'It becomes imminent and you can get it wrapped up very quickly' - Mark Catlin on Portsmouth player hunt progress

But the Blues’ chief executive believes that can change in a flash during a post-season period when players aren’t willing to make ‘snap judgements’.

A total of 14 members of Pompey’s first-team squad have departed in the aftermath of the defeat to Accrington which denied play-off qualification.

That includes Jack Whatmough, Ben Close, Tom Naylor and Ryan Williams, who have yet to accept the offer of new deals on reduced terms.

And head coach Danny Cowley has thrown himself into a summer which will mark Pompey’s biggest recruitment drive since Paul Cook arrived in May 2015.

Catlin said: ‘Danny, Nicky and the recruitment team are trying to attract players and are sorting deals out.

‘Many players have now finished the season, but they don’t want to make snap judgments.

‘A lot of them go away, have a little break and, when they come back with pre-season training looming, it focuses their minds.

‘Players want to explore their options, as do we as a club. It’s part of the normal courting process between a club and players.

‘You exhaust those avenues with existing players and then you start looking outside.

‘It’s a process that’s repeated up and down the country at every single club. Most of the movement will come in the next 4-8 weeks.

‘With us, there’s nothing imminent, but in football things go from something that may not happen in three weeks to getting a call saying “Okay, this player will accept the deal”.

‘Then it becomes imminent and you can get it wrapped up very quickly.

‘There’s hundreds and hundreds of players out there, so act in haste, repent at leisure.

‘Danny has to be 100 per cent comfortable that he and his team are recruiting for what will be a long campaign next season.’

Under contract at Fratton Park are Ronan Curtis, Haji Mnoga, Alex Bass, James Bolton, Paul Downing, Sean Raggett, Lee Brown, Marcus Harness, John Marquis, Callum Johnson, Ellis Harrison, Reeco Hackett-Fairchild and Michael Jacobs.

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