The Portsmouth boss has commented on the Sunderland-linked winger during the transfer window

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has remained coy on his interest in Sunderland-linked Josh Murphy.

The 29-year-old helped Oxford win promotion from League One, scoring twice in the play-off final against Bolton at Wembley, yet his contract is set to expire this month. The U’s have announced they are in talks with Murphy over a new deal yet several clubs, including Sunderland, West Brom and Hull, have been credited with interest.

According to our sister title Portsmouth News, Murphy is on Pompey’s shopping list, with The Blues hoping head coach Mousinho’s relationship with Oxford, where he finished his playing career, will help a potential deal.

"The truth on that is I know Josh, and he's a fantastic player. He had a really good back end to the season but for those kind of players, whether there's interest or not, we want to keep everything respectful of the players, other clubs and everything else going on,” Mousinho said on Portsmouth’s interest.

“There is links with Josh because I played for him previously, but whether we've got any interest or not it's something we have to leave alone and not really comment on."

Murphy moved to Cardiff from Norwich for £11million in 2018. When asked about Murphy’s future, Oxford boss Des Buckingham said earlier this summer: “I may have had a chat with him when we were up on the gantry lifting the trophy.

“We’ll do as much as we can to try and keep Josh here. He’s a wonderful person, a very good player, and he suits the way we want to do things. We’ll do as much as we can and see where that takes us.”