Portsmouth triallist Aaron Jarvis showed decent attributes at Luton - but he may need loan spell in National League to really get going

Aaron Jarvis was very much a raw talent when he was signed for Luton from Basingstoke in August 2017.

He was scouted by Mick Harford and came in as a squad player.

Jarvis was working for Tesco at the time and nobody had really heard of him.

Luton were taking a punt on a non-league player and nothing was really expected of him.

Jarvis made his Football League debut as a substitute at Morecambe, before playing a couple of Checkatrade Trophy games.

He scored a couple of good goals, they were good finishes, while he’s had loan spells at Boreham Wood and then Falkirk at the end of last season.

You could see he got better and the work the staff did with Jarvis on the training ground paid off.

From what fans saw, they did think he had something about him and looked okay, but there wasn’t a great deal expected.

Jarvis is quite quick and his hold-up play really got better.

He’s quite tall, has heading ability and hold-up play and is a decent finisher – they're all the attributes needed as a centre-forward.

With Luton being promoted into the Championship, I think they thought he’s not quite ready and is not going to get up to that level.

The Hatters got promoted too quickly for Jarvis to stay – although I’m not sure he would have got a new deal anyway if they hadn’t gone up.

With new manager Graeme Jones coming in, he might also want to bring in his own players.

Luton don't want a massive squad next season and want to make sure everyone can feature.

Jarvis wasn't really in the League One or League Two team.

In fact, he’s never played much above Southern League level when he was at Basingstoke.

Jarvis went out on loan to Boreham Wood in the National League and didn’t play much there.

I'd say he needs a decent spell at a National League club to get going.

I’m not saying Jarvis can’t but it would be a big step for him to go straight into a team like Pompey.