There might be a few contracted Pompey players wondering where their future lies after the latest comments from John Mousinho - who says there.s no room for sentiment when shuffling the squad in readiness for next season.

The club's retained list held few if any surprises - even if some were disappointed Kusini Yengi was not given longer to prove he could cut it at this level.

But arguably more interesting is the issue of which of their players who are NOT out of contracrt Pompey will let go.

There have already been strong indications that the Blues will not stand in the way of the likes of Christian Saydee and Ryley Towler if they can find the regular football that Mousinho is unlikely to offer them.

But are there others too who would be allowed to go?

In an interview with The News and portsmouth.co.uk Mousinho said: ‘It’s a hard one, you want to keep the emotional part of it because it’s important for the football club.

‘We’re fully aware of that, but sentiment doesn’t get you particularly far when you’re trying to win football games - we have to be really wary of that.

‘We made some tough decisions this time last year, with players who’d had really important contributions to the League One title-winning side.

'This season we had some really big decisions to make with the likes of Will Norris leaving in January. He’s a player who played every single minute of the League One title campaign.

‘It’s tough and they are tough decisions to make, you just have to weigh them up and make sure you make the right decisions for the football club.’

That will lead to questions over whether Mousniho would allow players like Marlon Pack or Matt Ritchie go if he did not see them as first-team regulars next season. It could depend on who comes in first - although equally, if the Blues need to free up space in the wage bill to bring in targets they have in mind, they may need to move one or two others on first.

The 24 players under contract at Fratton are: Jordan Archer, Colby Bishop, Harvey Blair, Ibane Bowat, Terry Devlin, Jacob Farrell, Abdoulaye Kamara, Paddy Lane, Callum Lang, Hayden Matthews, Tom McIntyre, Josh Murphy, Connor Ogilvie, Marlon Pack, Regan Poole, Matt Ritchie, Christian Saydee, Nicolas Schmid, Conor Shaughnessy, Toby Steward, Reuben Swann, Ryley Towler, Thomas Waddingham and Jordan Williams.

Some of those are clearly a big part of the club's plans after excellent 24-25 seasons - but there are some on the list, particularly fringe players lasr season, who may feel their future lies elsewhere. The coming weeks will tell us who they are...

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