'Without a doubt': Portsmouth boss on how League One promotion ended promising youngster's Blues career

Koby Mottoh has paid the price for Pompey’s return to the Championship.

That’s the admission of John Mousinho, after deciding against offering the promising youngster professional terms.

The winger spent two weeks training with the Blues’ first-team towards the end of the season as their head coach ran the rule over the 17-year-old.

However, Mottoh was unable to earn himself a deal and, as a consequence, joins 10 of his fellow second-year scholars in leaving Fratton Park this summer.

And Mousinho conceded the fact Pompey will line up in the Championship next season impacted the decision over the ex-Arsenal youngster’s south-coast future.

He told The News: ‘We have decided not to offer Koby a contract on the same thread as some of the other younger lads. Without a doubt, he has been hamstrung by the fact we have been promoted.

‘We have gone up another level and could have offered him a deal, kept him around and loaned him out, although I don’t think he would have got a full-time loan. So it was a case of him coming back here to train.

‘That’s fine, but, with the numbers we’ll have next year, we aren’t sure Koby would have developed in a squad where we train every day with 22-24 players and then a smaller training group of lads who can’t get involved in the squad.

‘We thought the best thing for Koby was to go elsewhere. We aren’t sure where that’s going to be, we’ll try to support him in that. We wouldn't be surprised if an under-21 side picked him up and gave him that development which we can’t give him at the moment.

‘We make these decisions not just based on the pathway for Koby, we also on whether we think he’s going to be able to make the step up to Pompey’s first-team in the Championship.

‘We live and die by that decision and might be proven wrong, but, at the moment, we don’t think that would be the case.’

Mottoh broke into Pompey’s first-team in cup competitions this season, with five appearances.

However, his last involvement in the squad was for the December defeat to AFC Wimbledon in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

Mousinho added: ‘In a weird way, we want Koby to prove us wrong because he’s a really good kid who has been part of the first-team squad this season and done really well for a 17-year-old.

‘They are difficult decisions to make because a 17-year-old versus the 23-year-old version of Koby could be very, very different.

‘You never know what’s going to go on with the player, but we need to look at it as a whole and ask do we think that, at some point, he’s going to be able to come in and affect the first-team?

‘That’s the skill of it - and sometimes you get them wrong.’