'He's completely transformed Portsmouth': John Mousinho applauds Rich Hughes impact after major Fratton Park landmark
Sporting director Rich Hughes has just celebrated three years at Fratton Park
John Mousinho reflected on the Fratton Park landmark of Rich Hughes’ third anniversary and insisted: He has completely transformed Pompey.
The creation of a sporting director role represented a new strategic direction under owners Tornante, with the modern-day footballing concept not universally well received by the Fratton faithful.
Nonetheless, Hughes has overseen a remarkable resurgence in the Blues’ fortunes, masterminding the metamorphosis of a club which at present sits 14th during their second successive Championship season.
Ryley Towler signalled the first of his 59 recruits during the subsequent three years, of which 16 were loans and 27 involved transfer fees.
While, most crucial of all, there was the appointment of an Oxford United player-coach as Pompey’s new head coach in January 2023.
‘It has been pretty remarkable’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Sometimes in football, the focus is very narrow when you look at what’s going on game-to-game, day-to-day. But step back and have a look at when Rich first walked into the building and where we were as a football club.
‘If you just look at things like infrastructure we certainly weren't sitting in this (media conference) room in this part of the building, we were over in the Portakabins. It was a very, very different picture at the training ground, a very different picture at Fratton Park - and that is down to the sporting director and football club.
‘The appointment of a sporting director meant going a different way or certainly a different model to what the club had been doing over the past couple of years, and the club has completely transformed.
‘Then you then look at football operations. We’ve gone from a side which was mid-table in League One and struggling for years and years to try to get out of the league - to a team which, in its first full season, won the league.
‘Now we have managed to stay in the Championship for a year and are starting to establish ourselves there. There is a huge gulf in terms of where on and off the pitch since Rich has come in.
‘We have changed the transfer strategy, which is very embryonic in terms of where we are. We’ve got to mix the short-term needs with trying to build up some of the long-term value in the squad.
‘But I definitely think we have some really good prospects, young assets. We might not have sold some on in the summer for masses and masses of profit, but we’ve made a few quid off a couple of the players who were brilliant for us in League One.
‘When you take a step back and take a look at the overall transformation of the club, it has been pretty remarkable. That is having Rich in charge for three years overseeing all of that alongside the board and executives.
‘There aren’t many clubs which don’t have a sporting director now. When I first started playing they didn’t exist in this country. It was a very new idea in the mid-2000s, maybe Tottenham and Chelsea were the first two which dabbled with it, but it has become a lot more prevalent now.
‘Most of clubs have a sporting director or technical director or head of football operations, whatever way you want to see that role.’
The pivotal summer of 2023
It was the summer of 2023, Hughes’ first pre-season transfer window with the Blues, which would prove to be pivotal in Pompey’s resurgence.
Among 15 arrivals were Will Norris, Conor Shaughnessy, Christian Saydee, Terry Devlin, Jack Sparkes, Regan Poole and Kusini Yengi, who would play integral roles in the League One title success of 2023-24.
In addition, the loan recruitment of Abu Kamara, Alex Robertson and Tino Anjorin meant that, by the time of the January 2024 window, the Blues had already established themselves as long-time leaders.
‘Never in a million years’
Mousinho added: ‘No longer does a manager have complete autonomy to do whatever he wants at a football club. That’s the way football is going, that's the way owners want to go, and certainly, for me, it has worked out well.
‘It gives a little more stability, a little more in terms of the focus on long-term planning. The head coach can come and go for good or bad reasons, but there should be that stability underneath because of the sporting director.
‘Rich was instrumental in bringing me to the football club. I was a player at the time, I definitely didn’t see my transition into coaching involving taking the head coach role at Pompey straight away, never in a million years.
‘First of all, Rich and myself had to work very, very closely together to start that turnaround in terms of where we were as a football club. We have since faced different challenges every window, every week, every day in terms of what we are trying to achieve.
‘It’s definitely a partnership between us. If you look at the partnerships across the football club, it is probably the most important one.
‘The relationship between the sporting director and the head coach has to be very, very strong in order to have any kind of success at any level.’