Portsmouth chief on 'volatile January' and when Fratton faithful can expect to see signings

Rich Hughes believes ‘volatile January’ will dictate the bulk of Pompey transfer dealings being conducted towards the window’s end.

And the table toppers certainly won’t be alone, with business across the Premier League and Football League still to ignite.

The Blues are in the market to strengthen their promotion push, particularly with ongoing concerns over Alex Robertson’s hamstring injury.

Last January was Hughes’ first window at Fratton Park, with Pompey recruiting four new faces, compared to 14 signings in the subsequent summer.

And in the here and now, the sporting director anticipates the pursuit of fresh faces continuing up until the February 1 deadline.

Hughes told The News: ‘I cannot give you a time frame of when and where the bodies will come into the door, but what I can tell you is we’ll be working hard up until February 1 when the window closes.

‘We had a conversation with the board on Monday night and know we’ve got their backing to execute when the right things come up, so we’re not going to wait.

‘But we would rather have the right ones than the wrong ones, so we may have to wait, that’s just because of the volatile nature of January.

‘We’ve been having conversations with various people since early December, but it’s a lot simpler in the summer because you are dealing with a lot of free agents.

‘The truth is in January you’re dealing with one more party for the most part, so there's always a reaction and a chain of events which comes into play. People might move out at various points, which frees up a certain body and has a knock-on effect.

‘The bulk of this window so far has been loans returning to parent clubs, there hasn’t been a huge amount that has happened everywhere else. There's a lot of talk and a lot of conjecture around things, but nothing is actually happening.

‘You have a lot of Premier League clubs going away for the winter break soon, heading for warm weather training and taking a lot of players with them. That will hold up any lads coming out of those.

‘As a rule of thumb, it gets busy in the second half of the window. Carlisle have brought a few through the door already, but, with the utmost respect, they were in a position where they needed to effect change straight away.

‘They have also gone through a change of ownership, otherwise there hasn’t been a significant amount of transfers happening in this division so far.’

This time last January, Ryley Towler had already joined from Bristol City, having been recalled from a loan at AFC Wimbledon.

He was followed by Matt Macey (January 20), then Di’Shon Bernard and Paddy Lane (January 31), with the bulk of that business conducted late in the window.

Hughes added: ‘For us last January, a lot was dictated through circumstance. Ryley happened early because of a recall he had on his contract at Bristol City, so it had to happen at a point and that was a factor.

‘Matt Macey came a couple of days after Josh (Griffiths) was recalled, then Di’Shon and Paddy arrived, which were deals we worked on all month. We just needed them to fall into place at the right time.’