Norwich City can’t afford to make Swansea City mistake after Portsmouth transfer call: View | OneFootball

Highlights

Portsmouth secured their promotion to the Championship, and the League One crown, on Tuesday night, but their activity for this season won't stop as their fans call on them to bring in their Norwich City loanee in permanently.

Fratton Park was filled with eager Pompey fans for their midweek match with Barnsley. They knew they had the chance to win promotion and the league in the same night, and that is what they did.

A 3-2 victory over the Tykes confirmed their dreams as reality, and the home fans stormed the pitch to celebrate with their players.

The triumphant group eventually ended up sitting above their dugout, looking out at their adoring fanbase, and the fun started from there.

One player who really embraced the praise was 20-year-old Abu Kamara, who was stood up next to his teammates as the Portsmouth faithful chanted: "Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up."

The winger has provided 18 direct goal contributions for John Mousinho's side this season (eight goals and 10 assists).

The winger has been on loan at Fratton Park from Norwich since the start of the season, and it's clear that the fans want to keep him around.

But the Canaries need to learn the lessons from Swansea City, as they made a mistake in a very similar situation less than a year ago.

Swansea City's Morgan Whittaker calamity

City sold the young winger to newly promoted Plymouth Argyle last summer in a deal worth £1 million, plus add-ons, according to the BBC.

Whittaker had impressed on loan with Argyle in the first half of their eventual title winning season, and was recalled by Swansea in the January transfer window.

He struggled to find his feet at the Swansea.com Stadium, and they agreed a deal to sell him in the summer to his formerly temporary, and now permanent, team.

It's safe to say that they regret that decision now. In 43 Championship games, in the 23/24 campaign, he has found the back of the net 19 times, and assisted others in doing so on a further eight occasions. Meanwhile, Swansea's top scorer, Jamal Lowe, has only scored eight goals this season.

Not only have they missed out on his goals, but they have also potentially missed out on an even bigger payday than the one they got in the summer of 2023. The London-based Premier League trio of West Ham United, Fulham, and Brentford were all said to be interested in the 23-year-old in this season's winter transfer window, as per Football Insider.

Norwich should learn from Swansea's Morgan Whittaker mistake

David Wagner's team find themselves in a very similar scenario. They have a young winger who has performed well on loan for a League One-winning side, but he didn't make much of an impact for his parent club, and the loan team may want to have him permanently.

Where the situation differs is that Whittaker had half a season with the Swans after his loan spell with Plymouth, whereas Kamara has only made a few short substitute appearances for the Canaries.

This decision that Norwich will have to make on Kamara's future will be made a lot easier if they get promoted to the Premier League. They have their play-off fate in their hands, with the teams below them not able to catch them, even if they win their games in hand, and they could leapfrog West Brom for fifth spot.

A promotion this season would make it much easier for Portsmouth to get Kamara because he wouldn't be quite ready to be in a top flight squad, and the Canaries could use that money to help them try and build their team up to the Premier League standard.

However, if they don't get promoted, and they decide to sell the 20-year-old to Pompey, they risk the same thing happening to them as Swansea have had this season.

From the club's perspective, the best way to move forward with this is to keep him for pre-season, see where he is at in comparison to the rest of the squad, and loan him again if he's not ready. Selling Kamara would be a big risk.