'Some things are Championship level': Portsmouth boss addresses Reuben Swann's Fratton Park future

John Mousinho has revealed his plans for Pompey ‘project’ Reuben Swann.

The midfielder was the Blues’ third signing of the summer of 2024 after arriving from Southern League Southern Central club AFC Sudbury for an undisclosed fee.

Aged 18 at the time, Swann was viewed as a long-term prospect and for 2024-25 linked up with the Hawks on a season-long loan to drive his development.

Now entering a second year on the south coast, Mousinho is currently assessing the youngster during Pompey’s pre-season, having attended their Slovakian training camp.

And he is weighing up the next stage of Swann’s Fratton Park career, with 12 months remaining on his deal.

Portsmouth boss: There’s loads which is really promising

Mousinho told The News: ‘We certainly want to have a look at Reuben off the back of his loan last year. He is doing pre-season, we’d like him to be involved in the forthcoming friendlies, then we’ll go from there.

‘If it looks like he can be involved in the first-team then great. If it doesn’t, we’ll look to get him out on loan.

‘It was a good season for him in terms of his development. He didn't start a huge amount of games, but when he played he had a real impact.

‘We spoke to Northy (Shaun North) pretty much every day on how Reuben was getting on at Havant and there are loads of parts to his game that are really promising and loads of parts to his game which need to improve.

‘Certainly the next step for him is to go out to a similar level - if we do decide to let him out and play more games.’

Collected pre-season injury

Swann collected a hip flexor injury in training towards the back end of last week at the X-Bionic Sphere sports complex in Samorin.

That set-back kept him out of Thursday’s open training session, which was attended by more than 50 Pompey fans. Instead he joined Harvey Blair on the sidelines, watching proceedings.

It remains to be seen whether he will be available for forthcoming matches against Woking (Tuesday) and Farnborough (Wednesday) as the friendly schedule gets underway with two games on the road.

Swann impressed Hawks supporters during last season’s Westleigh Park loan spell, although spent the majority of his time appearing off the bench as they finished sixth in Southern League Premier South.

He has still to feature competitively for Pompey, with substitute outings last season in friendlies with the Hawks and the Rocks - and certainly caught the eye in the former.

And Mousinho has been impressed with how the 19-year-old has fared in training since last month’s return for pre-season.

‘He has fitted in the group and been outstanding’

The Blues head coach added: ‘He’s had a good pre-season, he has come back and looked fit. It’s a good thing for Reuben to make sure his fitness is up and he has really impacted things with the first-team.

‘Sometimes he does things which are definitely Championship level and there are other parts of his game we really need to work on. He is really aware of that.

‘It has been good to have him around, he has fitted into the group and been outstanding.’

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