Portsmouth boss John Mousinho allays Fratton faithful fears over superb West Ham starlet

The Blues’ head coach is confident West Ham won’t invoke a January recall option to return the talented midfielder to the London Stadium halfway through the arrangement.

Potts has been superb in his first taste of Championship football, establishing himself at the heart of Pompey’s midfield and making 18 appearances so far.

That first-team opportunity and his exciting development has pleased the Premier League club, according to Mousinho.

And he is adamant there has been nothing to suggest Potts may suddenly be taken away from Fratton Park.

Mousinho told The News: ‘In the past few games, Freddie has gone from strength to strength.

‘I was really impressed with his performance against Swansea, he picked everything up in the middle of the park - he and Andre work brilliantly well together - and Freddie certainly looked every inch of the player we know he can be.

‘We want to keep progressing with that, keep pushing him on, keep making sure he does everything he possibly can to push himself to become a Premier League player at the back end of the season when he goes back to West Ham.

‘At the minute, he’s giving himself every chance and, as far as we are concerned, we’ve got him for the season. They are really pleased with everything that’s gone on here.

‘West Ham have had one of those seasons, I guess slightly similar to us, they’ve been a bit up and down and had a couple of significant defeats, but I don’t see them recalling him (in January).

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‘They are really pleased with everything they see here. Unless anything changes between now and when West Ham have the recall option, I don’t see that happening.’

It was Potts’ free-kick from the left which was headed home by Ryley Towler for Pompey’s third goal in their 4-0 New Year’s Day success over Swansea.

It reflected the growing set-piece responsibility the 21-year-old has been handed during his Blues stay, which includes regularly taking left-wing corners.

Another example was the corner which presented Callum Lang with his hat-trick during the attacker’s remarkable four-goal haul against Coventry last month.

Mousinho added: ‘In terms of set-pieces, Freddie has really good delivery and really good technique, we saw that against Swansea.

‘We have a couple of options in terms of set-piece delivery. Actually, with our set-pieces over the past few weeks, we have conceded a couple more than we had liked - such as Derby and Bristol City.

‘But we have also looked threatening on the other side of it, that comes from the delivery, attacking the ball well, and we’ve got to keep going with that.’