Title winner still valued at Portsmouth amid challenge to impress new Hull City boss
Hull City have today appointed their new coach, with Abu Kamara among those who will need to impress Sergej Jakirovic. The League One title winner still has his fans among the Fratton Faithful - and Pompey’s football operation.
The love for Abu Kamara hasn’t gone away at Pompey.
That was seen in the post-match mutual show of appreciation after the final whistle, as the man who played such an important role in the League One title success returned to Fratton Park on the final day with Hull City.
And it’s fair to say the admiration for the 21-year-old still stretches to within the Blues football operation, and the team who got Kamara playing the best football in his career to date.
Pompey not given up on Abu Kamara wearing royal blue again
In fact, it’s not overstating the situation to say the club haven’t given up hope of the man who bagged 10 goals and 10 assists at PO4 one day wearing royal blue again.
Regardless of that scenario, Kamara and his Hull team-mates now have a new head coach to impress after the appointment of Bosnian Sergej Jakirovic today. Jakirovic is the man who is replacing Ruben Selles, who lost his job last month despite keeping the Tigers up on the final day with their 1-1 draw at PO4.
With their level of spending last term that wasn’t deemed good enough by owner Acun Ilcali, with Jakirovic his sixth appointment since acquiring the club for £30m in January 2022.
Kamara’s season at the MKM Stadium reflected his club’s, after they blew Pompey’s interest out of the water by signing the Londoner from Norwich for £4.5m.
He returned five league goals and three assists in a testing period in which he was made to take part in a slightly bizarre press conference, where he apologised for responding with a heart emoji to Paddy Lane scoring against Swansea on New Year’s Day. That came in the wake of Hull being beaten by Middlesbrough by a late winner, which Kamara was deemed to be partly at fault for.
Pompey fans will have half an eye on how things pan out now for their former player, with Jakirovic arriving from Turkish outfit Kayserispor today.
Hull are billing the 48-year-old as a front-footed coach, though he did receive criticism for being overly defensive when winning the league and cup double last year with Croatia outfit Dinamo Zagreb. He was sacked in September 2024, after a record 9-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Pompey are pushing on with their recruitment plans and will be following what’s going on at Hull in the weeks and months ahead, no doubt.
The Blues have an improved playing budget, and John Mousinho is expecting to push on from the club paying £1.27m paid for Hayden Matthews in January - the most for a player since Erik Huseklepp was signed for £1.5m in 2011.
But, even with his Hull stay not catching fire so far, it’s a big leap to see Kamara returning to Fratton Park just yet if his face doesn’t fit under his new coach.
Pompey’s owners may be prepared to sanction increased fees, but Mousinho explicitly stated himself that will not stretch to what Hull paid for Kamara when he spoke on the subject last March.
He told The News then: ‘Since I came to the club, fees have always been a conversation around bringing the right players to the board.
‘We will then discuss the fee - and every time the answer has been yes. If it’s the right player at the right cost we’ve been able to do it. That’s the way that it was sold to me since I came to the club - and that’s the way it’s been.
‘Without getting into the real detail of it, if Abu Kamara is going to cost £4.5m we are not there yet - we are not in that market. We’re just not there and whether that’s value for money, I don’t know.
‘But we are in the market now for a Hayden Matthews, and we’ll push on from there and see what the summer’s like.’
So it would evidently take Hull taking a big hit on that fee to bring such a deal into play anytime soon. Though the prospect of Pompey establishing themselves in the Championship and increasing their spending power along the way, would potentially make things more viable a little further down the line.