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John Mousinho is honest when asked what has caught him off guard as a new manager.<\/p>\n
The Portsmouth boss is learning the ropes, 11 months into his career, despite guiding his unbeaten side to the top of Sky Bet League One.<\/p>\n
As the former chair of the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association and a player who started his coaching badges early, his transition to management has been almost seamless.<\/p>\n
Yet the former defender who made 550 appearances in an 18-year career is still getting used to one final change.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the job, I really do, everything apart from three to five o\u2019clock on Saturday is great because I just feel completely helpless,\u201d he told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you see a head coach or a manager on the sidelines and their behaviour seems a bit erratic just spare them a thought because you lose that control. Sometimes it\u2019s such an emotional game, emotions get the better of you.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the biggest surprise because as a player I always felt in control, at least able to influence something. In some ways you do have ultimate influence and control but in others you\u2019re standing on the touchline hoping 11 players do their jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the time it\u2019s a really horrible place to be but, genuinely, I am loving it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it (his appointment) might be seen as more of a gamble or risk than normal, although we didn\u2019t think it was the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you start gambling with the future of the football club you can put yourself in a bit of a tricky spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a risk in every appointment and that was one of my answers when we were talking about the whole process and the appointment itself,\u00a0there\u2019s mystery with every single appointment no matter how many games you\u2019ve managed or coached.\u201d<\/p>\n
That process has taken the 37-year-old, the third youngest boss in the EFL, and Pompey to the League One summit with a six-point lead.<\/p>\n
Stretching back to March, they have not lost in the league in 26 games and have won 17 points from losing positions this season \u2013 including coming from 2-0 down to beat Reading 3-2 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Mousinho\u2019s January appointment raised eyebrows as he was still playing and coaching at Oxford under Karl Robinson. He had 24 hours before his first game \u2013 a 2-0 win over Exeter \u2013 but has not looked back, having also had to step down from the PFA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been with Oxford, at Fleetwood away, and I didn\u2019t play. I was sat at the back of the bus and 10 days later I was the head coach of Portsmouth,\u201d said September\u2019s League One manager of the month, who credits Robinson for his guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s strange making the transition. Your whole life has changed overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to think about how I interacted with players, how I interact with the staff. As a player you can be very, very selfish. Then all of a sudden, you can\u2019t be as a head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest change from when I first started playing and maybe in the last 10 years is players have become a lot more conscientious about their own careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting new side of it. When people first started playing it maybe wasn\u2019t particularly cool to do your extras, to look at video analysis and dedicate your life to being a professional footballer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were getting to the back end of the drinking culture when I first started playing and it\u2019s slowly gone out of the game so players are much more focused on their own development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re probably just a bit behind other countries in terms of the way we\u2019ve embraced that as individuals. There\u2019s no longer the accusation of being busy. It\u2019s good to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mousinho takes Portsmouth to Chesterfield on Sunday in arguably the pick of the FA Cup first-round ties.<\/p>\n
The Spireites, top of the Vanarama National League, are managed by former Pompey boss Paul Cook, along with the ex-players on his coaching staff Gary Roberts, Tom Naylor and Michael Jacobs.<\/p>\n
Just four years after winning the FA Cup in 2008, Portsmouth were relegated to League One and spiralled into the fourth tier before Cook took them back up in 2017. They have been in League One since and Mousinho plans to be the one to take them out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re at Portsmouth, one of the first things people talk about is the success with the FA Cup,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount of spice to this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has been through a lot over the past 10-15 years, going right to the brink of liquidation, so what we\u2019re trying to do is part of the long, slow rebuild.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s desperate to move the club forward, the most important thing is we move the club forward in the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s been the whole mantra since day one. Yes, we want to get out and we\u2019d love to have done it yesterday but these things just take time.\u201d<\/p>\n