Portsmouth boss clarifies Freddie Potts' Fratton Park future amid West Ham return speculation
Freddie Potts is staying with Pompey for the remainder of the season.
John Mousinho has delivered the news every Blues fan wants to hear after West Ham decided against recalling the talented midfielder.
Although on a season-long loan, the Premier League club had the option to end Potts’ arrangement before January 14.
However, that deadline has long since passed, ensuring the 21-year-old will definitely see out of the campaign at Fratton Park.
Potts, who has made 23 appearances so far, produced another strong display in Wednesday night’s 3-1 success over Stoke.
And Mousinho is delighted to continue having him at his disposal in the ongoing battle to remain in the Championship.
He told The News: ‘The loan deadline was the 14th, so Freddie is with us for the season.
‘We were always speaking to West Ham and they never said anything about wanting to recall him - and we were obviously aware of that.
‘We have really good contacts with all the loan clubs we do take players from and we like to think that should there ever be a sniff of a recall then they will let us know.
‘It happens, these clubs own the players, it’s well within their rights to be able to do that. But we had good communication with them throughout.
‘Hopefully from West Ham’s point of view, they will look at it and see how well Freddie has done this year and think this is the right place for him.’
Since being handed his debut at Burnley in September, Potts has been a fixture in the Blues midfield.
And Mousinho’s men’s latest win lifts them into 18th spot - three points above the relegation zone with a game in hand.
Pompey’s head coach added: ‘I thought Freddie was excellent against Stoke, a performance you wouldn’t necessarily expect from such a young player in the middle of the park playing game after game after game after game.
‘There are still loads that Fred can improve upon. He was tenacious in the middle of the park and showed his quality in a really good all-round midfield performance, doing a couple of different jobs as well.
‘I’ve seen him grow and I spoke to Matt Bloomfield quite a lot last year about how much he grew when playing in that Wycombe side, he went from strength to strength.
‘We’ve seen that this season. Freddie will know how highly we rate him, having come in and we played him almost straight away against Burnley. Apart from resting him a couple of times, hasn’t been out of the side since.’