Cherries fork out a reported £1 million for his services in January 2022, but he has been limited to sporadic appearances at the club over the last few years.

The 22-year-old spent six months on loan at Hearts in the Scottish Premiership from January 2023 and then joined Blackburn Rovers on loan last summer but was recalled back to the south coast in January amid an injury crisis, after making 20 appearances for Rovers.

According to FBref, Hill was in the 97th percentile for interceptions per 90 (2.01), 95th percentile for aerials won per 90 (3.54) and 97th percentile for clearances per 90 (4.37), as well as the 80th percentile for progressive passes per 90 (4.83), when compared to second-tier centre-backs last season, so it is pretty clear that he can be one of the best in the league when given a chance.

It seems likely that the Cherries will allow him to leave in January, especially if they bring in their own new defensive additions, and so Portsmouth must be at the forefront of the queue for his loan signature.

Devante Cole

Devante Cole’s summer move to West Brom has not gone as he or the club would have hoped as yet, and they may well be willing to cut their losses in January and sanction a permanent move, or more likely allow him a loan move away from The Hawthorns, as a result.

Centre-forward Cole was not much of a prolific scorer in his early years in the professional game, but he enjoyed a successful spell in the Scottish Premiership with Motherwell in 2020/21, and so moved to Barnsley, where he improved even further and became one of the top marksmen in League One for 2022/23 and 2023/24.

He left the Tykes at the end of his contract in the summer, and so joined the Baggies on a two-year deal in July, but has found first-team openings hard to come by in the early stages of his debut season at the club so far, largely due to Josh Maja’s stellar form.

Carlos Corberan recently admitted that “it is not an easy situation” for the 29-year-old to find himself in so soon into his Albion spell, and so Pompey could offer him a route out of the Hawthorns in January to provide competition with their own misfiring attack force.

Mousinho has had to contend with a lot of unavailability regarding his strikers in recent months, with star man Colby Bishop’s health issues ruling him out for an extended period, as well as injuries to Callum Lang and Kusini Yengi.

With that in mind, a striker that has a recent history of finding the net consistently at a similar level, such as Cole, would be a smart acquisition, and he could be the difference between a relegation struggle and safety if he is given ample chances to prove his quality.

Joe Morrell

Ex-Wales international midfielder Joe Morrell has had a tough time of it this year but soon looks to be coming out the other side of a long-term injury that has kept him sidelined for over eight months to date.

Morrell joined Pompey from Luton Town in the summer of 2021, and was a key part of their squad over the last three seasons in League One before he sustained a serious knee injury in January in the first half of a draw against Oxford United, and was ruled out for the rest of the campaign as Mousinho’s side won promotion in his absence.

The 27-year-old was duly released by Portsmouth at the end of the season after a lengthy injury prognosis, despite Mousinho admitting he would “like him to stay,” but he suffered a setback in recovery to rule him out for another few months after links to QPR, Wrexham and Birmingham City as a potential free agent signing.

Morrell has been continuing his recovery with Pompey since he first picked up the injury, and is now hot on the comeback trail with Mousinho stating that “he is back out on the grass,” and he thinks “very, very highly” of him as a player, so surely a return when he is fully fit in January can not at all be ruled out.

The central midfielder knows the club very well after spending three years at Fratton Park and is also an experienced, yet young, player that the Pompey boss knows he can trust to pull the team through tough games.

If he is receptive to the idea of a return, it almost seems like a no-brainer to bring him back on an initial short-term deal, especially with the team clearly needing more control and grit in the middle of the park as they keep leaking goals at an alarming rate.