'Patience': Portsmouth boss urges Fratton faithful to give newcomers time to flourish

John Mousinho has appealed for patience with Pompey’s newcomers - and pinpointed Abu Kamara as a prime example.

The mixed opening week of the Championship campaign has reaped a first-day win at Oxford United and then a Carabao Cup upset at the hands of League One Reading.

Yet while Adrian Segecic has hit the ground running, it is clear a number of his fellow summer signings require a little more time to adjust to their new surroundings.

Luke Le Roux and Mark Kosznovszky have featured for the first time in English football, while Yang Minhyeok and Florian Bianchini were recruited on loan during the last fortnight.

And Mousinho believes Kamara’s season-long stay from Norwich in 2023-24 demonstrates how even top Blues performers may need a little patience to flourish.

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He told The News: ‘We will be patient with all the players, it’s a long, long season, it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.

‘We want to win games as quickly as possible, but, at the same time, we’ve got examples in the past where you have seen the patience we’ve shown in players has paid off.

‘I have vivid memories of a game in October 2023 where there was a lot of frustration at Fratton Park at Abu Kamara’s performance and how he had probably started his Pompey career. This was in a season where we ended up winning League One and he was one of the outstanding players.

‘In his first league start for Pompey, I subbed him off at half-time against Leyton Orient, even though we were winning 2-0, because he looked a bit out of his depth.

‘He was fine, it was his first away trip with a senior side, the first time he’d actually competed in the league, and it just took a bit of time.

‘It’s a young lad adjusting to the system, adjusting to Pompey, adjusting to Fratton Park. He’s a really good example of players - whether they are loan players or not - just needing a bit of time.

‘It’s the same with loan players, it’s the same with permanents, everybody we’ve signed this summer are at varying degrees of their journeys into a Pompey career.

‘If you look at the likes of Segs, who has really hit the ground running, he was in the building from day one, he’s pretty much part of the furniture, he doesn’t feel like a new signing for me.

‘We’ve had him around for so long because we signed him so early in the summer. Others are just going to take a bit more time - and that’s fine.’

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Abu Kamara, who is being linked with a £3.5m move to Getafe, scored 10 times in 52 appearances during his time on the south coast.

Meanwhile, Le Roux and Kosznovszky were both handed their debuts in the midweek 2-1 defeat to Reading in the Carabao Cup.

Both featured 70 minutes, before being replaced by Segecic and Tayo Singerr respectively, while Yang, who made his full Blues debut, featured for the full 90 minutes.

And it would be Segecic’s cross from the left which saw debutant Singerr net with a header three minutes into time added on for a consolation goal.

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Mousinho added: ‘It definitely alters from player to player and some positions are easier to fit into our system than others. There’s certain demands we place on players that take a bit of time to get used to.

‘If you look at Mark and Luke, two really good central midfielders. At the weekend against Oxford we thought throwing them into the deep end straight away probably wasn’t the fairest thing to do before they had a bit of a taste of football against Reading.

‘We will keep adjusting and keep trying to make sure we get these things right as we go through the season.’

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