The record Eisner signing who now has to show he’s not an expensive Portsmouth flop
The Sydney FC arrival was a landmark Pompey signing, but the anticipated highs haven’t been hit yet - with a critical Championship season lying ahead.
It’s a record which will be expected to tumble this summer.
But the £1.25m paid to Sydney FC to secure Hayden Matthews’ services remains a high watermark for spending in the Eisner era for now.
‘Time to see transition from prospect to Championship performer’
In fact, you have to go back 15 years to Steve Cotterill bringing in Norwegian striker Erik Huseklepp from Bari for £1.5m for that figure to be trumped.
The reality that the amount paid in January of last year hasn’t been bettered before now is, for good reason, a bone of contention among many supporters. That’s not the issue being explored here, however.
The fee remains a significant one, a record for an A-League defender, but the fact is Pompey are yet to receive any meaningful return on that investment.
For a player who doesn’t turn 22 until later this month there absolutely remains time for that to happen, but, 18 months into his Fratton stay, the clock is ticking.
There was definitely early promise on his arrival and undoubted flashes of ability, as momentum was found amid five successive starts at the end of last year.
But even by the affable centre-back’s own yardstick, we’ve not seen nearly enough of it.
A lot of that has been down to injuries as Matthews is battered with questions over his fitness, being grouped with his Aussie peers on that front.
For a player whose maiden season was ended by a ruptured ankle ligament and then suffered a pretty nasty impact injury at Bristol City on New Year’s Day, that’s pretty harsh
Still, Matthews was honest enough to admit the adjustment to the Championship ‘hit him like a train’ last year, as he adapted to the physicality and pace of the English game.
Those struggles were noted by Pompey staff in pre-season, when Matthews was expected to be a serious contender for a starting XI berth going into the new campaign.
It was soon apparent that wasn’t likely to be the case as the Blues geared up for their second Championship term, to some coaching consternation.
That was part of the thinking behind Josh Knight being recruited late in the summer window last year, with there also collective fitness doubts over other options in that department.
A new ankle issue picked up at a pre-World Cup training has curtailed finals ambitions for the Socceroos this summer.
That means the target’s not letting pre-season develop into the kind of fitness catch-up which can stall a player’s progress, with testing three weeks away.
The opinion from Pompey’s football operation is they have a player who can contend for one of the front-line positions, in a congested centre-back department.
The alternative of sending Matthews out on loan is a consideration, but perhaps doesn’t present great optics to owners who sanctioned his purchase.
Meanwhile, cashing in on an asset with three years on his deal is not returning any sort of profit at this juncture.
Hopefully that day can still arrive, because the raw attributes which convinced Pompey to plump for a 6ft 5in prospect of real promise remain apparent.
But the time has now arrived to see the transition from prospect to fully-fledged Championship performer.