Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The latest Pompey news updates every day from the Pompey Sound Newsdesk.
Chapter 2: What recent changes have Blackburn Rovers made to their squad?
Pompey's relegation rivals, Blackburn Rovers, have been given the green light by the EFL to make changes to their 25-man squad for the final stretch of the championship season. It's not just a single change, either. The league has allowed Rovers to make two tweaks, paving the way for them to add new signing Nathan Redmond, the former Southampton winger who arrived on a free transfer last Friday.
The move will look familiar to Pompey fans, who used the same rule back in their first season in the Championship in 2024-25. After new signing Ibrahim Boat suffered a season-ending knee injury just days after arriving from Fulham, the club was able to remove him from the squad list.
Chapter 3: Who is Nathan Redmond and why is he significant for Blackburn Rovers?
That freed up a spot for Kobe Bishop to be re-registered two months later, when he returned from heart surgery. Rovers, currently 19th and just three points ahead of Pompey, have now done the same. With defensive pair Sondre Tronstad and Lewis Miller both out for the season, Blackburn have taken them off the list.
This has allowed them to register 22-year-old academy product George Pratt, who has 10 senior appearances and spent the first half of the season on loan at Chorley for the final seven games. But they didn't stop there. They also used the second available spot to snap up one-cap England international Nathan Redmond on a free, getting the deal done before the March 26 deadline.
The 32-year-old winger, who once cost Southampton £10m back in 2026,
Chapter 4: What challenges do Blackburn Rovers face in the championship?
has been a free agent since his short-term contract at Sheffield Wednesday ended in January. He struggled for game time at Hillsborough, clocking up just 103 minutes across six appearances. Before that, he had a tough two-season spell at Burnley, where he played only 14 times before being let go last summer.
Despite his lack of recent action, Rovers boss Michael O'Neill is clearly hoping Redmond can provide a spark for an attack that has managed only 36 league goals all season. One less than Pompey, whose own struggles in front of goal are well known. To get him up to speed, Redmond played 45 minutes for the under-21s this week.
After the international break, Blackburn, who have played one more game than Pompey, are away to Birmingham before hosting West Brom on bank holiday Monday. As for Pompey, they still have one open spot in their squad, which could go to Josh Knight if he can prove he's recovered from his back injury.
So that piece of shrewd administration by Blackburn means that they have strengthened their squad significantly going into the final seven games for them of the season.
Chapter 5: What are the implications of Gus Caballero's international debut?
And of course, they're also technically strengthened by the fact that with Northern Ireland being knocked out of the World Cup preliminaries, their manager, Michael O'Neill, who was dividing his time between being manager of Blackburn and manager of Northern Ireland, is free now. to concentrate on avoiding relegation for Blackburn.
Whether that means that they're going to get better results than they would have done if he was also thinking about the upcoming Bosnia and Herzegovina game, which is now something that Italy have got on their plate, only time will tell. But on paper, Blackburn is at three points ahead of us, but we have a game in hand, are considerably strengthened by developments during the international break.
A spectator in the south stand during the home game against Derby was seen laughing out loud when a Pompey wag pointed out that Pompey had three loan players on the pitch, two from Luton and one from Santos. To be fair, it was a nice arch remark. However, the fan's observation had a serious side.
At the end of the season Pompey may have an option to buy a player who made 12 appearances for one of the world's most famous sides prior to his loan move to Fratton Park. Gus Caballero has just made his international debut for Paraguay, in a 1-0 victory over Greece coming on for half an hour as a substitute.
Paraguay's management, their head coach, and Paraguayan journalists, appeared to agree that Caballero's debut was satisfactory, and that they would welcome the opportunity to see more of him.
However many South American football fans are famous for offering harsh criticism of their own players, and it would be a good thing if Pompey's recently acquired winger stayed away from social media for a few days. Generally speaking he received faint praise and occasional searing criticism.
The harsh comments are probably best summed up by one posted by a Paraguayan fan, signing him or herself, Freed Ingi, quote, The phrase intelligence is chasing you but you're faster, unquote, applies perfectly to Gustavo Caballero, lots of speed little intelligence. Ouch.
That is a... pretty good remark i'm gonna put that one in my back pocket why don't you intelligence is chasing you but you're too fast let's hope that's not true that is if we want to bring caballero on board as a contracted pompey player do we from what we've seen of him so far do we couple of good flashes he's good at beating two men with one touch of the ball by going in between them uh
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Chapter 6: How do Leicester City fans compare to Pompey fans?
That's a well-known trick. People will soon start to wise up to it. And Ward will get round, so he's going to need some other tricks. He is fast, but as that remark suggests, intelligence can be even more important than raw speed.
And just to tidy everything up, the spectator in the stand who laughed when the Pompey fans said that we've got three lone players, two from Luton, one from Santos, said, Enjoyed the moment and chuckled quite loudly, actually, we saw. He was the referee's assessor. It's the first time we've watched a referee's assessor at work in the game and had a notepad, an iPad, obviously.
in front of him and was just clicking off various numbers and comments as the game went on. So that's a little bit of background there to Gus Caballero, who is now a fully-fledged international, and Pompey may or may not have an option to buy at the end of the season. Your thoughts?
Chapter 7: What factors contribute to the loyalty of Pompey fans?
Don't often say this, but radiopompey at gmail.com is our email address, radiopompey at gmail.com. Gus Cavaliero, yes or no? The Leicester City fans' website, Foxes of Leicester, normally an entirely respected and respectful organisation. organ, has pushed its luck by comparing Pompey fans with Leicester fans.
This is what their writer Thomas Bradley Alderman has to say. They are lively, ultra-loyal and typically noisy, in the most magnificent way. Yet, this fierce passion is a double-edged sword, serving as both a gift and a curse for the players navigating the treacherous waters of an EFL Championship relegation dogfight.
The relegation gift and curse at Leicester City in Portsmouth, a tale of two faithfuls, When the Foxes and the South Coast side are winning, an intoxicating harmony prevails. To borrow the immortal optimism of Del Boy to Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and England are going to win the World Cup.
In these moments of triumph, the stadium becomes an impenetrable fortress, and the players are carried aloft by a tidal wave of unconditional adoration. Yet when the tide turns and fortunes plummet due to poor sportsmanship, or, heaven forbid, a perceived lack of effort, all hell breaks loose.
The atmosphere curdles into something profoundly toxic, booing reverberates around the rafters as the faithful turn upon players, ownership, and staff alike. The very intensity that fuels their beauty can swiftly transform into a suffocating pressure. Generally this emotion is kind of accepted, and occasionally justifiable.
Nevertheless, as the ultimate reckoning approaches, both sides desperately need each and every one of their supporters on side for a gruelling run-in.
According to one-time Premier League champion Tim Sherwood, who understands the unique mechanics of top-flight triumph and survival, to synchronise this blessing and a hex logic, a group of supporters like those packed into Fratton Park will prove the ultimate difference between salvation and catastrophe. Buoyancy is a precarious psychological tightrope, where unity is the ultimate currency.
You would, I hope, expect us at Pompey Sound to bat away claims by Leicester fans that they are as good as the Pompey faithful and so we're going to because we genuinely believe it. It's impossible to make a comparison that stands up
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Chapter 8: Why is the comparison between Leicester and Pompey fans controversial?
Pompey fans are famous up and down the country, not just for the loud noise they make, but for their absolute unstinting loyalty. Because loyalty is something that is exposed through the bad times. And the last 15, 20 years, we've had bad times. We won an FA Cup, got to a final, but that is nearly 20 years ago.
And the highlight since then has been staying alive and winning League One, winning the title, getting out of League Two, getting out of League One, winning the title. Those are our highlights. And through all those hard times, all those terrible bad times, Coming so close to being extinguished, the fans remained so loyal that they pitched in and financially saved the club from extermination.
That's what we've been through. Leicester, over a similar period, they won the Premier League. How hard is it to be a fan when your team win the Premier League? You're not going to be booing them, are you, all the way off the pitch, ever. that memory should live in their minds for decades.
There should not be a single boo heard for any performance at Leicester because of what the club gave those fans. Just doing that. And the following year, I think if I'm right, they got to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. They won their group stage without, I don't think, conceding a goal.
They certainly won their group stage and they were only knocked out by the skin of their teeth by one of Spain's giants, Atletico Madrid, in the quarterfinals. They've had their share of tragedy, we know. We won't go there, and we sympathise with them for that, but that is not a matter for showing a lack of loyalty to the club.
Yes, they've had some bad times very recently, with relegation and with being docked points for financial irregularities. So if they have started having an opportunity to boo their team, it's only in the last year or 18 months. So what kind of a test of their loyalty have they been presented with? Just about zero. It's all big-time success, good stuff.
Maybe even punching above their weight, but the good times that they gave... the club gave those fans far outweigh what we've enjoyed at Pompey. And yet, and yet, up and down the country, we are seen as the loyalist, we are seen as the loudest, we are seen as the most characterful, we are seen as the most persistently optimistic crowd in the country.
And for some guy to come on and say that he thinks that the Leicester fans and Pompey fans are neck and neck... in terms of how they sing when they're winning and boo when they're losing. Absolutely not. Absolutely false statement and a weak piece of journalism. So there you are. You can stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
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