Rich Hughes addresses Portsmouth interest in reunion with popular Manchester City and Norwich pair

Rich Hughes has reiterated Pompey’s ambition to bring Abu Kamara and Alex Robertson back to Fratton Park.

But he admits it’s still far too early to have a clear outlook on the Blues’ chances of succeeding.

The duo were huge hits during the League One title-winning campaign, emerging as their best loan performers of a talented group which also consisted of Tino Anjorin and Myles Peart-Harris.

Now Pompey are a Championship club once more, there remains hope the pair could be secured in another loan arrangement for 2024-25.

With Kamara, that very much depends on whether Norwich can reach the Premier League, with their play-off semi-final first leg against Leeds on Sunday.

In the meantime, Hughes must bide his time as he eyes summer transfer business.

The Blues’ sporting director told The News: ‘Norwich are still in the play-offs, so we won’t know for another few weeks.

‘Any scenario where we could try to bring Abu back we would do, he’s been excellent, but we fully respect he’s Norwich’s player and will see where that takes us.

‘Alex is a really good player, we like him. He’s still recovering from his injury, so we have to let that pan out, but again if there was an opportunity for us to revisit those conversations, we absolutely would do.

‘All four of our loan players could play in the Championship for us.’

Understandably, Norwich regard Kamara highly and see a bright future at Carrow Road, where he’s contracted until 2025.

Yet the Blues hope promotion to the Premier League could see the Canaries willing to loan the winger out once more - this time to a Pompey side in the Championship.

Hughes added: ‘Me and Phil (Boardman) watched a lot of under-21s and, in my opinion, the three best players that were playing under-21s football before this season were Shea Charles, who went for £15m to Southampton, Alex Robertson, playing alongside Shea in various positions, and Abu Kamara.

‘Abu had the wonderful habit of scoring every time we saw him. He would do something to impact a game from various positions, whether that be nine, 10, a seven off the right, although he didn’t actually play much off the left.

‘We saw a lot of what everyone has been lucky enough to see. His one-v-one ability is very good, he’s a good athlete, he's still growing, still getting stronger. He’s got a lovely left foot and can score goals.

‘We felt Abu could affect games, then he grabbed the season by the horns. For a first loan to feature in every game is astounding, it just doesn’t happen. 

‘We gave him a platform, but the absolute credit goes to Abu Kamara.’