"Players will attract interest" - Transfer demand sent to Portsmouth FC | OneFootball

FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit feels the key to improving next season is to retain these players

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Portsmouth have enjoyed their first season back in the second tier since 2011/12. It's looking increasingly likely that John Mousinho's side will avoid immediate relegation despite occupying a place in the bottom three for the majority of the first half of the campaign.

The club have made improvements off the pitch in the last month or so too, tying down several important players on long-term contracts, namely centre-back Regan Poole and star striker Colby Bishop.

Clearly, Pompey are eager to keep hold of those who have been successful in the side ahead of hopefully another Championship season with a view to upgrading around them. This would impress FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit, Miltos Ioannidis, who feels that losing any of this core would be something the club cannot afford to let happen.

Keeping the base is vital this summer for Portsmouth

Militos was clear when discussing the main concerns ahead of the upcoming summer transfer window. Whichever league Pompey find themselves in: "We can't afford to let any of our important players go."

However, whilst Militos feels that this is "easier said than done," he believes that the current atmosphere around Portsmouth would mean that any side interested in bringing in some of their more important players would need to go above and beyond to lure them away from Fratton Park.

"It would take a huge effort from any club who is willing to take any of our more crucial players," he said.

"Players like Colby Bishop, who has just signed a new contract here. Callum Lang, who has publically said how much he enjoys his time here and is also under contract. Josh Murphy, too, has been putting up phenomenal numbers [this season] for a Pompey side that has mainly been struggling.

"I'm sure these players will attract interest, but it would take a valiant effort from any club willing to sign them. Regardless, we should make sure we don't let any of these players go as they are our base."

Miltos also heralded defender Regan Poole and goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid as players who form the base of which Portsmouth need to improve on, even going as far as to calling Schmid "one of the best pieces of business the club has done in a long while, not just in the goalkeeper department."

Portsmouth may need to prepare for summer transfer raid

Despite many of their key players being under contract past the culmination of this season, Miltos understands that, for Portsmouth to improve as a club, bids may be accepted as the club looks to generate revenue and reinvest.

However, the FLW Pompey fan pundit feels that this would be a mistake, and the way to improve the squad this summer should be to reinvest alongside the current crop of core players, as Portsmouth look to establish themselves as second-tier regulars ahead of next season.

"With the way the club wants to be run, we will lose some of these better players at some point, maybe even one or two this summer, as this is the way to evolve as a club.

"But in our case right now, we have a solid base which we can work upon this summer and who can help us get to the next level, so selling any of them won't really help us out that much - it's definitely not what I want Pompey to do."