Portsmouth boss reveals pathway to unleashing West Ham starlet on Championship

But the Pompey boss has made it clear he will resist the temptation to throw the promising, young midfielder into his side’s second-tier campaign before the time’s right.

Potts has yet to play a minute of competitive football since arriving on loan for the season from West Ham, at the window’s climax last month.

There are reasonable hopes over the impact the 21-year-old can make at Fratton Park this term, as the Londoner takes the next step in his football education.

That’s after Potts made a strong impression in League One last term with Wycombe, collecting a host of player-of-the-season awards amid 43 outings at Adams Park.

Mousinho is wary, however, of throwing the clever operator in too deep, off the back of a pre-season where Potts has not picked up too many playing minutes.

That means the focus has been on sharpening up the brother of former Pompey loanee Dan Potts, as he this week featured in the behind-closed-doors win over Hawks,

Mousinho said: ‘Freddie’s good, but he’s come in and had a very different pre-season to us.

‘That’s fine, it’s just different ways of doing things.

‘So it’s just that adjustment to coming into this environment and that’s something we’ve been cautious with over Freddie.

‘Again, he’s one who’s been around West Ham’s first team for the majority of pre-season, but actually hasn’t played a huge amount.

‘So we’ve been cautious with him and don’t want to throw him in the deep end without any game exposure.

‘Then, all of a sudden, he has to deal with x, y and z. So it’s making sure he’s had that and got some training behind him.

‘It’s making sure he’s got some minutes behind him, which he got in the friendly against Hawks as well - then we’ll go from there.’