Respected Hammers transfer insider, ExWHUEmployee, has revealed via his Patreon account that the Premier League out could bring the midfielder back to the London Stadium should they fail to land their January transfer targets.
West Ham are reportedly currently looking at Chelsea duo Carney Chukwuemeka and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, as well as Ezechiel Banzuzi from OH Leuven. But it’s claimed if they cannot get those signings over the line, they could look to bring Potts back to compete for a first-team place and bring an early end to his Fratton Park stint.
The Hammers are currently 14th in the top-flight table, with new boss Graham Potter losing two of his three games in charge.
Bar the 3-0 defeat to Bristol City just after Christmas, the Hammers Academy graduate has started 20 of the 23 league games he has been available for this term. He’s been a reliable figure in Pompey’s engine room and has partnered with Andre Dozzell in the centre of the park for a large part of the campaign.
At the start of January, John Mousinho was confident West Ham wouldn’t recall Potts from his loan. The Premier League outfit were said to be happy with how his stay had gone at Fratton Park – although that was before they sacked Julen Lopetegui earlier this month.
‘We want to keep progressing with that (his development), keep pushing him on,’ Mousinho told The News.
‘Keep making sure he does everything he possibly can to push himself to become a Premier League player at the back end of the season when he goes back to West Ham
‘At the minute, he’s giving himself every chance and, as far as we are concerned, we’ve got him for the season. They are really pleased with everything that’s gone on here.
‘West Ham have had one of those seasons, I guess slightly similar to us, they’ve been a bit up and down and had a couple of significant defeats, but I don’t see them recalling him (in January).
Pompey’s central midfield options
Isaac Hayden was brought in from Newcastle United on a loan deal until the end of the season, and played for an hour alongside Potts in the 2-1 win against Middlesbrough last Saturday. The 29-year-old is just getting up to speed with things again having not played much football at Newcastle United over the past six months.
After signing Hayden, Mousinho recently said that central midfield is a position they’re ‘fairly happy with’. Any possible recall of Potts would cause some disruption given how much he features in his plans.
One positive is that Marlon Pack is shortly due to move back to the centre-midfield, after filling in at centre-back over the last couple of months. The 33-year-old continued to play there on Saturday against Boro, but both Conor Shaughnessy and Regan Poole are nearing a return.
Mousinho is also able to call upon Owen Moxon and Abdoulaye Kamara. Kamara played the entirety of the game against Wycombe Wanderers in the FA Cup but has been unable to break into a match-day squad for a league fixture as of late. Moxon has played 12 league games, though only two of those have been starts.
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