Latest on Tottenham Hotspur, West Brom, Ipswich Town, Blackpool and Huddersfield Town loans as Portsmouth sporting director raises questions over reliance on temporary deals

And new sporting director Richard Hughes believes the Blues need to consider moving away from temporary deals moving forward.

Danny Cowley goes into the transfer window with question marks over the futures of some of his five loanees, as is usually the case with such deals.

The News understands there’s no recall clause in Ipswich’s favour over Joe Pigott, while the Blues are hopeful over Owen Dale staying put from Blackpool.

How things could develop over Josh Koroma, Dane Scarlett and Josh Griffiths is less clear, though, Hughes is hopeful the game time afforded the latter pair opens the door to them staying.

Whatever happens, the man in the key new overarching role feels Pompey will be prepared for any scenario over the loans.

He said: ‘We’ve got an appreciation of where things are, and we feel best placed to make those decisions as and when they come up.

‘We like the boys we’ve got at the minute, they’re doing well and we’d like to think the parent clubs are happy with the exposures they’re getting.

‘You’ve probably got a variation in loans where you’ve Josh Koroma and Joe Pigott, who are more established, Owen Dale who has performed well at a level and then Dane Scarlett and Josh Griffiths who have been given a high level of exposure in game time for their respective parent clubs.

‘We’re on top of the loan situation across the club and know what to act and react upon, should anything change with those regards.’

Pompey have been hurt by loan recalls in recent seasons, most notably when Ben Thompson returned to Millwall at the start of 2019 and delivered a dagger blow to the promotion hopes of Kenny Jackett’s side.

Hughes can see why losing loanees would be on the minds of fans, with the consideration to limit the impact of such a scenario manifesting itself.

He added: ‘I understand that 100 per cent (fears about January recalls).

‘That’s why there is the wider issue of assessing the suitability of loans as well.

‘There’s varying types of loans. Sometimes a loan player can be something you’d not ordinarily get, like in the case of a Josh Griffiths or a Dane Scarlett.

‘Then there’s the other players who provide better value than you’d be able to get in the market.

‘That’s something we’ve spoken about internally and how, potentially, we find a way of navigating away from loan deals.

‘Then there’s making sure we’re best protected against losing players mid-season, and making sure we’re as strong as we can be for the full 10 months of the campaign

‘It’s tough, but we have five loans at the minute. You always want your own players and Danny wouldn’t shy away from that.

‘But the ones we have in the building at the minute affect the squad, which is handy.

‘There is that trepidation, but you can find yourself in a similar situation when you own your players and someone puts down a substantial amount of money in January. That can be equally disruptive.

‘It’s never a perfect world in football, but our job is to plan for the different variations and have contingent plans to minimise disruption.’