Transfer gossip: Portsmouth reportedly join Premier League quartet tracking exciting £4.25m talent

The Blues are said to be one of five English clubs interested in the 20-year-old, who is catching the eye with Swedish side Mjallby AIF.

John Mousinho’s men have been joined in the race for the Gambian by Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Wolves, while Turkish outfit Olympiacos and MLS side FC Cincinnati are also monitoring.

Manneh has already made his mark on the international stage, gaining two caps for Gambia in back-to-back Africa Nations Championship qualifiers against Guinea-Bissau in 2022.

The versatile frontman can operate in a number of areas across the forward line, with his main position in the number 10 role.

The young international has impressed in the 2025 campaign for Mjallby in Sweden’s top flight, which got underway in March. This has seen him appear on the scoresheet seven times in 12 games in all competitions to date.

And his outstanding form has seen a number of scouts from English sides head out to keep tabs on the striker’s progress.

Now Manneh has caught the eye of a number of Premier League clubs as well as Pompey, with The Mirror reporting he is on the Blues’ radar.

The exciting Gambian forward still has two-years remaining on his current deal at the Standvallen, with the article suggesting he is valued at around £4.25m.

Pompey plan to recruit ‘exciting, young players’ as transfer plans revealed

After focusing their attention on securing experience to help their Championship survival bid in January, the Blues are ready to continue their project of securing upcoming talent.

Speaking to The News last month, Mousinho made it clear Pompey can turn their attention to focus on landing ‘exciting, young players’.

‘We had mix our long-term strategy in January with making sure we did enough to stay in the league. We also had the first player in my time that we paid more than £1m for in Hayden.

‘Whenever we speak about transfer budgets with the football club, we have a rough idea of what there is to spend.

‘When we’ve asked for money or extra money, and we’ve done that a fair few times, the answer has always been yes.

‘It’s been about us saying things like “this is a player we can pay £1m-plus for and we think he’s going to come in and have a real impact now and for the future”. That was the case in Hayden Matthews, we’re backing him and we’re putting our name to him.

‘When that happened it’s always been a quick conversation, there’s never been any “oh we need to go away and think about it”. It’s been “yes, we’re going to do that”. Then it was how are we going to mix it? We were going to mix it with four loan players who will cost x amount, and that is going to take us way above our budget.

‘That’s what we have done, so fair play to the club because we’ve always had that ability to be flexible with it. With things like fees, we can spend on exciting, young players who can come in and make an impact now - so we’ll keep doing it.’

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