Portsmouth boss John Mousinho addresses concerns over January exit for Chelsea starlet
The England Under-18 international has made 12 appearances of Pompey, scoring once
John Mousinho remains ‘extremely confident’ that Chelsea won’t cut short Ryan Kuvuma-McQueen’s Fratton Park spell.
Although on a season-long loan, the Premier League club hold a January recall option for the England Under-18 international.
Pompey have been stung before by such clauses, including Ben Thompson (Millwall) in January 2020 and, far more recently, Spurs’ Minhyeok Yang.
The talented Kuvuma-McQueen has been a revelation since joining from Stamford Bridge in August, featuring in 12 matches, of which eight have been Championship starts.
And Mousinho doesn’t expect Chelsea to step in and take back the 17-year-old when the transfer window reopens.
‘We have an incredibly good relationship with Chelsea’
He told The News: ‘Chelsea have the option, but I am really comfortable we will keep Ryan in January.
‘We have an incredibly good relationship with them and I’m sure if they want to do that then they will tell us really early.
‘Every indication that we’ve had - and we’ve spoken to them very clearly about it - is they would much rather Ryan gets the minutes here playing for Pompey and playing for a Championship club, ready to go back to Chelsea next year.
‘This is a question for Chelsea, but I don’t think they will move him to go to a different football club. I think the only circumstance would be if they wanted him back to go and play for Chelsea.
‘The ball’s in their court, they are the parent club, but I am extremely confident that we are going to have Ryan and I am extremely confident that if, for whatever reason, that changed, then Chelsea would let us know and we’ll make sure we can figure out what that looks like.
‘There’s still more to come from Ryan. He is doing extremely well here for somebody on his first loan, for a 17-year-old living away from home coming into a first-team environment for consistently for the first time
‘I think he has adapted brilliantly.’
Brentford loan duo
Meanwhile, Brentford also have January recall options over the season-long arrangements for Benjy Arthur and Jayden Meghoma.
Central-defender Arthur has been sidelined since September with a fractured back, with Mousinho pencilling him in for a January return to action.
While Meghoma has made seven appearances, although lost his left-back spot to Zak Swanson for last weekend’s 2-1 win over Millwall.
Mousinho added: ‘We are having the same conversations with Brentford. We have a very, very good relationship with Brentford having taken Myles (Peart-Harris) previously.
‘With Benjy we’ll see where he is fitness wise, I suspect he’ll come back and want to play for us and the same with Jayden.
‘They want Jayden to go and get minutes - and he’s getting those minutes and is performing well at the moment. There’s absolutely no indication we will lose them in January.’
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