Portsmouth boss addresses possibility of losing impressive loan trio in January - with Manchester City, Chelsea and Norwich watching

Alex Robertson, Tino Anjorin and Abu Kamara are on season-long arrangements, although parent clubs can recall them at the halfway point.

It throws up the potential for the League One leaders being deprived of any of the promising trio, who have all made encouraging impacts at Fratton Park so far.

Indeed, Pompey have in the past been stung by the unscheduled departures of loanees Ben Thompson (Millwall), Andre Green (Aston Villa) and Josh Griffiths (West Brom) in previous January windows.

However, Mousinho insists there has currently been no indication from Manchester City, Chelsea or Norwich that they are ready to implement recalls.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘I’m very, very pleased with all three and naturally there’s going to be some interest in January.

‘The reason I make that point is this is a great place for them to develop, to keep learning, and to have another half a season where they can excel again.

‘So far there has been no indication of any of them being recalled and I am confident with the situation at the moment. We have good communication with all the clubs, I’m sure we would get plenty of notice.

‘In my eyes, Alex Robertson has really excelled on his second loan, he has been excellent, filled different positions, and is a real bright spark this season.

‘Tino was just coming into it, he scored against Reading, was a really good performer in the first half against Chesterfield, and hopefully the club is pleased with his progress.

‘Abu has far exceeded where we thought he might be, he’s had to fill in an unfamiliar position and, in a lot of those games, has got goals and assists. He’s looked a real threat and done a really good job playing on the left.

‘Maybe one thing that slightly protects us is we have two lads at Premier League clubs and the likelihood is they are probably not going to get recalled.

‘Should Chelsea and Manchester City recall those two and put them into their first-teams, it would be brilliant from our perspective because we have done our job. We’ll see how that goes.

‘With Abu and Norwich’s situation, maybe that’s something they are considering, but we keep in close contact with them and they haven’t indicated anything so far.

‘It’s out of our control, but part of that is a contingency plan which makes sure we are covered – and we do that for every position.’

It is standard protocol to have the option of a January recall included in season-long loans.

And, in Pompey’s case, they don’t intend to activate it in the case of Toby Steward, who is presently shining at Gosport.

Mousinho added: ‘That’s the whole point of a loan. We have players out on loan, Toby Steward is playing every game at Gosport and doing really well at the top of the league, that’s brilliant for him.

‘Harvey (Laidlaw) wasn’t doing so well in terms of minutes over there, so we recalled him and sent him to Horndean.’