Portsmouth boss makes surprise call over Irishman’s Fratton future after being left in cold

And the Blues boss has outlined the thinking over the Northern Ireland under-21 international being left out of the first-team picture, after early-season Championship involvement.

Devlin is now in his second season at Fratton Park, after the midfielder was recruited from Glentoran on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

The 20-year-old was seen as a dynamic operator through the middle but was utilised further forward and in a makeshift right-back role amid injury issues, before he suffered his own shoulder setback in January.

Mousinho now has made the intriguing shout it’s at right-back where Devlin will be best suited moving forward.

He said: ‘I think his best position now is right-back.

‘The difficult thing for him is we’ve got two front-line right-backs at the moment, so it’s a tough one for him.

‘We bought him as an eight and when we were playing a six and two eights early last season that would have suited him.

‘We tweaked that and it made things difficult for him, so we played him as a 10 sometimes.

‘He played as a 10 at Reading and the subsequent games after that.

‘It’s a tough one for him, because our formation hasn’t necessarily suited him.

‘He’s been brilliant at right-back when he came in last season and did a job there - and pre-season this year.

‘It was Fleetwood, Port Vale and Oxford - then he got injured when he was looking really good.’

After sub appearances against Leeds and Middlesbrough were punctuated by a Carabao Cup start against Millwall, Devlin has found himself out in the cold for the past five Pompey outings.

Mousinho made it clear there’s no issues with the player and it’s simply part of his football education.

He added: ‘Terry came into the squad for two of the first three games and played against Leeds and Middlesbrough.

‘He then had that game against Millwall and my feedback to Terry was he’s probably slightly ahead of where we thought he’d be.

‘His progress has been brilliant and we didn’t expect him to play as much as he did last year.

‘So a year into his progress he’s been thrust into the Championship and I felt there were certain moments which bypassed him and looked a bit quick for him at this stage - but he could probably say it looked like that for everyone at Stoke!

‘So I just feel it’s a chance for him to work on his game.

‘Terry’s got a fantastic attitude and a big future here.

‘He has to keep going with that. There’s no issue whatsoever, he’s just a young lad we’re looking to progress.’