Former Lincoln City midfielder Joe Morrell is set to return to Portsmouth as a first-team coach, a year after injury forced him to retire from playing.
According to BBC Sport, the 29-year-old will join John Mousinho’s coaching staff at Fratton Park, filling the vacancy left by Zesh Rehman’s departure late last year. He spent last season working with Bristol City’s under-21s and now looks set to take his next step in the dugout.
It is a welcome development for a player whose career ended far too soon. Joe retired in October 2025, aged just 28, having been unable to overcome the injury problems that followed his final appearances for Pompey.
There is a familiar club waiting, with more than 100 Portsmouth appearances behind him and a part in their League One title-winning campaign. However, BBC Radio Solent reports that familiarity alone did not secure the job: Joe went through two rounds of interviews and beat four other candidates at the second stage.
His first assignment is expected to be Sunday’s south coast derby against Southampton. That is quite a fixture with which to begin the next chapter!
For us, Joe remains a player who made a considerable impression in a relatively short spell at Sincil Bank. He arrived at the start of the 2019/20 season, having previously enjoyed a successful stint with Cheltenham Town, and quickly showed the qualities that made him such an effective presence in midfield.
He was a grafter, happy to put a foot in and make life uncomfortable for the opposition, but there was intelligence behind that competitive edge. He understood how to influence a game, both with the ball and through the little battles taking place around it.
His involvement in Siriki Dembele’s dismissal during our 2-1 victory against Peterborough was a prime example. Dembele had barely entered the action before finding himself at the centre of an incident that left our opponents a man down, Joe displaying the sort of mastery of the dark arts you appreciate considerably more when the player is wearing your shirt.
He also twice appeared to have scored for us, only for the goals to be credited elsewhere. Both came against Burton Albion, first in the 5-1 victory and then in the 3-2 win that proved to be his final City appearance before COVID brought the season to a halt.
Bigger stages followed, including four appearances for Wales at the delayed European Championship in 2021. His playing career ultimately ended with 37 international caps, but coaching has given him a way to rediscover something he lost during his injury struggles.
There was always more to Joe’s game than simply getting stuck in, and it will be interesting to see how that understanding translates into coaching. After such a difficult end to his playing days, hopefully this is the beginning of a long and rewarding second career.
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