'Fingers burnt': Simon Bassey lifts lid on why Portsmouth owners cut spending under Danny Cowley
Simon Bassey has revealed how Tornante’s transfer approach changed after having their ‘fingers burnt’ over the costly signings of John Marquis and Ellis Harrison.
As a consequence, he claims Pompey’s owners were reluctant to spend big under Danny Cowley - and had to rely on selling Marcus Harness to fund Colby Bishop’s July 2022 arrival.
Bishop arrived at Fratton Park in a £500,000 deal from Accrington, a move then-assistant manager Bassey was at the heart of during a chaotic 24 hours.
That transfer had been financed by Harness’ switch to Ipswich six days earlier for a fee in the region of £650,000.
The winger had been snapped by the Blues in the summer of 2019 along with Marquis (£1m) and Harrison (£450,000) as Kenny Jackett spent money generated by the sales of Matt Clarke (Brighton) and Jamal Lowe (Wigan).
However, Marquis and Harrison later left for five-figure fees in January 2022 with six months of their contracts remaining, representing a huge drop in value.
And Bassey believes that substantially impacted Jackett’s successor - Cowley - in the transfer market.
He told The News: ‘It was a time of a lot of change, it’s never easy when you kind of get left with other people’s players and the baggage which comes with that.
‘John (Marquis) was all right, he was probably just full up. He’d come with a price tag and a big reputation and hadn't quite done as well as he thought. He was just a bit full-up of Pompey and needed a change.
‘These are the problems you have, what can you do? You just have to try to work with them and get the best out of them.
‘Ellis (Harrison) was okay, but it just wasn't going to work for him. He’d probably had his best days and his career when at Pompey. At the moment he has bounced about a bit.
‘I liked Ellis, a good kid, a good character, but probably wasn’t right for Pompey at the time.
‘The club had spent a lot of money and invested in Ellis, invested in John and invested in Marcus (Harness). They got their money back on Marcus, but the other two had done their money.
‘It didn’t help us because the owner looked at it and thought “Hmm, I’ve just spent more than £2m or whatever and haven’t done very well. So I’m not going to spend more”.
‘A club like Pompey shouldn’t be shopping around for free transfers. We didn’t spend anything, the only money we could spend was to get Colby, but only if we sold Marcus Harness first.
‘Really, if you want to be a good team, you keep Marcus and sign Colby. But people get their fingers burnt and aren’t likely to put their hand in the fire for a little while.
‘We built a good team, but the trouble is most of the better players were loans. You lose Gavin Bazunu, who was brilliant for us on the whole, when George Hirst got going he did well, Hayden Carter had also did well. Then you have to start again.
‘It’s not always easy. And then you're starting again with no real money - apart from the bit you generate.’
The return of Hirst to parent club Leicester in the summer of 2022, along with the end of Tyler Walker’s underwhelming loan spell from Coventry, left Pompey without a single senior striker.
Academy graduate Dan Gifford featured during pre-season, while triallist Jonathan Afolabi popped up on the tour in Spain, scoring in a 2-0 friendly win over Qatar SC.
However, by the start of the 2022-23 season, the Blues had Joe Pigott, Dane Scarlett and, of course, Bishop in their striking ranks.
Bassey added: ‘We had sold Marcus Harness and were trying to find out if we had any of that money to get a forward.
‘We looked at Kyle Wootton quite a bit, James Collins was linked, George Hirst was always on our radar.
‘George did well, I’m really pleased for him over how he’s done since. It took a while for him to get going at our place, probably a bit longer for him to get into the team than we’d hoped, but once he did he did really well.’