Portsmouth boss reveals desire to sign impressive Norwich man permanently - but has his doubts

But Pompey’s head coach concedes the 20-year-old talent is destined for Norwich’s first-team next season.

The attacker has featured in all nine of the Blues’ matches so far this season, starting five of them, while scored against Peterborough in his most recent outing.

It’s an encouraging start to life on the south coast for a player on a season-long loan from the Championship.

Such has been Kamara’s eye-catching early impact, Mousinho admits he’d be keen to keep the youngster beyond this term.

But, realistically, he believes the Canaries man is heading on a different career path.

Mousinho told The News: ‘We would love to sign Abu next summer but my suspicion is that, if he progresses the way he should progress, Norwich will be after him next season and he’ll be in their first-team.

‘We would certainly look to the future, though. A good example would be Bali Mumba, who went to Plymouth on loan and then Norwich decided they would let him go and he joined permanently.

‘If that's a possibility with Abu then we’d look at that and see what’s coming up next year. However, we don’t know what the financials would be, we don't know if Abu would want to do it, etc, etc.

‘From how much we speak to Norwich, we certainly know they were really keen on him getting this loan, learning a lot and then affecting their first-team.

‘You never know, if Norwich get promoted maybe they’ll go down a different path – and, if they don’t ,they may still go down a different path.

‘Abu’s goal next season should be playing in the Championship. He can certainly make that a lot easier for himself by contributing to getting us promoted.’

Kamara was a pivotal figure in Pompey’s 3-1 win over Peterborough before the international break.

He netted the Blues’s second goal, while then supplied the cross from the left for Regan Poole to grab their third during the second half.

Kamara will be bidding to retain his place – and register a fourth start in the last five matches – when Mousinho’s men head to Derby on Saturday.

Pompey’s boss added; ‘With Abu, we saw a really strong performance against Forest Green and then glimpses until Stevenage, when he was really threatening and our best player in the first half.

‘Alongside the entire team against Peterborough, there was a tricky 15-20 minutes and once he scored his confidence shot up.

‘In the second half we saw him taking players on the outside, forcing a really good save from the goalkeeper, then he set up the third goal.

‘That’s what we’ll see from Abu, putting those glimpses together in a full coherent performance that lasts 90 minutes.’