'Highly exciting': Portsmouth chief on transfer strategy championed by Sunderland - and earmarked to also transform the Blues' future

Yet he remains ‘excited’ over the Blues developing strategy for buying highly-regarded young talent for potentially greater gains in the future.

Of the seven players purchased by Pompey during the last transfer window, only goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid is aged above 24.

In the case of Reuben Swann, Jacob Farrell, Abdoulaye Kamara, Harvey Blair and Ibane Bowat, all are aged 21 and below.

Completing the summer captures is Elias Sorensen, a 24-year-old enjoying his second spell in England after previously attending Newcastle’s Academy.

Hughes pinpoints Sunderland as a gold standard, who are flourishing with a similar player recruitment policy.

And he has high hopes of emulating the Championship leaders, who recently sold Jack Clarke to Ipswich in a deal which could be worth £20m.

Pompey’s sporting director told The News: ‘There have been a lot of exciting transfers, a lot of upside and a lot of potential, but with that we also feel there are enough players who are going to affect the here and now and immediacy of it.

‘It’s always a fine balance and, as a club, we have decided on a strategy we all firmly believe in.

‘One of the biggest advantages we have - and probably every club will say this - is we have some top, top coaches behind the scenes which work with these players. They will get the support and time they need to be successful, which is what makes this model slightly more achievable.

‘More and more clubs are doing this, Sunderland are the same. Kristjaan Speakman (sporting director) is someone I know well and they have recruited a lot of exciting talent.

‘They are a little further ahead in their journey in terms of selling players. They bought Jack Clarke (from Spurs) who was high potential and he’s recently had a very good move back to the Premier League with Ipswich.

‘It takes a lot of time to get to that point. The next step for us is the next stage of the development, we have a lot of good young assets in the group now and it’s up to them to perform and flourish.

‘We will see where their futures go and then we’ll keep moving forward with it - that’s a highly exciting thing for everyone to be involved in.’

Since Hughes arrived at Fratton in October 2022, he has also overseen the arrivals of Paddy Lane, Ryley Towler and Terry Devlin to fit the policy.

And while no club wants top young talent to leave, he concedes it’s part of football’s food chain.

Hughes added: ‘It’s a natural part of progression. Unless you are Manchester City, it’s very difficult to retain players.

‘That’s not to say we are a club that will be taken advantage of in situations, we won’t because we are financially strong. But if players outperform levels, there’s always a natural position for them to move up the pyramid.

‘That’s not our model, that’s actually a fact of life and a fact of the football pyramid. Unless you are at the very top like Real Madrid and Manchester City, there are always aspirations for players to move on.

‘As inevitable as that is, we want to capture it, harness it in the right way and reap the benefit of it.’