🗣 Inside track on Pompey’s next big thing from Oz

Hello reader and welcome back to Pompey Talk with Neil & Jordan - your weekly inside track on the Blues.

This week we're focusing our attention on the Blues' first new face of the summer in Aussie starlet Adrian Segecic, after his arrival on a three-year deal was confirmed last night.

The News have been right across developments and have led the way with details over the hunt for the attacker. We've been doing our homework on the 21-year-old and, using our contacts along with video and data from football analysis company Wyscout, have built a pretty comprehensive picture of what Pompey are getting and the story of Segecic's move to Fratton Park.

We hope you enjoy this insight to whet your appetite over a very promising recruit. As ever feel free to get in touch by email (jordan.cross@thenews.co.uk) or get me on X (@pn_jordan_cross).

The inside track on Pompey's next big thing from Oz

There’s a lot to like about the burgeoning young career of Pompey’s first summer signing.

But, perhaps more to the point, there’s a lot the Fratton Faithful will love about the man arriving to bolster their Championship attacking creativity next season.

Adrian Segecic is the new bright, young thing of Australian football, a player now generating the kind of noise being heard far beyond the A-League.

But, take a dive into the emergence of a player wanted across Europe’s top leagues, and you see an attacker who ticks all the boxes to beguile the supporters he will be entertaining next season.

The Identikit attacking player to chime with Pompey fans

If you were looking for an Identikit forward-thinking player in the image of the Fratton Faithful, then the man arriving from Sydney FC ticks every box.

Hard-working, diminutive but a spiky so and so with a bit of an edge, Pompey’s latest Antipodean arrival has everything needed to become a bonafide star and crescent icon.

Perhaps supporters don’t quite realise that yet, but they will do.

Watching the clips of Segecic making his name and emerging as one of the stars of his league this season, brings to mind Alan Partridge’s ‘foot like a traction engine’ commentary.

You could certainly do worse than overlaying Partridge’s exclamations to footage of the series of left-footed howitzers from the Australia age-group international this season.

The signs are Pompey see the 21-year-old primarily operating as a number 10, whose attributes will dovetail nicely with another popular attacking favourite in Callum Lang.

Lang’s relentless energy set the tone for a lot of his side’s best attacking play last season and Segecic will set about the opposition in similar fashion out of possession, something he’ll learn he’ll have to do as a part of a John Mousinho side.

Adrian Segecic's attributes should dovetail nicely with Callum Lang, pictured above, as number 10 options for Pompey.

Wyscout, a half-space threat and crafty danger Mous wants

It’s on the ball the man who’s still eligible to feature for Croatia at international level, as well as the Socceroos, comes alive.

Using football video and data analysis website, Wyscout, underlines Segecic’s versatility and a player comfortable playing in any of the attacking positions.

It’s as an inverted right winger cutting in off the flank and doing damage in the half space (channel in old money), where the man who finished as the A-League’s top scorer with 13 goals comes alive.

He will be afforded less time to do so in the Championship but, given the space to do so and get a shot off, Segecic is lethal anywhere within 30 yards.

Being short and fairly squat, the Sydney-born man likes to work in pockets around the box and can receive the ball in tight spots, where he can bounce off challenges and either look to thread balls behind the defence or get shots off on goal. They are exactly the attacking attributes Mousinho has wanted to add to his group.

Segecic made 35 appearances for his club side last year, but of his league and AFC Champions League outings 16 came as a substitute.

He picked up a ‘super sub’ moniker in that time, with an incredible record of scoring when introduced to games - 10 of his 18 goals in all competitions coming via this avenue. That included a 22-minute hat-trick against Jacob Farrell’s former side, Central Coast Mariners, last January.

Adrian Segecic belongs to the same agency stable as Jacob Farrell and Alex Robertson, pictured above.

Interestingly, Segecic is also part of the same stable as Farrell and former Pompey favourite Alex Robertson with this the latest business carried out with Irish agent Paddy Dominguez, who has strong influence in Australia.

Twenty clubs chasing a player ready for Europe

This summer was always going to be the moment for Segecic to make the permanent move to Europe, after spending time on loan with Dutch Erste Divisie outfit FC Emmen last year, returning five goals and an assist from 33 appearances with 15 of those outings starts.

If there was any questions about his suitability to do so, they were removed at the end of last month as he went up against Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United.

Segecic took on a starring role for ASEAN All-stars as they defeated a decent United side containing the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund in Malaysia.

It was the new boy who turned the match for his side as a second-half substitute, producing a delightful threaded assist for the game’s only goal before being denied his own finish with a powerful run late on.

The fact Pompey have emerged from such a scrum of serious interest should not just please supporters, but also speak of their club’s clout and influence now with Aussie players.

In fact, there was a whopping 20 European sides who made moves for Segecic in addition to MLS interest.

Austrian giants Rapid Vienna were among those clamouring for the player, with two particularly lucrative offers known to have been turned down to make Fratton Park his new footballing home.

The Championship breakthrough is about to arrive for Segecic, but full international emergence hasn’t yet come for the player with Australia. That potentially could give rise to a defection to Croatia, one which would probably sit better with his employers given the international travel and associated injury questions with Kusini Yengi last season.

That conversation is for another day, though. In the meantime Pompey fans should be excited about what lies ahead from their first new face of the summer - a player they're about to embrace when they see what they've got on their hands.

And that brings this week's newsletter to a close.

Hopefully the research and information which has got me really looking forward to see Segecic in a royal blue shirt is relayed here.

Thanks for the continued support - and play up Pompey!

Jordan

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