Why Portsmouth can be considered favourites to land Chelsea youngster Tino Anjorin as details of Reading's continued interest emerges

National reports claim League One rivals Reading – who like the Blues were linked with the 21-year-old earlier in the transfer window – remain keen.

However, it’s also believed that the Royals need to shift players out before they follow up their interest.

Anjorin’s future has been the subject of much speculation this summer.

Pompey’s interest looked to have ended after reports from Holland claimed the former Huddersfield loanee had agreed a similar move to FC Volendam. The Blues’ successful bid to lure Manchester City youngster Alex Robertson on loan also appeared to shelve any prospective move.

But with the transfer window deadline closing in and Anjorin’s next port of call yet to be decided, rumours have started to resurface again.

John Mousinho remains on the lookout for an attacking midfielder following injuries to Tom Lowery and forward Kusini Yengi. The Blues are exploring both loan and permanent options with just days remaining of the window.

On Tuesday night, Pompey’s head coach reaffirmed his admiration for the the England Under-20 international. Yet he remained coy on the latest links to emerge.

He told The News: ‘I’m not entirely sure where it has come from, we’ve had no further developments there in terms of what’s going to happen.

‘Tino is an exciting player that we know a huge amount about, we have spoken about him previously.

‘But, as far as we are concerned, we don’t really know where that came from. Interest isn’t necessarily finished, but I suppose we saw the story and it’s nothing from our end.

‘There's still maybe a bit we can do in terms of the rest of the transfer window and if Tino is an option then I'm sure we’ll be able to explore it.

‘I don’t think we can rule anything out at the moment, but that story hasn’t come from us and we’re not really pushing that.

‘We’ll see how that pans out.’

Reading have made nine signings this summer, including one-time linked Sam Smith, Harvey Knibbs and Lewis Wing.

According to Football Insider, Andy Carroll, Nesta Guiness-Walker, Tom Holmes and Dean Bouzanis could all be allowed to leave the Select Car Leasing Stadium in order to cut the club’s wage bill.