Feel the Portsmouth excitement, but growth towards achieving our dreams is Championship aim
There’s not been Championship enthusiasm felt like this at PO4 since the Premier League was reached 23 years ago. That’s something to embrace at the season’s dawn, while affording some realism to where Pompey stand amid their increased spending. Blues writer Jordan Cross previews the new campaign.
It’s the right of every football fan to enter a new season with optimism.
Hope springs eternal at the dawn of a new campaign usually only to have it battered into submission by November, as positivity segues into ignorance of our team’s deficiencies as they are once again exposed.
This season is about the journey towards the destination
Well it appears this summer is no different, especially in the wake of the news Pompey fans are embracing the upbeat mood generated by increased summer spending.
Bookies saw a flood of betting activity backing the Blues at the start of the week, with almost a quarter of all bets in the Championship promotion market placed on John Mousinho’s men. That saw oddsmakers cut Pompey’s price for going up to 12/1, according to Oddschecker.
That’s certainly the shortest price we’ve seen since the return to the second tier and is reflective of, not just the encouragement felt among those of a royal blue persuasion, but the admiring glances cast toward Mousinho’s men by EFL observers.
But is it well placed?
Well, perhaps to a degree, but just maybe not quite to the extent of lumping on Pompey to reach the Premier League promised land by next May.
Of course, we are witnessing a growth of intent from the club’s owners which has seen a significant increase in transfer spending this summer - multiples of where the kitty for fees stood last term.
This is quite rightly something to be celebrated, and the proof is in the kind of fees last shelled out when this club sat at English football’s top table.
But we must also acknowledge the reality that this improvement was absolutely necessary. Achieving survival up to this point on meagre resources by the standards of this level, is something to be celebrated.
A deal north of £2m for Rocco Shein, £2.5m for Abu Kamara and potentially an eventual £4.27m for Marko Milovanović is the kind of growth most of the Fratton Faithful are delighted with.
Sure it’s not the eventual £20m Middlesbrough are prepared to invest on Will Lankshear from Spurs, a fee matched by their commitment to bringing in Ashley Phillips from the Londoners.
It’s not even the £10m Stoke City paid for Ethan Galbraith or Norwich buying Andre Brooks from Sheffield United for potentially the same figure, but it makes Pompey competitive with more of the teams around them.
Which perhaps leads us to the point that while no one wants to dampen the Fratton feelgood factor right now, it’s perhaps worth tempering it with a tinge of realism.
Pompey’s encouraging spending - and there’s money left in the pot for it to continue - is being conducted against a backdrop of operating in sustainable circumstances.
Which means the club not being saddled with contracts which they would struggle to honour in the event of the money tap being turned of.
That has led to a relatively modest 16 per cent growth in the wage bill, a percentage in line for those not in receipt of parachute payments but one which keeps the Blues towards the rear of the newly-assembled Championship pack.
This, of course, is taking place against new financial controls following the Salary Cost Ratio (SCR) rules replacing the Profit and Sustainability (P&S) system.
The headline news here is player and manager costs must be kept to 85 per cent of income, with an equity top-up of £33m allowed over three years.
When speaking to The News last week, Mousinho stated Pompey will be close to ‘maxing out’ under the new regime over the next three years, which is both a statement of intent and a nod to the challenges of going up against the division’s big guns.
With four clubs receiving parachute payments next season, the financial terrain remains skewed between the haves and have-nots.
‘We’re willing to spend, limited in what we can spend and in a market where we have some very big hitters around us,’ was Mousinho’s ‘very basic take’ on the terrain his team faces. It framed things perfectly.
With eight play-off places now up for grabs, Pompey can dare to dream when it comes to fighting for one of those precious slots in the end-of-season shootout to reach the land of milk and honey.
But this season is about the journey towards our destination.
The gaping holes in an overstretched and undercooked squad at the dawn of the new campaign is a reminder of that truth.
A look at the EFL pundits and sometimes self-appointed experts formulating their 1-24s for the season, broadly seem to have the Blues finishing in the lower third.
And it’s a climb towards the relative comfort of mid-table which is where the ambitions should lie.
Avoiding any dancing with danger along the way is a realistic expectation, while seeing the footings installed to allow Pompey to become the next Huddersfield Town or Brentford or Luton Town or Coventry City.
These are clubs who reached the Premier League with a plan and moderate resources by Championship standards.
Organic growth and putting the foundations in place, in all areas of the football club to make those hopes achievable is the aim.
In a summer where Pompey retained the services of their biggest asset, it’s what the man at the helm truly craves. Convincing him he can fulfil his ambitions at Fratton Park, may just be the biggest step towards making the dream a reality.