View: Portsmouth scholar Harry Clout on road to pro terms with pre-season showing

Portsmouth scholar Harry Clout has people talking this pre-season after impressing for John Mousinho's side in his aim for a pro contract.

On Express FM's 'Football Hour' show on Monday evening [22 July], the topic of Clout's three pre-season appearances so far was raised by host Jake Smith.

Panellist Alex Fletcher agreed that Clout has offered some excitement to Pompey fans due to a limited number of youth players coming through at Fratton Park in recent years.

Clout is an attacking midfielder who has operated out wide on the left for the Blues in the past few games, bidding to earn his first professional contract.

"[Clout] is causing a bit of a stir and a bit of a buzz," Fletcher said.

"It gives motivation to other young players to come in, and they're usually in many respects fearless, and they'll give everything. It can keep first-team players motivated as well.

"Assuming he's a local lad like our academy products do tend to be, it would be great to see him in the team."

Portsmouth give Clout a chance

The topic of Under-18 player Clout's pre-season performances was influenced towards Smith on the show by a message written in by the teenager's grandparents, which offers a reminder of the community feel around Portsmouth and the pride from players' families when they see a youngster put on the shirt.

Pompey fans have been deprived of a pathway of young homegrown talent due to the lack of a professional development phase or, namely, an under-21 side at the club.

It's a case that has been discussed at length in the past, and has seen a large volume of scholars released by the club as they have nowhere to progress if they still lie unrealistically far from the first team picture in the near future.

The most frustrating departure was that of Koby Mottoh, who had impressed in a smattering of cup appearances as a scholar for the first team, before this summer signing for AFC Bournemouth.

Clout has put in a real encouraging shift in the pre-season games so far on Pompey's left-hand side, though he did not travel with the squad to Croatia due to, as Mousinho told The News [23 July], "the numbers not working out."

If he keeps going on this trajectory then surely a pro deal is in the offing.

In other Portsmouth news, the club look to be fast becoming the Australian capital of the Championship.

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