Ryan Kavuma-McQueen’s hurtling Pompey emergence as the teen hope steps up impressively to Championship.
The Chelsea loanee ‘incredibly sharp’ breakthrough at second-tier level has caught the eye of EFL experts, as he makes an ‘exciting’ start to life at Fratton Park.
EFL experts on Kavuma-McQueen: ‘He looks incredibly sharp and covers ground quickly’
Pompey’s Ryan Kavuma-McQueen. Picture: Jason Brownplaceholder image
Pompey’s Ryan Kavuma-McQueen. Picture: Jason Brown | Jason Brown
And Abu Kamara’s impressive efforts at Lincoln City last weekend has been heralded, following his emotional Blues homecoming.
Last weekend saw Pompey pick up their maiden Championship success at Sincil Bank, with a display which produced plenty of positive talking points.
At the top of the tree was the efforts of Kavuma-McQueen, who opened the scoring in a standout showing on his first start since arriving from the Premier League big guns.
That came after the 17-year-old shone on his Fratton bow in the second half of the defeat to QPR on the opening day of the campaign.
Kavuma-McQueen has handled the early days of his step up to Championship level incredibly well for a player of such tender years.
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Among those to be impressed are EFL pundits, Not The Top 20 Podcast, who focussed on the winger’s display against the Imps.
NTT20’s Ali Maxwell has followed Kavuma-McQueen’s progress at England age-group level and liked what he’s seen of the Londoner.
But he acknowledged that the Championship is a different beast entirely - which makes the new boy’s efforts even more impressive.
Maxwell said on NTT20: ‘Ryan Kavuma-McQueen - this guy is 17 years’ old and on loan from Chelsea.
‘He’s a winger who’s left footed, but does a lot of his work off the right normally.
‘But “wow”, he came on half-time on the opening weekend and looked incredibly sharp.
‘He scored with a deflected shot to make it 1-0.
‘He does not look like a 17-year-old winger, he looks incredibly sharp and covers ground quickly.
‘He works hard and there’s quality in his technical play.
‘He’s very exciting. Doing the England pod and covering some of the youth teams it’s hard not to notice some of the performances he’s been putting in.
‘But we’re talking about the under-17s - for him to come in and make such a big impact is so exciting.
‘That’s particularly on a day when Josh Murphy came back, came on, came off again injured and is still really struggling to maintain his fitness.’
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Kamara’s efforts at Lincoln saw his Fratton return kickstarted in earnest, following his £2.5m return to the club he helped to the League One title two years ago.
It didn’t work out for the 23-year-old in his stay at Hull City, which included a period on loan in Spain with Getafe last term.
Maxwell noted the former Norwich City man looked a player more comfortable in his surroundings, as part of John Mousinho’s team.
He added: ‘He is back at Pompey - permanently after two seasons away.
‘He played every, single game in their promotion-winning season from League One.
‘Then he tragically joined Hull City instead of Portsmouth - and it went terribly. He went to Getafe last season - it went terribly.
‘But now he’s back where he belongs and looks like he’s never been away.’