Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has revealed that the club are open to the possibility of signing Matt Macey on a permanent deal from Luton Town this summer.

Following West Bromwich Albion's decision to recall Josh Griffiths, Pompey opted to bolster their options in the goalkeeping position in the January transfer window by signing Macey on loan from the Hatters.

Since making the switch to Fratton Park, the 28-year-old has featured on seven occasions for Portsmouth in League One.

Macey has managed to prevent Pompey's opponents from scoring in four of these aforementioned fixtures and will be looking to claim another clean-sheet this weekend when his side take on Cambridge United.

Portsmouth will be full of confidence heading into this fixture following their recent victories over Cheltenham Town and Bolton Wanderers.

A win for Pompey at the Abbey Stadium could result in them moving up to ninth in the league standings if Shrewsbury Town suffer a defeat in their meeting with Derby County.

Ahead of tomorrow's game, Mousinho has outlined Pompey's stance on a permanent move for Macey.

Speaking to The News, Mousinho said: "Matt can absolutely be part of the future here.

"We’ve had the conversation, not necessarily with him but Joe (Prodomo) and Rich (Hughes) about what we’re looking to with goalkeepers next season.
"It will probably be more up to Matt than us, in terms of what his situation is and what he can do there.
"But the very simple answer is he can be a big part of the future here.
"We like to feed back to the players and what we do know with Matt is that if he can make somewhere his home, he can knuckle down and start clocking up those appearances he maybe hasn’t had in his career over the past 10 years.
"That would be terrific to set him that challenge and then, with all the positives in his game, we’d look for him to improve.
"That’s the brilliant thing, we don’t want players coming down or at the peak of their players.
"We want players with a huge amount of improvement in them, like Matt."

 

 

The Verdict

With Pompey open to the prospect of signing Macey on a full-time basis in the summer, it will be interesting to see whether Luton will be willing to sell him.

Macey's contract at Kenilworth Road is set to run until 2024 and thus Portsmouth will have to pay a fee in order to secure his services.

Given that Ethan Horvath, who has made 37 appearances for Luton in all competitions this season, is set to return to Nottingham Forest when his loan spell expires later this year, the Championship outfit will need to add to their options in the goalkeeping position before sanctioning a permanent departure for Macey.

Currently averaging a respectable WhoScored match rating of 6.77 in the third-tier, the former Hibernian keeper's priority in the coming months will be to help Pompey achieve a great deal of success at this level.