'Hugely fortunate': John Mousinho on how Portsmouth have struck Premier League gold with Chelsea and Brentford
The talented trio all arrived at Fratton Park on loan after the 2026-27 season had started
Transfer market patience has paid impressive dividends as Pompey savour their talented Premier League trio.
According to John Mousinho, the Blues needed to wait over the summer before pouncing on leading loan targets as they sought to strengthen their squad.
As a consequence, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, Benjy Arthur and Jayden Meghoma arrived at Fratton Park in the final two-and-a-half weeks of the window on season-long arrangements.
All have made instant impacts, particularly the 17-year-old Kavuma-McQueen, with the Chelsea winger also netting on his England Under-18s debut against Egypt on Sunday.
Likewise, the attack-minded Meghoma has shone at left-back, although Brentford team-mate Arthur has been ruled out for four months through injury having established himself as an essential starter at centre-half.
And after suffering a mixed time with young loanees in recent years, Mousinho believes Pompey have hit the jackpot with the current threesome.
‘It's a difficult level to gauge’
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘We’ve taken our time with where we’ve wanted to go with the loan market this summer.
‘We have taken one of the youngest players available in Ryan - and I’m not sure there are many younger players out there on loan at the moment.
‘He has really hit the ground running, he’s done really well for a 17-year-old, and the two lads from Brentford have also impressed huge amounts.
‘It’s hard, the loan market is really hard, the majority of loans we take at this level and even the level below would come from PL2 sides and it's a difficult level to gauge how well the players are going to come into first-team football.
‘You look at some of the most promising young talents through those age groups. I had a really good working relationship with Dane Scarlett, he was the most promising talent throughout the country for long, long periods.
‘It probably took him a minute to adjust to League One when he got here and maybe he didn’t quite have the season we expected him to have. We’ve had those types of examples.
‘We’ve had other ones too. Abu was a really good example of one we didn’t have to fight off too many other clubs for his signature (on loan), but he hit the ground running, he made that step up from Norwich's development side to the first-team - and did brilliantly well.
‘There have been some of those - and we’ve had some which haven’t gone quite as well.’
Premier League successes and failures in recent years
The likes of Freddie Potts (West Ham) and Alex Robertson (Manchester City) have also been loan successes in recent years.
However, Miguel Azeez (Arsenal), Dane Scarlett (Spurs), Kaide Gordon (Liverpool), plus Josh Koroma (Huddersfield), Tyler Walker (Coventry), Sammy Silvera (Middlesborough) and Florian Bianchini (Swansea) have failed to live up to their billing.
Certainly Kavuma-McQueen and Meghoma can be expected to line up against Southampton on October 11 when the Championship season resumes following the international break.
Mousinho added: ‘It doesn't matter about their age at all, we have done it with 17-year-olds and 22-year-olds and everything in between. It’s just about the player and how mature they are when coming in.
‘If you look at the way they play, Benjy for the physical stats, Ryan doesn’t look like a 17-year-old at all, and the way Jayden moves, the way he can burst past players and the maturity he plays with.
‘We are hugely fortunate to be the recipients of them having had a really good football grounding from parent clubs.’
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